Bejeweled Black Zendalas

I had fun yesterday working up some designs for my next weekend's class at Two Hands Paperie in Boulder, where we'll be working on black Zendalas. I wanted to experiment with more than just the traditional white on black (though I LOVE that lacey look.) My last experiment is a good representation of a "monotangle."  These were made using Rick and Maria's pre-strung tiles and lots of Gelly Roll markers and colored pencils (Prismacolor and Faber-Castel)l for shading.

Bejeweled  tangles: Florz, Finery, Shattuck, Crescent Moon, Circfleur, and Purk were tangled
with metallic and sparkley Gelly Roll markers.

Here I used the white Gelly Roll and shaded with the Zenstone.

The center of this monotangle is a "Cruffle". I think I made up the other tangle - or
it's just innate from my repertoire of flower shapes used in the
botanical illustrations I do. I'll call it "Sepals".

Color swirls with shading.

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of my favorite school day memories in good old Ktown at Visitation Grade School was searching all the closets at home for just the right shoe box that I could take to art class the week before Valentine's Day. Why? To decorate of course! With construction paper, sequins, paint, doilies, markers, crayons, even little heart candies, we patiently drew, cut and glued; turning our Buster Brown boxes into little treasure chests that had a slit cut in the top.

 Even more fun was sitting around the kitchen table with my siblings or giggling girlfriends, writing our cards, licking the little envelopes and hoping that our sealed messages to friends, schoolmates, and secret "loves" were perfect.

Today I still love the tradition of Valentine's Day - not for the commercial hype, but because I like to pause during my otherwise somewhat crazy busy life and tell those around me that I love,  treasure, and appreciate them.

So here for you my family and friends, distant, and close, are my (still hand-drawn, cut and glued) Valentine's Day greetings and a request that you share the love.  Sorry the box is missing!

First Tangle a Day 2015 Calendar Posts

I was elated when my stepdaughter, Bettina, who is also one of my star Zentangle students gave me this blank calendar book by Carol Ohl, CZT for my birthday. It's called, "tangle a day 2015." Since my birthday was in late January, I've still got some catching up to do (to draw my own tangle each day). But I will post my tangles as I finish them. Here are the first 12 days of January.

I encourage anyone doing Zentangle; novice or profi to relax with the quick and spontaneous challenge of entering something each day.  It's a great way to journal your internal well being. You can see where you have "good days" and not so good . . .  But EVERYDAY is better after doing a tangle! Here's a link to Carol's site where you can buy her book. It's not too late to start!!
http://www.greydenpress.com/Store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=184

P.S. I'm proud to announce that Bettina will become a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) after her training with Rick and Maria (founders of the Zentangle drawing method) in April. Yeah!

Monotangles Continued

As promised, here's the monotangle of "Swirls" that I'm still working on.  I still have a lot of shading and coloring to do. I might use rainbow colors - or just stay tone in tone with the blues. Stay tuned for another post with the finished product. I just love monotangles and encourage you to try experimenting with them!

Park Hill Art Club Zentangle Workshop

I had a wonderful Saturday tangling with some talented ladies (watercolor, oil, and acrylic painters, and even a floutist) from the Park Hill Art Club in Denver. Micheon coordinated a spacious, sunny room at the neighborhood Methodist Church. She supplied us with a table full of comforting treats, and we settled in to a day of learning the Zentangle drawing method. After lunch we powered through learning as many tangles as possible and progressed to a "Botangle" piece.

My sample Botangle; an anemone that I provided a template contour for as a final exercise.

My happy, "zenified" class.

Works in progress.

My special reward came today when one of the ladies emailed me this story and her image of a card she tangled for a friend after the class; "Here is my rendition of the flower. I will send it to my 81-year old friend who received her 3rd cancer diagnosis last week. What to say? A get well card? Hardly. But, if I send a Zentangle card every week, maybe I'll entice her into a Zen art activity. Thanks, Annie for the inspiration!"

This is why I love teaching art, especially Zentangle.

Monotangles in 2015

This is my first post of the new year, 2015, and I'd like to focus on "monotangles" as Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas call them. (Rick and Maria are the founders of the Zentangle method. See Zentangle.com. A monotangle is when you use just one tangle pattern to complete a tangled tile.

Here are a few examples of mine from earlier. I'm working on one with just "Swirls." My tiles were created (in order) with "Shattuck," "Paradox," and "Mooka," The Mooka pattern started to develop into a blossom (by itself) so I kept going in that direction. NOTE: The best tangles are those that take on their own lives. Letting your inner self guide you and not a planned idea results in the most incredible, spontaneous artwork. I call these tangles "pictures of your soul."

Have fun trying this exercise! Happy New Year! I wish you all the peace and relaxation that this drawing technique brings all who try it.

Pine Cones on Fir Trees

Pine cones on fir trees and snowflakes on noses,
Family portraits in perfect Christmas poses,
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of the best Christmassy things!