String #11 for January 11th

 I tried several times yesterday to make a post,

but Photobucket was down and so many of my photos

were missing. 

I didn't want to draw attention to that.

And it seems I have lost 11 subscribers since yesterday.

I don't know if that is because the blog looked so messed up yesterday, or not. 

I do apologize, but I have no control over Photobucket.

That is where all my photos are stored.

They have me totally at their mercy.

At lease it is back to normal today.

Above you see string #11 that I posted for January 11th.

From top to bottom I used - scallops, rixty, and florz. This was a fun string to tangle up. I love rixty, though I rarely use it. I need to rectify that situation. I need to work on those black sections and figure out how to make them more uniform.
If you should want to play along with our String Symphony - one new string for each day of the year -  then head on over to Zentangle All Around at this link and send me a join request. Hope to see you there!

Quick Stacks

My life is consumed with books. Literally.  It is rare for me to sit and tangle just for myself. This piece was just for me. In a little journal I made, I intentionally did not shade this piece,  so the graphite wouldn't ruin the adjacent page. 
From top to bottom: flying geese, bits of TootsieMoon here and there, florz, All Boxed Up, netz, and curlz.
Here's hoping you have a great weekend,  and that you make some time for yourself!

Quilted Challenge #35 - Thanks, Joey!

Joey's challenge this week was to tangle something quilt-like. With tangling that is a really easy thing to do. Pick any pattern in a grid format . . .

(photo borrowed from google)

. . . and tangle away! For my quilt I used a basic florz pattern and worked from there. The quilting lines remind me of barbed wire, I may draw a step-out for that. Nothing to it really, very simple. Shading rounded out the sewn lines and gave a little puff appearance of quilt batting underneath. The color comes from Dylusions Ink Sprays. The quilt border itself is a piece of digital scrapbook paper. It really pulled my easy little quilted tile together and made it complete. 

You can check out all the quilted tangles on Joey's page here. (Any time you see pink lettering on this blog - just click on it and you will be directed to a link with more information.) And please feel free to add your own quilted tangle on Joey's page. She (and the rest of us) would love to see your work!

String 029

This past week's string challenge (I am running late) was shared by Sue Zanker, hosted by Tangle Patterns. I finished this up in the hotel, so really no editing is done or anything 'fancy' to this tile. Posted totally as is, photo shot with my phone. Tile displayed on standard hotel bedspread :). String challenge 030 coming up next!

Painting to the Sound of Rain

Yesterday was a pretty scary day here in Maryland. Plenty of rain and wind and snow and did i mention rain? Courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, now known as Superstorm Sandy - the worst storm in the history of the United States. Kali and I rode out the storm in Maryland as we waited to hear if she would be able to take her entrance exam for the pastry college today. And while I waited - I watercolored.

I began by drawing my outline. I left my circle template in Florida (can't believe I did that!), so I scouted the hotel room for circles to trace. The smaller, inner circle is from a hotel water glass :) and the larger, outer circle was made by tracing the lid of the ice bucket :). You gotta do what you gotta do! Then I divided the area into sections.

Tangling was the easy part. Then I stippled the heck out of the center. I did something similar once before - except that turned out to be a flower. This looks more like a math project gone wrong. OR a fun math project!

The project I was working on for my class called for a prismatic approach, so I drew a string in and around my sections and background . . .

. . . and began laying color. The thought was to make my focal point stand out from the background by my color choices. Of course I used my Derwent Inktense Pencils. The only way to go with watercolor. Well, not really, but it's my preferred way because the colors you get are so bright and vivid and intense. A waterbrush and pencils. Easy peasy.

For the most part, I tried to separate the colors where the string line made divides. Didn't always accomplish that, but I tried.

I figured the central focal part would be the hardest, so I did all of that first. I went with variations of purple, pink, and blue because I really like the way those colors look together. I have actually had my hair all these colors - one at a time, not all at once, although I'm not totally unfond of the idea. 

Then I picked out yellows and greens to do the contrasting background. Once this was dry, I went back to my copic multiliner and added the penwork shading. All shading and detail work was done with this multiliner. It's always a challenge for me to figure out shading on color - the black penwork is the way to go! This was a fun project, not hard to do, and I was very satisfied with the results. I am not one to be able to draw awesome pictures of flowers and ladies and animals and landscapes, but I can tangle me up a bunch of artwork! Throw some bright color on there and I am one happy lady sitting in the midst of one scary, scary, scary hurricane! (And I still have the heater set on 82, trying to warm up! Florida, oh how I miss you!)

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!

Just a Little Practice

When I went to the CZT training last month, Maria and Rick gave each of us a wonderful bound journal to take notes in. Maria refers to these as field journals. I wish I had understood a little better how we would want to keep these and use them and refer back to them over and over and over. I would have written more legibly. I would have been more precise and deliberate with my sketches. Since I've been home I have taken time to work on some tangles in my journal, some that I had been having problems with. Here you can see that I traced a tile twice and worked on several patterns. I think I will continue this - as a quick reference/refresher - and continue labeling as I go. Just a little something I worked on a couple days ago. Where do you keep your notes? How do you recall the patterns and what they look like? If you are traveling and don't have easy access to the internet and Linda's tanglepatterns.com, this might be one answer.

