Zentangle's Project Pack 14

Take time for yourself. Chill out. Breathe. Recompose.

Mental health awareness is the inspiration and theme of this project pack, and how art and Zentangle can be beneficial to well-being. Included in the pack is a booklet - in which we did our drawing - of quotations about making art. Also, a medium gray Moonlight pen and a metallic green pen!

DAY ONE

Noom (aka Noom Repus) and ribbons.

DAY TWO

Striping (I did Striping with a twist), Sampson, Tipple, and a loopy little edge.

DAY THREE

Paradox, Hollis, and Moon Pies.
Plus an illuminated letter, and a tiny pink heart.
You can see here some of the supplies in the project pack.

DAY FOUR

Verdigogh variations and Springkle. I added Paizel, Opus and Icantoo.

DAY FIVE

Gradual variations of the tangle Well.

DAY SIX

Purk and Vega and various border tangles.
(There is no evidence that Einstein ever said this,
but he did comment about imagination.)

Tangles: Coaster, Icantoo, Prestwood, Purk, Seljuk, Sprouts, Unyun

DAY SEVEN

Dingsplatz, coffering, and more. (Balloons!)

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Dingsplatz, Knightsbridge, Pearlz, Purk

DAY EIGHT

On the final page, an invitation to draw our own conclusions.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Rayga, Seljuk, Sprouts,

DAY NINE

A Tripoli inkwell and a Fescu plume. I added the scroll.

AND MORE!
We didn't fill all the pages in the nine days, and I still have one page left.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Aquafleur, Pepperish, and stripes

I love Fengle for its proclivity to do what it wants, wander all over the place, 
and break the rules like an artist.

Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, BTL Joos, Crescent Moon, Damsel Leaf,
Fengle, Fescu, Icantoo, Moon Pie, Paisley Boa, Rayga, Tipple, Trifle, Zonked

Line drawing lessons

Some time ago I started doing Simone Bischoff's series of lessons for sharpening one's line drawing skills, so I thought I'd share my efforts with you. Originally in German, the short series is abbreviated in translation on tangle-patterns.com. There you'll find the details of each exercise. I did all my work on zentangle tiles.

Lesson one: ways of connecting dots 
Simone shows various ways to connect two dots. I used Black Pearlz for three of the dots.

Lesson two: lines in waves
This didn't work out the way Simone's did, but it is wavy lines!

Two tangles that use a series of wavy lines are Diva Dance and Magma.

Lesson three: fantasy flowers

Lesson four: spiral forms
First, a helix, a double helix, and a spiral.

The second idea in this lesson is to use the three spiral forms all starting from the same place.

It started going rather haywire so I just let it do that, and added more.

Lesson five: angled lines

Using straight, and angled lines first, then adding geometric shapes on the lines.

Some tangles that use this type of angled lines and shading are Raddox and Static.

That's as far as I got (thus far, at least). It is a fun exercise and offers new ways of thinking about mark-making. Give it a try!

Mayan inspired

Recently we returned from two weeks in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. What a great place to go for a break from Canada in February! We didn't really realize how much we needed to get away from it all until we were actually away from it all. (*gratitude*!).

The Yucatan is where the amazing Mayan civilization rose and fell. The Mayans developed the most accurate time-keeping system in human history, combining both the solar and lunar cycles into a calendar with a 52 year cycle. I've always liked the Mayan carved stone, squared glyphs with lots of interesting details.

Here's a photo of some real Mayan stone carvings - although not glyphs - taken at Chichén Itzá (pronounced chi-CHAYN eet-TSA).

I didn't take a sketchbook but I had lots of Zentangle tiles with me. (I took way too many art supplies, but you never know what you're going to need, right?) So I used the front and back of a tile and drew some of the glyph designs I saw.

Then I used another tile and 'picked and choosed' some of these to draw a little Mayan inspired piece. No tangles here, but a similar drawing method.

I tried another (tea-stained) tile using sepia ink and brown pencil. There are larger sections and I filled some with actual tangles.

Tangles included: Ambler, Hibred, Paisley Boa, Wud

This could develop into something interesting!

Celtic triquetra as a string

Tangles: Betweed, Black Pearlz, elements of Tripoli,
and Auras resembling Auraknot or Hibred

TRIQUETRA comes from the Latin for "three-cornered" and originally referred to a variety of three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it refers exclusively to a more intricate shape that is often found in Celtic artwork. It is formed from three vesicae piscis, interlaced. It's not unusual to see it with an added circle.

While Christians often use it as a symbol of the trinity, the triquetra has been used - long before Christianity - as a symbol of things that are threefold: infancy/adulthood/old age, mother/father/child, earth/sea/sky, the virgin/mother/crone of the Celtic goddess, etc.. It has been found on old Germanic coins and on northern European runestones. Here is a slightly different triquetra design on one of the Funbo runestones.

