Tuesday, October 30, 2012

News flash! Looped border creates its own string!

I tried putting a loop in my border. It's been done before. But this time I did it on all four sides and found that an interesting string was created. This is the simple line to do for all four border lines, and the type of string you get to tangle.
These are three tiles I did using this looped border string.
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Earth Rising, Printemps, Tipple (2 varieties)
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Fleurette, Tipple (2 varieties), Tripoli, Zedbra

Of course, if you want, you can add more outside the string.
Tangles: Beadlines, Fleurette, Flux, Paradox, Unyun,
stripes with highlights, and a triquetra

Monday, October 29, 2012

Some recent tiles

Tangles: Munchin and Paradox
Tangles: Munchin, Paradox, Pearlz
Tangles: Fleurette, Hollibaugh, Caviar,
stripes with highlights and stipling



Remember, if you'd like to support tanglepatterns.com AND get a ZIA reproduction, read this!

A-a-and... Art Every Day Month is November. I'll be participating again this year. Once again I plan to do a Zentangle tile every day and to use at least one tangle that's unfamiliar. You can join in too, here.



Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Stripes

Our challenge from the Diva this week is to use stripes as our string and create a piece of zentangle art within those lines.

Many tangles have a stripe of some sort running through them. I did a tile using five of those tangles, and ran the stripes through the whole tile.
Tangles: Coaster, Combs, Posh, Shattuck, Unyun

In one of my classes (small mandalas) we use the tangle Tortuca as a ring around another tangle. I tell the students that Tortuca is usually done in a square grid, but that any tangle based on a square grid can be used in a single row, straight or curved. So I did that in the next tile, using several square grid tangles. You can see where I got into a zen flow of filling Cubine's little squares and filled one in Screen too!
Tangles, top to bottom: Cadent, Warble, Knightsbridge, Screen, Cubine,
Bateek, Ninja Stars, Knightsbridge again, Yincut, Earth Rising, Tortuca

Sunday, October 21, 2012

tanglepatterns strings 2 & 18

Zentangle's strings are a bit of a challenge for some. I've been trying some of the string ideas submitted by readers of tanglepatterns.com.  There is a growing bank of string ideas you can use if you're stuck.

String #2
Tangles: Chainging, Crescent Moon, Elven, Flez, Fohbraid

  String #18
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Paradox variation, Providence, Sprix, Unyun, Wud

You can see what I did with some of the other string suggestions on these posts:
Number 1
Numbers 3 and 12
Number 10
Number 15

And remember, if you'd like to support tanglepatterns.com AND get a ZIA reproduction, read this! (The PayPal link works now!)

Friday, October 19, 2012

Beads of courage

"Beads of Courage is a wonderful charity that helps a child with a chronic illness or condition to tell their story of courage and strength as they take their medical journey. Artoo has been a member of the program for a few months now, and i'm still trying to tally and track his journey since birth... every single bead represents something your child has done - a test, a poke or needle, a procedure, a doctor's appointment, therapy, special accomplishments, an xray, use of oxygen, mobility issues, etc.  It's incredible to see what your child has been through in a very tangible way." (from the iamthedivaczt blog)

You can read more of the story behind this week's zentangle challenge from the DivaCZT here.

This week we're drawing tangled beads. Here are two versions of the same tile: the initial black and white one, and the later colored one.
Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Coaster variation, Gewgle,
Ladybugs on a Vine variation, Pearlz, Printemps, Tripoli variation , Xyp

Same tile, same tangles, with added color, Auras and black background. I used Glaze pens on the beads to give them some lustre.


I think I may prefer the first one, but it's too late now! :)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Brush tip pens again

I've been using those brush tip pens I bought cheap recently. One was a very dark blue. I used other blue pens for lighter colors, including a Glaze pen. This one was going to be blue with brown, but the yellow and orange crept in and the brown didn't look as good, so I added a bit of yellow and orange to it. As a finishing touch I also added some tiny gems: four 'gold' and two blue.
Tangles: Camelia, Coaster, Tipple, Tortuca, and various stripes.

I have several grey pens, in warm and cool, and various levels of gray. I wanted to do one in black and white and grays, and also to try to use the thick/thin line aspect of the brush pens to better advantage. I think I'm getting the hang of it. I haven't decided yet, but I may add some tiny silver/clear gems to this one.
Tangles: Beadlines, Munchin, Paradox, Pearlz, a Black Pearl and a spiral.

I think my PayPal button works now. If you want to support tanglepatterns.com and get a reproduction of my ZIA "I (heart) Zentangle" go here.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Support tanglepatterns.com! Get art!

Linda Farmer maintains the popular, helpful and much-visited site www.tanglepatterns.com. There you can find not only tangle patterns, but also string ideas, articles, and more. It takes time, energy and funds to keep the website operating.

It's the second anniversary of the Enthusiastic Artist blog and in celebration I've devised my own plan to support Linda and her efforts. Some time ago I created this ZIA (zentangle inspired art) in brown and sepia on hemp paper. The heart showed up out of nowhere so I just had to call it "I (heart) Zentangle".

WHOOP! WHOOP!  
You can have a copy of this ZIA and support tanglepatterns.com at the same time!
Tangles: Barnacle, Beadlines, Caviar, Chartz, Crescent Moon, Cubine, Flux, Hibred,
Knightsbridge, N'zeppel, Paradox, Pearlz, Pina, Purk, Rain with Aura, Snookums, Tipple, Tri-dots,
Xyp, stripes with highlights, and Rick's Flux variation that some call Purslane.

