"Bringing it Back to the Old School" Diva Challenge #250

Well, here we are, already more than 2 weeks into the New Year, and I have yet to post anything.  I'm going to try to remedy that today. This week, the Diva (Laura Harms, CZT) has challenged us to do our tangles this week the "old school" way . . . that is, a WHITE 3.5" square tile, black pen, and graphite to shade. Simple and to the point. Well, it would have been simple, except my hands have not been holding my pen all that well for the last little while.  I suspect that's because it's been bitter cold here and my arthritis doesn't like the cold. I have been keeping my rice sock heated up so that I could keep my hands warm. It works pretty good, too!

Anyway, the holidays were good to us and hubby got me a couple of new sketchbooks; one tan tinted pages and the other one for mixed media, so I can try working more with my copics. Son got me a movie and cast iron cookware (the first time in my life that I have used cast iron), and I've got to say that I am really loving the cast iron stuff.

I actually have been doing a bit of sketching as well as doing the challenges when I can. I just haven't posted them all.  But here are a couple for the "Back to Basics challenge:

Tile 1
Tangles used: Aquafleur, Florz, Cadent, Flux, Tipple
Media: 3.5" white tile, black micron 01 pen, graphite pencil

Tile 2
Tangles used: Shattuck, Zinger, Onamato, Fescu, Punzel (?)
Media: 3.5" white tile, black micron pen 01, graphite pencil
Used Lily Moons string 146

I liked them both considering they took so long to do.  I had to keep stopping because my hands hurt, but I really enjoyed doing these. Much more restful than all the things I want to "try". One of these days, I actually will learn to use color effectively, and how to draw a gem, but I thoroughly enjoy just using pen and shading with pencil. Tile 2 could be so much more, especially in my haphazard zingers, but what can I say? They are there and I may redo this one one day.

But in the meantime, just enjoy all the beautiful work that has been posted on the Diva's challenge and perhaps try one of your own one day. Check out all the others here at the Diva's blog.

I always love comments, as does everyone here, so feel free to leave comments and I'm going to head on over to the Diva's place to leave comments. I've pretty much looked at them all, but haven't left comments yet.  Have a wonderful, Zen-ful day!