A Tangle Starting With P…..

July's Challenge (Number 28) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is a tangle challenge based upon choosing tangles whose names begin with the letters of the tangler's initials or name.

front of card

close-up of tile
tangles: Paradox, Ambler, Umble, Locar, Ahh

inside of card

I decided to use official tangles beginning with the letters spelling my name: Paradox, Ambler, Umble, Locar & Ahh. I also thought I'd make my tile from some kraft cardstock & use my Polychromos pencils to colour the various patterns using blocks of colour rather than trying to shade the various tangles as some of the linework is very detailed - it was quite a challenge to delineate the narrow borders of Ambler in pale blue. 

Supplies

Pencils/Markers etc… 005 & 01 Sakura Pigma Micron Pens, Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils.

Cardstock White, brown & pale blue from stash.

Die Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Squares Small, Spellbinders Shapeabilities Lace Doily Motifs. 

Punch Woodware Inverted Corner.

The gems are Papermania.

A Tardy Zendala

The Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group challenge for May (Number 26) was to create a tile or ZIA using a Zendala string. My post is rather late but at least it is still within the month of May, albeit only just. I chose to use Erin's very first Zendala Dare template to create a card.

front of card

close-up of Zendala
tangles: Auraknot, Beadlines, Betweed, Nzeppel, Paradox

inside of card

Supplies
Markers 01 Sakura Pigma Micron Pen.
Cardstock White & black from stash.
Paper Winsor & Newton Cotman 190gsm Cold Pressed/NOT Grain Fin Watercolour Paper.
Dies Spellbinders Shapeabilities Lace Doily Accents & Lace Doily Motifs.
Punch Woodware Inverted Corner.
The gems are from stash.

Official & Unoffical Tangles

The April Challenge (Number 25) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is based upon tangles & this time the brief is to choose an official & an unofficial tangle to use. More than two tangles can be chosen but the tangles picked should alternate between official & unofficial patterns.

front of card

close-up of tangled 4½" tile
tangles: Hazen, Xav

inside of card

I'd caught sight of Adele Bruno's new tangle Xav & rather liked the idea of using it as a border but then pondered over which of the official tangles to combine it with. One of the patterns that I've been  fascinated by is Hazen, so much so that some time ago I deconstructed it into step-outs, although I'm really not sure of what it officially looks like. Perhaps (if permitted) a kind CZT can confirm that I've got the actual look of the pattern right. If I haven't, the above will just have to be a tangleation! Hazen needs quite a bit of space to do it justice so my actual tile is a 4½ inches square ZIA which I made into a card.

I also experimented a little more with my coloured pencils - the Derwent Coloursoft seem to behave very well when blended using paper stumps with Sandsodor on the W H Smith 220gsm white cardstock. I did take the precaution of heat setting the pen work first though.


Supplies

Pencils/Markers etc… Sakura Pigma Micron Pens (Black, Blue & Green), Fine Sharpie (Black), Memento Dual Marker (Black), Pentel K118 Hybrid Gel Pen (White); Derwent Coloursoft Pencils with paper stumps & Sansodor.
Cardstock W H Smith 220gsm white; white, black & hammered green from stash.
Die Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Sixteen.
Punch Crafts Too Corner.
The sequins are from stash.

Mandala Tutorial

I have received a request to explain how to draw a Mandala & thought that the easiest way of explaining would be to create some step-outs.  Although the following shows how to draw the Mandala String I used in my previous post, the same principles apply when creating other patterns. It's a matter of playing around with the placement of lines - I don't set out with a specific idea in mind I just start connecting lines & see what emerges.

1.
Draw diagonal lines from corner to corner as shown. Where the lines intersect is the centre of the tile.

2.
Draw vertical & horizontal lines through the centre.

3.
With the point of a compass at the centre & the pencil point at the edge of either the horizontal or vertical line draw a circle.

4.
Repeat step 3 using a smaller radius to draw an inner circle as shown.
More than one inner circle may be drawn & the points at which the circles intersect the vertical & horizontal lines then used to create the  framework for a design.







5.
Alternatively, as I have, mark points (a & b) along the straight lines & use those to create a framework as shown.






If you have any questions please leave a comment below & I shall endeavour to provide an answer.

Printemps & Golden Tulips for Spring

March's Challenge (Number 24) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is once again a themed one, this time the brief is to incorporate something associated with Spring.

front of card

close-up of tangled tile
tangles: Blox, Printemps

angled close-up in lamplight to show gold lustre of tulips

inside of card

NB
A couple of things that didn't show up very well in the photos: The little flower sequins are actually iridescent plus the black panel on the inside of the card is edged with gold as is the message panel.