The original is 9"x12" and the reproductions are 8.5"x11", so the copy is very slightly smaller than the original. The colors are matched as closely as possible. Note that the paper is actually less gray and more beige than the photo above.

I'm asking $25 for the reproduction, plus $2 postage. Postage will vary, of course, but that's sort of average. I also need to cover envelopes, cardboard, reproductions and time. So, I promise that at least $20 from each piece will go to support the tanglepatterns site. I'll see how it goes and if I can send more I will. If you like this piece and love tanglepatterns.com but your current financial situation is crummy, e-mail me and we'll work something out.

HOW CAN YOU GET ONE?
There was a monster growing in my brain for several months. It's name is PayPal. One day, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to tame it no matter how long it took. I had all day if necessary. I think we have lift-off !!!!!!!!! So-o-o...
If you'd like one or more copies of "I (heart) ZENTANGLE" YOU CAN PAY ME USING PAYPAL.
Again I say: Whoop! Whoop!
I really hope it works! This will be the test run. Here goes:








Please e-mail me if there are any problems. My address is in the Contact tab at the top.
If you don't want to use PayPal you can do this:
1. Contact me by e-mail and let me know you want one (or more).
2. I'll tell you my mailing address and you can send a cheque.

Linda has compiled a terrific tangle reference PDF of all the tangles shown on the site. If you make a minimum donation of $12 to tanglepatterns you receive this Pattern Reference chart, for free! I will pass on your name and e-mail address to her so she can send you this reference, unless you ask me not to.

THANKS LINDA! Keep up the great work!

NOTE: THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Brush tip pens

When you don't know what you're doing cool things can happen! I've bought two or three brush tip pens in the past, but never really liked them.

One of our local art supply stores is closing. This is definitely too bad, but they're selling off stock and prices are low, which is good! I've been in twice and will visit again before they close. One thing I bought was a handful of brush tip pens (Pitt, to be specific). They were half price, in limited colors, but this was a good opportunity to try 'em out, cheap! I knew almost nothing about using these.
Tangles: Afterglo, Sanibelle
I chose one of the pre-strung Zendala tiles and put some brush-tip streaks in several places. Originally I had some yellow there, but I didn't like it. The black and white middle sections looked silvery, but I thought the other sections should look more gold. I drew on top of the Afterglo tangle with gold ink and white ink in leaf stripes. Unfortunately the gold ink doesn't show up well in the picture. There's also a bit of sparkly red in the outermost triangles.

I had a variety of green pens so I did another one, again on a pre-strung Zendala tile. I also used an olive green Sakura Glaze pen and a white pen.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Hurly Burly, Pais (sort of) and stripes with highlights

I found that I did less tangle drawing and more color filling. I guess that figures. Once there is brush tip ink on the paper, the next pen work tends to bleed a bit, but it's manageable. With a brush tip, the line can vary from hair's breadth thin to quite thick. I need more practice to use this to good advantage. Sometimes there is a lovely transparent quality. For that, I wish I had more pale colors. I'll do more, and maybe get the hang of it better.







Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Challenge: tanglepatterns string #01

I've been trying some of the string suggestions at tanglepatterns.com so this week's challenge from the Diva fits right in! We are to use string number 1 - one I haven't tried yet - and tangle it to our heart's content.
Tangles: Fohbraid, Hollibaugh, Mi2, Tipple
Tangles: Chebucto (that went haywire at one end), Drupe, Fracas,
Knightsbridge (variation), Spinners

Monday, October 8, 2012

tanglepatterns string #15


I've been trying some of the string suggestions posted on tanglepatterns.com. There are some great ideas there. Here is string idea #15. Amazing, the different results!
Tangles: Copada, Drupe, Finery, Fracas, Parabola, Tipple
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Tipple
Tangles: Afterglo, Camelia, Deelish, Flux, Opus, Paradox, Phuds,

You can see what I did with some of the other string suggestions on these posts:
Numbers 3 and 12
Number 10

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Sankegg

I noted this tangle when Diva Laura first showed it on her blog, but I thought, "Too tricky. I'll try it later." This Monday, it was later and Sankegg is the Zentangle challenge this week.

This is a tangle that requires greater concentration! I could not get the points to come in and meet at nice angles near the center. You can see my first attempt to draw this tangle in the upper left of the first tile. I attempted to fix it with some black sections. :)  I did a little better in the lower right.
Tangles: Chartz, Knase, Sankegg, Tipple, Wunderwall
Here's my second tile, with two more versions of Sankegg. I discovered that even if the angles are rather wonky and it looks rather bad at the outset, the effect is nonetheless there at the end. Pretty cool.
Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Paradox, Sankegg, Tripoli and stripes

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

tanglepatterns string #10

This is string idea #10 from tanglepatterns.com. It has a triangle. How could I not try doing another triquetra?!

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Tortuca, Zedbra, Zewm and Rounding

 Here's a simpler tile. I think I prefer it to the one above.
Tangles: Beadlines, Drupe, Fracas
 You can see what I did with strings number 3 and 12 here.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Some Zendala Dares

I usually don't get around to doing Erin Olsen's zendala dare as soon as she posts it, but I often print the mandala pattern, intending to do it sooner or later. It's usually later. Here are a few I recently completed.

ZENDALA DARE # 16
The template for this mandala design is here.
FIrst I did it with the template as given.
The second one is with the template doubled, and some Celtic-style interlacing.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Daggerly, Florz, Gneiss and stripes with highlights
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Knightsbridge Aura, Not-a-Knot,
Purslane? (a Flux variation), Rounding

ZENDALA DARE # 18
The blog post for this dare is here.
Tangles: Parabola, Perfs, Phuds, Printemps, Tipple, stripes with highlights