Duotangle~ Auraknot vs. Meer and Weekly Tangles

Well, Friday night here and I actually have tiles to post this week! This weeks challenge was a duotangle using Auraknot and Meer, both of which I really enjoy since they are so relaxing to me to do!  I have actually had them completed since Wednesday night but have just been too tired and lazy to get the camera out.

I decided against scanning because I haven't been liking the way the scanner washes out the shading and I think the camera shows it up much better. So without further adieu, here are my efforts....

 I did a few Duotangles, rather, started a few Duotangles, but finally ended up finishing this one and I am rather pleased with how it turned out. It was very relaxing to do and seemed to just flow from my pen without any help from me. The second picture is kind of blurry, but I loved the depth it showed, so included it anyway!

 I didn't get a tile posted for Daniel's great UMT, so I decided that I would post a couple that I completed. I love Knightstar, probably because it was easy for me to get into the rhythm of it as soon as I figured out how to not do it backwards.  Again, I photographed it at an angle to show the depth that it has.

 And this one is a WIP, I suppose because it doesn't look finished to me. I definitely need to do something with it, but I wanted to see how Knightstar would look in color.  I probably should have finished it before I colored it, but I had a new blending tool that I wanted to use with my Prismacolors, so now I just have to see what else I can do with it.

So there you have it, some of the things I have been busy with in the last couple of weeks. If you have any suggestions on what to do with that last one, please don't hesitate to leave comments for me. I can use all the help I can get!

Once again, thank you for visiting and as always, I appreciate each and every comment that you leave here. I don't always reply, but I do always read them. There are many other artists that are showing their work and have posted links at the Diva's place (Click here) , so do yourself a favor and check out all the wonderful work being done by artists all over the world. Maybe you will try your hand at Zentangle too...it's fun and relaxing!

Have a zen-ful day!

Circular World ~Diva #277

So.....I haven't been here for a couple of weeks due to my computer dying, but my darling son and husband bought me a new laptop that exceeds all my wildest dreams. It's a top gaming computer and breezes through the internet so fast that sometimes I can barely catch my breath...lol. But now I can hopefully get a few things posted.

It's been a very HOT couple of weeks here in Utah. I guess that Mother Nature needs to remind us that we DO live on a desert and that's how it's supposed to be in the summer. But in the last couple of weeks, we have only had a handful of days below 100 degrees F here. So I have spend my time indoors and have been tangling and playing with new techniques...it's been fun, but as I look at my meager output, I wonder why I don't have more to post. Could be that I am a blasted perfectionist. I had 3 or 4 great ideas for the Peace challenge, but seems I couldn't even get one finished. I'll just keep them in my "to be finished sometime" box.

Tangles used: Onamato (variation), Copada (I think),
Hibred, Arukas, Tipple, and a couple I don't know if they
are actually tangles.

But this week, the Diva (Laura Harms) is back home and has challenged us to "Go Round in Circles", with a circular inspired string or circle tangles. I really enjoyed this challenge, because I LOVE circles and I love circular tangles. Just something soothing in drawing orbs, maybe because they are infinite...no beginning and no end, just smooth infinity. Anyway, here is mine for this week. I wasn't able to do any editing on this so that the shading actually shows, but it really does and is actually beautifully shaded. My hubby loves it (which is  unusual) and suggested that it cried out for brilliant colour, and not pastel, wimpy colours. What do you think?

Tangles used:  Leaflet, Cat-Kin, St John's Cross, and Zen Bud

I also did an It's a String Thing challenge by Adele Bruno, but didn't finish it in time to submit it, I plan on using this one for a card front. I like this one too, but again, the shading doesn't show up well. I've got to find a way to load my Photoshop program onto this computer ... it doesn't have a drive for me to load from, so I guess I need to get a high capacity USB memory stick to load it.

Tangles used: Static, Tipple, and Crescent Moon

My birthday was earlier this month and I bought myself something that I have been debating on getting for a long time ... the book "One Zentangle A Day" by Beckah Krahula. I have started working in it, but I am not likely to do it daily like is outlined. I will do it in order, it's just that I like to take longer. At our last tangle get-together here in Salt Lake with the Intermountain Tanglers, we were talking about how our attention gets diverted, something that my family and I call "Bright and Shiny Syndrome". You know, you're in the middle of finishing or doing something, and something else catches you eye, so you stop what you are doing and do something else. Well, that pretty much sums up my life, so it kind of takes me forever to get things done, and that related to everything, even my tangling! But I did finish the first day and actually quite liked the result, so here is is without further ado...

So there you have it, my small submission for this weeks challenge and a few more goodies.

Thanks for stopping by and if you have the chance to see what all of the other artists have submitted, head over the the Diva's blog  and check them out. As always, I appreciate comments and helpful critique on my work. Thank you again for stopping by!

Have a zen-ful day!

