From this, to that! When I stopped working on the art journal, the front looked like this.
The doll and hand were already glued down, but the doll wasn‘t finished.
The flap, which folds over from the back to keep the journal closed, had nothing done to it after the book was assembled. But that‘s good, because I can show you the process I used.
I used coordinated Copic markers to color in the black and white design stripes.
Simplicity.
I decided, for this tile, to return to the very roots of tangling. This string and these patterns are often used by CZTs when teaching the first Zentangle class.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol with a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Crescent Moon Florz Static Tipple
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol with a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Printemps Cheesecloth Hollibaugh Pokeleaf Marasu Betweed
Shades of Grey.
Originally, I wanted to do a lot of grey values with pencil on this tile. But when that was done, the King‘s Crown pattern was very lost in the background and the black section on the Cirquitals looked too flat. Then I decided to add the white highlights, which I don‘t normally do on a white tile. Bingo! It just popped the designs right up and made them so much more dimentional. And I love the “plastic” look it gave to the crown design!
Quantity.
This string had a lot of individual “spaces” in it to fill with tangles. Since I selecting tangle patterns randomly, sometimes a busy tile works, and sometimes it doesn‘t. I think, for the most part, this one works.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Chicken Wire Chillon Gloven Hurry Knight‘s Cross Narwal Nzeppel Quabog Snail
I‘m not sure what was going on with my brain, here. This seems like a dream after watching a weird movie!
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Bunzo Crewelery Daisy Beads Equerre Hypnotic Mi2 Pellet Sugarcane
If you have been a fan of this site for a few years, you may remember that I started an Art Journal a few years ago. I based the book‘s design on Teesha Moore‘s Amazing 16 Page Journal . I really like this type of art journal because the 8-inch by 10-inch format is a good size to work in and 16 pages is an attainable goal. Having a specific, low number of pages also allows me to explore a single theme in each booklet.
Accents.
To me, this looks like pieces of fabric on top of each other, with an accent piece made up of a ribbon rosette and cording sitting in the lower right. I like having some kind of focal point in my drawing but this one isn‘t quite right. It‘s not so much the placement, as the lack of contrast between it, and the tangles under it.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Zentangle Tile .
Tangles: Cadent Drupe Emingle Evoke Fescu Gneiss Inapod Tortuca Worms
What do you see?
I love this tile. I‘ve had a blast asking people what they see when they look at it. I‘ve gotten a lot of different answers. What makes this tile work so well is all the contrasting areas that are well balanced across the tile. The patterns are all fairly bold, and have areas of dark and light.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: A-Dalfa Carrés Diva Dance Florz Footprints Sabi Twiggy
Maui.
This is the second day of the Moana movie‘s influence on my daily tile. This time, I used a few of the symbols from the movie directly, namely Maui‘s fish hook and the shell from Moana‘s necklace, represented by a mother of pearl Zen Gem. Unfortunately, the stone just didn‘t scan well. It is actually stunning. I used Pearl-X on top of the colored pencil and it came out fabulous!
Island influence.
I saw the movie Moana recently. I think it is one of my favorite Disney Princess movies of all time. For this tile, I went through my step-outs and chose lots of tangles that I thought represented Pacific Islander styles.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Archer Borbz Chard Fassett Five Oh Papyrus Plum Leaf Roxi2 Yin-Yang Leaf
Ground-eye view.
What do you see when you lay down in the garden on your stomach and look around? To me, this is what I would see if my garden was full of plants that grew from tangle seeds.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Ammon Birds on a Wire D‘Rua Floatfest Rain Scrolled Feather
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Btl Joos Ennies Fescu Keeko Msst Poke-Root Queen‘s Crown
Yes, I‘m weird.
And proud of it. Sometimes I just stick things into corners or odd places to add a touch of whimsy and surprise. It‘s fun and makes for eye-catching, interesting drawings. This drawing kind of messes with your mind because of the variety of depth of the shading and sizes of the tangles.
In addition, since I was tired of drawing with black, I decided to switch to a sepia pen and use a couple of brown colored pencils to do the shading. The slight tint adds to the uniqueness of this tile.
In the groove.
Sometimes when you‘re drawing, things just kind of flow, without you really thinking or planning it. That, to me, is the Zen of Zentangle. This drawing just came together like magic, and I really like it. There‘s just something about the way the tangles complement and contrast and the way the space is divided that really appealed to me when it was finished.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
It‘s time for wind, and leaves, frost and flurries.
But that depends on where you live. In the desert, cooler weather often brings new growth on plants and sometimes even fall blossoms, now that the sun isn‘t baking everything to a crisp.
I used tangles that seemed to suit the time of year: Gust for the winds that change direction here in the fall, Bucky reminds me of frost on the windows, Static is the fall storms that bring us a bit of rain, Frondous for the plants that perk up in the cooler weather, and Fife and Well for their spikes and flower-like designs.
Monopoly.
This is a monotangle, meaning only one pattern was used on the entire tile. I did it about 1 am, so I didn‘t want to do anything very complicated. This is a strong, powerful tangle when used like this. The shadowing is just the icing on the cake and creates a finished design.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Striping
Happy Thanksgiving from me to you!
One of the things I love to do is use tangles to illustrate a message. This time, I‘ve used food themed patterns, and one that is actually named for the holiday!
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Berries & Leaves Caviar Gourdgeous Trelina Roxi2 Thanksgiving
Symmetry can work, if it‘s not.
This tile is kind of unusual for me in several ways. It is basically symmetrical, but not perfectly so. I started with the large Ellish in the center of the tile and then added the other patterns in each related section. I think the Aquafleurs anchor the design nicely. I like this!
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Apeel Aquafleur Box Spirals Ellish Tipple Trentworth