Diva Challenge #210~Spiralstring - That's the Thing!

Once again, thank you for your comments, it is much appreciated.

Sketchbook Spiralstring
Tangles: Flux, Printemps, Tipple, Bunzo, Cruffle, Fescu

Our Diva challenge this week was to use a spiral for our string and tangle away! I never realized just how difficult that would be; it's very definitely a challenge. I wasn't at all sure how to go about it, so I did this first one in one of my sketchbooks to see if I actually could do a spiral string. It's not too bad, but I could see where some changes needed to be made, and I decided to post my first one.

Challenge #210 ~Spiralstring
Media: Micron Pens - Black, Brown, Sepia, Pencil, and Dove Blender
Tangles Used: Flux, Printemps, Cruffle, Fescu

I liked the way this looked, but I really wanted it on a normal tile, so here is my official offering. I do like the way it turned out. Unfortunately, there is also a kitty hair or two on here too...lol. They manage to get into everything! But I love them anyway....

Diva Challenge #210~Spiralstring
Media: Tile, Black Micron Pen, Pencil, Green Watercolor Pencil
Monotangle: Amphora

This one was a practice of Amphora, which is a new to me tangle and I thought it might look good as a spiral...what do you think?

So my blog entry is short and sweet tonight, but late as usual. I really am going to have to get my pictures taken earlier so I can get my post up sooner.  But I always seem to manage to get them up on Friday or Saturday. *shrug* Go figure...lol.

Well, I hope to go check out a few more of the challenge pieces...I cheated this week and looked at a lot of them before I got mine posted. And checked out some of the previous year's entries as well. There is just so much talent out there. If you want to check out some of the beautiful work done for this challenge, head on over to the Diva's place (CLICK HERE) and if you are so inclined, come and play with us and show yours off too.  As always, comments are highly appreciated. Thank you for looking.

Diva Challenge #209 ~ Green it Up!

Well, here it is almost the end of the week ... again. I really have had this done for a couple of days, but was running here and there and when I had time to take pictures, it was after dark and the pictures really don't come out well, so I managed to take pictures this morning BEFORE I started wandering thither and yon.  Anyway, this week's challenge at the DIVA'S PLACE was to green it up for both Spring being on it's way and of course, St. Patty's Day. I only managed to do one green piece this week, but it was kind of a busy one and my hands weren't working for a couple of them too, so I basically took it easy.

 But first, I want to introduce you to our oldest kitty, Mistoffellees, but we call him Puppy Cat usually.  He turned 15 on Sunday and he is a pretty special old boy. We got him at about 6 months of age, back in October of 2000 because the people that had him had just had a baby and the baby was terribly allergic to the cat. That's what his name was....Cat. Anyway, I brought him home and we named him after Magical Mister Mistoffellees from the musical "Cats", because it just seemed to fit. He got the name Puppy Cat because he is really a big cat, at his highest weight, he was about 20 pounds, but his tail is about the size around of a lab's tail. And he is polydactal on ALL of his paws. All in all, he has 24 toes and 25 claws. When I watch him now, I often wonder at how much it must have hurt him to walk, because some of his toes are bent under under his regular ones.  Anyway, here's to my Puppy Cat...Happy Birthday Mistoffellees!

This is Puppy Cat posing happily on his birthday  for me.  I love his "eyeliner" around his eyes. This boy is a beautiful tuxedo kitty 

Here's a closeup of one of his front paws showing his multitude of toes and claws. He is such a sweetie! 

But that was at the first of the week, and I was playing with a bit of tangling, so here's a couple I finished before I went to work on the challenge.

 I had actually finished this tile mostly at our local group meeting of the Intermountain Tanglers, which David Hunter and Heidi Sue started here in the Salt Lake area. One of our members had brought some hand dyed paper tiles for us to play with and I had never done the tangle Niuroda before, so I played with it at our meeting. David scanned the tile but it looked differently than this on our group website. I brought it home and decided that it wasn't finished, so I added a bit to it and now I DO consider it done. It reminds me of a jellyfish but now I really do like the tangle. I'll have to play more.






I decided that I should get used to using strings because I very rarely use them and chose one to play with. I like the way it turned out and so I shaded it. But when I got finished shading it, I didn't like the effect, so I had just found my Dove Blender that I used to use with my colored pencils with my rubber stamping and used it over the pencil shading and loved the way it smoothed out the shading. What do you think?

Going Green
Media:  3.5" x 3.5" tile, Black Micron 01, Various Green Derwent
Watercolor Pencils, and Water, Gold Pitt Pen
Tangles: Shattuck, Hybred, Mooka, Wud, Sh'rock

..... and Finally...here is my challenge piece for this week. I am guessing that my wee little lephrecaun lost his hat in the Sh'rocks and Mookas, and must have turned a couple of the rocks into gold.  If you hurry, maybe you will find them before he comes back to collect them!  Happy tangling all!




