Tanglin' with my left hand

Challenge #56 "Non Dominatrix* v.2"  has us going back to tangling with our non-dominant hand. I did this challenge the first time it was issued  too. It was an interesting experience then and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to revisit it. However, it was so worth it because I discovered a couple of tangleations I hadn't played with before.

The first time I looked only for tangle patterns that would look good with 'the shakes'. And I was happy with the way it came out. This time I started with Bales everyplace. I wanted to really try using a pattern that I didn't think would look good shaky. When I first had just the Bales done I was very frustrated, as my lines didn't please me at all. It would have been a good idea to show you a picture at that stage - but I didn't think of that. I added in a simple string and then did tangleations in each section. After the shading was done I realized that while this wasn't my usual style, I was pretty pleased with it anyway.

And the winner is ....

Congratulations to Ellen Gozeling! She submitted comment #19 for the random number picked by the 'Random Number Generator'. I'll be sending it out to her as soon as I get her mailing address.

Northern lights

I saw pictures of the Northern Lights on TV and on the internet. I went right to my window and looked for them but I got nothing, nada, zip. So this is how I imagined they might look in a zentangle world.

This 3 1/2" tile was done by using my Tombow markers with a watercolor technique to create a background for the whole piece first. When it was fully dry I tangled using my Micron pen and then added shading and colored accents with colored pencils.

ALSO - Today is the last day to enter my giveaway for my 100,000 page view. To enter, see the blog post from last Sunday.

Moebius Trip

Diva challenge # 55 is called Moebius Trip. It asks us to use the symbol of the Moebius Syndrome Foundation in our challenge. I thought about ways I could do this 'outside the box'. Could I tangle on a strip of fabric and wrap it around my head? Eventually I decided I would go the route of simplicity instead. But at least I could change up my materials a bit. This black tile uses white gelly roll and the moonlight purple for the logo and simply a colored pencil for the tangle behind. I loved how the colored pencil worked with the texture of the paper and gave me shading without trying very hard.

Don't forget to enter my contest for a zentangle necklace if you haven't already - see the blog entry from Sunday for the details. 

Class updates -IPP all day seminar and Banbury

I'm excited to let you all know of an upcoming class. It's an ALL DAY zentangle workshop on March 24th. It will start with a review of the basics in the morning followed by two zentangle projects in the afternoon. One will be a zentangle necklace and the other will be a tangled canvas bag. It's open to beginners and advanced tanglers. If you have been doing zentangles for a while I'll have ways to enhance the basics for you! This will be sponsored by the Illinois Prairie Painters. The website to go to for more info is http://illinoisprairiepainters.org/seminars.html

I also want to tell you about upcoming classes at Banbury Fair. Zentangle Basics is set for Feb 19th and Beyond the Basics will be on March 4th. AND - TEASER HERE - I am working on setting up a class to go BEYOND the Beyond the Basics class. I'm still trying to come up with an appropriate name for this class. Any suggestions are welcome. 

click picture to enlarge

Last Sunday we had a Beyond the Basics class at Banbury. These are the tiles they did on that day. It was a group that brought an amazing collection of Zentangles and ZIAs that they had done beforehand. I was so impressed. So, at this class I threw alot at them. They got a lot of the hard tangles - well, I should say, 'tangles that need increased focus'. And, they learned several of the tangles that are unpublished - by that I mean, tangles that you can only learn from a CZT.

OH - AND DON'T FORGET - my contest is running all this week. See the blog entry on Sunday for the details.

100,000 page views contest

100,000 page views! WHEEEEE! Or as Sally Field once said “You like me! You really like me!” I’m so excited.

So it’s time to have a little contest to celebrate. I’ve done a few Zendala necklaces that I’ve shown during my classes. They are also featured in the Zentangle 5 book.  I’m going to be putting them in my store on this blog soon but I think the first one should go to one of the readers of my blog.

If you would like to enter this contest please leave a comment here or send me an email. While it’s not needed to enter, I’d love to know what you like and look for in a blog about Zentangle and if you found any of my past posts in particular memorable. One entry per person.

(The actual necklace may vary)

One week from today I’ll pull a number at random and the comment or email that corresponds to that number will win. I’ll contact you via email so be sure you’ve left an email address on my blog or in an email. My email address is sj60010 @ gmail .com (remove the spaces before sending)

Review of Derwent Pencils for shading

 I did this little zendala last night and tried out a new pencil for shading it. I had recently purchased a new pack of the Derwent Shading pencils and wanted to put them through their paces. I was pleased with the results with only a few minor quibbles.