Diva Challenge 273 ~ Tangle Remix and Playing Catch-up

Would you believe it? It's only Thursday and I am actually posting today  instead of Sunday night! It's been a pretty good week for me and I have a huge stack of tiles that need help badly. Our challenge this week was to take an old tile that we had in our stash and find one that could be helped by a remix or fresh coat of ink. I picked 2 and sadly, only 1 of them actually looks better. So I think I will show you that one first *giggle* I hate to show my worst work first....

So here it is initially....minimal shading and pretty much just Plain Jane. I suspect this was one for a stripes challenge and was done either in late 2014 or early 2015. When I looked at it, I felt it could be helped by a bit of a facelift (I could use one too, but that isn't quite so easy as it is to change artwork). So here is the modification that I did on it - mostly shading and just a few additions.

I really like this one much better, even if it doesn't show the shading as well as it looks in person. Sometimes I think that I prefer taking pictures to scanning, but at least they are getting finished by using the scanner.










This second one was done in July 2015 for a Simplicity challenge for the Diva. I really thought that I could help it out by adding to it, since it looked rather empty to me. I love simplicity, but sometimes even the simplest ones could use a bit more. So here is the original tile from 2015...

Just a bit too bland for me and I don't think I liked it even then. The shading on it is really that poorly done, so I thought I would dress it up and shade it a bit more. But I think I just made a mess of it. I may try to redo it again one day, but you can make up your mind.





Here's the remix, such as it is....

It really didn't turn out anything like I pictured. Oh well, sometimes I like them and sometimes I don't.















I missed the Black and White and Red all over challenge and I did a few of them, but this was the first one that I did and I did it in my sketchbook. I really wish I had done it on a tile as I really like it. But I am going to try it again on the front of a card and see if I can get it the way I like. There are several people that I really need to write to, and it's so much easier to send a card than to find my stationary again.

Thank you very much for stopping by. I always appreciate seeing some traffic here. As usual, I appreciate ALL comments, good or bad, and any creative criticism is appreciated. I have learned so much from this group and am so glad that I have joined in these challenges.

Now I can go back and see everything that everyone else has submitted, since there are so many talented artists here. If you would like to see what everyone else has done, please head over to the Diva's blog (HERE) and check it out. There's always time for you to start joining us. Come try it....it's fun!

Beads of Courage - Diva Challenge #271

Here we are again....late as ever, but at least I am actually posting this week. I can't believe that it has been what, 3 weeks since I posted? I don't know where the time goes; one would think that since I am retired, I would have more time to play, but it just doesn't work out that way. But, at least I am here for this challenge.

I have, over the past couple of years, made ZIA's for Laura's Beads of Courage challenges, but have never posted them. I asked myself this year, what's wrong with me that I don't get things posted? Since I couldn't answer that with any kind of an answer that actually sounded plausible, here I am.

This week, we have been asked to use the Beads of Courage program as inspiration for our challenge. Beads of Courage is an arts in medicine program to help sick kids deal with their chronic or life threatening illnesses and be able to better share their medical journeys. Whenever these children have a medical related procedure or appointment, they are given ceramic beads rather than lollipops so that they can document their specific challenges. It sounds like a wonderful program to help these kids be mindful of just what they have overcome in their lives.

I chose to use a stamping technique for my background for my bead tile. This is called "Bokeh" technique and gives a soft muted background with flashes of bright white reminiscent of photographic lights. Anyway, I like the way this background looks and you can Google bokeh technique to find out how to do it.  Without further adieu then, here is my tile for Beads of Courage.

I also have some older challenges that I have finished and would like to share with you. Up next is my take (after tons of tries to get it right) on Skye. I love the way this tangle looks and am going to try to include it as I get a bit more proficient.

And since I missed posting my Ellish tile, I have GOT to post that one. Of COURSE, I love it, after all, it resembles my initial "L" and makes a beautiful monogram!

For our local Tangle group, we have just started with monthly challenges, and the challenge for our last meeting was a monotangle of our choosing. I have been playing with Aquafleur lately and trying to get it right (finally), so here is my Aquafleur monotangle.

For any tanglers or tangler wannabee's, our local group meets on the second Sunday of each month (unless notified). We have a very nice group, which is headed by Dave Hunter and Heidi Sue. Check out the Tanglers blog HERE to see what we do.

Also, for those of you new to this blog or to Zentangle, check out all of the artists that have submitted their artwork for this challenge. The Diva posts a new challenge each week and they are a lot of fun. There is always so much diversity and inspiration in the work we see.  Check out the Diva's Challenge HERE. Feel free to come join in the fun any time you like.

As always, I am thrilled that you have chosen to visit my blog and always appreciate any and all comments. They make me happy. Have a great zen-ful day!

