INKtober #zensations #artistrove #stillman&birn

 This was a really fun piece to put together for

INKtober!

I used a piece of scrapbook paper

and tangled right on top of it. 

Yesterday's prompt was the tangle scallamp, 

that would be the twisting one right up

through the middle. 

To that I added the tangles Printemps,

crescent moon, and blox. 

I used a black Sarasa fineliner from Zebra Pens

for the drawing, a Uniball Signo white gel pen for highlights, 

and inexpensive Walmart colored pencils for the shading. 

Love how it turned out!

That Sarasa works great on every type of paper,

laying down some wonderful black color!

Today's tangle is an original from 

Zentangle® HQ called punzel. 

Punzel is always fun to draw and it 

pretty much looks different every time I

draw it. Probably isn't supposed to,

but it does. Hahaha!

I added in a little Diva Dance

and my own tangle All Boxed Up.

For this piece I used some new-to-me

pens from Artistrove called

Epiphany XB-Chrome.

Love these pens!

They go down smooth and glide across the paper!

Speaking of paper - this is in my 

Stillman & Birn Zeta Series Sketchbook. 

Shading is with a regular graphite pencil,

smudged with a tort. 

INKtober is going on all month.

To get involved, you can head over to my FB group

Zentangle All Around.

Knock on the door and let me know you are there.

We are closing in on 3,000 members,

so there is lots of inktober art happening.

A Little Airport Tangling

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you already know how much I love color. Bright color. In your face bold color. I love it!

You will also know that we recently moved way north. Thankfully it doesn't reach 100-105° F here - hallelujah - but it does require me to make a monthly trip down south to take care of my mother. Which means a lot of airport time. I knew that my last trip would include a two hour layover at Reagan International and I wanted to  stay busy. I pulled out my Peerless Watercolor swatches  and a Stillman & Birn sketchbook and got busy.

I used a water brush and touched it to the swatches - seriously that's all you do - and laid down splotches of beautiful color until the page was filled. At the airport, I found a table at the food court  and pulled out a Sharpie Fine Point and got busy. 

If you look at each section of color, you will easily be able to see what I did. One tangle in one section of color. There are a couple places where I carried the crescent moon tangle over into another section, but mostly it was one tangle per. For this piece of art I used: diva dance rock 'n roll,  crescent moon, tipple and printemps, and that's it.  Easy piece to create even if it does look a little harder than it really was to make. I have a product review on peerless watercolors here.  Bright, bold, and portable. Just exactly what I need them to be! SaveSave

In a Swirling Tide

Lately I feel like my life is a swirling tide.

A lot of changes going on here in the house,

combining the content of two rooms into one,

making a bedroom for the Frankles.

Taking care of issues for my mother,

trying to figure out how to get out of town for a few days,

making plans for our big trip to Newfoundland

in two months,

just a lot needing to be done.

And I'm tired.

 At night, I sit on my chaise and draw.

Lately I've been re-watching the re-runs of M*A*S*H.

That whole team was so funny!

And even though I've seen the shows over and over

throughout the years,

I still laugh. Sometimes laugh really hard.

And chuckle.

 Then I recall that my dad fought in the 'Korean Conflict.'

Never understood why he called it that,

but they call it that in the show, too.

And I see the conditions he fought under,

and I thank God that he was never wounded.

(Although the patients at the 4077 have a 97.8%

chance of survival once they reach the M*A*S*H unit. 

Learned that last night.)

And since Hawkeye wasn't really in Korea,

I'm thankful Dad was safe.

 So with this piece, I used my Stillman & Birn Zeta Series sketchbook 

and just started by placing random black circles in a big wad - 

central of the paper.

Then I start connecting them with 4 swirling lines.

Next came the black and white contrasting fill-in sections.

Then the printemps and the flux . . .

 . . . then the Prismacolor pencils.

They give some really nice colors, go down smoothly,

and blend really well.

