Diva Challenge 321: Draw with your Left Hand

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DC321, Diva's Challenge, Zentangles

I used to try to be ambidextrous, but I haven’t worked on it lately. I’m pretty rusty, but after a bit my strait lines got better. I drew the initial circle with my right hand (actually traced around a container). Curved lines are more challenging and the smaller circles turned out a little wonky. The Diva gave us a great challenge.

For more results from the challenge check out the Diva’s blog.

New Coloring Page! Diva Challenge 318

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coloring, coloring page, Coloring Pages, DC318, Diva Challenge, Diva's Challenge, Zentangles, ZIA

The only way to get this coloring page is to order one of my other pages from Etsy. I will send you this page as a thank you gift.

The orange and blue bookmark is a diptych – the 2 halves mirror each other. This was an interesting challenge and fun to do. Check out other tangled diptychs at the Diva’s Blog.

Paper Blossoms

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art journal, Art Journal Every Day, flowers, gratitude, paper collage, paper flowers, pink, Zentangles

I have been keeping a gratitude journal for years. About 4 years ago I started doing it in art journal format using altered books. Not long after that I started this blog as a record of that journal and has blossomed into so much more. Recently I started a professional art blog. I will continue to maintain both blogs for as long as possible.

This is my first time using a mixed media sketchbook as my gratitude journal and I’m really enjoying it. I have been exploring acrylic paints and that exploration is reflected in my journal. I also us it to experiment with different media. For example, the flowers in the upper left page were experiments for my Mandala 41 with Rhododendron painting. I didn’t like how they looked with the mandala but I really enjoy them in my art journal and I’m going to use my “plaid” paper in a large mandala I’m currently working on, I think. Stay tuned…

I’m continuing to explore the Zentangle® Method. The tangled squares use a pattern called Paradox that I’m really enjoying. The text and images document what has happened with whom in the last few days and weeks. I had a really long conversation with a dear friend who is fighting cancer. I used a new to me pen to start her drawing and it didn’t work quite how I wanted, but I’m so grateful to include her in my journal. The new pens are from a spiritual doodling class that I’m taking at my Unitarian church.

This week I have been making lots of cards for various people. One of my sons has a birthday coming up and I have a few other friends who are also fighting cancer. All of my cards have had something that uses Zentangle® tiles or inspired art.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

Diva Challenge 316

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DC316, Diva Challenge, Diva's Challenge, Punzel, tangle patterns, Tangles, Zentangles

The Diva challenged us to use stripes as our string. Usually I kind of do stripes, but they are all circles. It was interesting to do some straight ones. I love the tangle pattern Punzel and started with that. I tried to alternate straight lines with curves and added a little drama here and there.

If you want to see more Zentangle® fun check out the Diva’s blog.

 

Back to Gratitude and Paint

Tags

acrylic paint, art, art journal, Art Journal Every Day, grateful, gratitude, gratitude journal, Zentangles

I have been working on layers in my art journal and have been so busy with Zentangle® classes and art, but here is the page layout of the buildup to the CZT27 and planning our trip to Connecticut and Rhode Island.

I included my first Zentangle® tile from the seminar and my dinner coupon for the first evening. The meals at the Providence Biltmore were fabulous. They were awesome in their skill in accommodating gluten free and special dietary needs. There were quite a few of us at the seminar and I got some good tips on that too! They made some gluten free brownies that everyone loved!

You can also see some random flowers I drew/painted on scraps of paper. They turned out pretty well. I’m still playing with cutting painted paper and using layers in my art. I feel like things are coming together, so to speak.

The background of all of these pages were from my Lenten painting marathon. They have been great fun to work on. I should probably get back to them so I can continue to have art journaling backgrounds ready! I played with more layers and tried out new pens and tangle patterns during and after the seminar on these pages. I’m also working on a mandala that I’m going to submit to a show out here and I’m a little nervous. This is a different market from Wisconsin! I’m learning about combining inks and acrylic paints and pens and gel pens with interesting, and sometimes smeary, results. The daffodils are from a napkin from a pot luck dinner I participated in at MUF (Morristown Unitarian Fellowship).

There is also a quote from The Buddha Walks Into a Bar by Lodro Rinzler.

“One way to think of this dignity is to equate when you are on the path with unraveling a ball of yarn. You have wound your sense of self so tightly that it’s hard to be anything other than you, a big ball of yarn. That’s just who you are, not string, or threads, but a ball of yarn.”

The thing about living with daily migraines is it has helped me see the threads in myself, not just the ball of yarn. Don’t know if that will mean anything to you, but it gets me through a lot of my days.

Oh! And I have Zentangle® classes scheduled to teach! And my professional art website is getting going! Check it all out here!

I hope you have a beautiful day.

