Ringz, A New Tangle

Allow me to introduce you to a fun little tangle, that is easy and joyful to make! Ringz. So named because of all the little rings I drew  making this alien looking work of fun-ness.

I drew this in the Detroit airport during a layover flight. I needed something easy to do as I balanced my sketchbook on my lap, along with my ipad and my earphones. I had been obsessed with these little eyeballs and needed somewhere to use them, and in the Detroit airport ringz was born.

Ringz is really very easy to tangle. Start with a circle and start adding rings under that, building one below the one before it. I decided to make mine as arms extended from a central point. Then I added the little wink of an eye at the end.

I began layering them with circles of various tangles. And ringz just kind of took on a life of its own.

Hahaha! Another tangle I love right now is narwal. Ringz, narwal, and printemps were made for each other!

Here I was going for some heavy contrast, so I pulled in another tangle of mine -  patch -  and filled those large circles with it. Shading makes the big difference in this piece of art.

It's all about the details.

I would love to see what you do with ringz.  Please give it a try and let me know what you think.
Also, I am going to be in Maine for the next nine days. Hanging drapes and daydreaming in the new house. I hope to have internet next week sometime,  but blog posts may need to wait till I get back home. Have a great week!

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!

Alcohol Ink on Yupo Paper

These are so much fun to do! Alcohol inks come in a wide variety of colors now, not like when they first came out years ago. And the yupo paper is non-porous so it is exactly  what you need for this technique to work. I love the way the colors are unpredictable. They work differently every time you use them. I made about twenty backgrounds and have been slowly tangling on them. I use an XS Pitt pen, works great gliding across the yupo!  So much yumminess! I love it!
Alcohol inks are a product of Ranger.

A Little Brusho Under the Sea

I love my brushos! They give great, vivid color every time. This was a 5" x 7" scrap with some brushos left over from another project. Don't ever throw out your scraps! I just tangled up a little undersea adventure and fun! I loved the way this turned out!

Alcohol Ink on Yupo

 
I absolutely love working with these alcohol inks! I keep finding new colors,  and new color combinations. I just can't stop!

Their colors are so vibrant and fresh. I use Yupo paper. It has a plastic coating over it, making it perfect for the alcohol inks. I put the color on first, let it dry completely, then use a Copic Multiliner pen to tangle.

And I end up with this. I love it! This is 5" x 7". I am thinking a black mat and a lime green frame.

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!

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.

Pink and Blue Swirls

This project was begun a couple months ago. This is the end result. Ta-da!!!!

It began like this.

I used a 9" X 12" sheet of Canson watercolor paper,

plenty of water in a spray bottle,

and Dylusions Ink Sprays - 

bubblegum pink and london blue.

I love the colors I can get with the Dylusions - so much fun!

Some of those round places - like the blue one just below the center -

was made by holding a heat gun straight down

above a wet puddle of color - 

until it dried.

Here is a link to my tutorial on using Dylusions.

This is the same blob of color - tangled.

Look how I divided up the sections and drew patterns on them.

That's what I did with the whole sheet.

Wherever I felt tangling needed to happen - it did.

This section is on the right, about halfway up.

This section is towards the middle,

but for the life of me I can't tell if this photo is

turned the wrong direction or not.

Just keep tangling and pretty soon 

you will turn this . . .

. . . into this.

I promise!

If I can do it - you can, too.

All you have to do is start.

And if you don't have Dylusions - 

I started with a simple watercolor pan set

from the school supply row in Wal-Mart.

They make some pretty beautiful artwork, too!

Turning Old into New, Diva #195

This week's Diva Challenge is a bit of a fun one! And the old becomes new. Take a favorite tangle, one I use all the time, and make it new. Change it up. Change the structure.
Kind of reminds me of a Bible verse :). Romans 12:2 actually.
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
The Diva Challenge was fun this week. I took popsicles and urchin - which are normally fill patterns for me - and turned them into a gridlock spectacular!  Hahaha!
I plan to do more of this kind of drawing. Heading out of town soon for a few days. I hear Disney World calling my name. I like to go sit in a hotel room and draw for a few days,  depending on theme park food to keep me alive. And ice cream. And jelly bellies if I get to Downtown Disney. It's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it!

More of Those Cute Little Twinchies

At least I think they are cute little twinchies! Two inch squares of awesomeness. Oh! And some beautiful color also!
My eyes are doing better today. We think I was having problems with allergies. Who knew there was pollen when half the country is getting ready to face snow? Yep! Pine pollen in sunny Florida. Yet another reason not to live in Florida. That and the killer hot summers! Did I mention I love snow?

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.

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.