I was intending to make a Spring Mandala but lost my way as I was colouring for the colours aren't terribly Spring-like! Hence I have just two Spring elements in my design: the tangle Printemps & the stamped tulip images around the centre. The stamped lines were all but obliterated by the gold colouring so the lines were redefined with a Pigma Micron Pen. My next post will be a tutorial showing how I constructed the Mandala String for this tile.


Supplies
Stamp Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0151 Flora & Fauna (tulips).
Inks Memories Black Dye, Delicata Golden Glitz (inking various cardstock edges).
Pencils/Markers etc… 01 & 05 Black Sakura Pigma Micron Pen, Fine Black Sharpie, Gold Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Pen, White Pentel K118 Hybrid Gel Pen; Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils with paper stumps & Sansodor.
Cardstock W H Smith 220gsm white; black & satin gold from stash.
Die Spellbinders Nestabilities Splendid Circles.
Punch E K Success (corner rounder).
The flower sequins are from stash & the pearl is Papermania.

The Diva's White Space & Erin's Gift

I have combined the Diva's Challenge #155 (to leave an area of open white space on a tangled piece of artwork) with Erin's Zendala Dare #90 template from a few weeks ago to form the focal element for a card design. 

front of card
tangles: Fassett, Fescu

close-up to show detail & colouring of Zendala

angled view under lamplight to show lustre of
 moondust black & pearlescent yellow cardstock 

inside of card

Erin also asked that participants 'gift' her (since it was her birthday) with a particular tangle to use, so my gift, albeit somewhat late, is the tangle Fassett.

Supplies

Pencils/Markers etc… 005 & 01 Sakura Pigma Micron Pens, Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils with a dry paper stump.

Cardstock W H Smith 220gsm white, matt & moondust black, pearlescent yellow.

Dies Spellbinders Shapeabilities Lace Doily Accents (corners) & Lace Doily Motifs (inside of card).

Punch Woodware Inverted Corner.

Letters Challenge Aquafleur

February's Challenge (Number 23) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is to create a tile or ZIA (|Zentangle Inspired Artwork) using a string based upon any letter or letters of the alphabet.

To make my string I took some chipboard letters, arranged them on my tile, drew round them & then fattened the letters to make them chunky & rounded.

The recently released instructions for Aquafleur were in my mind so I though I'd see how that fitted into my letters & did some rough sketches whilst becoming familiar with the pattern. I was rather pleased with the results so went ahead with that idea then inserted some blue veining using a blue Pigma Micron pen.

tangles: Aquafleur, Sez

I'm still experimenting with shading techniques. I've come to the conclusion that I like using coloured pencils but just in a limited colour palette & blending with a dry paper stump which avoids any risk of a solvent interacting with the pen work already laid down.

You may prefer to skip this paragraph if you're not interested in the subtle differences between wax-based & oil-based colour pencils. I had intended to put down only one layer of colour but found that I wanted to experiment with adding darker tones & was quite thrilled with the resultant depth that I found emerging. I was using the Derwent Coloursoft wax-based pencils on W H Smith 220gsm white cardstock (this has a good tooth for pencils & doesn't bleed when the Pigma Micron Pens are used plus it is easily obtainable throughout England & Wales). I know that wax-based pencils have a tendency to bind when layered heavily but I was surprised to find them doing so after just applying a couple of layers, plus I was taken aback by how quickly they gave off debris & became blunt. I do love the vibrancy of the Coloursoft colours but next time I'll use the Faber-Castell oil-based pencils when I'm layering for I know they have none of the above disadvantages regardless of the substrate they are used on. Neither pencil is superior to the other, it is really a matter of preference & will vary in degree according to what substrate is being used.

I also like tangling to the very edge of my 3½ inch square tile & making a ZIA by mounting it on black cardstock.

It's not often that I manage to join in with The Diva's Challenge but as this week (Challenge #152) her brief is to use the tangle Aquafleur I'm adding my name to the list of participants.

Favourite Tangles

January's challenge (Number 22) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group has the remit to use your favourite tangles & say why you like to use them.

