Mistakes? Methinks not.

We do make mistakes. But that doesn't mean we have to abandon the entire project. There's almost no mistake that you can't do something with, and maybe even make it better.
This concept is a 180 degree turn from my attitude 35 years ago in University. If I did something I hadn't intended I'd often scrap the thing and start over. An important message brought to me by Zentangle!

First, here are two"mistakes" that my students have made.
Once in a while, learning the tangle Florz, someone puts the little black squares in line with the square grid rather than doing little diamonds at the intersections.

It's a rather interesting variation. And as proof that it's really not a mistake, here's a floor I saw in a historic building.

When drawing Crescent Moon, occasionally someone will think the Aura lines go all the way down to the base line all the time rather than keeping the Aura happening, with space between each row of lines. It's an interesting, tunnel-like variation.

Seven ways to deal with something displeasing.

1. Shade.
Besides adding wonderful dimensionality to your art, shading is a great way to hide or disguise something that's a bit disappointing. Go to the dark side with your pencil.

2. Overlay with a tangle that is mostly black.
Of course you'll think immediately of Bronx Cheer, usually done in raspberry form, but demonstrated here as a border pattern.
Or try Punch from Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book Totally Tangled. Simply draw some circles around parts you do like (or do a regular pattern of circles) and fill the rest of the area with black. I used a variation in the darkest section of the tile below, where I'd done something I just didn't like. Maybe try squares or triangles. If there's a LOT of black, refer ahead to idea #6.

Tangles: Keenees, O-Bob, Punch, Tipple, Tripoli,
stripes with highlights

3. Try the Tranzending technique.
You can watch Rick and Maria demonstrate it here. It will still leave a lot of what you already drew showing, but perhaps you can draw a heavy line over your "mistake" - and add some heavy shading. ;)

Tangles: pinched Assunta, Black Pearlz, Yincut
overlaid with Echoism

4. Do it again, and again...
Made a little booboo? Do it again a few more times and it will look as if you intended it as a cool "Oooh, look at that!" kind of thing.

5. Accept it. Be creative. Deal with it.
Accept what happened, see it as an opportunity to be creative, and make something of it.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

In the tile below, the tangle Chebucto went haywire at the left end. I'd put some lines on the wrong side of the black squares. But it's interesting how the tangle interlocks at one end and flies off in ribbons at the other. If I hadn't told you, you probably would have thought I intended it. :)

Tangles: Chebucto, Drupe and Fracas,
and one whose name I forget!

6. Cover it. Then maybe tangle on top of it.
Use black. In the tile below I didn't like the pink sections; they seemed to take away from the yellow/orange. I blacked over them, then used a white pen to draw spirals. Other details completed it.

Before and after covering, and tangling over.
Tangles: Doodah, Pearlz, Stella, Within, and the sparkle enhancement

Or try another opaque ink. Sakura's Metallic ink pens cover well. Here are before and after pictures where I felt the dark blue Diva Dance (top left) was the wrong color, so I used silver and blue metallic ink to cover it, and added more for balance. (Now I'm not sure which one I prefer!)

Before and after covering with silver and blue metallic ink.

7. Channel your disappointment and carefully chop it to bits.
If I've been working on something that has its good points, but I'm generally not happy with where it's going, I cut it up and make bookmarks or ATCs. I also save bits for future collage.
Here are four bookmarks made from very different beginnings.

And four ATCs.

No mistakes, right? Only opportunities to have fun and be creative.
Here's wishing you a year of creative 'mistake' making!

Project Pack #6: Part 3

Here are more pages from the little journal included with Zentangle's Project Pack 6.
(For Part One, go here; for Part Two go here.)

DAY 8:
Maria shows embedded letters and the word 'love'. I chose to use 'for now', a phrase of some significance to me (see this blog post). I included a 'gem' and used clear Stardust ink on the letters, not part of the video lesson.

AND MOVING ON:
The pages used while following the video lessons are only about a third of the total booklet, so there's lots left to experiment on your own. Here are some of my pages.

Tangles: Huggins with Flux, Knightsbridge, Paisley Boa, Tipple

Tangles: Aquafleur with a bit of Tipple

Tangles: Fengle with Meer, Pearlz, Tamisolo, Tipple, Zonked

Tangles: Marasu with a hint of Aquafleur at the perimeter, Tipple, Auras

Project Pack #6: Part 2

Zentangle recently released its sixth project pack and I've been having a lot of fun with it. (For Part One, go here.)

DAY 4:
Molly shows Munchin and Paradox, and transitioning between them. I included two other tangles based on triangles and some of them flowed onto the next page.

Tangles on this page: Fassett, Munchin, Paradox, Sqaro

DAY 5:
Julie draws weighted Printemps and her variation 'melting Mooka' with other tangles as fills. I didn't try the melting Mooka until later but it's quite fun, and - as someone else said - has an Art Deco look. A couple of mine got a bit rebellious at the end!

