Thursday String Idea #7

 Welcome to Week 7 of the

Thursday String Idea!

It is still Thursday for another 3 1/2 hours, so I am not late. Hahaha!

But close!

This past weekend I kicked off a new Facebook group called

Zentangle All Around.

We are focusing on tangling in the round,

and each Thursday I will be sharing the weekly

string idea with them.

If you are interested, go to Facebook and check us out.

We would love to have you join us!

Tangling in the round includes several things: round tangles, OR round tiles, OR tangling on any round substrate. Not every tangle used has to be round, there just have to be some manner of roundness included. Today's string has some curvy angles and I chose not to use any round tangles at all. Using a round string is enough to meet the qualifications.
You can print out the string template by clicking here.  The string is sized to fit a 3.5" tile.
The tangles I used are knightsbridge, cheesecloth, and msst.

Garlic and Joey

I've been playing with this shape a lot lately. (I'm so cold I'm having trouble typing. Back space, correct, go forward, repeat.) Playing with different ways to fill this shape - that totally looks like a bulb of garlic to me, for some reason. That background is a 5" x 7" pull from a gelli plate.

Joey's Challenge this week was called  The Polka Dot Tangle. Randomly drawn circles,  each filled with a different tangle. It's really good practice for quick tangles.

For this 5" x 7" piece, I used my new  Prima Color Bloom Spray Mists. I've used them before and my pens worked great over the color, but for some reason this time my pens did not work so great.  I used a sharpie fine point and had trouble filling in the dark areas. I tried shading, but the color wouldn't hold the graphite. So. Here it is. Unshaded but that's ok. To participate in Joey's Challenge, just go here and check it out. 

Tibetan Teal Starburst

This was a fun tile. Primarily I made this one to see how the ink spray would turn out. I used Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst spray. The color is Tibetan Poppy Teal. These starburst sprays are so much fun -  you get the main color, and you also get a hint of another. Here you have the teal, with a hint of blush. Tangles are rock n' roll, a partial TootsieMoon,  and cheesecloth. I really love cheesecloth.
It's been a busy day here -  organizing, re-arranging. Pretty soon I won't be able to find anything. Except Aurora. She will be hiding right here:

I told Mark we could turn this into a kitty condo. Lower level - litter box. Middle level - bed. Upper level - food and water.  Hahahaha! I love my kitty, but this is so going to be full of paint come tomorrow!

Once Upon a Phicops Mickey

Another tangle from Walt Disney World.

Once upon a time, a little girl made her first visit

to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

The little girl jumped and skipped her way through the park,

stopping here and there to ooh and ahhhh.

Characters were cool and required photos and autographs.

Attractions were awesome but required long waits in line,

in the sweltering heat,

and let's face it - not all of them appealed to the little girl.

Then she rounded a corner and came upon the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

A swirling, whirling dervish of happiness in the 

form of crazy tea cups.

Overseen by a little mouse that popped out of the tea pot

as the little girl whirled and spun and spun like crazy.

Spinning as fast as her little arms could turn the wheel. 

And a tradition was born.

(Borrowed from a Google search.) As I sat in my hotel room to draw, I thought about that little girl. Missing her immensely as she nows lives out west, making awesome pastries, cakes, and pies for a living. I thought about her favorite ride and knew I wanted to draw it next. Phicops immediately came to mind. Phicops made an awesome representation of tea cups. Add a little Mickey and it's all good.
Now if that little girl would just come for a visit, I would totally take her to Orlando to visit the Mad Hatter's Tea Party once again.

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?

When Is Enough - Enough?

Sometimes I have the tendency to overdo things. To take things one step too far. It is hard to know when to stop. So, how do you know when enough is just that - enough? In the drawing above you see a lot of negative space. Some people call it white space, except in this case it would  be green, yellow, and blue space. Hehehe!

Let me walk you through what I did here. I started with a scrap of watercolor paper - about 4" x 6". (I'm too tired to actually get up and go look for a ruler. Sorry.) I made a watercolor background with my Dylusions Ink Sprays - lemon zest and london blue. Then I made some ghosted dots with a stencil and some water. I liked the gridwork look of the dots, so I started with those and began filling in some of the dots with printemps.

I just kept adding them where it seemed appropriate. Then I added double lines - making the resemblance to tinker toys kind of the thing here. When I felt like I had "enough", I stopped. Notice that it does not cover the entire block. Not even a whole corner. I filled in a section that was irregular in shape, to give a comfortable feel to the page so far, then I left it at that and moved on.

