Four tangles for Carole

The guest challenger for this week's Zentangle challenge is Carole Ohl of the Open Seed Arts blog. Carole was invited to participate as an “Artist of the Month” at a new local restaurant (in Dayton, Ohio) in September where she will be showing some of her Zentangle artwork.

She's decided to give one wall over to a section called "Zentangle is for Everybody!" This part of the exhibition will demonstrate how Zentangle is interpretated differently and beautifully by each person who does it. For this she has asked for contributions!

We are to use four specific tangles on a zentangle-size paper tile. This was an extra challenge for me because three of the four tangles I've never done before. What a great opportunity to add to my repertoire! So, using only the tangles Baton (by Carole Ohl), Keenees (by Donna Hornsby), Pais (by Mikee Huber) and Zedbra (by Laura Harms a.k.a. the Diva and yours truly), here are my productions:

The first, I definitely like this way up. The next two I seem to like a different way each time I look at them! I'm a big fan of Carole's artwork and will be delighted to have some of my zentangle tiles displayed in the same venue as hers.

Article and Exhibition

WHOLifE Journal is a provincial wellness publication. In the July/August issue I have an article about Zentangle!

The journal is able to publish based on advertizing revenue, so I also have an ad for my upcoming exhibition of Zentangle inspired artwork. If you're going to be in the Saskatoon vicinity, do stop by! I'll have about 15 pieces on display.

"Harmony Street" © 2011 Margaret Bremner
The original of this piece is in black, white and various browns. The ad is b&w.

Faeries beware

Well, it's always good to find out what you CAN'T do. I am now able to eliminate landscape architecture for the faerie worlde from my list of alternate job possibilities. This week's zentangle challenge, courtesy of guest challenger CZT Carol Bailey Floyd, is to tangle a place that fairies might like to visit.

There are many tangles that are reminiscent of plant life, and I thought those would be good to use. Also stars. Also big things with tiny people, and to me the tangle Artoo always looks big. "Fairies" to me means light and airy, flitty and flighty. My first attempt was more heavy and dark than I really wanted.

Tangles: Artoo, Caviar, Daggerly, Drupe, Finery, Gneiss, Knightsbridge, Lilypads, Miranda, Tidings

Second go at it. I tried some new tangles: Warble and Frondous (magically turned into wheat with a bit of fairy dust by this prairie girl!). Still a bit dark, although I like the little white "path" leading in from the bottom.

Tangles: Caviar, Finery, Flux, Florez, Frondous, Hurly Burly, OoF, Warble

Third try lucky? Well, at least a little more successful. The tangle Aah! seemed rather fairy-like, and I kept the botanical influence. I also like this border; it seems somewhat like flower petals.

Maybe the faeries flitting about in my head are just a little oddball.

Create your own path

I wish I could credit this photo but I don't know who created it.

One of the things I like about this image is the fact that the path (or road) isn't there until after you've passed by, much the way it works in real life.

Fun digital drawing!

I while ago I posted a link to a site where you can do some digital oriental brush drawing. I recently discovered another very cool online drawing site.






If anyone had asked me about computer tangling I would have blurted a resounding, "NO!!!" I would still say that. But Zentangle is what I do these days and when I happened upon this site, Zentangle is what I did. I tried a few single tangles first.

Finery

Tripoli

Rick's Paradox

Tipple

My 24-year-old daughter came over for dinner with her visiting aunt and uncle, and tried her hand at it too.

Then I got my courage together and decided to try a "tile". I had to draw the border and string in "pen" but it worked out alright.

Tangles: 'Nzeppel, Rick's Paradox, Tipple, Tripoli, Unyun

You can adjust the size of the "canvas" and also the brush settings and even color. Then you can save your new masterpiece. Have fun!

COCKLES 'N' MUSSELS - a new tangle!

'N' CLAMS, too! (I love seafood!)

You're probably familiar with the tangle 'Nzeppel. Cockles 'n' Mussels begins with a random version of 'Nzeppel and moves on from there. First, a few photos.

COCKLE SHELLS
© Oliver Dixon. Licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons license.

MUSSEL SHELLS

CLAM SHELLS
(photo from royalty free images at visualphotos.com)

Okay, here's the tangle Cockles 'n' Mussels!

In some cases you may want to subdivide a section to make more appropriate shapes. You may also want to trim a corner or an edge for the same purpose. See a few places under Mussels and Clams above. The lines on mussels and clams need to curve at the ends; they're almost more a series of diminishing ovals rather than just lines. Sometimes you'll have a very tiny section; think of it as sand and leave it alone. :-)

Here's a Zentangle tile with a few variations of Cockles 'n' Mussels, clams, and the random version of 'Nzeppel.