As for the swirling tide that is my life - I am starting to see some relief. The studio reorganization is coming along nicely. Mostly.
(I guess I should have taken some measurements before I got too far along in the process. But things will work out.)
Now, if my new Dylusions Paints get here tomorrow as planned, I will be ready to head to Orlando in a few days, to relax, draw, and paint in a Disney hotel for awhile. And eat ice cream and jelly bellies. Can't wait! I need a break from the swirling tide.

Spring Colors With the Steps

I started this piece a few months back

and am just now getting back to it.

Let me walk you through the making of it.

One night I had a short window of time to work with, so I decided to set up a few backgrounds to tangle on later.  I really, really love everything I know about Stillman & Birn. Their sketchbooks are wonderful! Heavyweight pages, smooth surfaces, a sturdy cover, and they come in a range of styles. My favorite is the Zeta Series. 180 lb. paper, smooth surface, natural white. Does well with a lot of water/wet media.

 So I used my Zeta series 6" x 8" sketchbook.

I began by placing paper under the page to

keep any wet/color from bleeding/running

onto the next page.

Good thing, too, because I decided to make the next page hot pink!

I spritzed the whole page with water,

then used two colors of Dylusions Ink Sprays.

I sprayed Vibrant Turquoise and Lemon Zest on top

of water and let the colors start running.

Don't worry about that little curving of the paper.

It settles down flat as the inks dry.

 Then I sprayed more water and tilted the sketchbook

from side to side, and back and forth

to get the colors mixing and covering the page.

One trick I've learned is this: 

where you have little specks of color, little dots that

spray out to the sides of your color shot,

spritz some water onto those blank areas

and you will be surprised how much color is actually

there that you don't really see with the eye.

This will give you some lighter areas of color.

And wherever you have too much color, or the color is too dark, 

or you are starting to get concerned about mud,

blot it with a paper towel and lift some of that color.

I keep a roll on my work table.

Actually I buy the pack of 12 rolls from Wal-Mart when they are on sale.

 This is what I ended up with. 

Remember I just used two colors on this page,

yet I see yellows, blue, turquoise, a darker blue,

pale green, spring green, and darker green -

all from the two colors I started with.

I love Dylusions Ink Sprays!

 An important thing to remember is these colors are not watersafe. If you use wet media on top of this page, the colors may very well start moving and blending again. As long as you remember this, you can work with it. It really isn't that big a problem.

To start building my page, I used two stamps strategically placed.

Hahaha! What was my strategy? 

I had no idea. I just like these two particular stamps.

 Then I set the sketchbook aside for a couple months while I worked on other things. Two nights ago I picked it back up and added these tangles. Just look for pops of colors, sections, blobs, areas, whatever you want to call them and add tangles in those sections. I started with the larger circles - the Frankles calls them balls - and made three sections with those. Fleurette, cruffle, kuke, and my own matahari. Then I added some bubbles, tipple, and printemps around them.

Last night I kept adding in those sections of primtemps, bubbles, and tipple, connecting them to the three sections of balls, tieing all those sections together. I even added a free-floating section over the butterfly. Did a little shading and I'm done. Super easy piece to make, the colors are awesome, and I'm happy with it! A nice mixed media looking piece created with ink spray and a Sharpie fine point. Just those two things. Nice spring colors make me smile! And you can so totally do this yourself!

Another Dutch Diamond Tangle

A short time ago, I posted about a tangle I designed called Dutch Diamonds. Well, I pulled it out again and drew this recently. This is in my square Stillman & Birns sketchbook. I love that book so much I recently bought three more of them! What are you working on today? or this week?

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.

Ghost Post #2

Yet another ghost posting from cyberspace. In case you missed yesterday's post (or today's still - depending on the use of flight meds and patches) I have flown north to help Kali pack up and come back south. So I am providing you with some pre-planned posts. Ghost posts, so to speak.

