Tangling an Opus

This one was fun!

Zentangle® HQ makes a 10.5" tile they call the Opus.

This is it. 

The other side is blank and is the side most people

choose to tangle on. Not me, I opted for the back

side with the Zentangle logo and Maria's beautiful

hand lettering around the outer edge.

To begin, I used two colors of Dylusions Ink Sprays - 

Bubblegum Pink and London Blue. 

Once that was good and dry,

I started tangling. Mostly I used a Sakura Micron 005

and a 0.1 Copic Multiliner. 

When I completely finished, I went back and used

some basic dimestore colored pencils and

added shading and color pops for interest. 

I think I will go back with a white gel pen and add

some highlights on the black areas. 

But you guys are special and you get this version instead <3.

What are you tangling up today?

Small, Medium, and Large

 Recently on Zentangle All Around -

my Facebook group -

guest poster Yvonne Westover challenged us to tangle the

same basic piece of art in different sizes.

 I began with a two inch tile - a Bijou from Zentangle.

Some call this a twinchie.

I decided to go with the wreath shape

and picked some basic organic tangles to use. 

I was surprised how much I could fit into a

small two inch tile. 

 Next I moved on to my middle size in the grouping.

This medium size is about 4 inches across.

Same organic tangles, just with more

attention to detail.

This is where the challenge ended -

with small and bigger -

but I wanted to carry the challenge another step.

I pulled out a 10.5" Opus tile and got to work.

This one took me a couple nights to complete.

I used the same tangles - 

printemps, flux, pokeleaf, and tipple.

To complete the piece, I pulled out a

red gelly roll pen and filled in some of those

little tipple. Zing! I loved the bit of color!

And last, I shaded the flux.  Nothing else.

Just the flux.

I love the way this tile ended up.

You never quite know going in how things will turn out. 

Why don't you give it a try?

Take 3 different size tiles -

or draw 3 different size tiles in your sketchbook -

limit yourself to 3 or 4 tangles

and give it a whirl.

I would love to see what you do.

Feel free to post your art at

Zentangle All Around

on Facebook.

Splattered Opus

I love these inks! In case you hadn't already figured it out :). Dylusions Ink Sprays on an Opus tile from Zentangle. Lots of spatter and spray and color. Can't wait to start tangling this one!
Tomorrow morning I fly to Colorado to visit Kali. I have pre-scheduled the weekly string for next Thursday,  other than that I won't be able to post till I get back home on the 10th.
If you follow my Instagram, there might be some photos there along the way. Have a great weekend!

Stacking in a Wreath

 Here's another stacked and tangled wreath.

Thinking you might want to try one of these,

but don't know where to start?

This is a photo of a wreath I posted last week. You can see the simple steps. I started with a plate and a bowl, which I traced for my strings. Then I just started sectioning off pieces and tangling them. The stacking technique comes into play as you continue building the wreath.

Add a little shading and before you know it - you have a tangled wreath stack that's pretty amazing!
This one is on a 10.5" Opus tile from Zentangle®. It works on any size, start smaller if you need to.

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!

Tangling in the Round

There is a wonderful tangle artist named Michele Beauchamp. She is also a CZT and I have followed her work online for two years now. Shelly lives in Australia and does the most exquisite linework. (You should go google her right now and look at images.) Recently she tangled a piece in the round and it was so beautiful that I wanted to give it a go myself.

I drew this a couple nights ago while watching reruns of M*A*S*H. (I don't believe I've ever drawn something this big in one night before.) This is the unshaded view. I hate to shade, but I figured this piece deserved a little shading.

So I added some very basic shading in a few areas. What a difference it makes! Can't wait to frame this piece.
Why don't you give tangling in the round a try? You might just fall in love with it. A friend of mine called this piece - stacking on steroids. Yep, pretty much! Hahahaha!
Zentangle has these cool large tiles now. I tangled this circle piece on a 10.5" square official tile called the Opus. I used microns, a Sharpie fine point pen, graphite, and a tort. 

Opus #2

Over the past couple weeks I have posted bits and pieces of this artwork on facebook and instagram with the promise of a blog post to follow. Well, here it is.

Zentangle recently came out with some new tiles they call the Opus. It is a 10.5" square tile of 100% cotton, fine artists paper. I enjoyed drawing on the larger tile, but won't be carrying them in my store for two reasons:

1. At $22.00 for five tiles, I don't feel they are cost effective, and
2. I haven't figured out any easy way to ship them, while keeping the shipping cost low, and have them packaged safely to prevent bends and creases. 

