Art on a Shoe String! - Spirography©

 Spirography©!

My new word for this artstyle and I'm 

putting a © on it! Hahaha!

Actually spirography is a real word that has

to do with breathing measurement and

breathing capacity.

I believe it correlates to the zentangle art form

due to the relaxation and calming effect

your breathing and tangling can give. 

Hence, spirography! 

Here is where the  Art on a Shoe String  part comes in!
To get started - grab your old spirograph  from the attic, or basement, or eBay,  or the local Good Will, or thrift shop,  or dollar store, or the nearest kid!  Seriously, there are so many places to find a spirograph for next to no money - or free! Then just have fun and go for it!

 I used my regular tangling pen -

an 0.1 micron.

(Some people use colored pens,

colored pencils, gel pens, 

anything with a narrow tip.)

For paper, I just used card stock.

Nothing pricey in this art project at all!

Not as easy as I remember it being as a kid.

Or maybe we just kept right on drawing

over those slipped lines and 

loved it anyway.

Hahaha!

I had the hardest time.

The inner ring that I had my pen in

kept slipping above the top edge of the

boundaries ring.

 I was getting really discouraged at this point.

But I am no quitter. Hahaha!

So I kept trying.

And trying. Ugh.  Actually, 'ugh' was the word for the day.

I looked through what I had and found one red loopy line that wasn't too bad. Then I added some tangles. Nothing too fancy to get started.
In the photo just above, the red line is the spirograph part. The black lines are the tangling I added. You can see that the tangling takes your eye away from the boo-boos. Spirography!

 Today I pulled my extras sheets out of the

trashcan, seriously, and tried again.

This one wasn't too bad.

I lifted my pen too soon and moved the ring.

Then I realized I hadn't completed the line

but it was too late to figure out how to fix it.

 I'm going to show you step by step

how I tangled this.

I started with some simple perfs (little circles)

around the spiro-ed section,

and made two pencil circles around the whole piece.

A couple simple lines divided this into 

more sections.

 Then I started joining the lines together

with triangles. Easy peasy.

 I turned the triangled boxes into a

somewhat version of knightsbridge.

 I thought about leaving the piece at that point,

but it didn't seem finished.

So, I added another circle around the 

outside and a little flying geese.

I liked how the piece looked at that point, so I called it complete and shaded it. I love shading - although I hate to do it. Spirography! I will keep working on this art style. Because it is so much fun! And so affordable!
Art on a Shoe String comes from the idea that art doesn't have to be expensive to be fun and enjoyable! I hope this series of posts help you realize that you can make beautiful art without it being costly.

The Eyes Have It - Joey's #33 Tangle a Mandala

There's a cool blog that posts a weekly tangle challenge. Made By Joey has something for every level of tangler. I don't always get my artwork posted on Joey's blog but I always try to complete the challenge. This eye mandala was drawn for her 33rd weekly challenge. I got it finished after the next week was already posted and am just now getting around to linking it in.
This is a free-hand mandala that I worked on while I watched Merlin on Netflix. I don't know if that is where the 'eyes' came from or not. Morgana was being her usual creepy-deepy self, so it is entirely possible. Haha!
Also, I haven't shaded the mandala yet because I am hoping to add some spiffy color to it. But of course!
If you would like to check out Joey's weekly challenge just click on the pink link with her name at the start of this post. This week's challenge is to tangle something quilted. I am going to be all over this one!

Mandalas With Margaret Bremner

Last week I attended a wonderful, fun-filled couple of days in Paradise! Paradise Beach in Florida that is, at the Retreat to Paradise. A fast-packed three days learning new techniques with some fellow tanglers - what an awesome time we had! This was the retreat's second year being held, and I'm fortunate to say it was my second year being there. 
We had some real heavy-hitters for instructors! Margaret Bremner has long been my go-to artist when I look at mandalas and whoot! whoot! Margaret was one of our instructors! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to be in her class and learn from her. Over the next couple posts I will be able to show you a bit more of what I learned, but for today I wanted to share our first project. This one was a bit more structured than the other mandalas Margaret taught. As a retired homeschool mom I fully understand that different people learn in different ways. One of the things I enjoyed about Margaret's teaching was that she taught to different learning perspectives. She walked us through this project step by step. Draw this, do this, make this happen here. As I post the other two projects, you will see that the teaching direction took different forms, allowing us to take what we learned in making this mandala and make the other two with less direction. Pretty awesome stuff! 
In building the above mandala, I learned a new tangle. One I don't think I've ever seen before. It's called crossview and it comprises that center focal point. Crossview was designed by Daniele O'Brien, CZT, and it was a lot of fun to draw! I love how dimensional the shading makes it! You should go to Daniele's blog link in pink just right up there and give it a go yourself! Now to finish up those other mandalas and get them posted!

