Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Fun ZIA Projects

Just a fly by post - if you're looking for some fun ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) projects check out this blog post over on Tangles and More  The mattes are a cool idea. 
For fun and full disclosure he's a fellow CZT and oh yeah he's a pretty good brother.  And someday I hope to be able to draw the organic tangles as well as he does.

Back with this week's challenge entry later.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Is it a Zentangle?

Harrumph!  STOMP!  S.T.O.M.P!   Grumble Grumble Grumble!!!!!!

That, would be my first reaction Monday when reading the details for this week's challenge.   So what do we get  - a curveball or more like a dancing and dipping knuckleball - "can you do a Zentangle without using existing patterns or tanglelations of them?  And what are your experiences while doing so?"

I have a rare Monday morning available to actually do the challenge first thing and the challenge is to create without using known patterns - huh???   Time to follow the advice I often provide in a class - Breathe - Relax - Smile.

While calmer I still had quite the game of pong bouncing around in my head.  So many thoughts from all different directions.  Trying to make sense of it only seemed to bring up more ideas.  No way to get it down in any logical order so what follows is pure Randomonium  - the short version.

Zentangle is the process used to create, not the product one creates, but I'm guessing that's not really the distinction being made with this challenge. 

Patterns - Zentangle patterns vs other patterns.  Are they different - again probably semantics but  patterns are not Zentangle.  Zentangle has provided an easy method of creating patterns that have been around forever.

What defines the patterns we are to not use - just those patterns published by Zentangle or on tangle patterns.com  or from the Flickr pattern group or from books, or from other's blogs?  I've been collecting patterns from a variety of sources since I started working on gourds and even more since I discovered Zentangle.  I have 1100+ stored on my iPad plus several books - so are all of those patterns off limits for this challenge?

In my case I've been using many of the patterns that would be labeled as Zentangle patterns for years - woodburning them on gourds - patterns like hollibaugh, shattuck, keeko, waves, daggerly, gneiss - just to name a few. So would it be fair game for me,  if for the challenge, I used patterns that I used before I discovered Zentangle or would they be off limits?

 click any image for larger view







So what is it exactly that we are being asked to do?  Create new patterns?  Use patterns or elements of patterns in new and creative ways?   Draw real objects rather than random patterns? Doubt that's the case. 

Being a Gemini I can drive myself nuts debating with myself, so at some point I turned down the volume and focused on how I might approach this challenge.  I thought a lot on how I created the wood burning on gourds.  I started either with an inside shape or outside border and just built each element off of the previous element.  That thought led me to the 5 basic strokes used in Zentangle -



Aaah the plan of action is taking shape. First stop thinking and analyzing make it about the process, find the Zen of the Tangle.

I would build this week's challenge starting with a basic shape - in this case I started with a circle in the center of the tile.  From there I could use one of the 5 pen strokes to add to and create the challenge piece.  No specific pattern was planned but if one showed up so be it.
Since this was a different way of working on a Tangle I've included a few WIP (work in progress) shots to show how it grew.


click any image for larger view

I wasn't really grumpy just perplexed as to what I might do.  Wasn't even sure I would take on this challenge. Glad I did as it turned into a very fun exercise - one I'll definitely keep in the toolbox for Zentangle as well as woodburning.

 It's not shaded - yet - not sure if I will - need to let it breathe a bit and look at it later.  I'm also debating if there needs to be something more in the center.  Any thoughts - suggestions/comments welcome.





Saturday, June 15, 2013

Catching Up

Several Challenge photos to post today - have been creating tiles for the challenges - never got around to getting them posted here.

This week's challenge Grid (un)Locked comes from the recent Zentangle Newsletter which presents a different way to think about grids.  The challenge was to use some of the "grid seeds" presented in the newsletter or create your own.  Visit the Diva's blog to read more about the challenge and view the art being created this week.


Challenge 122  Grid (un)Locked

I did two tiles for this challenge.  In this first tile I  used "seeds" from several different sources.  You might say I created one - only because I set out to use Maelstrom but started it out on the wrong plane so ended up doing something quite different.  I like it so may have to use it again!


click images for larger view

 Panzi, Dex, Lace, Betweed, and Oopsy Maelstrom


This second tile was a pattern/structure I saw some time ago.  The first time I saw it I passed and moved on which I generally do when patterns are drawn using graph paper - not a fan.  I really did like the look and the possibilities it presented so when I came across it again and saw alternate directions that did not require the "help" of the graph paper I decided to give it a try.  It's not the easiest one to create - I have a large stack of tiles of my unsuccessful attempts to prove that.  I like the 3-D aspect  so decided to give it another try for this challenge.  The alignment is still a bit off but this is the best one I've created so maybe there's hope after all.  It was fun deciding how to fill it in.


 Z-Box


Challenge 121 - Birds On A Wire

This was UMT - Use My Tangle - Birds on a Wire from Mary Kissel.  I had tried this tangle a couple of times but never had a good feel for it. Recently I saw the suggestion on Tanglepatterns.com about turning it upside down and drawing a "fancy" 6. That didn't work well for me either but that post was a good reminder to look for different ways to step it out to get it to work.  I find that if I draw the strokes  moving horizontally rather than vertically I have a much easier time and more consistent spacing.  The real challenge for me ended up not being Birds on a Wire but Sindoo - another pattern I just did not get!  A fellow tangler shared a ZIA she is working on and she had a lovely Sindoo section.  Just had to give it another go!


Birds on a Wire, Sindoo


Challenge 120 Bales

I like Bales not sure why I don't use it more often.  Two of my favorite patterns Yew-Dee and Puf are built on Bales.  Even though you lose sight of Bales with those two patterns I decided to include them since without Bales they would not exist.


Bales, Puf, Sindoo


Challenge 119 Ebony "n" Ivory

The challenge was to create a work that had a balance of Black and White.  One way to go was a mix of  Black on White and White on Black.  Since I've yet to find a white pen that is worth the frustration the present I opted to choose tangles that provided their own balance of Black and White.


Beeline, Paradox, Knightsbridge, and Florz


Whew - thanks if you made it this far.  Think I'd rather post more often but we'll see how that goes.