A Fun One to Draw

I don't remember now who was drawing in this shape, but I really liked their artwork and thought I'd give it a try. So much fun! I've drawn several of these in various sizes. From 2" square up to almost 10" square. The only thing that changes is the amount of detail you can include. And the amount of dangly things you can add. And it's a very forgiving kind of drawing.
Still in Colorado.  Today's high is supposed to be 27˚, the low is supposed to be 18˚. Did I mention I live in Florida? 

Bijou. It's What's New in Zentangle®

Bijou. A two inch square tile - commonly known as a twinchie. In the realm of all things zentangle, these are Bijou tiles. Bijou is a little snail that came home from Paris with Rick and Maria several years ago. They named these tiles after Bijou. You can see a drawing of him - or her - on the back of each tile. The nice thing about a twinchie is you can tangle one up in a short amount of time. And as I soon found out - they also handle color very well. These are the first four I tangled.
Frankie is over for a few days so posting may be sporadic until next week. Just so you know. 

Bijou Diva Challenge, #179

There's a new kid in town.  In zentangle town, actually. And he's a little squirt! Twinchie sized, actually. Two inches squared. Two inches of tiny, awesomeness, packaged and name Bijou. And the Diva's challenge this week is all about Bijou's twinchie awesomeness. I figured - what the heck! I could totally dangle up some Bijou-twinchie-fun! And here it is!
Head on over to the Diva's (Laura's) page here and check out all the Bijou fun!

Retreat to Paradise

 Retreat to Paradise, a getaway for people curious about the art of zentangle! Kali and I went to this retreat in April and I am just remembering to post photos. I streamzoo-ed a few while we were there, this is a more comprehensive showing so to speak.

 We stayed in a beautiful Double Tree high-rise located on the bay. This is the view from our balcony. 

 The ocean was literally right outside our doors. Kali took advantage of the beach every chance she got. 

 It was even beautiful at night with the moon shining on the water. We could not have had a more beautiful venue.

 Classes were incredible! Canadian artist Cherryl Moote walked us through her tangled garden, as well as deconstruction of tangle patterns.

Our gardens that we drew were long and narrow. Look at my pictures and pretend they are attached to each other. Three shots to get the whole thing in.

I haven't added any more color because I am afraid I'll mess it up! I just love it! This was so much fun and I've come home and made literally dozens of garden pictures since this class.

 Zenspirations' Legend - Joanne Fink - was also there. Her new book Zenspirations: Dangle Designs had not even been released yet, but we were thrilled to receive copies which Joanne autographed for us.

This is the dangle design I started in our class. I finished it at home and colored it with Tombow markers.

CZT Cris Letourneau taught a session on shading, using her new book Made in the Shade. (Sorry, Cris, I have no idea why I don't have pictures of you teaching.)

 As much fun and instruction-filled that classes were, we still had down-time to walk on the beach and enjoy the feel of wet, squishy sand between our toes.

 I don't know who built this pyramid, but it was built strong. It lasted, even when the waves came in.

That's my daughter Kali walking on the beach, talking on her cell phone. Drawing tangles in the sand. That's my girl!

Extremely zoomed in photo - taken from our room on one of the top floors of the hotel - through the sliding glass doors. Haha! Mooka on the beach!

I shot this picture the first night we were there. Turned it into a scripture photo this morning. This verse seemed to be just what I needed today. 

* * * * * * * * * 

Retreat to Paradise is coming back to Melbourne April 4-6, 2014. Registration will be open to the public before long. If you are interested in more information, check out the website located here.  It is going to be so much fun! I hope to see you there!

New Dangled Drawing Complete - I Think

A couple nights ago I posted the line drawing of my most recent 'dangle.'

Kali and I went to a class taught by inspirational artist Joanne Fink. She had copies of her new book available for us. It's called Zenspirations Dangle Designs. Joanne took us through the fine points of dangle study.

I started this drawing in her class, worked on it some in the hotel room, and finished it up here at home last week. A couple nights ago I added color to it. I think it's finished. For now at least!
You can check out Joanne Fink's books at amazon. com. Zenspirations Dangle Designs is due out June 1, 2013. Pre-orders are available. You just can't beat a sure thing, so order it now :).

Dangle Designs

You may recall that recently Kali and I attended the Retreat to Paradise where we had some awesome fun and got to learn from some incredible teachers!

