Finished at last! I have been remiss about posting on my blog because it seems that my every waking minute outside of my full-time job was spent on completing this wall mural. I call it my Big Z, being the biggest Zentangle I've created to date. It's also my Tangle Teaching Tree and trademark of my new home studio/classroom. Now classes can commence, and I want to share with you the progress of this 4-month project with a few photos.
Read the whole post and see my challenge question that could win you a prize!
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| I finished the mural on Memorial Day 2015. |
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| In February, after surface prep, I had a blank slate to work on. Kind of terrifying! |
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| This is the "string" or sketch based on my favorite cottonwood tree located in Hygiene, Colorado at Pella Crossing. The sprinkling of nine birds are imaginary. |
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| The focal point of my wall includes some of my favorite tangles, Betweed, Mooka, Poke Root, Nzeppel, and an owl whose contour was totally inspired by Ben Kwok's artwork. |
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| Proof that I labored evenings after work until I was just too exhausted to continue. Good thing that I always had my rescue dog, Bellina at the ready! |
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| The four-bird branch on the long wall. I was pleased with my use of "Organza" to symbolize birdsong. |
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| Detail of the main tree trunk. Notice the little surprise; the polymer clay beetle I made last summer at a workshop I attended during the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators annual conference in Boulder, CO. |
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| I love this undulating texture of this portion of the tree trunk. It illustrates the importance of shading your Zentangles. More of that topic to follow in a later blog. Watch for the video of my shading demo. |
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| Here another example of the depth shading brings. NOW MY CHALLENGE TO YOU. I will send a prize to whomever is first at guessing my shading technique (obviously not done with a pencil or I would be there another year working). HINT: some of my botanical illustrator students may be familiar with the technique. Send me an email to my Botangle@outlook.com with your guess. I will reveal the answer and winner in a new post. The prize: my favorite Zentangle book, "The Book of Zentangle" by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of the drawing technique and worldwide movement. |
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| I look forward to many hours of rewarding classes in this space. |
Annie, your tangle teaching tree is just gorgeous!!! Thanks for sharing all the beautiful details. What a wonderful space to teach classes in! I wish you much success and hope to meet you someday and see your classroom and tangled tree in person!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Sue. I'd love to see you here too!
DeleteWhat a great place to teach. I do not have a studio so this would not be possible for me. Have no idea what you did for shading. Only idea I would have comes from when my son was into model railroading. When wanted to give something a weathered look would dilute black paint and would dry with a gray appearance. Your students will love this.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Donald! I do hope that my students benefit from this - that's the whole point. Your guess about the shading is a good one. But sorry. Not the right answer.
DeleteYour masterpiece is stunning, Annie! Congratulations on its completion and thank you for sharing it here so we can admire it from afar. What a beautiful space in which to teach & learn!
ReplyDeleteI am going to go out on a limb and guess that you utilized a powdered medium to achieve your gorgeous shading. Loose graphite, perhaps? Something that could be applied & blended with your fingers as well as a variety of tools, from brushes to sponges, cotton balls to cloth.
Hi Amy,
DeleteYou are the winner! Though a bit generalized, you guessed right. In botanical illustration, we sometimes use the historical and traditional medium of carbon dust. So it's not graphite, but definitely a powdered medium. I made my own by sanding charcoal sticks and pencils to get enough to paint on the wall with various sizes of brushes. It went remarkably fast (almost like shading on a paper drawing) so I was able to complete the shading in a reasonable amount of time.
Send me your address and I'll send you Rick and Maria's book! Congrats. Even if you already have the book, you can share it with someone wanting to learn about the history of Zentangle.
OH WOW!!! I am so excited to have won!!! Thank you!!! I do indeed own The Book of Zentangle already, and it is one of my all-time favorite books. I will either donate this copy to the library at the high school that my children attend (my daughter established a school Zentangle Club, so students there are indeed aware of Zentangle), or pass it on to a new friend who wants to learn to tangle with her teen daughter. smile emoticon This is SUCH a special book!!! Just a week and a half ago, on the last day of school, my daughter and I gave a personalized copy to the Zentangle Club faculty advisor, who is very dear to us. It is a joy to give this book away! And the copy I get from you will have a special story behind it!
DeleteTHANK YOU, Annie!!!
This is awesome! What an amazing job you did - would love to see this in person.
ReplyDeleteThank you and EXACTLY!
DeleteAnnie, Superb job. It would be an open book for your students to see various tangles illustrated. Great inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dilip. That's the point. Can't wait to try it out!
DeleteThanks, Dilip. That's the point. Can't wait to try it out!
DeleteThe Big Z wall is a series class in the making... Each week student could come and learn the tangles and components that make it fabulous. Stunning
ReplyDeleteThat's my plan. Thanks!
DeleteAnnie, this is just fabulous! I love every inch of it - spectacularly done! Your name and face are ringing a bell...are you from CZT 10? Anxious to hear about the shading, and wondering what pens/paints you used. The wall looks shiny...did you work on semi-gloss paint? It's altogether perfect.
ReplyDeleteHi Ann, yes, the walls have a bit of a sheen due to the semi-gloss surface. And YES, I'm a CZT 10. Glad you like it!
DeleteHi again, Ann. If you scroll down through my blog, I mention the paint type and drawing tools I used to create the wall.
DeleteI love this so much, thank you for sharing your process. I bet your arms got really tired doing the higher tangles. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteKaren,
DeleteI'm glad you noticed the physical labor involved. Thus the tired evenings when I needed to just stretch out on the floor with my dog! I used a chair/stool to get to the high places, but some parts were still pretty awkward. Being a perfectionist, I couldn't be sloppy about those in spite of their location.