Diva Challenge #231 ~ "Undulations"

This week has been a rather interesting week for us. The wildfires in the Western US have made the outside air almost intolerable to breathe. While there are no fires *yet* here in Utah that I have heard of, the fires in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, as well as California all seem to be blowing their smoke our way and it has been getting stuck in the valley where we live. Even the cats don't seem to want to go outside in this stuff. But the National Weather Service keeps telling us that it should be getting better soon. At least lets hope so. So as a consequence of all this horrible air (I have asthma), I have actually been inside most of the week and getting some things done in the house and garage.....I even managed to throw away some boxes of stuff that I don't need! AND I found some more of my beautiful paper stash. I was a stamper and scrapbooker before I discovered Zentangle and have tons of beautiful paper and art supplies. I am just starting to get back in to experimenting with some of my stuff and hope to post some of my experiments soon.  So I took some of this paper and cut it into tiles of various sizes to tangle on because I love the colors.

After reading the challenge this week on the Diva's blogspot, I was ready! Our guest blogger this week, Sharla Hicks, challenged us to use an old favorite undulating C or S curve tangle and work in a series OR find a new one and begin a new series.  I love all of the undulating curve, but never really worked with them much knowingly. But I just really like to use curvy, organic tangles, so I just chose  to let my pen take me where it would. I have been sketching all week, but I have a couple of tiles that I want to post now. I have several more in various stages of being finished and will post those as I finish them.  So here they are and I hope you like them!

3.5" tile, Micron pen Sepia, Black, white chalk
Inktense pencils

This one is a bit bigger, since I wanted to try working a bit bigger because I really like working with these fluid, undulating tangles. I'm not sure if I like this very well, but it turned out ok.

4" tile, Micron pen black, white chalk, graphite
pencil for shading

I hope you can check out all of the wonderful challenge pieces that have been shown this week and if you want to try one yourself, you can find it all at The Diva's blog for inspiration and beautiful pieces.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to get around to all of the blogs sometime in the next week or so. Have a beautiful day!

Diva Challenge #230 ~ ZenDivaDala (& I'm Late Again)

Yes, it's me and I'm late again as per usual. No excuses, just fingers wouldn't work and then I was having all kinds of problems doing a zendala using a template. Erin Olson of  The Bright Owl  fame has designed a zendala template for us for the challenge this week and provided us with a link to 3 different sizes to print off and play with. Well, I printed off all 3 sizes and decided on the standard tile size thinking that it would be the most comfortable format for me. I honestly did try several times to make something decent with this template, but I wasn't very pleased with either of the ones that I actually finished. But.....I will present them here for your perusal anyway.

This one was my first attempt and I swear that there really were tangles in those spaces that just look like messy lines (oh yes, my hands and fingers were not doing the greatest), but my hubby generously said that he really kinda liked this one. I would love to get him to try some of these because he is a painter of miniature wargaming figures and has probably the steadiest hand I have ever seen. But he really isn't interested :(.  Anyway, here it is.....

Media: 3.5" square paper, Micron Pen Black, and pencil
for shading

I like this second one a bit better, and I think I may actually try again some time in the near future to use a zendala template. My son liked this one much better too. And yes, I always ask them for their opinions since they usually offer me good advice.

Media: 3.5" square, Black and Sepia Micron pens,
Pencil for shading

I can tell I need a lot more practice on using templates.  Here is a zendala that I worked for quite awhile on that was just drawn as I went. I think it probably took me a good 12 hours when all was said and done and I haven't shaded it yet as I was waiting to make copies of it so I could decide whether or not I wanted to color it. I really like the detail in this one and even though it was fussy and meticulous, it was at the same time very relaxing for me to do.

Size:  6 x 6 inches, Micron black pen only

Even though this is not strictly zentangles, it IS a ZIA and I now have ink, so I can make copies and attempt to color it. Wish me luck....LOL

I also have some tiles that I finished up for some of the challenges that I missed, but this post has been going on long enough, I think and I am getting tired. I'll post them next week sometime.

As always, thank you for visiting my blog and any and all comments are always read and very much appreciated. I have been lax, I'm afraid, on getting comments posted on the submissions lately. I have been looking at all of the wonderful work being done and I will try to do better next week on leaving comments. If you want to take a look at all of the submissions to this challenge, just go to the I am the Diva blog (CLICK HERE) and check out all of the artists submissions. Once again, thank you for stopping by!

Diva Challenge # 229 ~ Negative Space (Sandy Hunter)

It's good to be back and able to do a bit of drawing again....feeling much better and learning to take it easy on my hands to be able to do a bit more. This weeks challenge came from 'Guest Diva' Sandy Hunter, CZT, a very accomplished tangler in my opinion. Her challenge was to shift the focus to the negative space in our tile. When I read the challenge, I was watching one of my most favorite operas . . . the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" from the Royal Albert Hall, so of course that influenced my piece.  I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed tangling it. I am planning to do another one, a bit larger to hang in the house because I liked it so well.

"The Phantom"
Media: 3.5" tile, Black and Sepia Micron, Pencil, White
Gelly Roll pen for highlights
Tangles: Putki, Meringue, Abundies, Tipple and
1 or 2 others that I don't recall

I may play with the shading on the negative space as well, but all in all, I quite like this and hope that you are too.  Thanks for checking out my submission this week and as always, any and all comments are welcomed. I have been watching all the submissions over the past few weeks, but haven't been able to leave comments because of very sore hands, but I will try my best to get comments out this week. I'm so glad to be back playing again!

If you want to play too, then check out all the submissions at the Diva's website (click here) and hope to see you all joining us there!