I tend to gravitate towards tangles based on grids, have a love of Celtic artwork & hence particularly enjoy tangles that weave plus I like to see what effect small variations in the basic tangle pattern can have upon the final result. The three tangles I chose to illustrate these points are:

• Auraknot - a tangle that weaves & can be varied by the number of points that are skipped when constructing the initial aura line. The central star skips one point, the top right skips two points & the bottom left skips three points.
• Hurry - another weaving tangle. In my two examples I varied the number of lines used for each band. The top left star uses three lines & the bottom right uses five.
• W2 - this tangle is based upon a grid & has an over & under weaving effect. I love using this for a background as it balances more intricate tangles beautifully.

tangles: Auraknot, Hurry, W2

close-up central star showing gold 'aura'

My tile was edged with a black marker (Memento) prior to mounting onto a larger square of black cardstock with rounded corners. A Faber-Castell Polychromos pencil with a dry paper stump was used for shading & a Sakura Metallic Gelly Roll gel pen for the gold 'aura'.

Christmas in Black & White

I wanted to incorporate my Winter Foliage ZIA into a Christmas card & that is how the layout came about. The other two cards have an identical layout - in fact very similar to that in my previous post though these were made earlier as they needed to be sent via Royal Mail.

tangles: Flux, Verdigogh

tangles: Cruffle, Verdigogh

tangles: Cruffle, Flux

inside of cards

Supplies

Pens/Markers 01 Uni Pin Drawing Pen & 08 Sakura Pigma Micron Pen (tangles); 07 Pergamano White Gel Pen (highlights on Flux); Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker (edging Zentangle tiles & message panels).

Cardstock Official Zentangle tiles; white & black from stash.

Dies Spellbinders Sheapeabilities Create-A-Flake Three (snowflakes) & Nestabilities Labels Sixteen (message panels).

Punch Woodware Corner Rounder (black matting panels for Zentangle tiles).

Zentangle Inspired Christmas Cards

These are my two submissions for The Diva's Weekly Challenge #148: "Merry Happy" where her brief is:

"In the spirit of the Holidays, this week's challenge is to create a piece or tile for your own holidays. Whatever you celebrate, however you celebrate."

My two cards have basically the same layout but didn't start off that way. Both, however, were the result of persevering & finding a way round mishaps (or perhaps I should say opportunities since there are no mistakes in Zentangle).

tangles: Huggins, Hurry

The first was going to be a large ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Artwork) simply matted on gold cardstock before mounting onto a card base. I'd tangled all of it including a wide frame of Meer & had shaded the Huggins (using Derwent Coloursoft pencils with a paper stump & Sansador) when I stopped to sort out the sponges in the little pot I use for keeping a small amount of the Sansodor for dipping my paper stumps into. In so doing a drop of Sansodor landed on my artwork but thankfully only on the frame portion. Chopping off the frame meant that I had a square slightly smaller than a Zentangle tile which I mounted onto a 4 inch square of black cardstock with rounded corners. The snowflakes are die-cuts (using Spellbinders Shapeabilities Create-A-Flake Three). The stars were drawn using a Pinflair Stepper Template.

tangles: Cruffle, Flux

The second card uses an Official Zentangle Tile edged in black ink (Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker) mounted onto a 4 inch square of black cardstock with rounded corners & another 4 snowflakes as in the first, red cardstock instead of gold & a black card base. My mishap here occurred as I was going to shade the leaves using a single green Derwent Coloursoft pencil with the paper stump & Sansador. Despite heat setting my Sakura Pigma Micron penwork it smudged badly whereas in my first card it had not. The only difference between the two was my substrate: in the first W H Smith 220gsm white cardstock & in this one the official tile. I salvaged the tile by layering 3 shades of green pencil to achieve the shading of the leaves. I was rather pleased with the result for the baubles really gained definition against the brightness of the leaves. A white gel pen was used to add highlights on the berries.

inside of cards

Both cards have the same internal design - a simple white die-cut (Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Sixteen) edged with the Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker forms the message panel.

Winter Foliage

The December Challenge (Number 21) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is based upon the theme of Winter. Fir trees are what immediately spring to my mind when I think of winter &, of course, snow. Our front garden is hedged with Cotoneaster bushes providing an abundant feast of berries for the birds at this time of year so my Zentangle Inspired Artwork (ZIA) developed along the lines of winter foliage rather than snowflakes.

tangles: Flux, Verdigogh

The official Zentangle tile was edged with a black marker (Mememto) prior to mounting onto a larger square of black cardstock with rounded corners. A white gel pen was used to add highlights to the berries.

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!