 

Diva Challenge 315 and another Mother’s Day Card

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Card, Diva Challenge, Diva's Challenge, Greeting Card, molygon, Mother's Day, Zentangles

The Diva challenged us to use Molygon, which is a tangle I don’t really love. I have been wanting to try Drawings and I thought they would go together, but then it got too busy after I added some Fescue, Msst, and Well. I wasn’t happy with how this tile turned out, but I liked Drawings and Molygon together enough to put them on my mother’s day card for my mother. I tried to keep the Molygons larger and that seemed to help.

I hope you have some time this week to share some love with your mother or a mother you know and love. To see other Zentangle® Art check out the Diva’s blog.  Have a beautiful day!

Arting from Acrylics to Zentangle

Tags

100 Mandalas, acrylic paint, collage, Derwent Inktense, inspiration, Watercolor pencils, Zentangles, ZIA

Got a start on my Mother’s Day Cards.

Added some Derwent Inktense to the Zentangle® Inspired Art. Not sure if its done yet.

After this I was really itching to do some collage. I’m going to do another painting redo. I got too busy to show you how my last one turned out.

The original painting from a class I took was a sunset winter landscape in shades of blue and orange/yellow – not really my style, but nice enough. I did some collage on top and then added a tissue paper mandala and did some embellishing and here it is. It is getting toward what I want. I learned a little about doing detailed drawing on tissue paper and then putting it on a colorful background – it gets totally muddled. In any case I’m counting it as mandala #40.

So here is the first step of my next try. I have a landscape that I started, but it didn’t go quite right.

So now I’m off to collage over this. I hope you have a beautiful day!

Certified Zentangle® Teacher Seminar #27

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Certified Zentangle Teacher, CZT27, Tangles, Zendala, Zentangle Method, Zentangle Tile, Zentangles

So here is the story of the wonderful seminar I attended last week. We checked in to the Providence Biltmore on Sunday afternoon and had time to display any artwork we brought and check out the Zentangle® store. In the evening we had our first session and it was a basic introduction to the Zentangle® method of drawing. We completed this tile.

A tile is the name for these specially made 3.5″ paper squares that are made of high quality watercolor paper. They make it really easy to work with the Pigma Micron pens, graphite and tortillion to create beautiful designs. This tile teaches some of the basic concepts of the Zentangle® method and 4 tangle patterns. The patterns all have whimsical names and these are called Crescent Moon, Florz, Printemps, and Hollibaugh. I will be teaching this class at the Morristown and Morris Township Public Library on Tuesday, June 13th and would love to see you there!

One of the fun things we did was to place all of our tiles into a mosaic so we could see the variety of all our interpretations of the instructions. This is part of the Zentangle® method. It represents the 93 people who attended the seminar.

On Monday morning we did another tile and learned more about practicing the Zentangle® method and some new patterns. This set up the stage for how we proceeded until Wednesday afternoon. Here are the rest of the tiles in the order they were created.

As you can see not all the tiles are the same size, shape, or color of paper. There are 3 different kinds of paper, but they are all good quality paper. We got to play with the range of products that the Zentangle® store has to offer. We also got to play with a variety of pens and graphite. They also offer some fun small tiles, called Bijou tiles, and triangle tiles called 3Zs. They allow you to make even quicker little bits of art or to play with components of different patterns to see how they can work together. All in all there was a lot to learn and a lot of classes that I hope to teach! I’ll keep you updated as I have things scheduled.

Here are my mosaics of my tiles from the whole thing. It was a lot of art and I wasn’t able to finish it all during the seminar. There are actually 2 that I haven’t finished yet, but here they are.

I hope you make or find something beautiful today!

Diva challenge 312

Tags

Diva's Challenge, Zentangles

The excitement is building for my Certified Zentangle Teacher Seminar next week! I did the Diva challenge again to get in the mood.

The challenge was to use a beverage stain as the string (the line that divides the different tangle patterns.) I used all number related tangle patterns in honor of my count down!

For more Zentangled goodness check out the Diva’s blog! I hope you have a beautiful day.

Diva Challenge 311: Mandala 39

Tags

100 Mandalas, Black and white, black gesso, Diva's Challenge, Zendala, Zentangles

The Diva’s challenge this week is  “Circle Square String Theory”  and the idea is “This week’s challenge is a string challenge where you are to use a Circle and a Square in some form for your string. ” I like to check in and see what the Diva’s challenge is from time to time and this one really grabbed my attention. She also used black gesso on her tile and I love how that looked so I did a variation of my own. At the end of this month I’m going to the Certified Zentangle Teacher training seminar in Providence, RI. I’m really excited about it and I got a kit with more Zentangle tiles to play with until I go. Check out lots of fabulous examples of Zentangled art at the Diva’s blog.