Trying to Find the Groove

Yesterday I showed you the start of this 11" x 14" piece I'm working on. This is destined to be cut down into fifteen separate ATCs for a swap I am participating in. In this one view you can see three brand new tangles - merryweather, stella, and crezn't. These pink links will take you to step-outs for two of those. Stella hasn't been released (I don't think). It is the pretty poinsettia looking flower in the center. 

This bold band across the middle is something I made up. I was trying to draw Caren Mlot's new tangle spokes and got lost in the first two steps. It isn't a hard tangle, I just wasn't paying attention. So I just kept drawing and that dark band from lower left to upper right is what I came up with. You can also see some printemps, Sandy Hunter's cruffle, cirquital, Sandy Bartholomew's msst, Jane MacKugler's henna drum, knase, and a few random other tangles. 

In this photo you see more of merryweather and crezn't. The fan shaped tangle near the top right is called S Wich Blade and it's by Carol Ottaway. She's an awesome artist, you should check out her blog here.  That dark wavy line and circle tangle is beanpodz from Neil Burley. A little footlites, more stella, a little munchin, and a variation of rain. 

I hope to finish this up today.  Still having some issues today with creativity, but trying to push through. Trying to find my groove once more. Thank you to everyone who sent me warm wishes and encouraging words, and thank you to those who offered to pray for me. You are loved and appreciated!

Playing With Rollin'

Two nights ago I posted an ATC with a new tangle I'm playing with called rollin'. It started off as part of crescent moon, but then it just kind of took on a mind of its own and turned into this rolling fun thing. It reminded me of Michele Beauchamp's spiral, so I drew that and started filling it in. I am going to keep playing with this one some more :) cause it's fun! And as a side note, I am starting the drive back to Florida today. It's an 800 mile drive, so please keep me in your prayers. I'd appreciate that a lot :).

Watercolored Sunflowers

For several months now I have been following the artwork of Dion Dior. If you don't know who she is you are missing out on some amazing artwork! Seriously, you should stop right now and go look at her blog. She gets the most vibrant, brilliant colors and you know I am all about the color! I found out she teaches an online watercolor pencil class through Joggles. You can see their course offerings here. I signed up for Dion's class and already I am behind. Oh well. I am working on it!

Since this is a purchased class and a livelihood for Dion, I can not go into detail about the instruction but I can show you my first assignment. I began by sketching out a picture. And since I am really getting into zentangle® more and more, I used tangle patterns to make my actual shapes. 

It's called zentangle inspired art - ZIA.

Once I got my sketch the way I wanted it, I began filling in color with my water color pencils. I never know if that is one word or two. Water color or watercolor. And then depending on where you live it could be water color or water colour. 

My pencil of choice is the Derwent Inktense Pencils. I love the vibrancy and depth in the colors!

You are really able to get some 3-D feel with the layers.

And they come in so many colors!

Once I was satisfied with the piece, I flicked a little color around the paper and called it done. I still have two other assignments before I complete week one. And week two has already been assigned. And on Tuesday we get week three :). Wow! Thankfully, Dion doesn't mind if we work at our own pace. Thank you, Dion!!!! (I am a horrible example for my own students.)

It's a Celtic Challenge

Judy from Creative Doodling offered us a challenge - a celtic knot challenge! A freestyle celtic knot challenge. You can see the link to her instructions here. 

Step One was to draw your string - draw one at random, with no specific directions other than to have it connect together at the two ends of the string.

Step Two was to draw the contours inside the shapes created by your string.

Step Three was to aura the outside of the entire shape. Apparently I forgot to take a photo of the next step. Step Four was to connect the lines at the gaps, creating over and under sections. (I opted to round some of the corners to smooth out some less than perfect lines.) Step Five was to rub out your pencil line and tangle/doodle in the sections. This was the fun part! I tried some new patterns and some old.

Next I started adding some onamato in the string.

Completed the onamato with a row of perfs around the outside.

Then I shaded. I was happy with my celtic knot at this point. But, you know how I am. Everything is better with color - even if only a little pop of color!

And so I added a little color with my copics. This was a really fun - and easy - challenge to complete. Judy has just posted challenge number 2! If you want to participate this week, click here to get the instructions. I am going to go check it out now and get an earlier start this week!