And it you want to see all the rest of the challenge pieces for this week, just head to the Diva's blog (click here) and see what everyone had to offer. Would love to hear comments, as always, since feedback is always good and helps me grow!

Diva Challenge #208 ~ Cubine vs. Pokeroot

Interesting challenge this week from the Diva...we were to do a duotangle (term coined by the Diva meaning using two and two ONLY patterns in a piece) using Cubine and Pokeroot, both of which are official Zentangle tangle patterns. I have only dabbled with either one of them, just getting the mechanics of each down, but not really using them in anything, so this was very challenging. I actually played with this one more in my mind than on paper before I actually sat down and did anything. And...(I don't know if I should admit this or not), I actually looked at what others had done before I took a picture of mine, but in actuality mine was finished before I walked through all the blogs *grin*

Anyway, I had fun with this one and when I showed it to my son (as I always like to show him before I post it), he mentioned that it looked like something from "The Secret City". Now the Secret City was a fun show on TV that we watched when he was younger that taught kids to draw in cartoon fashion. Whereas I used to watch Walter Lanz and John Gnagy (I know, I am dating myself horribly if anyone even remembers these names), and they tried to teach realistic drawing, the Secret City was hosted by Mark Kissler and he has a playful, cartoony style that we both loved. As I looked at it, I could see where he would think that. But if you have ever seen Secret City, you might agree...I know I could see it.  Here it is...

Pokeroot Invasion
Media:  3.5" x 3.5" tile, Micron 01, pencil and tortillon
Tangles:  Cubine and Pokeroot

Margaret Bremner's Cubine tutorial was invaluable to me to come up with this as I could easily visualize it as an otherwordly piece, so make sure you notice the "stars" that you can see through the cubine windows. I hope all the little Pokeroots make themselves comfortable here... lol.

As always, thank you for looking at my effort and any feedback is always welcome.  Thank you for your comments, good, bad, or indifferent...they are ALL appreciated.  If you would like to see some more challenge pieces, check out the DIVA'S PAGE and if you are so inspired, come join the fun. We are a great group and love to see new ideas. See you soon!

Diva Challenge #207 ~ UMT (Umbatz)

Another full week and another challenge from the Diva. Since it is the first week of the month, she has chosen a tangle from those submitted to her. This month our UMT is Umbatz by Sandy Hunter. This is a fun tangle that I could probably draw forever since it has so many possibilities. I have pages and pages of variations that I played with and even came up with a tile that I like...lol. For now though, I will just jump in and post my efforts. Hope you enjoy!

These are just a few of the samples that I came up with. There was just so much that you can do with this fun little tangle! I think it will become one of my favorites very quickly. My only problem was finding what to go along side of it.

As you can see, I was playing with various tangles to go with it, but it was evading me with a vengeance! I couldn't decide if I needed to do straight lines or what, but I finally came up with one....

Diva Challenge #207
Media: 3.5" x 3.5" tile, Micron Pen 01, Pencil and Stomp
Tangles: Umbatz, Hollibaugh, Flux,  Tipple, and a few
floating pearls

This is the one I chose to complete and submit for the challenge this week. I found that I absolutely zenned out doing this one, and it surprised me because it really wasn't that complicated...it was just a simple little design. Goes to show you, that you never know what will really relax you in the end, so you just gotta keep trying!








I've also started to make a few smaller sized tiles to start leaving around for RAZ (Random Acts of Zentangle) and here are my first two:

This one is done on watercolor paper 2.5" x 3.5" using black Micron 01, pencil to shade with, white colored pencil over shading and white Gelly Roll for highlights. Tangles are Narwal, Bunzo, Mssst, Hibred (sp?) I think, and some stippled shadowing. I still haven't decided what I will put on the back, but at least I have it done and ready to place.

This is another RAZ on 2.5" x 3.5" cold press board using black Micron 01 and pencil and stomp only. Not sure about these tangles either, since I just let my pen do it's thing, but I see a bit of Diva Dance, Hollibaugh, Betweed, Tipple, and I'm afraid I can't remember what the circle ones are called.  I really DON'T like getting old...lol.




But anyway, I realize it's late in the week to get these in, but at least I have them and I do enjoy participating in these challenges. They force me out of my box and get me going!  If you want to see all the other posts to this challenge, please stop by at the DIVA's CHALLENGE here  and join in the fun!  Thank you for stopping my to take a look at my efforts this week and if you can, please leave a comment ... I love to read all your comments!  Thank you for all your wonderful comments last week and hope to see yours on the challenge too!