Tangles: Camelia, 'Nzeppel, weighted Printemps

Tangles: Black Pearlz, melting Mooka, Shattuck, Tipple

DAY 6:
Maria draws ING with some wonderful additions. I love the spiral fills! On the page beside it I did my variation curvING

Tangles: Ing, Pearlz

Tangles: curvING, Crescent Moon (layered), Printemps,

DAY 7:
Molly draws Indyrella. It's not a tangle I've done often but I enjoyed this.

Tangles: Indyrella, hints of Msst

There's more to come!

Project Pack #6: Part 1

Zentangle recently released its sixth project pack and I thoroughly enjoyed it! (In fact, I haven't finished yet.) The pack includes the various pens and other tools you'll use as well as a charming little 'journal' to work in. Each journal page, while mainly white paper, has a black ink "spill" to work with. The video lessons are available on YouTube. To order your own project pack, go here.

This project honors the 'no mistakes' philosophy of Zentangle. From the Zentangle website:

The "No Mistakes" philosophy has been an integral part of the Zentangle Method since it’s beginning. "No Mistakes" is a mantra we use in our Zentangle practice that allows us to see every line as an opportunity... Whether intentional or not, with this perspective, one can learn to see beauty and potential in whatever mark we make and whatever path our artistic journey takes. 

This seems like an appropriate time to share the first page of my little journal, although it was done after several other pages were completed.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Pearlz, Striping with a twist, Sprouts, Zonked, and Auras

DAY 1
Maria draws Mooka and Crescent Moon; I used Icantoo and Paizel - organic forms flowing over the border between white and black.

Tangles: Icantoo, Paizel, Printemps

DAY 2
Rick draws Arukas, again flowing back and forth between black and white. I chose to use the curvy lines of the black ink 'stain' rather than straight lines. And I had a perfect opportunity to include a yin-yang symbol!

Tangles: Arukas, Black Pearlz, Msst

DAY 3
Martha draws Pearlz with Rounding between each pearl, such a lovely variation. She also does Ennies in a spiral over the black and the white sections. For some reason, I did these on different pages.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Morse, Pearlz

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Ennies, Sprouts

Stay tuned over the next little while for more of my journal pages. 

A backlog of diva challenges

I've been travelling this summer, and thinking about various large projects that need my attention, so I haven't been posting challenges as they come. Here are a few - better late than never.

First, Daniel Lamothe's tangle Knightstar. The construction is the same as Donna Lacey's Knightspeak, however Daniel's is done in in multiple on a square grid resulting in a 'netting' look. It's quite a different result from Donna's with it's single star and checkerboard pattern. Either way, it's a really fun, visually delightful pattern.

On my first tile I definitely still had Knightspeak in mind. Some of my lines went haywire, the gray ink wasn't working out, and there is now a teeny-tiny tear on one side because I came this close to ripping it up. But the zentangle angel on my shoulder said, "Wait! No, no! NO mistakes, right? Keep going!" So I did. Glad I did.

Tangles: Arukas, Black Pearlz, Hibred, Knase, Knightspeak, Zonked

I did want to try Daniel's method, in a grid, and had a Bijou tile handy with a grid already on it. I did some of each tangle just to see the difference: upper left is Knightstar, lower right is multiple Knightspeak.

Next up, Molly Hollibaugh's tangle ING.
The original Ing tangle is angular, but sometimes I like to do the same thing but with curvy lines. It looks very ribbony. Here I've one strip (second from left) with multiple additional sections.

One week the challenge was to be inspired by the Olympics so I used the five rings as a string.

Cruze

Challenge 143 from the DivaCZT, a Use My Tangle challenge and the tangle is Cruze from CZT Caren Mlot. I had just tried this tangle on an ATC I did for a swap and quite liked it.

I had a few ideas I wanted to try with Cruze and this is a good opportunity. One idea was to do an additional row of squares on each side of the one original row. You can see that in the first two tiles below. In the first and third tiles you can see where I accidentally sent the loops in the wrong direction, giving myself an opportunity to be creative and see what else could be done! :)

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Cruze, Paizel, Phuds

I tried striping one of the bands that goes through Cruze. There are actually three bands and it would be interesting to do Cruze in three shades (or colors).

Tangles: Bunzo, Crescent Moon, Cruze, Flux, Golven, Knightsbridge, Pearlz

I wanted to try unravelling an end of Cruze. Again, I started some of the side loops in the wrong direction. That was rescued with a few squares on Yincut. I also used a little white ink on this one.

Tangles: Cruze, Diva Dance Hollibaugh, Purslane, Yincut

I see a lot of possibilities with this tangle. I think the next thing I'd like to try is using it on a round tile.