My “Wicked Plants” Entry: Tangled Toadstool

Enjoy the “darker side” of botanicals at the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists’ exhibition, inspired by Amy Stewart’s book Wicked Plants. The exhibit is at the Aurora Cultural Arts District (ACAD) Studios and Galleries, 1400 Dallas St., Aurora, Colorado. It runs for the rest of the month ending with a special reception on Halloween.


I chose to illustrate my favorite fungus that has captured the imagination of cultures and is widespread in art, literature, and culture worldwide, the Amanita muscaria. Commonly called the fly agaric or fly amanita in English, it is the quintessential toadstool because of its audacious appearance and active botanical properties. But it's the person who flies when intoxicated by consuming even small amounts of this spotted toadstool. Bright orange to red with white spots, this mushroom screams "beware!" Though classified as poisonous, the fly amanita rarely causes death when eaten except by flies. Slices of the mushroom were often soaked in a dish of milk to attract those pesky insects to their death after they savored the sweet treat. But the fly amanita is most noted for its hallucinogenic properties, with its main psychoactive constituent being the compound muscimol. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, Amanita muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemishpere. 


This illustration is meant to be fun, rather than a serious, botanically accurate piece. I sought to convey the mushroom's hallucinogenic properties that the snail is experiencing as it nibbles on the bright magical cap. And what works better for that than the swirling Zentangle patterns that fill the background? It was quite an artistic challenge to mix the two completely opposite styles: traditional scientific illustration and the Zentangle drawing method. It took a lot of colored pencil layering on top of the pearlescent liquid acrylic by FW that I applied with different nibs and a quill to integrate the two styles. I sought to make the patterns take on an antique quality, and to do so I also distressed the surface. 

As a teacher, I am all about the process and show you with a series of photos how I got from a botanical illustration to my final "Botangle." I hope you enjoy its wickedness!

Pretty Pumpkins!

Can you believe it’s already October? Where did the summer go? I hope these "tangled" pumpkins get you into the mood for Halloween. It’s one of my favorite days of the year, holding a special meaning for our family. Our American kids moved to Germany at ages seven and nine, and they weren’t about to give up the ghoulish fest just because Germans didn’t celebrate it. No worries, Grandma and Grandpa sent seeds from Illinois, and we gave them to local farmers to grow for us. By fall we had our big bright orange “Kuerbise,” and all was well.

We got together with our American friends and carved our exotic produce (in costume of course), and the kids even went door to door for treats, explaining themselves as they went. Our German neighbors were wonderful, and adapted quickly; always eager to pop a milk chocolate bar or other goodies from their pantries into our homemade sacks. From year to year it got easier – no more explaining and better treats! I can’t help but wonder if we started something because it’s now customary to celebrate Halloween — at least in Bavaria where we had lived.

So when the air gets crisp, the Aspen gold starts to fall, and fog snakes through our valley revealing only the mountain tops, I know I better get to decorating my pumpkins. No matter how busy I am, I carve out the time!

Grab your double-pointed (fine and large) Identi.pen and tangle right onto your pumpkins. Sharpies work as well. I wash my subjects first with mild soapy water so the ink takes nicely. The mini and pie pumpkins are especially fun to do, and gourds really lend themselves to the Zentangle style.

Spray your finished pumpkins with a mat varnish or sealer of some kind (all over). Then they hold up for quite a long time if you don’t let them catch a hard frost.

Don’t forget to get the kids involved!

Happy Halloween!

Celtic Knot Tangles

I'm back after a long break. Have been teaching wildflower sketching, preparing for upcoming Botangle/Zentangle classes, and just had to try something new to share. Every September, Estes Park (where I live) hosts the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival, and I thought it might be fun to offer a Celtic knot drawing class this September in my new home classroom studio. Sooooo, as if I don't have enough to do, I decided to teach myself to draw Celtic knots. It's really not that different from learning to draw Zentangles, "one step at a time." Here you can see my quick and dirty "step outs" for a super simple basic knot. Then I enlarged it (but incorrectly 5x5 dots instead of 4x4.) However, the results were surprisingly pleasing.

So I took the two basic patterns and did a little tangling on top. It's really fun - obviously endless possibilities. You can see I was using a dotted paper from a pre-dotted "Moleskin" journal. The paper quality is not great so my added watercolor made it buckle. But it's great for learning the knot patterns.

Next I'll try a few with a more refined hand and good paper.

My basic Celtic knot "step-out" notes. Had fun with making a border and adding color.

"Step out" page

My self-taught Celtic knot turned Zentangle.

Close up of the smaller Celtic tangle.

Close up of the larger Celtic tangle (my mistake knot that actually worked!)

Ink Wash, Airbrush, or Diluted Paint? - NO – Carbon Dust

Check out my shading demo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcGBhU4uzOA

Thanks to all who responded to my shading question challenge. Ink wash, airbrush, and diluted paint were some good answers, but that's not how I shaded my Tangle Teaching Tree. Congratulations to tangler Amy Broady whose answer was almost spot on! She said, I'm 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 and blended with your fingers as well as a variety of tools, from brushes to sponges, cotton balls to cloth."

Answer: Though a bit generalized, Amy guessed right. In botanical illustration (remember that's my art background) we use the traditional medium carbon dust. So it's not graphite, but definitely a powdered medium. I made my own by sanding charcoal sticks and charcoal pencils with a fine-toothed paper. Pretty messy!

This video clearly shows how I brushed on the carbon dust to give the magical illusion  of dimension on the flat surface. Hope this helps some of you out there who are still timid about shading your Zentangle creations.

The Big "Z" or My Tangle Teaching Tree

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!

I finished the mural on Memorial Day 2015.

In February, after surface prep, I had a blank slate to work on. Kind of terrifying!

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.

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.

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!

The four-bird branch on the long wall. I was pleased with my use of "Organza" to symbolize birdsong.

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.

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.

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.

I look forward to many hours of rewarding classes in this space. 

Interview by Two Hands Paperie

I'm honored to have been selected as a featured artist at Two Hands Paperie in Boulder and I want to share my interview with you that is posted on their website.  By the way, the free demo, that was more like a class was really fun and resulted in a few more Zentangle enthusiasts! Here's the start of their interview with me:

To read more, click on Two Hands Paperie

Calendar Tangles

I've been remiss at keeping my "Tangle a Day" calendar current. That's because I've been so busy working on my wall mural. But I'm sharing a few calendar tangles with you that I thought were fun.

February 14 features a new favorite of mine, "heartfully".  I will let you know who
created that tangle when I get back from my trip. Am literally out the door.

This whole week, top and bottom images are just variations on "Aquafleur," a tangle
 by Rick and Maria.  I love playing with the organic form.