Lower left and right of center: Cockles 'n' Mussels. Top left: cockles.
Upper right: clams, lower right: mussels and clams. Through center: random 'Nzeppel.

Here's a tile using Cockles 'n' Mussels among other tangles.

Tangles: Cockles 'n' Mussels, Gingham, Lotus Pods, Ninja Stars, Rick's Paradox

Initally

Weekly challenge number 30. That' several months. The Diva is taking a well-deserved summer break and we're having some guest challengers. This week it's CZT Christina Vandervlist, a fellow Canadian, who's challenged us with another string idea: use your initials, overlapped, as a string.

On my first two tiles I used a border and more-or-less cursive writing for the letters. The tile on the left I like better on its 'side' (the original bottom is on the left).

Tangles on the left: Caviar, Crescent Moon, Gneiss, Marasu, Munchin, Unyun
Tangles on the right: Gneiss, Parabola, black Pearlz

Next I thought I'd do one using the style of initials I use to sign my Zentangle tiles, even though they don't overlap. Then I had the idea to use Celtic (or uncial) style letters, which I think are quite lovely. With that one I took a bit more time with the string!

Tangles on the left: Beadlines, Crescent Moon, Meer, black Pearlz, Riverstones, Tipple
Tangles on the right: Munchin, Shattuck, Striping, Tipple

Then, having some new black tiles and white pens, and a new white pencil that's much better than what I had before, I wanted to attempt another black tile. I've found them trickier than I expected; it's almost like working in reverse. Here I used the white pencil to draw outlines of a block M and a block B. I used a blending stick on the white pencil "shading" (really, highlighting) and I like the softened effect but it's a bit hard on the paper!

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Florez, Pearlz, Shattuck, Tipple

Weighty strings

Love these challenges! Recently, Sue Jacobs posted a great idea for creating strings using... strings! This week's challenge is to do the same. I located two items, both necklaces. One is a small pottery(?) piece that showed up recently that neither I nor my husband recognize. The other is a jade disk, one of my souvenirs of two years teaching English in China.

I've been trying some unfamiliar tangles on these tiles. In this one I used Lori Howe's RIVERSTONES. Quite pretty with its two very different parts.

Tangles: Caviar, Crescent Moon, Finery, Florz, Miranda, 'Nzeppel, Riverstones

I wanted to try CZT Christina Vandervlist's new tangle OGEN. It's very similar to a pattern I have done since my university days, but I like it better. I expect you'll be seeing it again!

Tangles: Beadlines, Crescent Moon, Cubine, Finery, Florz, Flukes, Ogen, Strircles

I rather liked the strings provided by the strings, and tried one where I placed the weight off the tile and placed only the cord on the tile. I also wanted to try CZT Laurie Patterson's tangle PURZUE.

Tangles: Coaster, Diamond Panes, Knightsbridge, Purzue, Rick's Paradox, Unyun

I prepared six tiles using necklace strings, so I have three more to play with!

I Can Dinsky

Recently at the Zentangle Inspired Art Yahoo group there was a challenge that inspired me. One of the members wrote: "Every time I see the Concentric Circles in Squares by the artist Kandinsky - I am so drawn to it. In fact I have a shower curtain that has concentric circles in bold colors...  the challenge is to create a piece of art using concentric circles AND incorporating tangles into that piece of art. Use bold colors as Kandinsky did." Well, I've been into circles for a long time, and also enjoy Kandinsky's paintings. Here's the one that inspired the Yahoo challenge:

Vasily Kandinsky's "Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles" ca. 1913

I've always liked repeated patterns (who'da thunk?). I used a piece of white, 4-ply mat board, a little larger than 8"x10", and measured out the squares.  I drew some round and round circles with water-soluble colored pencils, then carefully 'painted' each ring with water to eliminate the pencil lines. Then out came the pens! After that, shading with colored pencils. Here's my take on Squares with Concentric Circles, which I'm calling Zendinsky. :-)

Tangles: Arches, Betweed, Caviar, Coaster, Daggerly, Finery, Florez, Hibred, Knightsbridge, Lotus Pods, Munchin, Parabola, Pearlz (sort of), Perfs, Sanibelle, Striping, Tipple, Unyun, Wud

This was a lot of fun. I'm thinking of using this idea again, maybe in gray tones? maybe larger? maybe...?