The instructor for our second session was the very unique and distinctive Joanne Fink. I loved her book Zenspirations, where she had one page dedicated to dangling. I was so excited to hear that Joanne was going to be at the retreat with copies of her new book Dangle Designs, which isn't even available to the public yet. We each got our own copy :).

In class, Joanne took us through the steps to creating our own dangled pages. It is so much fun and there's really no wrong way to do this. Above is a project I started in class and finally finished up last night. At least as far as the black and white version goes. Now to add some color - cause you know I'm all about the color! Thank you, Joanne! You rock!

Beads of Courage

I am running a little behind with this particular challenge, but it's important enough that I want to post it anyway! Laura was celebrating Artoo's second birthday - yay!!!! Happy Birthday, Artoo!!! Laura introduced us to a wonderful program called Beads of Courage. This is a charity that helps children with chronic illnesses tell their story of courage and strength along their medical journey. Each bead represents something the child has been through medically - a test, a poke, a needle, a procedure, an appointment, use of oxygen, you get the idea. Their beads show their courage through the incredible journey they have been on. So, Artoo, happy birthday, buddy, here are my beads for you!

To learn more about Beads of Courage and to see all the beautiful offerings of beads to Artoo, please go here.

Floating on the Bottom

How's that for a depressing post title? Hahahahaha! Seriously, I wish I was a scuba diver! We used to spend a couple weeks each summer in the Florida Keys. The boys would snorkle and look for lobster. Kali and I would swim in the pool and shop :). A couple years Mark had an underwater camera and was able to shoot some pictures of fish. I've never been down there swimming, but if I could - I imagine this is what it would look like - all zentangle-y :).

When I was at CZT training this past month, there were a couple ladies there that had large artbooks with pages filled with every pattern type imaginable. When I got home I knew I wanted to give it a try. I got a little side-tracked along the way and came up with this, so I will give it another try soon. I built this on a 9" x 12" sheet of Bristol from a Strathmore pad. I started with the pokeleaf at the bottom and the pokeroot in the adjacent corner. I thought fengle would make one awesome starfish, so I did that next.  I just started adding elements here and there.

When I'd get stuck, I would start adding in some color with Pitt markers and Copic markers. Then I realized that ixorus would make some awesome swimming creatures and I kept adding indyrella around the bottom.

My favorite element is definitely that fengled starfish with the danglies and springkles! It also has a little rounding enhancement.

More color added in - when I got to this point I thought I was finished.

Silly me! There was still some room to add in some popsicles (hahahaha!) and those dandelion-looking floaty-thingies. Add a whole bunch more color, and voila! Floating on the Bottom! Just because I can :).
So much fun! I will definitely be doing more of this real soon!
The challenge this week in the Artist's Play Room is ~ juicy! Beneath the seas, lots of water, lots of bright juicy colors - it's just what Jenn ordered up this week. Check it out here and join in the fun!
I am also trying to link up to Serenity Now where Amanda hosts the Weekend Bloggy Reading. You can share your best post of the week and check out other bloggers' fun posts! Why don't you head on over and join in the fun?

String 010 at Tangle Patterns. Com

Here is the string we got at Tangle Patterns this week. It was shared by Anne Marks.

This is what I did with it. The watercoloring was fun - splashing some paint around :). Then I tried out a couple new, mixed with a couple old, patterns: camelia, ziggy, cruffle, dangles, and crescent moon. This was a lot of fun! I am working on a steampunk drawing now, using this string. To grab this string and get to tangling visit Tangle Patterns here.

Dangles and Vertical Patterns

So, I'm practicing, drawing, and learning as much as I can about this interesting art of zentangle. When I started researching, one of the first things I did was scour amazon.com looking for books on the art. 

One of the first books I grabbed was Zenspirations - Letters and Patterning by Joanne Fink. This book has a lot of great ideas and step-by-steps for frames and lettering. And, on page eleven,  Joanne talks about dangles and vertical patterns. In this style you use geometric shapes as building blocks for your patterns. You can use a lot of different ideas in dangles. Just give it a shot and draw whatever comes to mind! The top photo is my first dangle. My only one so far. I drew this in my smash journal. I think next I am going to draw one on a zentangle tile and see how that works out. For those of you who aren't familiar with these tiles - they are 3 1/2" squared. I am going to have to be pretty creative! Stay tuned! In the meantime, why not try a dangle of your own? email it to me and I'll post it here on The Creator's Leaf!