Mandala Mashup

Mandala Mashup. Basically you take four tiles and arrange them as you see above. Then you trace concentric circles that cover all four tiles.
I started off with a couple empty medicine bottles,  then a drinking glass, and a small plate. You could use a compass but I have never been good with those, so I go simple with what is available.
Next I separated them into four tiles again. I tangled them one at a time. Tangle each one differently. You will end up with four different  little pieces of art. When you put them back together in this arrangement, you have a mandala mashup. I love it!
Perhaps you would love to give it a go. If you don't have tiles, just take a sheet of cardstock (or white scrapbook paper) and trace four squares the same size. I used tiles that are 3.5" square. Cut them out and follow the steps above. Instant mandala mashup!

Coral Step Out, New Tangle

 Not long ago, the Tangle It! Journal was released

and along with it came some new tangles.

Coral was a tangle of mine that we shared 

in the new journal.

Coral is easy to tangle and it has so many applications.

The lines do not have to be straight, they can be wavy. Fat or thin, heavy lines or thin lines. Rings or no rings, holes or no holes. It is up to you.

 This one was fun.

Coral can be more abstract and just flow

with whatever you are drawing.

 It can be asymmetrical. 

 Or really asymmetrical. 

Here coral just kind of takes on a life of its own.

 I really love using coral in underwater scenes. 

As you can see, the coral don't need to all move in the same direction. 

They work very well in a random placement.

Probably my favorite piece using coral of all time. Twinkling H2Os really brought this piece to life and those swaying bits of coral add the movement this piece needed.

Coral.  Why don't you give it a whirl today and see how you can use coral in your own art.

Tangling on Scraps

This was a fun project! I took a leftover piece of scrapbook paper and trimmed it down to 5"x 7".

 I trimmed one edge with a bit of washi tape.

At first glance, this section reminded me of an underwater cavern.

Of course, most things remind me of underwater scenes.

Hahaha!

So I started sectioning off what I thought might be 

a big piece of coral.

 I finished tracing it out and used my tangle

coral for the main part,

then started stacking in some tipple at the base.

 That tipple slowly evolved into my signature printemps, 

forming the base in the shape of a hill.

 I really liked the orange band across the center and thought it would be a lovely place for a school of little fishies to be swimming past!

 And underwater you are going to have a little bit of current flowing, 

especially with those swimming fish - so I added some movement with beadlines. 

Perhaps that could be some algae or reeds growing along the bottom, moving in the water.

Then I added more beadlines,  and a few more swimmers. All in all, about 15 minutes time invested in this really simple to make  leftover scrap of paper project!

Scrap Tangling

I love my Dylusions Ink Sprays. I use them all the time. I love lots of bright, wonderful, vivid color. Can you tell?

 And I never throw any of it away.

Seriously.

I have scraps that are 1" x 3".

Occasionally I will pick up a scrap 

and start tangling on it.

I try to tangle within the color. Find a patch of color and start there, then just go with whatever direction it takes me in. 

My heart tells me when it is finished. And this piece? Is finished. No up or down, no right way for it to be positioned. Just lots of yummy, colorful, tangled up fun!

Tangling the Opus

Recently the Zentangle® company released a 10 1/2" tangling tile called the Opus.

I've drawn on a couple with great results.

This time I thought I'd combine the Opus with my

first tangling/journaling love - Dylusions Ink Sprays.

 Typically I wouldn't leave the curled edges in the photo,

I would crop them out before I posted.

I thought it was worth showing you the little amount of curl I got 

for a whole lot of wet media.

 I began by using a mop brush and slopping a whole lot of water 

across the entire page.

Then I used lemon zest, fresh lime, and calypso teal

and sprayed on some beautiful color.

I spritzed a little more water just to be sure.

You see those circular places?

Those are super easy to make.

Wherever you have a good puddle of water,

point your heat gun straight down into the puddle

and watch it push the color out to the sides.

Let it dry that way and you have instant cool circles.

 I use those circle areas to make designs like this one.

I just follow the lines.

And while I'm thinking about it let me say this -

the slight curling you saw in that second photo from all the wet media -

once the opus dried it flattened itself back out.

Completely.

 I just kept tangling, following the lines of color.

 Building section by section.

 I saw someone else drawing their squid tangles in a similar manner. 

I liked it so much I tried it out. 

This is how mine turned out. 

I tried to make it look like they were swimming.

And here is my completed Opus tile. I love the way it turned out!
Just follow the flow of the color. Go on, you know you want to try it!

Daily Twinchies, Week Six

Here is my week six in the daily twinchies quest for 2015. Hahaha!  Not bad, considering there have been eight weeks in 2015 already. This week I seemed to be leaning more towards organic tangles. I tend to be doing that more and more lately.
The real news is - - - I am in Colorado! Visiting Kali, my pastry chef. Up to our eyeballs in snow. Good grief! (And if you read yesterday's post,  you know I am typing these posts out ahead of time. I just know they are buried in snow right now, and it's still snowing.) Hahahaha!

A New Venture

Last week, Mark and I went to the Bass Pro store for their annual fishing blowout. So, of course, while Mark shopped Bass Pro, I shopped the mall attached to it. In an attempt to revitalize the mall, they have added a huge art display and shopping district.

