It started with a Traveling Tangles Project with Sabrina Kirjavainen all the way over in Finland, on nail polish - the shape I finished with reminded me of a dreamcatcher.
So I decided to play with a pattern reminiscent of those in traditional dreamcatchers.
Here's my first effort, with a six-sided shape that I treated as a regular expanding-flower pattern and filled a la Suzanne McNeill's Bloom.
Tangles used: Dreamcatcher, Bloom
Second, I tried an 8-sided shape - this worked out best in my opinion and so in the stepout below it's what I start with. I also realized at this point it could work as a reticulum just as well as a filler or floral pattern, and decided to try filling it with Bales.
Tangles used: Dreamcatcher, Bales
Then, of course, I had to try fitting in my own Knightstar - it got really tiny and confusing near the center but I still like the end result. This one started with a four-sided shape.
Tangles used: Dreamcatcher, Knightstar
By this point, I was hooked - Dreamcatcher wormed its way into my second TTP with Sabrina...
...Got into my watercolor pencils and turned all blue...
Tangles used: Dreamcatcher, Knighstar, Brax
...And jumped from a white tile to a black ATC! ^_^
Tangles used: Dreamcatcher, Yincut
Here's the stepout. Hopefully it all makes sense. It takes some practice to get it to look all nice and even (and, as you can probably tell, I certainly still need some ^_^) but it's pretty forgiving if used as a reticulum - the dense patterning, especially near the center, disguises wobbly or uneven lines ^_^
...Of course, if you're not a perfectionist like me, I guess that doesn't really matter. ^_^
Always getting in the way of things I want to do...except not really. I've still been drawing and posting on Mosaic (DanielLamotheCZT24 if you're on the app and want to appreciate me ^_^), but blogging has been...rather neglected amidst tangling, studying for my upcoming PSAT, and volunteering at the library. So here's the last two Diva Challenges for you! ^_^
I was soooooo excited when I saw Laura had chosen my Knightstar as the UMT for August - so excited I didn't get around to actually doing a piece for it until Sunday. Funny how things work, isn't it? Here's my Zendala.
It was awesome to look at all the challenge responses and see how everyone used Knightstar - I was a bit surprised at all the people talking about what a challenge it was until I sat down to do it one of my myriad sketchbooks and ended up with a horrible abomination...^_^ Of particular interest was Stephanie Jennifer's alternate stepout, which I ended up using on this tile. It lacks the cool factor of "I'm using straight lines to make curves" but gives an overall similar effect and is easier to keep even.
And here's my duotangle of Auraknot and Meer, done in another one of my sketchbooks - I think I have at least 20 sketchbooks/sketchpads in my possession at the moment, although I'm planning to give away a bunch of the ones I don't use. This was super fun and simple, especially the shading. ^_^
Merry (late) Christmas to all! I meant to write this post on Saturday, but then lack of motivation got in the way...^_^ Pretty much all my Christmas gifts were art supplies (of course), including two six-sets of Copic Sketch markers...which made me really, really happy ^_^ So here's some stuff I did with said new art supplies.
Tangles used: Paradox
Paradox in spirals, done with Staetdler Triplus Fineliners in Olive Green, Gray, Van Dyke Brown, and Magenta (I think.)
Tangles used: N'zeppel, Weave, C-Stem, Tipple
Tangles done with a Zebra Disposable Brush Pen - Super Fine. Color added with Akashiya Sai brush pens.
Uni-Ball Signo Broad - White. It works better on smoother paper, but I think the Gelly Roll works better on the official tiles.
I started on this one by taking my black Copic, closing my eyes, and scribbling. It's not done yet, as you can probably tell ^_^
Tangles used: Drupe. Also not finished.
A random Copic background with some tangles that ideally will grow up to be a monotangle of Drupe. I've set myself another challenge to try and do monotangles of all the official tangles that have online instructions - and after this summer all of the others too, since I signed up for CZT Seminar 24! So excited ^_^ I actually did sign up a while ago, but never got around to sharing it. Now you know ^_^ There aren't any CZTs in my city, so I'm looking forward to being able to spread Zentangle a little more.
