Umble Color Wheel

The tangle pattern Umble was recently featured in the Zentangle newsletter. It was time to really feature it in a tile. The basic instructions show it done around the four corners of a tile but the examples show that there are many tangleations that can be done with it.

Last week the Diva had us doing the challenge with colors of the rainbow. I was still thinking about color themes when I started working on this. When I realized I could do Umble in multiples of three I realized that the color wheel would be a perfect fit. I did the basic tangle with my Micron and added the color from my Tombow markers. A little shading and some shine with my white charcoal pencil completed it.

Color - Pink-purple-blue

Color!!! How I love adding color to my Zentangle work. Yes, now it's a ZIA - Zentangle Inspired Art. Thank you Diva, for suggesting that we use color this week for the challenge.

I used a design that I had used before for this piece but wanted to try a different color scheme and different materials. This time I pulled out my Inktense pencils. I used them with watercolor techniques. The tangles were added with pens. For this piece I used both colored Microns and Staetler pens.

As you can see in the picture I took when I was 'in progress', I'm still working on perfecting my techniques. (Picture taken late at night.) I put my finger in the wet paint in the purple area at the upper left edge. And then I got a backwash in the purple petal at the bottom left. And several areas are nowhere as smooth or have the gradation I would like. But since I am following the 'no mistakes' philosophy, I forged ahead. Once I got done I looked for those areas that bothered me at first. I have trouble finding them so I'm betting you won't find them either!!! LOL!

McHenry 6-10

Great class at McHenry County College last night.I wanted to share the class mosiacs we did of our two tiles. Some wonderfully creative tangleations! Thanks ladies - and my gentleman!

Don't forget there are two more classes coming up in McHenry. On June 24th there will be a 'Tangled Tins' project. Then on July 15th join me for a 'Zendala' class.

Beads of Courage

Beads of Courage is a program that supports children with severe illness. These children go through so much and this program recognizes that by giving them a glass bead that represents each step on their medical journey. The Diva has a child that has medical issues and I think of them as they face every day with each new challenge. Her challenge to us was to create a tile that reflected some aspect of the Beads of Courage.

To create my tile I picked out a variety of tangles that reminded me of beads. Then I arranged them on the tile in the same way I would do the Hollibaugh tangle. Look at the tile at the bottom of this post to see the first stage with simple line work. I added detail and shaded it for the tile at the top of this post.

After I had the tile done in black and white I took my picture and set it aside. I kept looking at it though and finally decided it needed color. I pulled out my glitter pens and had some fun coloring it in. Let me know in the comments if you like it better in color or black and white.

The tangles used here are;

Binial

Eek

Inapod

Lezy

Diamond Drop

Girland

All Boxed Up

All Boxed Up is the tangle chosen for this weeks challenge. It's a simple tangle to do that takes on such a different look once it's shaded, I did two tile this week. The first is done using a Greek key (boxed spiral) as a string. It came out looking very symmetrical. Okay, but kind of boring. So I tried again, starting without thinking out a plan before hand. I did one All Boxed Up and then added a single Paradox on top. I then kept going doing one and then the other. It is freeing to just do it without a plan.

Brandywine Revisited

Brandywine is an intricate tangle that was inspired by a wood carving I saw. It was so lovely I had to deconstruct it so I could use it in my tangles. The steps are posted  below. You can copy and paste the big picture if you want a reference photo to print out. Take your time and have fun.

Brandywine steps

This is the trickiest part. These 's' shaped lines go down from one line and then run alongside the next line. Do all the lines in one direction and then do the ones on the other side. Flip your paper if you are more comfortable.

Connect the remaining lines. These start at the end of the lines and go down parallel to the lines you already have and stop when they meet the next line.

Add small petal shapes.

Add as many details as you wish.

Shade and sign.

