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!

Underwater Steampunk?

Underwater steampunk? That was my husband's comment when he saw this piece in progress - that it looked like underwater steampunk. How did I come to this end result? So glad you asked.

I must apologize because I totally forgot to take a photo of the before page. Recently I came across an excellent sale on Twinkling H2Os and had to order several colors I didn't already have. Cause you know you have to do that when there is such an awesome sale! It's one of those unwritten art journaling rules. Anyhoo, when I unpacked my order, I pulled out my favorite Strathmore Watercolor Journal and tried out all the new colors.

Just in case you've not used H2Os before - let me give you a tip. Consider it a bonus in this post. About 10-15 minutes before you want to use the colors (or even longer if you can be patient) take the tops off the jars and spritz in some water. I use a pipette and put 3-4 drops of water into each pot. Then I have this lovely little bottle of Ox Gall liquid (don't even ask) from Holbein. I add 1-2 drops of ox gall into each pot. Then let them sit. The mica and the pigments have to have time to hydrate, otherwise you will only pick up color from the top of the pot. It will not have all those lovely little bits of mica which is really the part that makes the H2Os twinkle. The ox gall speeds along the process, enhances the flow of the H2Os, and just makes your painting all around more awesome!

Once my lovely little pots of bold, shiny color were hydrated I used a paintbrush to stir them up. When you have a wonderful thick syrupy goo the H2Os are good to go. I used a watercolor page to test the colors. This is what I used for the base to build my drawing on. As you can see I really had no design in mind, I just started laying in bits and pieces of tangles to flow with the colors. See how those coral pipes flow along the lines of the pink and red? And the printemps (clams?) fill in blocks of pink and yellow?

I truly had no end goal in mind. I just kept adding cool tangles until I felt like the drawing was finished. Someone commented recently that they struggled with leaving white space, with feeling like they had to fill in the entire area with design. Sometimes I do that like in this post (OK, disregard that statement, I haven't posted that picture yet. Oops!) and sometimes I just stop when it feels right.

Then I struggled with the same dilemma I always struggle with - do I shade and highlight? I genuinely liked the way the whole thing looked and think it would have been fine left as it was. I didn't know how shading and highlighting would work on the H2Os. They tend to give you a slick feel which makes surface grabbing kind of tough. I started with a graphite pencil for shading, but quickly gave that up for a pale grey Pitt pen. I used my white General Chalk pencil for some highlights, but when I smudged with my white tortillion the highlights all but wiped away. So most of the highlighting you see came from a white gelly roll pen. I do like the difference the shading and highlighting made - even though it was a stretch to make it work. 
* * * One important last note about the H2Os - and this is critical - don't put the lids back on until every bit of that lovely little paint is absolutely dry! If you put the lid on wet paint it will dry shut and you won't be able to open this jar again without breaking the lid. Not cool! I have this on good authority - not based on experience. * * *
Hahaha! Thank you for reading to the end of this crazy post. I loved making this piece of art! You know me - - - bright, vivid, and colorful are my middle names! Have I shown you my hair recently? Just re-blued last week - thank you, Brittany!!!

I am also going to use this for my Artist's Play Room post once Jenn sets up this week's link. Click below to see some amazing art!

It's a Fanta-Sea World

Wow! It's really hard to blogpost from the iPad. This type looks huge. If it seems like I'm screaming at you - - - sorry. I don't mean to. 
I finally finished the underwater drawing we started in Melbourne, in Meredith Yuhas' class. Twinkling H2Os, some sea salt, microns, graphite, white charcoal, and a gelly roll pen. That's all it took to make this beautiful, underwater fantasy world. So much fun! 

Feel the Flow

I drew this tile awhile back. I've long had a fascination with the undersea world. When I was growing up in Newfoundland, my dad would fish off the only dock on the Navy base in Argentia just about every weekend. He fished for cod and flounder, and would often catch a puffer fish. It seems like they called them blowfish back then. I remember him taking me to the base library when I was about ten years old and we checked out this wonderful, big, full-color book of ocean photography. For almost a year, I kept that book checked out, renewed and renewed again. I loved it! My dad never got to see any of my drawings, but I know that he would have loved them! And he would have shown them to every single person at his church.