Ah, what a wonderful time of year...and a wonderful challenge to go with it. I almost never give away my tiles, but here's a good place to start...I would leave Random Acts of Zentangle around my school but I shudder to think what the average high school student might do to them ^_^ Here are 4 tiles, the first two of which have been given away at the time I'm writing this (I promise I'll do something with the others besides keep them...) ^_^
Tangles used: Meo, Flux, Tripoli, Verdigogh, Diva Dance, Xyp, Knightsbridge, some weird thing in a grid
Tangles used: Mooka
I spilled a bit of tea on this one...so I grabbed a spoon and dribbled some more on there. Waste not, want not ^_^
Tangles used: Diva Dance, Ennies, Organza, Mooka, TootsieMoon, Shattuck, Opus, Sooflowers, Lola, Xyp, Cadent, Confettus, Beadlines, Antidots, Printemps, Crescent Moon, probably at least one thing I forgot
Gem in the center drawn using this wonderful tutorial
Tangles used: Meringue, Printemps, Yuma, Garlic Cloves, Indy-Rella, Shattuck
The green is some nail polish that my friend brought to school...for some reason.
Oh, and a very happy note...school's almost out for the year! ^_^ Winter Break starts a week from now...so I'll try to post at least a few times here and on my YouTube channel (link somewhere in the sidebar).
Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^
Hello all! ^_^ I don't use Betweed that frequently, but it certainly is a wonderful pattern...that will probably be finding its way into more of my pieces as a result of this challenge ^_^
Tangles used: Betweed, Zenith
I decided to try my hand at some marker shading with this one...without realizing how dark my "light" blue marker was. Oh well, full speed ahead! A clear Stardust (which you should totally get because it's amazing) found itself in there at the end too ^_^
Tangles used: Betweed
And, on a much less cheerier note...school is in. Which is fine and all, but it means less time for tangling...which means no Tangleation Vocation results this week. Sorry :-( Although this certainly is a special Vocation...the 20th! *happy trumpet noises and confetti* And we have ourselves another official Zentangle pattern that shows up pretty often in my drawings - Opus.
Oh, and cat pictures.
Hmm...what could this be?
Can I wear it? Yeah, I can wear it.
Can definitely wear it...
^_^
Enjoy and be inspired...and link me some cat pictures too! ^_^
Fun! ^_^ I tend to constantly drift between packed-in detail and airy minimalism (more so on the detail side, of course ^_^), but still rarely focus on negative space. So, this was fun and unique.
Tangles used: Gra-vee, Xav, Emingle, weird ribbon-y thing that I probably will never post stepouts for
And, here's my little set of Verdigogh tangleations (AKA "Mooka on a stick" and "I'm too lazy to do anything more") ^_^
Tangles used: Verdigogh, Black Pearlz, elements of Chemystery and Mooka
Your Vocation this week is the official tangle Printemps! Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^
A challenge centering on organic tangles? How could I not do this one to death? ^_^ Before doing these, I scribbled out a bunch of Mooka on a piece of cardstock and promised myself that I wouldn't do it in any of these tiles. ^_^
Moving on - but keeping with the organic theme - your Vocation this week is Verdigogh. And I should have my Cadent example here, but summer is when I plan to do a whole bunch of different things Zentangle and end up doing nothing but the Diva Challenge, so I don't. Sorry. ^_^
Note to self: when you go on a vacation for a month and can't do any blogging during it - say something about it.
On a cheerier note, I'm not dead! ^_^
Yeah, I was on vacation for a month. It was awesome. I went to California with one sketchbook and left with six ^_^ I guess having artsy grandparents will do that to you. Obviously, a lot of drawing was done...and I had my first class with a CZT! It was awesome...I finally met someone who was just as into Zentangle as me. And, of course, I was introduced to a bunch of new art supplies I really really really want now...funny how that works. ^_^
I'll slowly be posting some of the stuff I did while in CA (there's a lot of it!), scattered throughout all my other posts I suppose. And now to the point - Diva Challenge! I really enjoy the Simplicity challenges - my instinct is always "detail detail detail" so these are like a breath of fresh air. This one kinda reminds me of water lilies...really stylized water lilies. Without the water. ^_^
Tangles used: Indy-Rella, Fescu
And now for the second order of business - this week's Vocation, Cadent (in case you somehow aren't aware of the steps). Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^
Also - I'm setting up a YouTube channel! ^_^ My first video should (hopefully) be up later today - it might not be the greatest quality, and there won't be any audio, but ah well. After all, I'm just beginning ^_^
EDIT: It's been done! Check it out here. ^_^ Turns out there is some audio, which is mostly me talking while recording, only sped up so it sounds like there was a mouse on the desk. Yeeaaahhh...you might want to mute it ^_^
Ah, another Diva Challenge...the one-stop shop for anyone's Zentangle needs ^_^ I ended up not participating in last week's mostly because my first few attempts were such awful catastrophes I just needed to stop risking an aneurysm over it ^_^ I can't do all straight lines...I just have to fit in some curves somewhere. Or everywhere.