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!!!

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!

Love the Beach!

I was looking back through books, getting my artwork ready to head to Rhode Island tomorrow morning, and I came across these two pages in my smash journal. I haven't posted these before. I drew these back at the very beginning - this was one of the first drawings I did using zentangle patterns.

Some of the patterns I used are florz, keeko, shattuck, a variation of diagonals, tidal, and cheesecloth.

The color came from Pitt Artists Pens. This was before I learned about Derwent intense pencils - haha! cause I would have totally used those if I had them then!
And speaking of Rhode Island, I am leaving in the morning. I will be back home next Thursday. I don't know if will be able to post while I'm gone, so if you don't see anything new here for a few days - that is why. I hope to see you here when I get back!

In Honor Of . . . My Dad, Zendala Dare #17

The Zendala Dare's challenge this week is to honor someone who has been touched by cancer - either still fighting, or someone who lost the battle. She gave us this template:

and asked us to keep that someone special in mind as we tangled this mandala. 
I thought about that one for a few minutes. In my circle of family and friends, my mom, dad, mother-in-law, nephew, an aunt, several uncles, a sweet photographer friend, several friends at church, even myself have all heard that doctor's diagnosis of cancer. I think the one that impacts me the most is my dad. He battled cancer for years, running tests every 3 months for 4-5 years. Dad died a little over six years ago - not from cancer, but from a heart issue. Of all the illnesses my parents went through, from Dad I received his cancer genes, and from my Mom - her diabetes. 
This tile was fun to work on. In his healthy days, Dad loved being out on the water. Riding around in his boat, putting across the lake, throwing a line out for a fish, setting up a trout line, fishing for cod off the docks of Newfoundland, or casting a net for shrimp - it didn't matter as long as there was water. This tile just reminds me of water and boats and maybe some fishnets in the background. 
Thanks for a fun challenge, Erin! Head on over to The Bright Owl and check out the Zendala Dare. It is not too late for you to post a zendala of your own - in honor of someone you love!

Newness on the Horizon

Last week I posted about some watercolor fun I was having. I took one of those tiles and drew this sunflower. Lots of things going on in my life right now - kind of stressful. There is a lot of things I need to be doing and not enough time to complete them all. Last night I was just feeling the stress a little too much, so I stopped everything so I could draw. Used several new patterns - found a couple I really like. If you aren't familiar with it, this art style is called zentangle.
I found out about zentangle in April - just 4 months ago. I love it! Since then I have drawn everything you see on this blog - with the exception of 2 or 3 posts attributed to other artists. I've established a facebook page for The Creator's Leaf, and set up this blog. I've been trying to streamline things, looking ahead towards branding, and wanted some changes. My friend Cindy (who is incredibly awesome!) is re-constructing my blog, making it more streamlined, more pulled together.
Saturday I fly to Rhode Island where I will be attending training from the founders of Zentangle. When I come home I will be a certified zentangle trainer - a CZT. Kind of nervous about the training - I won't know a soul there. But it should be loads of fun and I hope to learn alot! So expect some new things soon. Some newness on our horizon. For sure! And a big thank you! to those of you who follow this blog, or follow The Creator's Leaf on facebook, you are truly appreciated!

It's All About the Pink!

This week at Inspiration Avenue, Cindy of Cottage Remnant is hosting the challenge. (She's also been very busy revamping/re-constructing my blog :). For the challenge - Cindy chose Perfectly P!NK, and if you visit her blog you will see why.

This is my finished project. A little different from what I'm used to, but I like how it turned out :). Here is what I did.

Supplies included Studio G ink pads (Wal-Mart for 97 cents,) dabber duos (had these for years - I was surprised they still worked,) a stippling sponge, and a template for the cup. I placed the cup template onto my 5" x 7" white cardstock and lightly dabbed first the green ink, then the pink ink inside the cup opening. Then I used the dabber duos to pop some dots on the cup. (All that mess rinses right off the template - no worry.)

Next, I removed the template and made sure my inks were dried by blasting it for a couple seconds with my heat gun. I found the quote online - google searched for coffee quotes :). A simple black 01 micron pen was used to tangle some patterns - florz, some swirls, and maybe some weave.

Then I started adding in some color with copics:

• YG11 mignonette
• RV10 pale pink
• YG13 chartreuse
• RV14 begonia pink
• C3 cool gray
• W5 warm gray
• G00 jade green.

A shot of all the supplies I used - except for the black micron :).

Lastly, I outlined the coffee cup with the micron. And, popped a little logo in there under the handle. Easy to do and a lot of fun! You should check out Inspiration Avenue where everyone is posting about P!NK, you could even post some artwork of your own!