Diva’s Weekly Challenge #125, “Birdie Feet”

This month’s “use my tangle”, aka “UMT”, is Birdie Feet by Owl Loving  April.  The pattern step out is here

I enjoyed doing this! I drew a string that made a wandering path through my tile, and filled it with Birdie Feet. I put dots all around the feet to remind me of bird seed.  I surrounded the path with variations of Hollibaugh, Mooka, Locar, Tipple, Zander, and a variation of Scrolled Feather by Helen Williams. The upper right area is a variation of Hurry–filling the area with alternating lines .

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.

Zentangle® patterns used: Locar, Mooka, Zander, Tipple, Variations of Hollibaugh & Hurry

Variation of Scrolled Feather by Helen Williams

Birdie Feet by Owl Loving April

To read about weekly challenges, go to I Am the Diva CZT ( iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com )

To learn more about the Zentangle® process, go to my page, Zentangle News.

Weekly Challenge #124 : We Are Calgary

This week’s challenge was prompted by the flooding in Calgary, and the heartbreak suffered by a community due to the destructive flood waters.  This challenge is “open”, and I quote : “I only ask that you keep Calgary in your hearts this week, and any part of the Earth where people are dealing with incredible struggles and tragedy.” (IAmtheDivaCZT.blogspot.com)

My home state is Oklahoma, and I have nieces & nephews living in the Moore area. Thank God, they are OK.  My heart breaks for the families who lost everything, especially for those who lost loved ones. So, my drawing is dedicated to Oklahoma.  I used patterns that remind me of wind & rain & hail, homes, crops & brokeness. I also used “Hartvine” to show the love sent to the area, and flowers to show hope. I drew this week’s challenge on a 4-1/2 in square of print maker’s paper.

(clicking on any photo in this blog will enlarge it.)

The specific tangles used are listed here:

Casella by Connie Holsapell, Hurakan by Carole Ohl, Pop-Cloud by Carla duPreez, Cracked by Lori Howe, Hartvine by Lori Howe.  Official Zentangle patterns: Nipa, Zinger and tangleations of Zinger, and Hollibaugh.

My Newest Zentangles and ZIAs

I have been busy!  I purchased and downloaded the  2013 Edition  Tangle Guide from Tanglepatterns.com

and printed out the pages, cut out the patterns, and glued them all into my Tangle Guide sketchbook. Why would I do that, you ask?  Well, I like to look for patterns according to the type of pattern they are, and alphabetically arranged patterns are not very helpful. So, first of all, I separated Official Zentangle Patterns from all the rest, and arranged them according to type— Grids, Checkerboard type, Spheres, circles, stripes, mazes, concentric, diamonds, triangles, plant-like, etc.  I just went through and started putting them into piles with similar characteristics.  Then I glued them onto pages. Then I did the same with the unofficial patterns. Took a couple of days, but now that it is done, I have a great reference for my patterns! I did make sure that I included the designers’ names with each pattern so that I can refer to them.

Anyway, with that in place, I went through picking a few patterns that I had not used, and began creating Zentangles. Here are a few:

This one I call “Windoz”. I worked with Pane, which I love for its open look, and Pea Nuckle,  Diva Dance, and Striping or Bongo, it’s kinda both… Hazen  is the window-looking one that I rounded the corners to, and added the straps/ties to. Hazen is challenging to me, so I am going to keep using it until I get the hang of it. I decided to fill the “panes” of Hazen with the very organic looking Poke Root. Poke Root is one of the best filler-tangles out there! I LOVE Poke Root!

This one I call “Carpetz”, using my own grid pattern, Spyz. I have used  Jute a lot, because as yet, I have not been able to do it accurately! I also love using  Pepper and  Jetties  as fillers.

This one I call “Assuntaz” . I saw the “scrolly” version of Assunta,on the left, on a Pinterest post of tangle designs by “Tangledlady.” She does beautiful work. The other Assunta, on the right, is my own tangelation. I filled the open space in the middle with floral type patterns. I love Henna Drum by Jane MacKugler.

This Zentangle was done on a 4-1/2 inch square card designed for the Letterpress system (Lifestylecrafts.com). It is a thick paper very similar in texture to the Tiepolo paper used for Official Zentangle tiles. This tile features Courant at the top, then Eke, Ahh, combinations of  Striping & Shattuck, Yincut & Orlique, and the bottom is filled with different patterns and tangleations such as Verdigogh, Chainging, Poke Root and Poke Leaf, Tagh, Ynix, Locar, Squid, Tidings, Flux, Mysteria, Sedgling, Springkle, and Floo. Whew!!!

Zentangles

The Zentangle® art form and method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

I have recently discovered the art of Zentangle, which I find fascinating!

The Zentangle art form is very much related to the way I draw already, and so it feels natural to me. I love exploring the patterns, and I love the small format. I also love the possibilities that Zentangle Inspired Art (“ZIAs”) present.  Once I get the hang of working with the different patterns, I will start adding Zentangle influences to other works of art and with different media. I am very excited about this!

Zentangle.com is the best place to start. I bought a book called “One Zentangle A Day” by Certified Zentangle Teacher ( CZT) Beckah Krahula . I highly recommend this book as a place to start your Zentangle journey.

I did find an error in her book concerning the paper that is used for the “official” Zentangle tiles.  She writes that the paper is Fabriano Tiepolo, 240 lb weight printmaking paper. After doing a lot of searching through art supply websites, I finally went to the Fabriano paper making website, and discovered that their Tiepolo only comes in 140lb weight. I’m guessing this is a typo on Beckah’s part. The paper can be purchased from Art Supply Warehouse at $5,80 per sheet if you buy 5 sheets. They continue to discount the price as you buy more sheets. I bought 5 sheets and paid about $8.00 S&H. When the paper arrived, I cut one of the sheets into the official 3.5 sq inch size, and got about 50 tiles. Official pre-cut Zentangle tiles come 55 to a pack for $29.00 plus S&H.  Zentangle tiles have their logo on the back, and two lines that are used to sign and date the tile. I don’t mind not having a logo, and I can draw the lines myself, as Beckah indicates in her book.

. These are examples of what I have worked on at this point. The first two are done with a white Gelly Roll pen by Sakura on Strathmore 400 series Gray Scale paper at 80lb. The first is on black, and the second on a dark gray. The paper has a textured surface. The third is an exercise from my notebook done with a  Sakura MICRON 005 black pen.