Anyways, this challenge was yet another fun one...All Boxed Up is a wonderful tangle, and shading just makes it so much more amazing.
Tangles used: All Boxed Up
Tangles used: All Boxed Up, Prestwood, Striping, Opus, Mooka, Pokeroot
I did the bottom one with a fountain pen, as I did with last week's Tangleation Vocation challenge.
Tangles used: Phicops, Meringue
And speaking of the challenge, this week your tangle to play with is Veezely by the incredibly talented Sandy Hunter. Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^
P.S. I just have to say...the object of this challenge is to create a tangleation of the focus tangle, not just use it. All the submissions are lovely and I appreciate all of them, of course, but they're not all true to my original intents. Sorry if I'm coming off as rude or something, I'm just saying. Thanks ^_^
I must admit...I really, really don't enjoy working with white-on-black. I'm not sure why, although I have a strong suspicion it's because of the lesser control the thicker pen affords me and the fact that my "white" pen more often writes in pale grey. Then there's the shading (er, highlighting)...don't even start on the shading. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. ^_^
Tangles used: Mooka, Echoism, Florz, Fescu
On a much more positive note...I love Fescu. LoveloveloveloveLOVE it. It's an amazing way to fill extra space if you need to...though I think I overdid it here ^_^ And that shading (er, highlighting) is just...painful. Bleh.
Woo, another Diva Challenge! I miiiight have broken the rules here with that little touch of Fescu, but let's call that a flourish instead of a tangle, shall we?
Tangles used: Bunzo, Dex, Fescu...wait, no, not Fescu. That's totally not Fescu. Pay no attention to that Fescu. ^_^
It was a bit of a challenge figuring out how to get these two to play together...I did a couple rough things at school (I promise I'm a good student) but it wasn't until I actually sat down in front of my journal with Micron in hand that inspiration struck. ^_^
Now. Moving on. I am so, so, so sorry about the Tangleation Vocation challenge being late, but weather down here really sucks and tangling has unfortunately not been on my list of priorities (things that were: freaking out, playing on my computer as much as possible so that I could make up for lost time when the power was out, and freaking out even more. I know, I'm pathetic, I'm sorry. ^_^). I managed to whip up some decent results for Mooka, though.
Tangles used: Mooka, Purk
Not really the best, but it certainly shows off some nice variations - a spiky Mooka, a "free" Mooka, and a spiky, rounded Mooka (oxymoron much?).
Tangles used: Mooka, Nvelope, Fescu
I like this one a lot more. The black and white is balanced (for once!) and the composition is nice. I also really, really need to stop being too lazy to shade things...but we all know that's not gonna happen for a while ^_^
This week's challenge is to play around with Static, a very simple official tangle. I don't think it has any instructions online, but it doesn't really need any - it's just a single zigzag line, aura-ed over and over until you've filled the section. I also think all 3 people who've participated in this (thank you all!! ^_^) are CZTs, so you should all know it anyways. Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^
Yay, my first milestone! ^_^ 10 challenges...funny, it doesn't seem like it's been 10 weeks since I came up with this. And maybe 10 challenges isn't many compared to most of the other weekly challenges out there (I am the Diva is at 216, I put 190 here earlier, I'm dumb, It's a String Thing is at 90, Joey's Weekly Tangle Challenge is at 58, so on and so forth), but hey, I expected this to die off after the first or second one, so yay. ^_^ I tangled on a piece of wood for the Pokeroot challenge of last week, but unfortunately the photo didn't quite capture the white highlights. I varied Pokeroot's "stems", echoed Lynell's tangleation by bringing many of the stems back to a center point and crossing them instead of simply building off other berries, used Lianne's tangleation of putting 4 ''pods'' around a center point, and also stuck the "pods" on the ends of Adele Bruno's lovely Uncorked.
Tangles used: Pokeroot, Fescu, Uncorked
I also have a bunch of just-for-fun tiles to show - some of which were done a long, long time ago. ^_^
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