Watercolour and owl

Today, my mom brought me a bunch of beautiful watercolour supplies from her stock. She was showing me how to use them, and I did this quick bales with tipple using watercolour pencils. My mom has such as huge influence on me. She has taught several watercolour courses. Having her "on demand" really influences which mediums I choose to explore.

This owl was a bit unexpected - he jumped out of my pen! I just love owls and would like to get a tattoo of an own on my right thigh. I drew him using instructions found at Art Is Fun. I just found this site and am looking forward to the watercolour abstract and mixed media tutorials. 

Diva Challenge #133 - Tipple

This week the Diva challenged us to use tipple in our work. I loved this challenge and had a burst of creativity because this was such a simple challenge. I was excited to be able to focus on other features than learning the tangle and figuring out how to incorporate it. As you can see, I produced a number of tiles where I was able to try different colours, shapes, and paper. I'm working on stepping outside the box, so to speak. Rick and Maria always have these nifty tiles where they've only filled one corner and go right to the edge of the tile. I was chatting with Lisa Heron of The Zenned Pen, my CZT, at her class last Sunday about wanting to try that, so I used this opportunity to try that out.

Tipple is one of my favourite patterns and shows up in a lot of my tiles. I loved having it play the leading lady in these tiles rather than a supporting character. Further, the simplicity of the pattern I was using made it possible for me to relax and try these other things.

I also enjoyed such a simple and peaceful challenge because I've been feeling really stressed about my son's starting daycare next week. He's only 10 months old, and I'm so sad that I can't stay home with him longer. He's changing so fast, and I'm never going to have the opportunity to spend time with him the way I have over the past 10 months. He's just so little and he needs me! But he needs me to work too because that's what best for our family. The stress from his starting daycare has led to my chewing the skin off the side of my thumb and gaining five pounds. Thank god for tipple.

The first two tiles in this post are my submissions for the challenge, although I created three additional tiles (also included below). I think I'm done doing tipple tiles this week, but a few more may show up. I really wanted to do one with watercolour. I've never used watercolour in Zentangle, but my mom just passed some watercolour pencils down me that I'm dying to try.

Diva Challenge #133 - First submission - This is my second ever white-on-black tile. I used white charcoal (you know how I love charcoal) and my brand new beautiful Zenstone. This is mine and my husband's favourite. It's classic and simple.

Diva Challenge #133 - Second submission - I think blue is one of my favourite colours. I find it completely soothing. It probably captures my predaycare mood perfectly while also soothing my frayed nerves. Blue doesn't try to cheer me up. It just soothes. 

Additional Tipple #1 - This is on a Zendala tile, and I used twenty different colours pencil crayons.

Additional Tipple #2 - I used three different metallic Sharpies (gold, silver, copper) to add colour.

Additional Tipple #3 - I used selected pencil crayon colours for shading. This one makes me think of a diagram of a molecule.

Past work

I drew these in 1999 before the creation of Zentangle. I see a lot more creativity in my past work than  in my current work. I threw out most of my work from then. I was going to throw these put too but my husband wouldn't let me.

These are drawn on regular white paper with pilot pens.

This one has a diameter of 18 inches:

This one is 18 inches in length. I used to dislike its simplicity but now like it. 

This one is 1 meter long. 

Quandary monotangle

I didn't expect this to be a monotangle, but it became one. This is a new favourite pattern of mine.

Zentangle tile

This is the first Zentangle tile I've done just for me in awhile. It was refreshing not to feel pressure and to just let my creativity flow. I was inspired by Annemarie's tangle string blog where she outlines the string using white space. I like the effect. I'm feeling much more confident in my shading thanks to lots of work and help from my mom, who paints watercolor. She always has good insight into shadow.

Diva Weekly Challenge #132 - Non Dominant Hand Challenge

The Diva's challenge this week was to draw a non-domonotangle (monotangle using my non-dominant hand) using the pattern Bales. I wasn't sure if I was going to do this challenge. Everyone seems to have found it difficult but rewarding. My favourite way to relax right now is to have a hot bath and read Zentangle blogs on my iPad. I was looking at everyone's submissions and was laughing at how everyone was saying the same thing over and over. Specifically, people were saying they didn't want to do this challenge, their hand cramped, they didn't blink, they were forced to be more mindful, etc. Reading these responses made me really want to do the challenge, so here it is.

I actually like it a lot. Some of the things I like are a result of my losing control of my hand, like the two little rogue lines protruding up from each side of the design. My husband, Nick, said using the non-dominant hand seems to have added something different to it, but it's not necessarily bad. I found it funny that when I stopped working on the tile last night I continued to do things unknowingly with my left hand. It forced me to slow down because I was less efficient, which I liked. I was definitely more creative when working with my left hand. Specifically, I came up with variation ideas, which I'm not usually good at.