However, I did purchase some to play with. I posted the first Opus tile I made here. Well, shoot. Apparently I haven't blogged that yet. Well, here it is anyway. Shoot! I can't even find a picture of it. I guess I'll have to blog that another time. I have too much going on in my life. I'd like to be bored for awhile.

Moving right along. The first Opus tile I did - the one I can't show you right now - was done with microns alone. For this second tile I wanted to see how the tile held up to wet media. I used my peerless watercolors and a water brush. In case you aren't familiar with peerless, they are sheets of paper with concentrated color on one side. You dip your water brush onto the paper and it picks up the color that you then paint with. So, ultimately not a lot of wet on your paper and they are easily portable.

While the color looks amazing - peerless are bright and wonderful - the tile itself didn't hold up all that well. I had a lot of pilling and abrasion on the paper, even though there wasn't a lot of water. I just kept filling in bits of color till the entire tile was covered.

When the tile was totally dry, I gently brushed as much of the pilling off with my fingertips as I could and . . . 

. . . began to tangle. I filled in large spaces of colors with a couple different tangles.

Then I went back in the open areas and started filling in with a new pattern called Arukas.

Interesting story. Arukas is easy and fun, but I was really concentrating hard filling in those areas. Making them carry over under tangles and connect on the other sides. I concentrated so hard that I had a blood vessel in my left eye hemorrhage and cause lots of pain and ugliness. At that point I decided to call this tile completed. Ta-da! Opus #2 done. 

My eye is better. All healed up now. It did look quite nasty for about a week. Still doing eye drops for it, but the white part of the eye is no longer the color of that hidden Mickey up there anymore. 

So there you go. Blogpost done and hitting 'publish.' Happy New Year, everyone!

Diva Challenge #127, DuoTangle Time

The Diva's challenge this week was to take two tangles - cirquital and opus - to create a tile. No additional tangles, just those two. Above you can see the tile I made today. Now, let me show you step-by-step how I made it.

I wanted to lay some color down in the background and decided on this particular template/stencil because the circles mimic the shape of cirquital. 

When I was taking a gelli plate class recently, I covered the desktop with brown craft paper. I have just left it in place so I don't have to worry about making a mess. I used an apprentice tile for this challenge. I placed the tile on the desktop, angled the stencil over it making sure all the corners were covered, and used painter's tape to hold the stencil in place. I've noticed that the tile underneath doesn't move as long as the stencil is firmly in place.

I decided on two ink colors. I used the pink ink first and  . . . 

. . . just tapped a layer of color over the top of the stencil. I was going for a touch of color, not complete coverage. Then I took a paper towel and dabbed the color off the stencil.

I used a Brilliance ink pad for the second color. I just really like the shiny, sparkly look I can get with the Brilliance pads.

Then I tapped blue onto the tile through the stencil. I went for a heavier coverage with this ink. If you notice at the top left corner of the tile, you still catch glimpses of the pink underneath.

Remove the stencil and clean it. Then lift up the painter's tape and see what you've got. I really like the circular effect made by the stencil and was curious to see what it would look like once I started drawing the cirquitals.

I placed some circles on the tile, and decided to make them all double ringed. You'll notice that the center one on the left is a bit wobbly.

I noticed that as I started adding some texture to the rings, some of that wobbliness started to disappear.

Completed the cirquital tangles . . .

. . . and started the opus. What a cool name for a pattern! Opus! Reminds me of Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County comic strip. Wasn't the penguin named Opus?

Sorry. I digress.

Anyhoo! I drew a bunch of opuses :smile: and auraed everything in sight.

Then last of all, I shaded with a pencil and a tort. Cirquital and opus. What a great combination! And speaking of great combinations -

Berkeley Breathed and Opus

 That would be Opus!

 

 In case you can't read this one, it says, "I have an outty bellybutton, which means I have to be ever vigilant that it doesn't unscrew and let my butt fall off."

Did I mention that I got sidetracked and just spent fifteen minutes with google reading Opus/Bloom County comics?

 A somewhat blurry (but the best I could find) 

Opus and Bill the Cat!

 A tribute to Schroeder and Snoopy.

Peace, out!

* * * * * * 

Back to serious business, check out the Diva Challenge here to see all the awesome artwork people are posting. And, it isn't too late for you to give cirquital and opus your own rendition!