Diva Challenge # 268 ~ "Bit-o-black"

Just a short entry tonight because we've all been a bit under the weather here. I loved this challenge, but since I tend to use quite a bit of black anyway, I was hard pressed to know what to do. So I decided to try to play a bit with a Mooka monotangle and darken the spaces. Also, I tried to draw it a bit closer to the way the stepouts indicate, even though I tend to normally do mine a LOT different.  Anyway, here's my entry for this weeks challenge....hope you  like it :)

I did this in black ink on a Strathmore toned tan 4" tile and used graphite to shade with with accents and a few highlights with a white chalk pencil. Not quite what I had in mind, but still nicely dramatic, which fit with what I had wanted.

Thank you for stopping by and, as always, CC are always appreciated. If you want to see what the other artists submitted for this challenge, please check out the Diva's blog (click here) and see what everyone has done for the challenge.

Have a zen-ful day!

Challenge # 267 ~ Drupe / Pokeroot

I'm behind again and here it is Saturday (but hey, at least it isn't quite Sunday yet). I got my challenge tile done last week, but for some reason, I just was exhausted and didn't get my blog written. I think it must be something going around, because both of my sisters have called this week and we are ALL exhausted with no discernable reason, except perhaps allergies. My younger sister and I are both allergic to cats and she has 2 and I have 3. Can't seem to give up the fur babies and don't want to even try! But my older sister and I figure that it's just because we are getting old....her birthday was last week and she was 70 and I will be 64 in July and we both have physical problems, so I  guess we can blame it on that *giggle*   Ah well, I guess I will just take responsibility and say it was just tired and just flat didn't get it done.

But now that's out of the way, this weeks challenge was to make a duo-tangle using  Drupe and Pokeroot. I have seen these both many times, but in actuality I have never tried either one of them that I recall. I think that somewhere along the line, I probably tried to draw them without knowing what they were, but I just really don't recall using them.  After practicing them both for a bit...I decided that I could actually use them, but trying to get them to play nice was a bit difficult. I have several half done tiles and attempts, but I finally got one done. It took me all week though, I'm afraid because the weather this last week has been making a mess of my arthritic hands and I just couldn't hold the pen well. But here is my attempt:

After I  finished the penwork, I decided I would like it better with color and after I made my Pokeroot into some weird color (Prismacolor PC937~Tuscan Red) of cherries, my son suggested that I put yellow with it (I usually listen to him as he has a great eye for color...he gets that ability from his dad). I didn't have a yellow that I liked, so I used one of my orange colored pencils (Prismacolor PC1003~Spanish Orange) and liked the way it turned out. So I guess it was worth all the time it took for me to finish it *smile*

As I mentioned above, I actually DID do challenge #266 ~ UMT Crux. I rather like the way it turned out too and I actually did scan the penwork just in case I didn't like the colors I had chosen. So I have my penwork for this one before shading and color. I need to get into the habit of taking pictures before I do any shading or coloring to see where my linework can use improvement. So here is the basic linework for Challenge 266 ~ Crux

Nothing fancy here, just pretty much just Crux and some Flux with Springkle and a bit of Tipple.

Here's the same picture now after I colored it and did a bit of shading. Hope you like it!

I signed this one different than the normal signature I use, but I didn't really like it, so I guess I will keep trying different ones out until I am thrilled with one.  Anyway, that is my meager offerings for this week.

If you haven't seen all of the artists that have submitted their tiles for the Diva's challenge, please head on over to her site and check out the submissions there for this challenge. Scroll through and take a look of some of the fabulous artists that show their work each week and if you would like to join us, please do. It's a great learning opportunity each week. You can find the Diva's site here (click here), so come and play along and find your Zen!

Any and all comments are appreciated, good or bad, and helpful criticism is always appreciated. Thank you for stopping by!

Diva Challenge #265 ~ Stripes

Here we are at the end of the challenge week and although I was very busy this week, I only have one tile to share with you. We had family get togethers this week and it was great to see some of the family that I haven't seen in awhile. My cousin and his wife had spent the last 3 or 4 years over in Russia as missionaries and had a lot of wonderful stories to tell as well as some of the strife the Russian people had suffered over the years. It was fascinating to hear the stories they told, and sad to hear of the trouble and fear that went along with living in a country that doesn't want you there. Evidently where they were was very close to Ukraine and they were very fearful on several occasions and taken by the KGB on several occasions for questioning. But now they are safe and sound and we are glad they are home.

I have worked on a couple of Zentangles and did finish my stripes tile for submission. I was going through some of my older work and found a few that I am going to try and finish up in the next few weeks and so will get them  posted when I get them done. So here for your perusal is my tile for this week:

I chose to go minimal on this because of the tangles I wanted to use. I don't actually remember the names of them, but I like the way they look together on here. As always, comments good or bad are always welcome.

If you would like to see what the other artists have shared this week, head on over to the Diva's blog (click here) and see what everyone has shared. There are some beautiful pieces there this week, as always.

Thank you very much for stopping by and have a zen-tastic day!