Zendala Dare #87

Zendala Dares #80, #79, and #78

Today is Remembrance Day, and I am grateful to the people who have given their lives and fought for the freedom I enjoy in Canada today. Thank-you.

Zendala Dare #80

I went crazy with colour for the Zendala Dare #80. I started off with the beginnings of wired in the center, but it turned into tons and tons of aura, which I think coloured in with gel pens.

Erin gave us the additional challenge to tangle outdoors, but I decided to pass on this one. It's been bitterly cold and windy here in Regina, Sask., and I think I'll stay indoors where it's warm (and where there are babies, cats, and dogs to cuddle with). :D My thoughts were on the outdoors though so maybe that counts a little.

I had my iPad set up beside my workstation for this zendala, so I took pictures as I went along. I always think it's neat when people do that. What I like is that I could have stopped at any step along the way but went for full out colour. 

Zendala Dare #79

For the life of me, I couldn't get rid of that blank spot between the above pictures and this paragraph. 

I think my second submission for Zendala Dare #79 is hilarious. I completed it over two days, and I think I had a complete mood shift during the 24 hours between doing the two inner circles and the two outer circles. This is my second submission and I submitted my first with this template in my previous blog entry.

Big thank-you to Rick and Maria for bringing Zentangle to my life. I just love it and will be grateful always.

Here are three of my submissions hanging in my Zentangle spot in my kitchen (on the right). 

Zendala Dare #78

I really liked the template for Zendala Dare #78, but I didn't get a chance to submit it until now. I completed two very different zendalas using the template. The first one has a lot of colour using coloured pencils.

Here's a picture of this completed zendala on my display shelf in my office.

Here's my second submission for Zendala Dare #79. It's very different from the first. I was excited to use Pauline's Pigtail here. 

Other ZIA

Here's something I just did in my spare time. It's on a watercolour washed postcard.

I think I need to calm down for awhile when it comes to Zentangle. I did quite a few challenges and dares this week, and it's been intense. Nick and I bought our first house, and we're moving November 26. I think I may take a step back from challenges (and deadlines) for awhile and focus on using Zentangle to meditate, be mindful, and remain grounded during the busy weeks ahead.

Here we are by the sold sign of the house we bought:

Zendala Dare #76

I took an Adventures in Zentangle Class this past Sunday with Lisa Heron, CZT, of the Zenned Pen. I always feel more creative after a class. There are a lot of patterns here that we practiced then, including knase, meer, and cadent. I had some questions for Lisa about positive space, negative space, and tonal value that she helped me with. I feel like I understand these a lot better and was able to employ them here. I don't think those things are important to Zentangle, but I found it meditative to consider these factors as well. 

Zendala Dare #73 and Finished Tangle Box!!

I must really have my sh*t together this week because I managed to complete two different challenges, totaling three tiles. It's really impressive to me that one of them was a Zendala because I find Zendala's so much harder, although so much more beautiful. I'm taking a Zendala class in a few weeks, which I'm hoping will help me feel more comfortable with Zendalas. The hardest part for me is getting the outline onto a piece of paper for me to use. I'm curious about how other people do this. Here is my submission for Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #73:

Meanwhile, I have finally finished my tangle box to help me pick patterns for my tangles! This project has been going on for two months. My tangle box is my version of Sandy Hunter's (CZT) tangle jar, but I put the papers in a box rather than a jar. The box, which looks like a book, fits on my bookshelf more easily than a jar would have. I would have preferred a jar, but surface space is limited in our house. Things that can be piled on top of each other work a lot better. Here are the pictures of the box. I just love it, and I used it to pick out the patterns for my zendala above. I've been working on it steadily for weeks, so I'm excited to be able to dedicate that time to drawing now!

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.

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