DC#321 ~ Double Dog Dare (Non-Dominant and Auras)

What a challenge!  I feel as though I have really been working this week....I have been practicing with my non-dominant hand all week to get this done for the challenge. Laura Harms aka "The Diva" has asked us to not only use our non-dominant hand (which, in my case, is my left hand), but also to choose tangles which require auras. Even at the best of times,  my auras are rarely evenly done, so I'm not exactly sure which one challenged me more.

Here is my finished tile....I could only work on it for short periods of time because my hand would cramp up so I had to rest it. But I did find that even with the added stress of the auras, I still felt a great deal of relaxation taking my time and just concentrating on the lines I was drawing. . . watching them form from my pen . . . moving over a bit to make another line . . . and watching the shapes form . . . almost hypnotic for me! Then the coloring in of the black portions . . . oh what tiny little strokes I took to make sure that my area was covered . . . going over a line with the blackening process to try to fill in the shakiness of the drawn line . . . and some stippling in a few places. And now, the shading . . . THAT was really hard, not so much getting the graphite down but maneuvering the blending stump to get the graphite where I wanted it. Then the white highlights . . . that seemed to be even more delicate and took me a long time as well. But, in spite of all the time and self talk and hypnotic drawing that I did, I am rather pleased with the way it turned out. Several places didn't quite work the way I had hoped, but it's okay, it looks good . . . enough!

DC #321 ~ Double Dog Dare
Media: 4x4 Strathmore Toned Tile, Black Micron 01,
Creative Memories Fine Black Pen, Graphite,
and White chalk pencil by General
Tangles: Loki, Zinger (of sorts), Arukas, Garlic,
and Crescent Moon

Here are a couple of practice pieces that I was trying to get my hand working so that I could go to a regular size tile . . . not the greatest, but they were intended for practice, so it's okay *big grin*

Thank you for stopping by and as always, I always appreciate comments, be they constructive criticism or any other comments. Please stop the Diva's Place (here) and see what other artists have made of this challenge. Feel free to give it a try if you are so inclined. Hope to see You here one of these days as well, so you can join in on our fun.

Have a zen-ful day!  :)

DC # 301 ~ DuoTangle: Paradox v.Diva Dance

First off, thank you very much for visiting my blog last week and a big thanks to those that left comments. I am not the best person in the world for posting comments, but do try to get around to all of the blogs. I am so inspired by all the artists at the Diva's blog, so I go through all of the blogs a lot. Thank you all for sharing!

I'm SO glad that Artoo had a successful Moebius Syndrome Awareness day and that his school and community are so mindful of the disorder that he has and that he is able to show the world that he is, in fact, perfect just the way he is. What an amazing family that the Diva has!

In the Zentangle Newsletter this week, they had a new video entitled "Kitchen Table Tangles" and Rick and Maria were demonstrating a duo tangle of Paradox and Diva Dance and showing how to intertwine them. The Diva decided that it would be a good challenge for this week and so we were challenged to do just that ... a DuoTangle of Paradox and Diva Dance. I loved that way that Rick had tangled his piece, but intertwining the two tangles just didn't seem to happen for me, but that's okay. I have never been fond of my Diva Dance, but I loved how this tile turned out . . . AND I think that the shading almost shows up nearly as dark as it is in person. Hope you like this and as always, comments and critiques are always welcome.

DC#301 ~ Duotangle: Paradox v. Diva Dance
Tools: Micron 01 Black pen, Graphite pencil for shading

I was going back through my blog and realized that I had not posted some of my challenges, so please indulge me as I post these. This first one is using the new tangle, "DraWings" and I must say that I really love drawing this one. It just seems to flow for me.

This next one is Icanthis. I wasn't sure that I was going to like this one, but I found it fun to work with as well. Here's what I did with it on a recent tile.

Please take some time and check out what the other fabulous artists have been doing with the Diva's challenge here and perhaps you may get inspired to join us in this fun. Thanks for stopping by!