 Of the 40-50 artist's booths set up,

I went into one -

because she had some zentangley-style paintings 

and I loved the bright colors.

Her name is Michele Dobbs and she was so wonderful to me.

Michele was tangling on a ceramic cat and I started  asking her what pens she was using. Of course. Isn't that the first question we all ask - what pens are you using. Hahahaha! Michele was so nice, so helpful, and one question led to another  and the next thing I knew,  we were talking about selling my art online. Whoa!

I've never really wanted to part with any of my art before. I keep it all in notebooks, or folders, or drawers of the desk, whatever and wherever I can find a place. She seemed convinced that there is a market for what I do. I hope I can find it. That's what I'm working on now. Putting into place some of the things Michele explained to me. And this is the first piece. It's in my Etsy store. And . . . someone has favorited it already. Now someone just needs to buy it :). Scary.

Ghosty Postie #3

Similar to the past two days' posts, so I won't go into a lot of detail. Other than my eyes are almost shut and I'm about to fall off my chair. Ugh. I hate flying.

Started with wet paper and added some spritzes (?) of bubblegum pink - Dylusions Ink Spray. I did this totally backwards. I sprayed the pink first, then added some Lemon Zest. Apparently that make bits of ugly green. Who knew???

Time to salvage some paper. So I added water and some more color. Let it run, and bleed, and move. Then I blotted it.

And I was happy. Finally. This one was a bit more work than I like to get involved in. I like these projects to just come together because they are more fun that way. 

I think this is what I drew on this piece of paper. If you cut off the top inch of paper. Which I would have when I took it out of the sketchbook. If this isn't what I drew - too bad, you get to enjoy it anyway :). It was so much fun to do! And sadly I think I am out of ghost posts to make. Oh well. Thanks for checking in with me as you read my crazy posts. I'll be back home soon and everything will return to normal. I think.

Underwater Steampunk?

Underwater steampunk? That was my husband's comment when he saw this piece in progress - that it looked like underwater steampunk. How did I come to this end result? So glad you asked.

I must apologize because I totally forgot to take a photo of the before page. Recently I came across an excellent sale on Twinkling H2Os and had to order several colors I didn't already have. Cause you know you have to do that when there is such an awesome sale! It's one of those unwritten art journaling rules. Anyhoo, when I unpacked my order, I pulled out my favorite Strathmore Watercolor Journal and tried out all the new colors.

Just in case you've not used H2Os before - let me give you a tip. Consider it a bonus in this post. About 10-15 minutes before you want to use the colors (or even longer if you can be patient) take the tops off the jars and spritz in some water. I use a pipette and put 3-4 drops of water into each pot. Then I have this lovely little bottle of Ox Gall liquid (don't even ask) from Holbein. I add 1-2 drops of ox gall into each pot. Then let them sit. The mica and the pigments have to have time to hydrate, otherwise you will only pick up color from the top of the pot. It will not have all those lovely little bits of mica which is really the part that makes the H2Os twinkle. The ox gall speeds along the process, enhances the flow of the H2Os, and just makes your painting all around more awesome!

Once my lovely little pots of bold, shiny color were hydrated I used a paintbrush to stir them up. When you have a wonderful thick syrupy goo the H2Os are good to go. I used a watercolor page to test the colors. This is what I used for the base to build my drawing on. As you can see I really had no design in mind, I just started laying in bits and pieces of tangles to flow with the colors. See how those coral pipes flow along the lines of the pink and red? And the printemps (clams?) fill in blocks of pink and yellow?

I truly had no end goal in mind. I just kept adding cool tangles until I felt like the drawing was finished. Someone commented recently that they struggled with leaving white space, with feeling like they had to fill in the entire area with design. Sometimes I do that like in this post (OK, disregard that statement, I haven't posted that picture yet. Oops!) and sometimes I just stop when it feels right.

Then I struggled with the same dilemma I always struggle with - do I shade and highlight? I genuinely liked the way the whole thing looked and think it would have been fine left as it was. I didn't know how shading and highlighting would work on the H2Os. They tend to give you a slick feel which makes surface grabbing kind of tough. I started with a graphite pencil for shading, but quickly gave that up for a pale grey Pitt pen. I used my white General Chalk pencil for some highlights, but when I smudged with my white tortillion the highlights all but wiped away. So most of the highlighting you see came from a white gelly roll pen. I do like the difference the shading and highlighting made - even though it was a stretch to make it work. 
* * * One important last note about the H2Os - and this is critical - don't put the lids back on until every bit of that lovely little paint is absolutely dry! If you put the lid on wet paint it will dry shut and you won't be able to open this jar again without breaking the lid. Not cool! I have this on good authority - not based on experience. * * *
Hahaha! Thank you for reading to the end of this crazy post. I loved making this piece of art! You know me - - - bright, vivid, and colorful are my middle names! Have I shown you my hair recently? Just re-blued last week - thank you, Brittany!!!

I am also going to use this for my Artist's Play Room post once Jenn sets up this week's link. Click below to see some amazing art!