Today is my nine year wedding anniversary with my fabulous husband, Nick. We had some champagne to celebrate, and now I'm ready for bed because I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol. While pondering our anniversary and the time we've spent together, we were looking at our 10 month old son, Sam, wondering what we were wasting our years together doing considering we could have had him and been enjoying him so much sooner. We weren't ready though, but we are just so blessed!

Speaking of blessings, I had the most delightful phone call today. My friend Eric phoned me from Australia to ask me if he can use my most recent Zendala dare submission as a template for a tattoo on his upper arm. I am deeply flattered and gave him permission to use it, asking him to send me a picture and the name of the tattoo artist so that I can share it on my blog. I'm not sure if he'll end up using it, but I certainly hope so! 

It's funny that I heard from Eric on my wedding anniversary of all days since Eric and I were engaged to be married when we were three years old. Things didn't work out though, and I moved on to another guy when I was five.

Diva Challenge #131

This week The Diva challenged us to create a monotangle using Dex. I've never done a monotangle before, and they're harder than they seem. I was in Winnipeg with my son, staying with a friend, and was feeling very relaxed and nostalgic. This mood came out as I worked: I didn't think too much and just drew. It was really peaceful. It's good for me to be less precise, more relaxed. I don't like the final piece because it feels thrown together. However, my husband encouraged me to spots it anyway. I'm liking it more over time, although not very much today. It comes and goes.

Bright Owl Zendala Dare #70

This is my first Zendala dare. I used charcoal for shading. I drew the template by freehand so it's not entirely symmetrical. Black shading at the border is added digitally. 

Diva Challenge #130 - 2nd submission

The Diva allows you to submit two pieces to her weekly challenge, so here's my second submission using Henna Drum.

I'm getting ready to try my first Zendala. I think I'll start with Zendala Dare #68 by Bright Owl. You can see my mind is in a Zendala state for this tile, particularly the Jekyl/Hyde dare issued by Bright Owl because I created two sides to the image using colour.

After creating the string and adding henna drum, I scanned the Tanglepatterns.com Tangle Guide 2013 for inspiration, resulting in my using beadlines and bubbles. I didn't mean for beadlines to make the loops look like leaves, but that seems to be the outcome.

I felt like something was still missing, so I went to my trusty tangle box and pulled out a free form tangle, resulting in my adding ahh. This is my second time using the tangle box, and it has worked perfectly both times. Love it!

You can tell I'm hooked on colour now. I used pencil crayons for this and my previous tangle using henna drum.

I regret adding the HB pencil shading around ahh. I think if I did this again, I would have either left this shading out or used purple instead.

Diva Challenge #130, an Original Zentangle by Meghan Woods, August 10 2013

Diva Challenge #128

This challenge was to rubber band two pencils together to make the string. It was my first ever challenge I completed. I didn't feel comfortable sharing it until now.

Diva Challenge #130: Leaving the comfort zone

This week's challenge from The Diva was a Use My Tangle (UMT) challenge where she randomly selected a pattern created and submitted by a follower. This week's UMT was "Henna Drum" created by Jane MacKugler, CZT.

I knew right away how I wanted to use Henna Drum, and then I used my newly created "tangle box" (formerly "tangle jar" as invented by Sandy Hunter, CZT) to add a feature based on random selection. I was annoyed that I drew "shade with red." I've never used colour in my tangles before and didn't feel ready to start. The outcome demonstrates the beauty of the tangle box, which forces me to try new things. I'm really delighted with the result! 

I particularly enjoyed this challenge because the assigned pattern was not a rigid, grid based, structured pattern, which I typically find easier to use. I love the look of free form random tangles, but I never quite know how to make them fit. (They don't have to fit but I tend to prefer that they do). I really love the Zentangle that I ended up with and have already started using Henna Drum in a larger piece! 

I could dub this challenge "leaving the comfort zone" because I did two new things that I have been avoiding. I imagine I'm not the first person completing challenges to feel this way :D

Meanwhile, my shading of Bunzo never works out how I planned. Maybe I need to make the pattern bigger for the shading to work. 

The Diva Challenge #130, An Original Zentangle by Meghan Woods, August 9, 2013

First sale

I made my first art sale today. I sold this piece of Zentangle Inspired Art to Lana Eckel, owner and president of Intuitive Truths. It can be viewed in her office in Regina, Sk.  I'm very honoured and flattered by her support.

This work is based an a tile I made using String 039. With the frame it measures 11" X 14". I can't believe I used only seven tangles for this large piece.

Diva Challenge #129

This is my first ever submission to the Diva Challenge. This week's challenge was to use String 004. I used charcoal for shading, which I like because it doesn't reflect light. To choose patterns I used the card and dice from the green box. I'll have my tangle jar up and running soon to randomly select patterns.