Of course, everything good starts with a Stillman & Birn Zeta series sketchbook. It's the only way to fly. So to speak. (My eyes are blurry. Hope my spelling and typing are working.) Stillman & Birn and some awesome Dylusions Ink Sprays. Now all I need are some jelly bellies.

One little tip I would offer when working in a journal, place a larger sheet of paper under the one you're working on to catch the overspray. Spritz that page with a bit of water. You can find a little spritz/sprayer bottle at your local dollar store. Or Michael's where they cost a little more than a dollar. But not much more.

For this page I used lemon zest and calypso teal. Spritz your colors on right over the water. Let them blend for about 15-20 seconds. When I am making a page such as this I try to use at least two colors. I stayed with just two as this is a smaller page. If my base page was a larger one - say an 8" x 10" or larger - I would use three colors. 

You could add a little more water at this point if you feel you need the colors to move more. I was happy with the way they looked, so I rolled the page with a paper towel and it looked like this above.

I ended up with bald spots - which I felt left the page incomplete. So I added more color but not in the way you would think I'd add it. I just spritzed water around the edges and it picked up the fine droplets of color that the original spraying left on the paper. Dylusions ink sprays are not water fast, so if you add wet product - more ink or water - the colors reactivate and you can move them around some more. Or blot and lift some color off the page.

Getting closer. Yay!!!

I felt like it needed a bit more contrast, so I added more lemon zest. Love that color! And I dried the whole thing with a heat gun.

I am not sure where I'll end up with this piece. I added another layer with a couple stamps. And some staz-on ink, which doesn't run or mess up the Dylusions color. Hopefully you are able to make sense out of my post. The meds are really kicking in and I feel like I'm fading. The good news is that I should be in Maryland with Kali at this point - packing ourselves into oblivion. Whoa.

Ghost Post

For the next few days I will be on the road traveling. Actually in the air. Flying. Yes, I am wearing my patch and about to fall asleep. Hahaha! And, yes, I have my medicine ready to prevent panic attacks on the plane. Suffice it to say - I don't travel well.

It is time to bring Kali back to Florida. Yay!!!!!!! And in preparation for the no-blogging-time-allowed due to packing Kali up, I am pre-posting a couple easy posts. Awhile back (should that be one word? or two? Awhile or a while) I prepped some pages in my Stillman & Birns Zeta sketchbook. Of course I used my Dylusions Ink Sprays! For this particular page I spritzed the whole page with water first, then spritzed a little bubblegum pink and fresh lime. You can see where I just sprayed them right onto the page.

Then I spritzed more water right over the top of everything. If you let it sit for about 15 seconds, the colors will start blending and mixing. If you hold the page up - tilt it - the colors will move and make drips - or runs - down the page. You have to be careful of mud. Watch for it. Muddy colors you might get if watching you do not. (That's my Yoda impersonation for the day. Thank you so much flying medicine!)

Where you get too much color (and you will), just roll some paper towels over it to pick up the excess. Or you can blot with the towels. If you roll you may get the awesome pattern that the towel has on it - transferred to your paper. You can see that in the above photo. Look in shadow portion. See it? (Come to the shadow side. We have cookies. Or jelly beans. Which are almost the same thing.)

Sometimes the blotting or rolling will take away too much color. If you are a color freak like I am - that will be a problem. Easily fixed. Just spray more color. And water if you need it. 

Here is an example of blotting. Just use a tip or a fold and pick up the color you want to get rid of. If you work in a journal the color may pile up in the binding. You can blot there as well. Yay!!! I may have done that a time or fifty along the way.

You will know when your page is complete. You will just look at it and go  . . . wow! that's pretty cool! You can either let your page air dry, or if you are satisfied with where the color is at this point - dry it with a heat gun. Or a hairdryer. Either works fine. Of course you could always huff and puff over it, but you might get into a hyperventilation issue. So. Do not try this at home alone. Enough said.

This is what I eventually tangled on it :).

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!