purk, echoism, cayke arukas, meer variation, flux, shattuck, opus These little pieces are quick and easy to do for Christmas cards. I cut a piece of black cardstock to 5 x 7. I lightly sketched a few triangles and then filled each one with a white gel pen and monotangle. The snow drifts were then added with a white charcoal pencil that I smudged and softened. Art supply stores sell watercolor cards that measure 5 x 7 when folded so these can be attached as is or trimmed slightly so that you…

This post is sort of a 'Before and After'. It includes a Zentangle I did yesterday and a tangle I did back in 2010 - shortly after I discovered Zentangle. I used the tangle I did back in 2010 as an inspiration for the new tile. It has a similar string and similar tangles. But I found ways I could improve on it and use some of the skills I learned since then. Since it is my own work, I don't have to be polite. I can - and will critique the heck out of it. The tangle from 2010 was done on the…

There is a new tangle from Zentangle. It's called Rumpus and it's lots of fun to play with. Rick and Maria have a YouTube video demonstrating it that will get you going. In my version I used a set of 6 3z tiles. (It's done on a Zendala tile in the video.) I used 3zs so I could do this tangle in a larger scale and play with it by rearranging the 3z tiles. Photos below. I used a sepia colored pen and colored pencils for shading. I originally did it with just a brown colored pencil for shading…

Zenspirations come from the very talented Joanne Fink. Yesterday she did a post on her blog about the butterfly designs she did in honor of her friend Barb. Her blog post can be found here. She really did a great step by step explanation so I highly recommend that you click over to it when you are done here. Butterflies are a symbol that reminds me of my mom too so I had to jump right on that project. I loved playing with all the colors and then adding tiny tangles. Using my markers with…

During my recent trip I learned several new techniques for tangling. One of my favorites was this one called "Zero Drawing" taught by Meredith Yuhas. Simply, it involves creating your own toned paper with graphite and then erasing the design area using a stencil and a fine tipped Zero eraser. More information on this technique is available in the book Pencil Magic by Marie Browning. This technique was lots of fun to use to add tangles to. I had fun choosing the tangles and then decided to…

Not every tile that I do excites me. Some are simply 'meh'. So when the diva invited us to do a Tangle Remix, I pulled out my stack of old tiles that I wasn't thrilled with and pulled out this one. It was originally done with an emphasis on simplicity. It did suit that challenge but I knew I could take it further. I started by embellishing the flux and dittos patterns that I had already done and then I set it aside. After thinking for a while I decided to add a field of black. I then added…

I have a new toy to play with. I blindly ordered the brand new Color Escapes premium colored pencils from Crayola. I know what you are thinking, "Crayola, that's for kids!" Well, these are definitely a step above the usual school supplies. I used them on the tile above so I could really see what they could do. I'm pretty happy with what I got and how the pencils preformed. Pros and cons; The price point is a lot less that the Prismacolors and Lyra pencils that I love. They are currently…

It's time for leaf peeping again. Time to hop in the car and head off to the wooded areas where the leaves are turning glorious colors. In my case, that may be simply a trip to a local forest preserve where the colors are equally beautiful. I did the zendala above on one of my hand colored tiles that was a mottled yellow orange to start. The string is, of course, fall leaves. Tangles were done with a brown micron and shading used colored pencils. These leaves were done by a group at the…

A blog about my zentangles, zentangle inspired art, and other artistic pursuits. In the Chicago area.

Last week the Diva issued her weekly challenge and it was to 'Relax!' With the stress I'm under right now with my husband's illness I thought that this challenge was perfect for me. I'm lucky that I have a support system of friends. We get together at my house once a week (most of the time) and we work on our crafts while we talk about what is going on in our lives. We started out doing decorative painting together but now we have branched out to beading, quilting, and of course, Zentangle…

This is an interesting technique that I learned recently. It's done by rubbing graphite all over your paper and then erasing within the confines of a stencil. The tangles are then done with a pen as usual. I have a brass stencil that has pens, a pencil and a brush. Only three shapes fit on my tile but that is fine by me. As I picked my tangles I tried to choose ones that would add extra black areas in it. Fun, fun! It's not a traditional zentangle but I really enjoyed playing with it. This…

African Artist is the challenge tangle this week. It's the one all around the border. As I was working with it I was thinking about all the other tangles that start out in the same way - with curvy lines. So I pulled all the similar tangles out of my files and put as many as I could into this tile. I could only fit 7 into this tile so I drew an entire sheet with all the ones I found. I'm sure there are more out there that I haven't included - if there is one you know of that I should include…

The Diva challenge this week was so much fun. The challenge was to use a bijou tile (2 x 2") and then add a 3", 4", 5", and 6" tile. We could arrange them any way we choose and do any tangles we wanted. I immediately thought of using my hand colored tiles but the problem was that I only had 3 1/2" tiles cut. So I needed to hand color several more big sheets and then cut them to size. Of course, playing with watercolor paint is the fun part to me so that was not hard. A couple of layers of…

Zentangle plates is a concept where 4 tiles are put together. They all have the same circular strings but are tangled with their own tangle patterns. When put together they form a 'plate'. This was a fun project to do. It was interesting to choose tangle patterns that varied in light and dark, curves vs straight lines, and random vs geometric shapes. Below is each tile separately and at the end is the grouping before shading. Sampson, Bales, Coil, ? Rain, Meer, Zenith, N'zeppel Crescent…

The challenge this week was to use the tangle 'striping' as a monotangle. I love using this tangle but usually I've used it in random ways, as fillers within abstract strings. I wanted to try something different so I started thinking about using zendalas as a string. So these pieces are more orderly, and more calming to work on. I used my Stabilo colored pens for the first piece and shaded with colored pencils. The second piece was done on a black Zentangle tile with the Sakura Moonlight…

There are so many patterns that can be found around the world in different cultures. And many of those patterns have found their way into the world of Zentangle. I love how we can incorporate all these things into our artwork. In these tiles I was influenced first by henna designs. Then I saw the animated movie Coco, and I was blown away by the colors and artwork I saw on the screen. I started doing more research on the Mexican artwork that inspired that movie. These tiles are the result of…