Zentangle days 19 to 21

 As you can see, I started coloring in the middles of Casella, but changed my mind. I think I like it better shaded instead. It makes it look more like an optical illusion and 3-dimensional that way. I'm sure you could add some kind of pattern inside too, but that pattern does take some time to get through...and I didn't have the imagination after I was done. Jelly Roll started all in a row, then I started researching how other people used it and lo and behold it can float around! Why don't I think of these things? Finally, there's Undine. This one has lots of possibilities and I really have to use my noggin to make it not like everyone elses. I split it to remind myself later that I can be creative with it. For the most part, I did it how I saw other people use it, but added a little flair on the one I did on the bottom trying to make it a little more dimensional. That made me happy. I had a burst of something creative which pleases me.

Days 16 to 18

 I started off hating 2-N-5. I didn't get it. I started off small and realized that it needed to be a big pattern. I almost scribbled out the top because I was so dissatisfied with it, but I didn't. Looking at it a few days later and from a distance, I don't hate it as much. It even kind of works that it starts off small at the top and ended up bigger at the bottom. I was able to restrain myself from making it perfect and worked with what I had, and it all ended up okay! Lesson learned.  Then there was Flez. I think I picked it to make up for the previous one. It is lovely! All of these tangles I think are block fillers, but quite different from one another. Boucle' was another that ended up being kind of a cross between perfect and not. It required a bit of brain power as did Flez to make sure my swoops were going the right direction. I did have a moment where I started a like going the wrong way, but I challenge you to find it. I might be brave enough to try 2-N-5 again now that I understand it can't be the perfect and precise design I try to acheive. That's okay. I think I learned that it makes a good compliment to those designs that are.

This is another awesome reason I love having my own office at work - I can hang my OWN artwork!

 It's hard to tell on here, but those pictures aren't very big, so I have a whole lotta wall to cover. The little ones I think are probably 4X6 total. For over a year I've been staring at that photo and it has needed some friends. I LOVE those floating frames I got at IKEA. I did an art show in school were I used those frameless frames (?). I think it's one of my favorite looks. The Zentangles kind of have a life of their own and frames can sometimes hold them in too much.

Zentangle - In Living Color!

Days 13 to 15

 I like all of these! They are fun to do and fun to look at. Purk and Fricle seem to me to be tangles I would use as my starting point.

Days 10 to 12

 I always like working on Antidots. I think it captures what Zentangle is - to me anyway. Something that just takes shape, doesn't require much thought and is satisfyingly page filling! Sundoo was a challenge because I had to think about it a lot. It's kind of like an inside-out star. Shiraz. What can I say about Shiraz. Meh. Looks a bit like seashells. That's all I got.

Zentangle days 7 to 9. Took me a bit to figure out the first and last ones.

 I have to admit that I'm not overly excited about any of these. They are definitely good space fillers though, so I guess if I have a big project I might be more likely to use them. Seeing them all together though leaves me a little unsatisfied. I can't blame them though. I was looking for tangles that were similar to put together and I think I accomplished that.

I got the new Tangle-a-day calendar!

What is it? It's a calendar for Zentangle exercises. Says so on the cover. :)  I was very excited to go get this calendar. I thought I'd have to buy it online, but noticed that Carole Ohl, who designed the book and one whose blog I frequently peruse for inspiration, was from Dayton, so I contacted her to see if it was sold locally - and to my delight, it was. So I got to save on shipping costs too! Not only that, but I got one of those gift card Visa's a few months ago. You know, those ones that you think will work until you get up to the register and find out that their machine can't accept them and you have an armful of merchandise and no other method of payment? Yeah, one of those. Again, to my delight, my gift card worked!! It was fate. I slept with it overnight while I decided how I would approach it. The nice thing is, there is no expectation (which I enjoy), so while I've decided to practice a different tangle for each day and make a diary of designs, I can change my mind later if I want to do something more in-depth and incorporate different patterns into one piece. Anyway, I'm going to do my best to try to keep up. She says on the first page that you might take a few minutes each day or sit down with a chunk of time each week. I like that. Not so much pressure to try to get it all done in a day. I've already gotten to day 6 and it's only the 9th of January. Good start so far! I'll post my progress.

Here is days 1 to 3: I tried to do just strings.

Here is 4 to 6: I did all circle shapes that could be done unattached.



The thing with patterns is that they all have different names, so when doing challenges and such, you need to be able to know which patterns to use. There's no way I could remember all of them...so this might be a good place to keep them all. The other thing is that I don't like them all, so I will have to challenge myself to do it even when I don't care for the pattern. 

Shades of grey

So this one I think I'll put up on Etsy. It was a lesson though in what different kinds of pens look like. If you look closely you might be able to see that I used two different kinds of pens. One was a Sharpie pen (this thing lasts forever!) and the other was a Micron. I used different nib sizes and prefer the very fine point, but sometimes that's just not practical. The Micron is definitely a darker shade. It makes the Sharpie almost appear grey, which I don't mind too much here. It might make an interesting project in the future. My only complaint is that I can't get the Sharpie pen in different sizes. Maybe I haven't looked in the right place, but I think it only comes in Fine and Medium. I used Fine, but it's not quite fine enough for some spaces.

So, in the frame it will go (soon) and I'll load it up on Etsy. Go check out my Etsy tab at the top to see other stuff I've listed.

My initials tangled

This was a challenge I saw posted out there in Zentangle world...to take your initials and "tangle" them. I found this project very fun. I've seen other interpretations and hope to do another one with my whole name to see how it turns out.

Zentangle - #1, the very first

This was really my first attempt at this new thing I've discovered called "Zentangle". Not bad for a first try if I do say so myself. I love the repetitiveness of doing it and the freedom to just create without having to worry about the outcome. I think that's what intimidates me most about creating a new piece of artwork...the outcome. What if I spent all this time working on it and it looks awful? That's happened. I've scrapped paintings, torn out sketchbook pages (that's why I prefer a spiral bound - no evidence!). I've wasted time that I have so little of. With this, I feel like there's no expectation to the final product. It is what it is. It's the process that's the most rewarding, not the end. If it looks cool, yay. If not, it doesn't feel like such a wasted moment.

I'm scouring the internet for more patterns to use and for inspiration. I've seen some pretty cool stuff and for now am inspired. The problem with inspiration is that I think it's more of an aspiration - meaning I aspire for my work to be like that, not that you're choking on your own saliva. I've done that too and it feels ridiculous that you can't control your own slobber. Jeez. Anyway, I know I need to do less of that and more of my own thing, but that's hard when you don't really know what your "thing" is. I'm still trying to figure that out. This has been a long process for me and I feel that I get closer and closer to it, but just haven't quite reached it. I hope to sometime in this lifetime. Perhaps I'll be 80 when I figure it out - but I could sure use the money now. :) For now, I just play. Try to create something cool and hopefully sell some it along the way if not just to feed my habit.