I tried out all the pencils in the pack. First I drew a right angle with my pen so it would be similar to what I do when shading a zentangle. For each pencil I drew two squares - one using very light pressure and one using heavy pressure. Then I used a paper stump (tortillian) to blend the mark out. I also used my two types of Zentangle pencils so I would have something to compare them to. Also in the pack of pencils I found a 8B sketching pencil that is water soluble. This gave me more ways to play with it. 

I found they all worked pretty well. My favorite however was the Derwent HB pencil. I liked the intense dark I could get but I also found it blended the best. The water soluble pencil 8B Dark wash also gave me some neat results that I'll be playing more with later. Some of the pencils were harder to blend - especially when I used heavy pressure. That will be correctable by simply applying less pressure as I do the shading. The other minor quibble I had was that the Derwent pencils are too thick to go into my electric pencil sharpener. Again, easily fixed by pulling out my hand held sharpener designed for thicker pencils.

SUPER Z!

And - if you turn it on it's side - it makes a 'SUPER Z'!

Remember when in class we always are told to turn our tiles around and look at it from different angles. I had thrown my tile onto the pile of tiles already posted when I saw the Z smiling at me. OK. I do declare it's now a super Z for super Zentangle!

Purple Haze challenge

When the Diva http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/ said the challenge for this week was 'Purple Haze' I was immediately inspired. There is a story behind this. A few "ahem" years ago, I went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. On the second day of my freshman year I met a cute senior and 3 years later, we were married. Around that same time there was a vote by the student body to change the school's nickname from 'Wildcats' to 'Purple Haze'. (Purple is the school color.) The vote for Purple Haze did not carry - I don't know what NU would have been like today if it had.

So, my ZIA is the Northwestern N, done on purple card stock. The ink is the Sakura gelly roll white with colored pencil shading.

first snowfall

It took until January 12th, but we finally got our first snowfall of the winter. It's gotten rather cold outside too so I'm enjoying the view from inside the house. Of course I had to do a zendala inspired by the weather. This uses blue card stock, a white Sakura gelly roll pen, and a blue colored pencil.

Diva Challenge - Undine

The Diva is Baaaack! I'm so glad! Her newest challenge is to use a tangle she calls 'Undine'. When I saw this tangle I immediately thought of a stained glass window. So while this tile is way too literal to be considered a true zentangle, I did have fun creating this ZIA. (Zentangle Inspired Art) The colors uses Tombow markers and colored pencils. I try to do my tile and post it before I look at the other tiles posted so I'm looking forward to seeing what others have come up with.

circle of color

I love using colors in my tangles and using basic tangles but spiced up with colors - is fun for me. These are done using three colors of micron pens and coordinating colored pencils. The string uses a variety of circles.

class pictures January 8th

Click on photos to enlarge

I love looking at class pictures when all the tiles are put together. These are from yesterday's class at Banbury Fair in Bartlett. Banbury Fair is a great place to have class - and a great place to shop! They are switching things up right now. Moving merchandise from one section of the store to another. I can't wait till my next class to see what it will look like then!

Wix zendala

I did a simple zendala to show one way to use my new tangle 'Wix'. Doing mandalas is a very calming experience. I recommend it highly! This one used a Prismacolor Premier Fine Line 05 Marker and then a Prismacolor colored pencil for shading. I was so happy with the way this turned out.

'Wix' Tangle pattern

click on picture to enlarge

Wix is a new tangle pattern I've designed. I've shown it drawn in a straight line but it could be repeated over and over to be used as a filler pattern. The last line was an experiment to see how many variations I could come up with.I'm sure others will comw up with more!! It was inspired by parts of a paisley pattern I saw in a Dover book. There are some patterns that use similar elements but I think this is different enough to stand on its own,

Red spiral zendala

I punched out a lot of red circles over the holidays so I'm still playing with them. But now I think I'll start calling them zendalas. While a Zendala is usually a design drawn within a circle that has repetitive sides, geometric patterns, or concentric circles, zendalas can be zentangles within a circle. If you look at the book 'Zen Mandalas, Sacred Circles inspired by Zentangle' by Suzanne McNeill CZT, you will see many examples of these.

So my red spirals are within a 'sacred circle' - the circle represents the calm surrounding a point of creation. The spiral is a symbol of revitalizing life force. I think that's appropriate for the beginning of a new year.

Done on red card stock with a brown Micron pen. Shading and highlighting done with colored pencils.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I'm a New York baby so I was inspired by the ball that drops in Times Square to herald in the New Year. As I was working on this last night I could hear the fireworks outside. Alas, I was too busy working on this and forgot to watch on TV as the actual ball  dropped!

This is a standard 3 1/2" tile. I used watercolor paints to do the background - avoiding the circle for the ball. The tangle on the ball is a variation of Tripoli and was done with a 005 Micron.The touches of color on the ball were done with Tombow markers. The tangles on the blue used a 05 blue Micron pen.