New Floral Tangles

 There are a lot of new floral tangles online right now.

I like tangling gardens - so I thought I'd try a few.

AND

I hadn't done much drawing since my surgeries,

so this turned out as a nice surprise.

It's 5.5" x 8.5".

I drew most of this yesterday and sat down to finish it and shade it this afternoon. Shading just adds so much to your art. I know. I know. It's boring and tedious. Yes. It is. BUT it makes such a difference!
Some of the new tangles I tried are: alcatraz, barbet, orchid, plum lei, biskus,  daidai and anooka. I also added some zinger, beadline, and mooka.
A really fun piece to draw! In case you are new to my blog - anytime you soon pink words, that is a link. Easy to remember. Pink = link. You're welcome.

What a Difference a Shade Makes

I started this drawing quite some time ago, but didn't like the way it was going. I put it away and decided last night to bring it back out and work on it again. In the past, I would have left it unshaded, but recently I've been working on my shading.

Even though I like the drawing unshaded, it looks so much more complete by just adding a bit here and there. 

It's as simple as laying down a line with the flat edge of a pencil and smudging it with a tortillion in the areas you want shading. Since this is zentangle, and there is no right or wrong, forget light sources. Shade the edges you want to be darker. You will notice in a couple spots I used a white gelly roll to add some highlights. There weren't many places to do this since I used a white sheet of paper as my base, but I used some highlights where I could and it really makes a difference in the overall appearance. Shading really does make a difference. 

Shading Makes the Difference

I actually drew this garden about a year ago and posted it then. I pretty much hated to shade anything and rarely ever made the effort. Last week I went to a class taught by Meredith Yuhas, one of our CZTs, and Meredith taught us a quick way of shading that I really locked on to. Last night I pulled this picture back out and tried out some of the new things we learned.

You know that old saying what a difference a day makes? Well, I can pretty much attest to that! In fact, Meredith taught us how to shade and highlight this whole thing and it took me about 5 minutes tops.  In fact, I was so impressed with the difference that I photoshopped a collage of the two - - -

- - - for comparison purposes. So, when in doubt, think about this little experiment of mine and pull out those graphites, and white pens, and get busy. Thanks, Meredith! You are the bomb! For sure.

54º This Morning? Let's Make Some Fall ATCs

I have been having a really hard time getting into this making fall ATCs. Primarily because it's been in the lower 90's for the past week or so here in Maryland. This morning when I woke up it was actually cool in the apartment. According to my phone app it was 54º outside. Nice!

Those cooler temps (high in the low 70's) motivated me to make a couple ATCs. I'm going with the fall-ish color theme, and hoping whoever gets these ATCs are flexible :). Hahaha! Only four more to make, then on to the brown/black swap! Yes!

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!

Go Doodle, APR #63

The Artist's Play Room weekly challenge is up to number 63 this week. Jenn's challenge to us was to go doodle. Doodle something that didn't necessarily have to be zentangle® art, just doodling fun.

I took a grid stencil that I got from Dreamweaver and taped it on top of an ATC card, and to the desktop. You can see that I have some craft paper protecting my table surface.

My supplies included: a zentangle® ATC tile, blue painters tape, a combination tray of Colorbok ink pads, and a sponge dauber.

I used the sponge dauber you see here (I ended up not using the sponge in the photo before this) and started softly tapping out some color onto the ATC. These little daubers are easy to find in the scrapbook section of Michael's. Your finger fits into one end and you literally tap it into the ink pad picking up color, then 'dabbing' it onto the ATC. 

I ended up using 5-6 different colors from my tray. Once you have enough color and everything seems dry to touch, lift off the blue tape and remove the stencil.

In this picture you can get an idea of how the two line up and work together.

This is what I had when I was finished adding ink. I like the fall colors and the way they work together.

Then I started adding in my doodles. I love the way this turned out. Super simple to make. Head on over to Jenn's page at Just Add Water, Silly and check out everyone's doodle art. You can add your doodle, too, while you are there!

Back Home

You may have noticed it has been awhile since my last post. That was on May 20th. On May 23rd, Kali was involved in a head-on collision 800 miles from home. She was on her way to school when a man ran a red light and hit her head-on. Mark and I left right away and drove almost straight through to get to her. We stopped around 4 AM for a short nap, then drove the rest of the way. Kali is doing much better now, pretty much back to normal, and she has a new (pre-owned) car. I was gone for three weeks, got home last night. I don't think I posted this drawing before I left. I drew it the week before when we were moving Kali in to her new apartment. For those of you who knew what was going on and were praying for Kali's recovery, and for our travel time, thank you so much! We are blessed to call you friend!

A Garden to Mark the Spot

While I was at Kali's I had a bit of time each night to draw. I have really been enjoying drawing the gardens that Canadian artist Cherryl Moote taught us at Retreat to Paradise. My thought with this particular one is to add color, then trim it into probably 4 sections and make bookmarks from it. I even have a cool little lamination machine that I bought online from Overstock.com, which I have never used but it looks simple enough. Once I add color, I'll bring it back and show it to you again. Just wish I could figure out how to use a cool bookmark like this with my kindle!

Tangled on Grey

I picked up a Strathmore Grey journal. I've been seeing lots of awesome artwork on facebook that various CZTs drew on either the new tan or grey journals. I worked on this while Kali unpacked boxes and started setting up her room. I haven't shaded it yet because I may go back and add color. Not sure how that would work on grey paper. I feel a test run coming up! Thanks once again to Cherryl Moote for teaching tangled gardens at the Retreat to Paradise!

A Tangled Garden

Earlier this week, Kali and I went to Retreat to Paradise. It was an art gathering of some CZTs, and some not CZTs. A group of us wanting to further our artistic knowledge . . . and to eat some really awesome walnut chocolate chip cookies that the hotel concierge gave us every time we asked for one. It was the best hotel visit I have ever had.

We now step away from this free commercial break for Double Tree Resort's shamelessly awesome cookies to explain the purpose of our first class.

The incredible Cherryl Moote of Moote Points, Toronto, Ontario, was our instructor. Cherryl has just released an ebook about tangled gardens. She also happens to be a CZT (which I did not know before our arrival) and really had her act together tangle-wise. Cherryl walked us through the basic steps for creating this beautiful garden. We started with a blank 22" x 4" strip of mixed media paper and we started filling sections in with leaves. As you can see, I will be filling it up with wonderful Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils. And I can not wait to finish it! You will be seeing the finished product very soon. Thank you, Cherryl, this was fantastic! (I say that like she totally reads my blog, haha! You never know.)