I've been learning a bit about how to draw Celtic knots recently. The triquetra is the simplest knot and makes a simple, interesting string to begin a Zentangle. I was quite pleased with the results. The biggest challenge for me was to place an equilateral triangle in a square! At the top of this post is the first one I did. I was intending to use Sue Clark's tri-shape string, thus the square in the background, but the circle didn't make it! I found the triquetra a bit small in that one, and in my next effort I filled the entire tile with it.

Tangles: Chebucto, Keenees, Mi2, Tipple

The trefoil is a related image; simply round the three outer points of the triquetra. You can see a tile I did with a trefoil, and a two-pencil string, at the end of this post. I will attempt other, more intricate knots. Stay tuned!

Rangolis

Photo from www.anandway.com

Rangoli is a folk art of India.  They are decorative circular designs made on the floors of living rooms, in courtyards and outside doors during Hindu festivals. They are intended as sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities and are thought to bring good luck. I understand that in some parts of India it's the job of the lady of the house to create a rangoli outside the front door or gate each day.

They can be quite simple, like the one above, or more involved like the one below. Often, they are drawn with moistened chalk, however, other materials can be used such as colored rice, colored dry flour, sand or even flower petals and leaves.

Photo from www.anandway.com

Colored chalk can be used too.

Photo from www.anandway.com

Here is a rangoli created using flowers.

Photo from Wikipedia

This reminds me of a video I posted a while ago about How to Grow a Mandala. I expect the drawing of the chalk rangolis/mandalas progresses in much the same way.

Early pen-and-ink trees

Here are a few more of my earlier pen-and-ink pieces. As you can see, I've always loved pattern, repition, and detail. I also like trees!

An illustration in a children's magazine:

String and nails portraits

Remember that string and nail art you did as a child? Artist Kumi Yamashita has taken that a whole lot further. Amazing work! To see more, see here.

Stippling - a tutorial

Stippling is a delicate drawing technique with lovely results. In this technique the drawing is composed entirely of tiny dots. Some very impressive shading can be accomplished this way.

Drawing by Jayel Aheram on Flickr. Image licensed on Creative Commons.

Christine Farmer does a lot of pen and ink work using stippling. You can see examples of her work here. She says, "Stippling as a technique requires precision, skill, and concentration, and I like the fact that progress is necessarily slow and steady." Sounds rather zen, doesn't it?
Noli Novak frequently does illustrations for the Wall Street Journal employing this technique.

Image from Noli Novak's website

Some superb artwork can be created using only stippling. BUT... it can also be used in small amounts. It's a terrific way to achieve an effect in pen and ink that is other than black, white, or lines. Some time ago I tried a very simple Zentangle tile using only stippling. For the string I overlapped two 8s. There is no pencil shading.

CZT Donna Hornsby's tangle Keenees uses tiny dots... basically stippling. When stippling in Keenees you can go darker into the corners, like this:

I thought it would be interesting to do some Zentangle tiles entirely in stippling. I found it has a sort of misty look. I think I could be a little bolder with areas that could be more black. Both these next tiles were done using a 01 pen, with the exception of Zedbra on the left which was done with a 08 just to see the difference. I used pencil for the shading.

Tangles: Florez, Keenees, Lotus Pods, Tripoli, Zedbra.

Tangles: Dutch Hourglass, Flukes, Flux, Miranda, Paradox

Next, I tried a normally-drawn tile, but did all the shading using stippling. I still much prefer the effect of pencil, but stippling can be a good option for shading should you find yourself with only a pen.

Tangles: Cubine, Golven, Hibred, Pearlz, Unyun and stippling

HOW TO?
Simply use your Sakura Micron (or similar) pen, hold it vertically (not slanted) and with a light touch tap the pen tip on the paper. Many, many, many, many, many times. :-)
More dots in one place gives darker areas. Fewer dots, lighter areas. You can use different sizes of pen for varying effects. If an area is to be quite dark you may want to begin with a larger pen to fill space faster, then switch to a tiny pen for finishing.

There is a little more about stippling from Canadian CZT Geneviève Crabe on tanglepatterns.com here.

Finally, here's a two minute video showing the development of a portrait done entirely in stippling. Prepare to be amazed!


Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

Strings of fire

Etsuko Ichikawa uses molten glass to create black and gray lines on white paper. Stand-alone Zentangle strings! You can read and see more about her here.

Exhibition in Saskatoon

I just finished hanging an exhibition at a local pottery shop. I'm showing nine zentangle inspired drawings, five small acrylic mandalas, and six tiny landscapes in colored pencil. To see more images of the work on display visit my web site.

The title of the drawing on the announcement is "Harmony Street". It's in black, white, and browns and I think they're all working in harmony.  :-)

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!

Non-billboard showcases the sky

I love this!

I'm sure I'm not the only one frequently annoyed by billboards cluttering the view.  Non Sign II stands along the U.S.-Canada border in Blaine, Washington and promotes nothing but the beauty of the sky. It was installed in 2010.

Made entirely of blackened steel rods, it was commissioned by the U.S. government’s General Services Administration and created by Lead Pencil Studio in Seattle. Here's a close-up view showing the tiny metal rods that compose the 'mist'.

 What a wonderful piece of art!


Images courtesy of Lead Pencil Studio.