Diva Challenge #146

The Diva's challenge this week was to create a duotangle using Well and Pea-Nuckle. I'm still in the midst of moving, so I haven't been doing any challenges. While at work, I started doodling Pea-Nuckle in my sketchbook because it's a new pattern for me, and I ended up with this Well and Pea-Nuckle duotangle.

Diva challenge #143

This week's challenge was to use the new pattern "Cruze" by CZT Caren Mlot.  You can see the step outs for this tangle here. 

I like this pattern but found it really hard to incorporate, so a good challenge for me. I went maximalist but think I'll do another one with more of a minimalist style. I am looking forward to seeing what other people did with theirs to see if I get some ideas of how to use this type of tangle. 

Note, this is not drawn on a renaissance tile. It's just the lighting that makes the tile look creamy. I could have edited the colour but it looks nice so I left it. Thx! Meg

Diva Challenge #141

Here's my submission for The Diva. It's a bit late. I don't know if I drew the patterns right. I read through the step outs for Fengle and then drew it from memory. Thins look okay though when I look at the finished tile. I haven't been tangling in awhile because I've been sooo busy with buying a house. I got going with a Zendala last night and noticed how much more grounded I felt today. I had to continue with more drawing tonight. Mindfulness rocks.

Diva Challenge #139

The Diva's Challenge this week was to use 8s Parte Dos in a tangle. I had to practice this tangle a bit in my sketchbook and look at how other people were using it to understand it, but it was worth the effort. I would like to see more success in the future with making it look 3D.

Diva Challenge #138: Borders

This week's Diva Challenge is to create borders by drawing what you see around you. Sitting at my desk, I saw a woven basket, wrapping paper, the wood grain on my desk, and the handle on a lint remover, which have been drawn in that order starting on the outside.

Diva Challenge #137: Knights over Tipple

Diva Challenge #136: A Whole Lotta Pokeroot

The Diva challenge this week was to use colour in a tangle. I combined this challenge with another project I'm working in right now. I'm reading One Zentangle a Day by Beckah Krahula and the below assignment was to practice pokeroot until I felt comfortable drawing it and then to practice shading and drawing it to create depth.  Pokeroot always reminds me of cherries so I used red and green for colour. I drew it to create layers of pokeroot growing over each other, then coloured the top layer is red whereas the bottom layer remains unshaded (except in the top left corner which I shaded red before making this decision). This is drawn in two pages if my sketchbook, resulting in the crease in the middle.

I find pokeroot really hard to draw so decided to practice lots, resulting in a whole lotta pokeroot. The first picture below was my first practice session with pokeroot, and the second picture was the next day after sleeping on it. My final strategy is to slow right down and be very mindful of my strokes. Also, I have to draw the circles the same way I draw tipple by being mindful of drawing an orb. Otherwise, my circles in pokeroot end up long and oval, which I don't like. Whenever my circles become oval I'm getting hasty. I also struggle with making pokeroot look like it's bursting out in clumps; instead I end up with rows of pokeroot each growing out of each other,which is less natural. I worked left to right on this drawing and got better at bursting as I went on. 

I broke two micron pens doing this exercise by pushing too hard, driving the nub up to the pen. Very frustrating, and a sign I'm not yet very zen yet with this pattern. More mindfulness required. I like it a lot better though. 

Diva challenge #135

This week's Diva challenge was the use the new official Zentangle pattern, Well. I was also inspired by the Challenge 131 slide show the Diva sent out this week. Here are my two submissions, which each use three of the same patterns.

I'm not sure what the striped pattern is on the second tile below henna drum (maybe it's striping), but it was inspired by this tile by LeeAnn Denzer's second tile here.

Diva Challenge #134

Even though my Diva submission is late, I had to post it. This was a hard one or me, and I never did come up with anything good. I tried all sorts if different sketches, bad this is my final product.

Life is getting busy again. I've enjoyed being on maternity leave, which has allowed me lots of time to spend time with my son, finish my dissertation, and discover art again. I think I'm going to have less time for art for awhile, especially now that I'm studying for my EPPPs. This is probably one of my last pieces for awhile where I'll be able to spend lots if time trying different things. 

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.

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.

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

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.