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 #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 #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