I added some clusters of printemps out near three of the corners. Similar in origin to my tinker toys, but really quite different in appearance. Next I added some clusters of holes. A little here and there. Not overwhelming the page, just a highlight - so to speak.

I wanted to keep the number of tangles to a minimum. I am liking that whole minimalistic approach lately and you can really see it here. I connected some of the areas with tipple - those little, tiny circles. You can really do amazing things with tipple. Notice how they draw your eye into different portions of the drawing. 
I considered stopping at that point, but felt the drawing needed a bit more. So, I added more printemps in that upper right corner, as well as a segment of them in the lower right. 
It still needed a bit more, so I filled in some of the tinker toys with cheesecloth - which looks pretty much like screen! I love using it and it is such a forgiving tangle to draw. A white gelly roll pen added some highlights.
Then I stopped and looked. I left the drawing until the next day, and again looked and analyzed. The drawing felt complete to me, like it was e n o u g h. So, I stopped. Fun tangles, lovely negative space, and some warm, inviting color. When your drawing speaks to you and you are happy with it - that is when you know that enough is enough.

Poured Out, and APR #119

It has been a bit of a rough week for me. (You know, I think yesterday's post started with almost identical words. Sorry. I do know more. Honest.) So. A bit rough. I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say the week took a lot out of me. 
You ever have a week where you just don't want to get out of bed? For any reason at all. That's still me. No motivation. At all. So I am making myself go through the routine. Making myself stay busy. 
I started this drawing a week or so ago. I don't really even remember where I was. Maybe at Kali's. Anyway, I pulled it out last night and shaded parts of it. This morning as I look at it - on this day of worship - I immediately saw a basket at the lower left corner. So not planned. A basket with lots of lovely, fun, hopeful things bursting forth from it. Joy, frivolity (is that spelled right? no little red, sguiggly line so it must be), happiness, playfulness. And I think - why not? This week will be what I make it. 
So. I decide right now to make this week a better one than last week. I decide right now to be happy, to be satisfied with my life as it is. But I also decide to strive towards what God has planned for me - and I know that He wants me to be fulfilled and to be serving (cause that's who I am. I am fulfilled when I am serving.) 
How will you live your week? How do you decide - right now - to make this coming week even better than this past one?
(I am linking up to the Artist's Play Room this week. Check it out here.)

The Diva Challenge, #174

It has been quite some time since I've taken one of Laura's Diva Challenges! I got too bogged down in swaps and they were taking up too much of my time. So for now I am holding off on swaps and trying to reconnect. This was Laura's 174th challenge, wow! that's hard to believe! The challenge was to superimpose one string on top of another. To do that, I went to Linda Farmer's string page on Tangle Patterns.

I started with string 089, lightly marking those circles with pencil in the corners. I filled those in with some Diva Dance Rock 'n Roll.

Next, I took string 094 and lightly marked those lines onto the same tile. I used those basic lines as an additional string - and added a couple more - then ran them like hollibaugh, and tangled cheesecloth in the middle sections. 

Add some shading and it's all done! This was a fun challenge presented to us by Aimee Belair, CZT. You can head on over to I Am the Diva's page and check out all the superimposed string renderings and perhaps post one of your own!

One More TootsieMoon

As promised, one more tile featuring TootsieMoon. You've seen it straight, you've seen it round, and now you see it meandering. In case you didn't see the step-out for TootsieMoon, scroll down to the next post and you can see step by step how to draw it out. How to tangle a little TootsieMoon for yourself. And once again - no shading on this piece yet, because I want to color it first. Maybe. Not sure. I'm kind of liking it just like this. So maybe a little shading to come. Hahaha!
Today I also finally did some cutting on a couple sheets of handmade Japanese paper that I bought in Toronto a short time ago. I was really nervous about that - but everything turned out great. I took photos and I hope that will be a post for tomorrow. In the meantime - have fun with TootsieMoon!

Zendala Dare #94 - Happy

While Erin was taking some much needed time off, we were missing the Zendala Dare each week. Well, the wait is over - Erin is back and the dare this week included the theme of happy. Erin left the interpretation of that theme up to us. Yay!!!!!

This is the zendala template she provided us with. With the theme in mind, the first thing I thought of when I saw the template was . . .  minions!!! Cause they make me very happy!

So I started laying down lines within the template, which I traced onto a blank zendala. I knew those little round orbs around the outside were the shape I needed for little minion heads and I just took off running from there.

