Diva Challenge #186 - Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

The leaves I have chosen for this challenge are very special to me.  They are from an indoor Ficus tree and my long suffering Philodendron plant. Both came from the love of my life and I have managed to keep them alive since he died. I normally manage to kill most plants I try to grow so I was amazed that these have survived 2 moves and almost 6 years now. I was going to head up to the mountains to take some pictures and gather a few leaves, but unfortunately I have been under the weather. So I used these two. I was just getting the feel of tangling them when my pen apparently took over and finished for me. It took me a luxurious complete day to do this one in my sketchbook, so it's not on a tile until I start it again. But my son agreed with me that I should just submit this one and I do kind of like it, so here are my leaves!

Not the best picture, but I quite like the work this time!

As always, comments (good and bad) are appreciated.  I'm off now to check out the other offering's at the Diva's place (here)

Diva Challenge #185 ~ Duotangle - Phycops and Diva Dance

First off, I want to thank all of you who commented last week on my submissions. I appreciate all the comments.

Well, it's been an interesting week here, we seem to have some rather agressive fish in our tank that have been eating my favorites :(.  But one of the new ones is doing great and I hope he survives...a very pretty Angel Fish. I don't know the actual names of them, because they are hubby's domain.  Then son decided to fall and hurt his back and hip when he slipped and hit his head on the tub. He's been pretty much in pain for a few days. But my biggest challenge this week was actually getting anything I like out of this duotangle. While I absolutely LOVE Phycops and all that you can do with it, I have never done Diva Dance before and I am just not real thrilled with anything I did. I probably filled a dozen pages trying to get something I actually liked, but in the end, just decided to post these two.  My son suggested that maybe I was having problems is that the parameters of using just two tangles may be inhibiting me. I think it is just that I am still trying to find my style of tangling. But that's why I try these tangles....to challenge myself. So without further comment, here they are!

The first one I sort of liked...my son thought it was my best

I actually liked this one better, in spite of all the mistakes.

So here are my humble offerings this week and I am still going to attempt them some more.  If you would like to see the other submissions for this week, head on over to the Diva's place to see what everyone has done.

Diva Challenge #184 - Just play-ING around!

It's been a long week with a few challenges on the home front, but getting better. I am sorry that I am so late getting this up this week, but while I absolutely LOVE this tangle, finding things to go with it proved to be quite a challenge for me. I probably filled a half dozen pages in my sketch book, just playing with the steps in ING (which I must say is really quite fun!), and trying how to best use it.  The very first thing I saw when I did ING was the Olympic Cauldron here in Salt Lake for the 2002 Winter Olympics, as well as the Hoberman Arch details. So I played around with that idea for a bit and came up with this tile to remind me of the great time we had here during the Olympics. Not my best work, but it was a lot of fun even though it didn't quite come out the way I had intended.

Olympic Cauldron in SLC - Color actually looks better in person

Tile #2 using ING, don't know the other tangles because the pen took over

The I tried a not quite so straight ING and I love the flow-ING lines here. I may have to copy this one and try it with some color

Tile #3 - Just let my pen take over on this one ... LOL

This last one is probably my favorite because I just let it free flow and anded up making lots of mistakes, but tried to cover them and make them into something else.  Hope you enjoy my offerings this week!  And don't forget to check out all the other on the Diva's blog

Diva Challenge #183 (X-did) .... Almost didn't *giggle*

This week has been a bit hectic with out anniversary and all and my dad's birthday (and yet again, I ask myself why I wanted to get married on his birthday....oh yeah, it was so I wouldn't forget my anniversary!) But anyway, it's been 32 years for us now as man and wife with lots of ups and downs, but we have stayed the course *grin*  Hubby doesn't get my Zentangle hobby because he is an art purist who also loves classical music and paints miniature figures. But he strives for realism and doesn't get anything abstract. So when I ask him what he thinks about my ZIA, he just says "....interesting....". At least my son is of a more artistic and creative bent, so he gives me some wonderful criticism. Although I majored in graphic design in college, I never did anything with it, so needless to say I was thrilled when I stumbled on Zentangle in June of this year. I'm trying to keep up with the challenges and have been going through the old challenges to try some of them.

This particular tangle (X-did) gave me fits because I could see in my minds eye what I wanted to do with it and for some reason it wouldn't translate to my hands. I am a big fan of Art Deco and Art Nouveau, so that's more or less how I saw it.  Although I was very hesitant to put my first attempts on here, I saw that others were doing that, so (deep breath) here goes!

ZIA Tile #1 is done on some chocolate brown paper I had laying around and I decided to try it with the white pen. Not my favorite and I have absolutely no idea why i decided on putting the purple in *shrug*

ZIA Tile #2 is mostly along the same lines, but the pattern for the X-did got so small it is barely discernable

But with ZIA Tile #3, I think I got the look I was looking for. This is also the first time I have actually used a Zentangle Tile and I actually may have to break down and buy some to work on. The paper is fabulous and I'm afraid that I am a paper junkie.....have been all my life, I'm afraid *grin*

Well, that it for this challenge, but I want you to know that I worked on finally getting this pattern right in my sketchpad almost constantly since the challenge was posted.  Thank you all for your comments on my other submissions....it always helps to have feedback, good or bad, to help one improve.  Thanks again!