Thursday, June 7, 2012

Zendala tiles in color

I love the striking contrast of black and white, but I also love colors, preferably bright.

Oh my, that's a verse! :
I love the striking contrast 
of black and white,
But I also love colors, 
preferably bright.









This blue/green mandala was done on a blank Zendala tile. I used the apple corer gadget and some small circles as a templates. You can read a little more about the apple corer gadget here.
Tangles: Black Pearlz (in green!), Drupe, Shing, Tipple,
stripes with highlights, and triangles

This fuchsia mandala was done on a pre-strung Zendala tile from Zentangle. It turned out particularly well I think!
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Copada, O-bob, Phuds, Tipple

The six divisions of one of the Zendala tiles made me think of a snowflake. I used blue inks, and tangles that were either divided in six sections and/or very angular. I put a pale blue wash on at the beginning. Now I'm not sure it was a good idea; the 'snowflake' would stand out better if it were white.
Tangles: Afterglo, Aura, Rain, Wunderwall and stripes with highlights.

13 comments:

  1. OK, I have to ask you what you use for coloring? Colored pens and a wash? Pencils? Watercolor?

    (I've been following you for a year now - I first "discovered" you during 30 days of creativity 2011 - Love your work!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zentangle uses Sakura micron pens, 01 size, in black. So I just shifted to color. Sakura makes 01 pens in about 8 colors. You can get more colors in 05 size. (Other good archival brands are Faber-Castell's Pitt artists' pens and Zig, although I don't know about colors in those.)

      I have a set of Derwent watersoluable colored pencils which I occasionally use to lay a wash down. I always do this first for some reason. Sometime I must try adding washes after I do the ink tangles. Sometimes I also use an acrylic wash.

      For the shading I use Prismacolor pencils, or occasionally Prismacolor's Veithin pencils - they're a harder lead and good on some papers.

      Hope this helps! :)

      Delete
    2. Sorry, that should have been VERITHIN pencils.

      Delete
  2. Gorgeous, as usual. I keep meaning to make my Zendalas in color, but I like them so much in black and white that I haven't yet. It never occurred to me to do one monochromatic. Thanks for the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find monochromatic a really easy shift from black (and white), and by now I've pretty much sorted out which colored pencils work with which pens. Give it a go!

      Delete
    2. I too, was skeptical of color in Zentangles! But saw some awesome pieces and decided to give it a try. I like it almost as much as blk/wh, but blk/wh is my all time favorite to do!!!

      Delete
  3. these all turned out great! i love color :). i find your first tile particularly interesting - some new patterns for me - and i really like the blue/green color play!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Really beautiful. It's hard to choose, but I think the red one is my favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love these!! I tried to click on the link for the apple corer gadget but it says I don't have permission?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for alerting me Suzanne! I believe I've corrected it now. (I think the links went to my personal, editable version of the page rather than the public one.)

      Delete
  6. Margaret your work is so inspirational! I have been staring at my brand new tin of Mandala tiles for a month now and haven't had the nerve to try it - today is the day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I swear every time I visit your blog, I see more and more beautiful images. You are such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing your lovely work.

    ReplyDelete