Star Auraknots & Keenees

The "Seasonal" theme for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group's December Challenge can be interpreted in many ways but for this tile I wanted to make the Christmas star my focus. I had briefly experimented with how Auraknot looks when varying the number of points to skip when joining the edges for the first 'aura' sequence of the pattern & decided to skip two for my tile. I used one of Wendy Stenton's Tempting Templates for drawing the star shape.

tangles: Auraknot, Beadlines, Florz 

I have some Pinflair Stepper shapes which includes a star in various sizes. The smallest star fits comfortably onto a Zentangle tile three times so I thought I'd draw out the variations of the Auraknot pattern when skipping one, two & three points (skipping four points doesn't work terribly well on a five  pointed star).

tangles: Auraknot, Keenees

Although I'd not set out to join in Laura Harms' Weekly Challenge I found the little circular tangle pattern Keenees (by Donna Hornsby) she'd set seemed to want to fit into the indented points of my stars. A garland of Keenees baubles evolved as well so not only do I have another Seasonal tile for the  Chocolate Baroque theme, but I can enter Laura's Challenge too.

Challenges Entered
Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group Challenge 9 - Theme: Seasonal (both tiles)
I am the diva Weekly Challenge 98 - UMT v. XI: Keenees (second tile)

MCC All About Zentangle - Wk 4 Final Project

Links: MCC (My Creative Classroom), Marie Browning

Marie finished the course by providing instructions for making a Tangle Board - a Zentangle decorated board with a clip forming a hard surface upon which to lean when tangling whilst travelling. I've not been able to find a suitable board but thought that I'd make a large rectangular (just under 10 x 7 inches)  Zentangle Inspired Artwork anyway & to ensure I used the remaining patterns for which Marie had given us intructions.

tangles: Barberpole, Cadox, Hollibaugh, Jester, Meer, Nekton, Purk
Scrolls, Socc, Spinning, Verdigogh, Wartz, W2

close-up of left section

close-up of central section

close-up of right section

I decided to decorate the central area with my initials (using chipboard letters to draw round) filled with the tangle Socc by Erin Olson that Laura Harms set for her challenge this week.

Challenge Entered
I am the diva Weekly Challenge 94: UMT v. X "Socc"

Black, White & Gold Stripes

The Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group Challenge for November is based around the concept of using stripes for the string. I thought I'd use a loose interpretation of the tangle Hollibaugh as the basis of my string & then fill the spaces created with Betweed.

This 'tile' is in my Moleskine sketchbook where I set out tangling the outline of a tile as usual but kept adapting as I went along because I didn't like what was emerging. Eventually I really had a mess but, remembering the Zentangle principle that nothing is a mistake, I was determined NOT to glue something over it but to adapt & overcome. So I filled in the whole of the tile shape using the 0.7 Letraset Fine Line Drawing Pen (the one that I mentioned smudges when combined with a Tombow Blender Pen), then tangled & coloured over it using white & gold Pentel K118 Hybrid Gel Grip Pens.

tangles: Betweed, Hollibaugh

MCC All About Zentangle - Wk 4 More Ideas

Links: MCC (My Creative Classroom), Marie Browning

In addition to Zendalas Marie also gave us an extensive gallery of different ideas for future (beyond the course) tangling projects. I selected a couple to try now using more of the tangles Marie had given instructions for. Time & again I find the actual act of working on an example enables me to uncover not only information about products but my own responses to techniques or formats of artwork in general.

This tile provoked some thought whilst I worked on it for I found I felt somewhat constrained by the 'landscape' format. There's somehow a freedom & spontaneity in the traditional Zentangle black & white that I find lacking when trying to make a picture like this. I tentatively tried using a little Sansodor with my Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils but the Pigma Micron linework started to smear - however not as badly as I'd anticipated - another bit of product knowledge to file away.

Landscape
tangles: Crescent Moon, Dust Bunnies, Fractal Tree, Girdy, Hazen, Pina, Stack, Toeter, Vermal
coloured using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils with a dry paper stump

One of the examples Marie showed was a Zendala tangled on kraft cardstock & coloured using Tombow Markers plus a white gel pen. My kraft card tile uses the tangle Tore-Up with K-Ning inside it.