An Under the Sea Posting

This one definitely fits the "no more than three tangles" rule. Squid, sedglings, and indy-rella. Favorites when it comes to underwater drawing. Swimming across a card of blue variations. Already swimming its way to its new home. I hope you enjoy it!

Practicing

I am trying to work on some homework assignments for an online class I'm taking - getting further and further behind. (And it's only week two.) BUT - I want to post something every day - if I can. I started this last night. It's in my CZT field journal. I am trying to have a go at every official pattern. Some of the new patterns I tried here are meer, orlique, and cyme. Aura-leah and springkle are not official zentangle patterns, but I like them a lot!

Tangle Fun

A tile I put together yesterday. If you follow my blog, or my facebook page The Creator's Leaf, you will have noticed that I've been doing a bit of creative work with paints and ink sprays lately. This particular tile started off looking like this:

I am having a lot of fun making these different tile. A couple people sent me messages to ask if I would actually be able to tangle on these tile. They were concerned that the paints, or inks, might be too dark and that you wouldn't be able to see the drawings. As you can see in the first photo, that is not the case. The tangles actually show up quite well. The final colors in the tile were actually darker than what you see in this shot just above - I wasn't completed with it when this photo was taken. Once the tile are completely dried, they are ready for you to tangle any design your heart desires!

Here is a link to the post where I showed step-by-step directons for how to make these tile. You really should give it a try! You know you want to!

String 018 Challenge

This week's string came from Sandy Hunter, an amazing CZT. I liked this string as soon as I saw it. Lots of possibilities and flowy lines here. (My spellchecker doesn't like that word 'flowy' :).

The lines just reminded me of gardens and fairies - so adding Tinkerbell was a must! I turned the flowy lines into vines and flowers, it just needed a little pixie dust to make it perfect.

Tink, pixie dust, a little glittery tile magic and it's all ready to hang in my little fairy garden. String 018 - brought to you by the magic of pixie dust. (And by Tangle Patterns.)

Blind String 02

A couple weeks ago, Laura offered a Diva Challenge of using a blind string. Just take a pencil and a tile, close your eyes, and draw a string. No conscious thought, just draw. Well, it was so much fun that I decided to try it again. Here's my string above.

And here is my completed tile. I started with that crescent moon in the middle and the tile just kind of took on a life of its own. I don't think I tried any new patterns, just familiar ones.
Now, time to work with Genevieve's mandala templates! Yay!!!

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?

Using a Blind-Sighted String

This week's Diva Challenge is to use what Erin calls a "blind-sighted" string. Just close your eyes and draw a string. Give up your control and just draw blind-sighted. The above shot is a somewhat blurry (but the only one I have) picture of my string drawn with my eyes closed. Hmmm. What to do with it, what to draw?

That was so much fun! I must do another! I started with ixorus and that just laid out a plan for me. It's really a challenge to decide what tangles to use where. A challenge to make them flow together. Many times when we draw a string we already have an end in mind. It's hard to mindlessly draw a string with our eyes open. So. Close your eyes and give it a try. And when you are done, visit over here and link it up to the Diva's Challenge. You'll get some wonderful feedback! And while you're there, check out some the blind-sighted string drawings and leave some love :).

String Challenge 015

  

The string challenge this week was fun! The past few weeks have been so busy with revamping my blog, getting ready for the CZT training, then going to the CZT training, then coming home and trying to get caught up at the house - that I am falling further and further behind on my challenges. I think this will at least catch me up with Tangle Patterns' challenge. 

Above is the string Linda gave us, provided by Texas CZT Courtney Frantz. You can see what I came up with. I tried some new ideas - for me - some new patterns and just a little color pop. If you are interested in joining the string challenge, check it out here. We get a new string each week and it's always fun!