Admittedly, at this point my little guys were looking a lot like Homer Simpson heads, but they just don't make me happy. (Homer Simpson wearing a gas mask!)

More lines, and the minions started taking shape.

Once I got everything drawn, I pulled out the copics and started filling in some colors. And singing . . .
It might seem crazy what I'm about to say Sunshine she's here, you can take a break I'm a hot air balloon that could go to space With the air, like I don't care, baby, by the way
Because I'm happy Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof Because I'm happy Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth Because I'm happy Clap along if you know what happiness is to you Because I'm happy Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do.

Well, you get the idea, but just in case you don't - I am also including the youtube video of Pharrell Williams singing Happy, featuring the Minions - which makes me incredibly happy!
If you want to see how everyone else interpreted the theme Happy, click the link here and visit The Bright Owl. Because I'm happy . . . 

 

Last Scrap

Let's see. By this time, I should have already been in the pool a couple times, Mark should have already had the boat in the water and caught a bunch of fish. He will also be sunburnt - - - cause that's the way it works. And I expect either Mike or Phil or both will have been here, or they will be on their way to fish! And I will be sitting in the room - or on the balcony in the swing - and I will be drawing and watercoloring. Yay!!!! I can not wait!!! (I totally wrote all this at home on Saturday and scheduled the post to pop up now :D ).

More Scraps

Here is another one of those scraps. That Diva Dance at the top left corner flowed from another piece that I submitted to a book. It carried over into this corner, and I added all the rest afterwards. As you're reading this, I will be heading to the ocean and a swimming pool. And seafood restaurants, and quaint little shops. I can not wait!  I'll be taking my Peerless Watercolors (I need to do a product review on them), a couple sketchbooks, and some pens. And a swimsuit! Have a great week!

Trip to Paradise

My life just doesn't seem to slow down. I thought when I retired that life would be easier, that I wouldn't feel pulled in so many directions. Boy! was I wrong! I seriously need to learn the meaning of the word 'no' and start using it occasionally. Actually last night I did send an email to a friend who runs an ATC swap  through facebook and asked to be left out of the next swap. I have too many irons in the fire.

I just got back home last night from visiting up north. On Thursday I head south to a zentangle retreat at Paradise Beach. I can not wait! One of the fun things Jo-Ellen arranged for us to participate in is an ensemble tile swap. What you see above are the straight lined ensemble and the curved line ensemble that Zentangle® carries. I sell them in my Etsy store :). There are nine tiles in each ensemble with a running string throughout the nine. For this swap we were instructed to tangle each tile independently - that would be why they look a little strange next to each other. When we come home from Paradise, we will have 18 new tiles - from 18 of our fellow artists. Pretty amazing! And what a great way to collect artwork from other tangle artists! Retreat to Paradise? Here I come! (After I wash clothes, pack, find my supply lists and probably make a trip to Michael's, repack because I will have forgotten something. . . well, you get the idea ;) )

No Strings Attached - Diva Challenge #97

Laura's challenge to us this week was to tangle with no string. Just grab a tile and go for it! I typically draw this way anyway, so I just had fun with it!

I started by coloring my tile with some of Tim Holtz' distress stains. I'm not sure why I can't get the colors to look right in this post. The paints gave me some pretty vibrant orange and pink. Can't really see that here. Then I started in one corner and started laying down tangles.

I began with that asian fan pattern and it really reminded me of a roller coaster track. I noticed as I kept drawing patterns that my tile began to remind me of an amusement park. Perhaps you can see the roof of a lovely carousel.

I kept building on that carousel and filled in some other pieces.

This indy-rella just really reminded me of a merry-go-round on a playground. Spinning and spinning.

I really like this pattern that I used for fencing. It's called cheesecloth. It's easy to draw, it's forgiving, and it looks great. I made some breaks in my fence - maybe we could sneak in that way to go ride those rides! Do you think anyone would notice?

And here is my completed amusement park! Lots of fun to be had here. A great way to spend a day! 

This is what I have on top of my work station tonight. That little Tinkerbell tin has seen better days, but  it is where I keep the pens I use the most - easily portable, easy to access.

Last night was a late one! Didn't go to bed until almost 5 AM, not good. Just before I called it a night - or morning - I pulled out four tile and slapped some Adirondack acrylic paint dabber colors on them and left them to dry overnight. I hope to be drawing on these soon!

Please visit Laura Harms' page here and check out all the 'no strings attached' drawings for the week. You could even post one of your own!