Colouring on Kraft
tangles: K-Ning, Tore-Up
tangled using Pigma Micron Pens 01 & 05
Tombow Marker & white gel pen colouring with Polychromos pencil & dry paper stump shading

MCC All About Zentangle - Wk 4 Zendalas

Links: MCC (My Creative Classroom), Marie Browning

In the final week Marie introduced us to Zendalas created using different types of strings including several examples made using Genevieve Crabe's Mandala stencils. As I don't have any yet but still wanted to try drawing a Zendala  myself I wondered if I could make something similar. What I managed to construct is a little crude & definitely not accurate in terms of angles but it enabled me to experience the thrill of actually drawing my own design.

I used a compass & protractor to draw myself a grid on a piece of paper & die-cut a circular shape from some plasticky translucent packing material. Using my grid I pierced holes (large enough to accomodate a pencil point) into the plastic. It's a little unwieldy so I ended up with some pencil indentations when transferring the marks to my tile but I still managed to draw what I considered a workable pattern.

tangles: Box Pleat, Crescent Moon, Frairum

In the next example I transferred the string for Erin's Zendala Dare #28 onto the outline of a tile drawn in my Moleskine Sketchbook & worked on some more new-to-me tangles. 

tangles: Ixorus, Scrolled Feather, Xircus

Challenge Entered

Zendala Dare #28

MCC All About Zentangle - Wk 3 More Colour

Links: MCC (My Creative Classroom), Marie Browning

I was pondering over my unsuccessful hunt for a stamp with a large open flower image when I remembered my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. I found that the largest flower is the perfect size for a Zentangle tile so I've die-cut myself a cardboard template to draw round. It's proved perfect for the rest of my colouring exercises.

Tombow Markers Direct to Paper Watercolouring
tangles: Jetties, Trentwith, Vernazz, W2
complimentary colours on Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper
Sakura Stardust gel pen used for petals & flower-centre outlines plus flower-centre accents

Tombow Glue Pen Resist
tangles: Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Knightsbridge, Tipple
monochromo colours on Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper
Tombow Markers direct to paper watercolouring & Sakura Stardust gel pen for outlines

Black Cardstock
tangle: Tripoli
tangled using Sakura Moonlight gel pens 

Coloured Pens & Coloured Pencils
tangle: Nzepple
monotangle on Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper
coloured Pigma Micron tangles, Sakura Stardust gel pen outlines & Faber-Castell Polychromos shading

As I said (in my previous post) colour introduces a very different aspect into tangling & it's certainly one that I wish to explore further. I'm quite drawn to the idea of monochrome tiles like my final one where shading is carried out using a coloured pencil & a dry paper stump - in fact this is also my tile for the current Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group's Monotangle challenge. 

MCC All About Zentangle - Wk 3 Colour

Links: MCC (My Creative Classroom), Marie Browning

Black & white is the traditional format for a Zentangle tile & I certainly find it to be the format in which tangling can be carried out anywhere with a minimum of supplies. I also found that once colour is introduced the whole process becomes much more involved with the need to think about whether colours work with one another or not. There is also the added complication of whether various media are compatible with each oher - after a couple of tiles with black smudgy messes I discovered that the Letraset Fine Line Drawing Pen (Waterproof Non Fading Pigment Ink) bleeds when used in conjunction with the Tombow Blender Pen whereas the Sakura Pigma Micron (Archival Pigment Ink waterproof & fade proof) does not providing one allows it a few minutes to dry.

The whole ethos of Zentangle is one of lessening stress & I certainly find that there is a terrific freedom in not having to consider colouring aspects. However, the delight I have had in colour ever since I can remember remains unchanged. Understanding different media & colour theory still fascinates me & I've been amazed by the variety of techniques incorporating colour with tangling that Marie introduced us to. 

Tombow Markers Splash Background
tangles: ??, Fescu, Floo, Flux, Fractal Tree, Ixorus (tangleation), Knightsbridge, Warped Eggs
neutral colour scheme on Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper
tangled using Pigma Micron Pens 01 & 05 with White Pentel Hybrid Gel Pen highlights

Tombow Markers Salty Splash Background
tangles: Barberpole, Gust, Tipple
monochrome colours on Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper
tangled using Blue Sakura Moonlight Gel Pen & White Pentel Hybrid Gel Pen

Tombow Markers Indirect Blending
(direct to paper used for central apricot section)
tangles: Astro, Barberpole, Fur Balls, Knightsbridge, Meer, Starbarz
analogous colours on Daler-Rowney Langton 300gsm Hot Pressed Extra Smooth watercolour paper

Impress Technique
tangles: Hollibaugh, Screen, Umble
monochrome colour scheme (Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils) on W H Smith 220gsm White Card