Thursday String Idea #10

 Welcome to the Thursday String Idea.

This week's string is a basic spiral

that you can turn any direction you want.

Upside-down, rightside-up.

It's your call.

To print the string at the correct size for 

a 3 1/2" tile, click here. 

My spiral is flipped from what you see in the string. And I opted to use my spiral on a larger size than the 3 1/2" square. Some of the tangles I used are: popsicles, ixorus, indyrella, antidots, printemps, flux, sedgling, and sanibelle. All can be found on tanglepatterns.com .
Spirals are fun, sometimes a challenge, but always fun! I would love to see what you do with this week's string. If you haven't tried one of them yet, this would be a good time to start. Click here to be taken to a printable page.

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. 

One Step At a Time, APR #83

This coming week's challenge at the Artist's Play Room is sea shells. Jenn lives up north where it's cold and freezing and possibly covered in snow, so it is no wonder she's thinking about warm waters, soft ocean breezes, and beautiful sea shells. And I haven't participated in awhile, so I thought I'd just jump right in!

Here are a couple sea shells I've been working on this past week. For those of you new to the art - this is Zentangle®. Creating beautiful pieces of art by drawing a series of structured lines. Just relaxing and enjoying yourself, letting the worries and stress of the day take a back seat for a bit. In the above two photos, the seashell spiral takes center stage to a plethora of flowers and other boardwalk/beach kind of items. These shells were super easy to draw and literally only took a few minutes to make. The longest past was coloring in the dark areas!

My last couple posts have shown you bits and pieces of this 11" x 14" tangle I am working on. It has taken me longer than usual to complete the drawing due to a lot going on in my personal life this past week. I finally finished most of the drawing last night and have started adding a bit of blue.

This piece will eventually be cut down into 16 ATC pieces for a swap I am part of. The swap theme is Black and White with One Color Accent. The last sheet I did had pink as the accent. I went to blues for this one and I'm just getting started with the color. Thought I'd show you a preview - mainly because I haven't posted in a couple days and I didn't want you to think I had dropped off the face of the planet.

Here is a look at the entire piece - with just some beginning pops of color. I will post another photo when I'm finished with the accent color.
Please take a minute to visit Jenn's blog here, where the week's challenge is posted. You have an entire week to artfully craft your interpretation of the sea shell - in any art medium you desire - and post a link to your work. I know Jenn would love to see you there! (And I love the name of her blog - Just Add Water, Silly!    I have a new art journal ordered, waiting for it to arrive so I can start on a more cohesive project. Stay tuned :) .

Making the Most of My Day

I've been having some issues with my daily life. Some questions I'm trying to answer. Some peace I'm trying to find. Some quietness in a life that is too full of stuff and doing. I had gotten lax in my tangle time each day. Now I realize that tangle time is exactly what I must make time for each day.

This is one thing I can do without thought. Without feeling guilty because I'm not doing something else. Without worrying about how the house is going to get clean. Without worrying about what I have to fix for supper when I don't like to cook. Time for just me. Time to wind down and relax. Time to zone everything else out and just enjoy my time alone. Time with my pens and my paper.  Ahhhhh! Getting in the zone! It's sweet!

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!

Under the Sea

I've always been fascinated by the sea. I grew up in Newfoundland, Canada, right on the ocean. My dad would take me with him to the docks where he would fish, sometimes for hours. I remember the library on the navy base where we lived had a great book about the ocean. It was huge, and every page was printed in full beautiful bright color. A sentence on each page would identify the fish, plantlife, coral, whatever was depicted. I checked that book out every time it was available and would only return it when I had to. These days I would simply buy the book on amazon so I would always have it.

I started drawing this ocean life yesterday. I like all the patterns. The spiral shell idea came from a zentangle pattern from Michele Beauchamp called spiral. I saw the pattern and wanted to do something with it - it's a really pretty design! My picture just kind of took life from there.


I used the patterns: squid, popsicles, spiral, fescu, an unknown pattern - I can't find its name - the top flower with the pink in it, and added some tall reeds (perhaps a variation of mooka.) The color comes from Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens and Faber-Castell watercolor pencils which I used dry. It was incredibly satisfying to complete this project - good memories all the way :).