Adeline Revisited

I've been asked to revisit my tangle 'Adeline'. It's based on a carving I saw in a picture so I didn't invent it - I've just figured out the steps and gave it a name. (In honor of my mom.) It's a bit more intricate than some of my other tangles so take your time and practice it on scrap paper a couple of times.

These are all the steps together if you want to do a 'copy and paste' and print out a copy for yourself. Read on for more detailed instructions.

Begin with evenly spaced slash marks. Don't make your slash marks too close together (You will see why later in step 5).

Draw double 's' curves. Use your slash marks as a bridge to go over and then as a bridge to 'go under'. Pay attention to which line goes on the top of the s curves and which lines go under the s curves.

Complete the s curves that intertwine with the first set. 

Add little balls (ornamentation) where the lines cross.

Add linework to show where the s curves curl when they cross each other. (This is a little fussy and you can skip this step if you wish)

Add shading to complete.

Rain

Visiting family in Texas, there has been an amazing amount of rain. It's been raining almost every day since I have been here. My heart goes out to those who the flooding has affected.

This tile uses the tangle Rain as a border with Msst inside.  A ray of hope shines through.

Blurred lines

This challenge is to do a tile using only straight lines in the tangles. I had a hard time picking these as I really missed the curved ones. But I loved adding the shading. 

Doing this late at night I had to take the picture with my phone camera and the room lights, so that's why I called it Blurred Lines.

White on Black on Found

The Diva challenge this past week was to do something with a white pen on a black surface. We could use the official black tiles - or .......? This has been a tough week for me as I haven't been feeling  well - and even ended up in the hospital for testing. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as we were afraid and I'm on the mend now.

I finally got around to thinking about the Diva challenge last night. I had a burst of inspiration - I would do tangles on the bluestone walkway with kid's chalk. Great idea right? Well, today ended up to be raining so I sat in my studio looking for other ideas. I looked down at my feet - and well, you can see what I did. I used a white Signo gel pen. I'm not sure how long this will last - It may wear off the first time I walk in the rain or wet grass. So that's why I took pictures! 

class zendalas

I wanted to share the Zendalas that my class did at the Society of Decorative Painters convention last week. Such a talented group! I was lucky that the convention was held in St Charles, IL which is about a half hour from my home.

Sweet string 92

This tile started out with string #92 from tanglepatterns.com. The tangles that were used all have names that remind me of dessert. Yum!

chocobox

cayke

butter

kandy ribnz

I started by doing the tangles with my black pen on the white tile. I was about to start the pencil shading when I looked at again and decided that this tile really called for color instead. I had my Inktense pencil close at hand so I used them, added some water with a fine brush, and I got the happy, yummy tile I was envisioning.

Dex Bunzo

Basic tile this week, got it done quickly this morning.  Too many other things going on this week!

Do. Or do not.

May the Fourth be with you!

This was the title of the Diva's challenge this week as she posted it on May 4th. I read through it - I really did. But when I got started on it I totally blanked that the challenge asked us to use the tangle pattern 'Brella'. So, since there are no mistakes, I'm posting what I came up with anyway. Obviously I didn't use Brella in here. Maybe I'll have time to do another one.

May Day

It's May! And my trees are in bloom. Nothing makes me smile - or makes me more content. than walking out to my yard and standing under the trees and being surrounded by the blossoms and their perfume.

I know that the blossoms will not last long. They are predicting rain so before long I'll have a carpet of white petals instead. I wanted to get out there and take some pictures quickly.

After spending some time with my blossoms I knew I wanted to do a tile inspired by them. A few weeks ago I was playing with my watercolor paints and a stencil and I created this zendala. At that time though, I didn't know where I wanted to go next with it. So I set it aside in my stack of projects waiting for inspiration. 

The trees inspired me to do a pink and white theme. I have a couple of different white gel pens so I used two that have different thicknesses to do my tangling. (I know you can hardly see the finer lines but trust me, they are there inside the bales.) Since my new mantra is 'Simplify', I only used three tangles and then shaded with colored pencils and highlighted with a white chalk pencil.