Zenspirations Heart & Thoughts About Shading

I actually drew this at the end of August for a friend's wedding anniversary card. It was in inspired by Joanne Fink's book Zenspirations Letters & Patterning as well as Penny Raile's chapter in The Art of Zentangle book. Seeing my frustration after spending a whole afternoon trying to shade it (using photocopies) my husband suggested that I don't shade my tangles or similar designs as he likes them with just the penwork - this is where Penny Raile's artwork comes in for I immediately showed him her work without shading in the book. My initial response was "NOT SHADE - that's for beginners, I can't not shade, but........ there's Joanne's colouring & Penny's tangles & ........... they're not beginners." So, I've been thinking quite a bit about the subject.

I find that I can draw my tangles but when it comes to shading them - though I know the theory of it & where to shade - I can feel myself becoming tense,  in fact it feels like a chore looming ahead. I can see that shading adds depth & dimension but I really dislike the gritty smudginess of graphite. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts on the matter.

front of card - the names of the recipients were written
along the two little 'balancing' paddles

inside of card showing message panel

Supplies

Stamps Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0310 Swirly Pets.

Inks VersaFine Onyx Black (hearts).

Pens/Markers 01 Uni Pin Drawing Pen, Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker (edging message panel).

Cardstock White & Black from stash.

Paper Winsor & Newton Cotman 190gsm Cold Pressed/NOT Grain Fin Watercolour Paper.

Die Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Twenty-Two (message panel).

The pearls are Kanban.

Organic Chocolate Baroque in a Zendala Dare

October's Challenge (Number 19) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is to create a tile or ZIA based upon organic tangles. It was when I saw the centre of Erin's Zendala template #75 for this week that I realised it would give me a super starting point using the tangle Cyme.

tangles: Cyme, Flux, Meer

I used the smallest of Erin's templates, initially thinking I would create a conventional Zentangle tile, but I was struck by how floral the whole looked without the outside circular linework. One thing led to another & so it was fussy cut & mounted onto some pearlescent black cardstock die-cut with a circular Spellbinders Nestabilites die (Standard Circles Small).

Tangling Wings

The Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group Challenge for September (Number 18) is based upon the theme of "Wings."

Since I have a particular delight in bees I wanted to use the bee images from Chocolate Baroque's Honey Bee stamp sheet as the basis for my Zentangle Inspired Artwork (ZIA) interpretation of the challenge. I know that Zentangle is intended as art of an abstract nature but I couldn't resist creating a little habitat for my bees from Kass Hall's Honeycomb tangle (also demonstrated by Ellen Wolters in video format).

tangle: Honeycomb

My edging is simply two wavy lines crossing one another with the segments filled in & the whole 3½ inch square tile is mounted onto a slightly larger piece of black cardstock.

close-up showing sparkly iridescence of bees' wings

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA5SP0375 Honey Bee.
Inks VersaFine Onyx Black (bees).
Pencils/Markers O1 Uni Pin Drawing Pen, 2B Lakeland Graphite Pencil.
Colouring Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Water Colors (bees' bodies), Crystal Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (bees' wings).
Cardstock W H Smith 220gsm White; Black from stash.
Punch Woodware (corner rounder).

Triangular Stringing

August's Challenge (Number 17) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group consists of a triangular string of our choice - it can be one taken from the Strings Resource at TanglePatterns.com or one we've drawn.

I chose to sketch two differently sized overlapping triangles loosely in the manner of a traditional Star of David symbol (see superimposed coloured lines) & started off tangling the triangles thus formed using Paradox. I used Ixorus for the centre & surprisingly created another 6 triangles.

tangles: Ixorus, Paradox, Tipple

Tangling Grids for Chocolate Baroque

July's Challenge (Number 16) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is once again based upon tangles (the challenges are based upon a rotation of three: tangle/s; strings; theme/s). This time the brief is to use ONLY tangles based upon a grid.

Two tangles based upon grids & which can be beautifully 'merged' are Cadent & Cubine. I wanted to see what these would look like using curved grids so I created a string of two overlapping pointed ovals. The vertical oval is tangled with Cubine & the horizontal with Cadent; the segment where the two ovals overlap is tangled with a combination of Cadent & Cubine.

tangles: Cadent, Cubine

The restriction of using ONLY grid based tangles proved quite an interesting challenge for I found I was wanting to add an organic tangle like Fescu emanating from each of the points where my two tangled ovals meet. I resisted the urge & just added s tiny touch of sparkle to the Cadent circles using a Clear Sakura Stardust Gelly Roll pen.

close-up to show sparkle of Cadent's circles

Leafy Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group Challenge

The Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group's June Challenge (Number 15) is based upon a theme: a leaf or leaves should appear somewhere on the tile or ZIA.

I actually took a leaf from our garden & drew it freehand inside a square border before tangling & colouring.

tangles: Barberpole, Nzepple
Tombow Markers outline watercolour blending & indirect Blender Pen colouring on
 Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper

Bridgen Leaves

After working on my earlier leaf assignment I've become increasingly conscious of an innate delight in the shapes & colours of leaves &, knowing that I possess a number of 'leafy' Chocolate Baroque stamps, I thought I'd try combining them with tangles. I sat trying to decide where to place the stamps & wasn't getting anywhere so just threw them one by one onto the tile & stamped each image where it landed.

front of card

close-up of leaf
embellishments

inside of card

The Nick Bantock Van Dyke Brown I used for stamping splits into greens & browns when water is added so I merely used a damp paintbrush to spread the colour within each leaf. I then hit on the idea of using the leaves as the 'circles' in Bridgen & went from there.

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0234 Autumn Hedgerow & UDLSP0235 Nature Table
Inks Nick Bantock Van Dyke Brown (leaves on front) & Memories Black Dye (leaves inside).
Pens/Markers 01 Sakura Pigma Micron (tangles); Graphite pencil (shading).
Cardstock Winsor & Newton Cotman 190gsm Cold Pressed/NOT Grain Fin Watercolour Paper; black, yellow & gold cardstock from stash.
Punches Woodware (small & large leaves); EK Success (corner rounder).
The pearls are Kanban.

Challenges Entered
Simon Says Stamp & Show: Into the Woods - stamped & punched leaf shapes; the circular effect of the tangle pattern reminds me of the growth rings used in tree-ring dating (dendrochronology)
Simon Says...Anything Goes!