Diva Challenge 232 - with Holly Atwater

Monday morning and I was all sorted - beds stripped, washing in, chores done - time for a coffee and a check on the Diva Challenge this week.
I was delighted to see it was Holly Atwater! I remember it was Holly who first told me that my tangle 'Skwirl' had been published on Tangle Patterns and her genuine delight for me was evident even over the many miles that separate us. I've always loved her Zentangle work and her beautiful blog, Ha! Designs and incredible family.

And I loved this week's challenge - a chance to sit down, listen and tangle in a meditative manner. I positively RUSHED at it....no Bijou tile and an ill-drawn square on my paper, grabbed from the printer supply......oops! But once I began, listened to and followed Holly's gentle instructions, I really went with the flow and enjoyed every second. And was very pleased with the result.

I did Audio 1, with the result shown here and I shall probably have a go at the other two as well, if I get chance this week.

I've also been doing a lot of pebble painting and paintings of painted pebbles.


The first is part of a set that I did for a friend whose daughter is having a beach wedding. This stone is representative of her partner's incredible hairstyle - a huge blond Mohican, which he usually wears flattened down in a pony tail...but I do hope it will be fully crested for the wedding! I haven't shown the other other one, which is based on their initials....JUST in case there's any chance they'll see them.






The two pebbles fit together so perfectly and I'm very pleased with them. They're winging their way in a little wooden chest to my friend, so she can place them in just the right place on the day. (I don't know where that is, but she does!)

And then I did a pebble just for my hubby - to hold his papers down.

And then I drew a picture of a painted pebble! I do like painted pebbles.

In fact, I like them so much, that I'm going to the beach just now to collect some more.

Thanks again Holly! Lovely challenge and more to look forward to.

Diva Challenge 230 - Guest blogger, Erin from the Bright Owl

A wonderful union this week, with the Diva's Guest Blogger being Erin Olson of  The Bright Owl and 'Zendala Dare' fame!!

As you may have noticed, I am totally obsessed with Zendalas and Mandalas at the moment, so for me, this wasn't a challenge but another opportunity to continue with my theme. Thank you Erin, thank you Laura!

I needed to do 'busy, busy, busy' for some reason. My children and husband have taken a trip up to visit grandparents in the north of Spain, leaving me with what feels like a lot more hours in the day. Rather than waste these hours on thorough cleaning of bedrooms and other jobs that somehow never get done during the daily routine of looking after three growing children...I concentrated on my Zentangle. As you do. Uninterrupted pleasure!

As sometimes happens, I enjoyed the process of drawing this much more than I like the finished results. I drew the basic template freehand - always a challenge - and just piled lots and lots of little details into it, including six mini zendalas. It doesn't have the coherence of some of the mandalas/zendalas I have drawn myself but still -  Great Fun!

Looking forward to seeing all the different versions that this challenge will, no doubt, have inspired.

Thanks again!

Diva Challenge 229 - negative space with guest Sandy Hunter.

Thanks this week to Sandy Hunter, guest blogger over on the Diva's Challenge page. I hope Laura is having a great holiday and enjoying the great challenges that her excellent guests are providing for us.

Good thinking Sandy, is what I say this week. I am currently COMPLETELY obsessed with Zendalas and Mandalas. I think I am drawing them in my sleep and I am so enjoying them. At first, when the challenge popped up in my news feed, I thought - hmmm....not a zendala opportunity, perhaps I'll give it miss...

And then! Guess what, my opportunity presented itself.

My tangle this week is a Zendala with a central negative space! Interestingly, I didn't enjoy it as much as a proper mandala as the best part for me is the development from the centre starting point - but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it at all. No, it was lovely to do, though I did go off the edges a tad.

Thank you Sandy! I'm sure there are going to be some really great entries this week and I do love looking at them all.

Here are some of my recent zendalas - I have been so happy with the results, done on various sizes of canvas, that I took them to be framed. I am going to hang them ALL in my bedroom! Apologies if you've seen them before - I have posted them (and some others!) on Facebook and on my other blog recently....

This one is A4 size and I did it with my micron pens...bad idea!

This is a 20x20cms canvas, painted with acrylic paints and using a permanent black marker and
a variety of gel pens to add gold and white accents. The border I did on BeFunky photo editor.

Also done on a painted 20x20cms canvas - much more Zentangle in this. The lady who is framing
them was very taken with this one!

This one isn't quite finished - I'm going to paint around the outside of the zendala - it is still white
although it looks sort of duck egg blue here. I will try and 'tidy' the edges of the original
painted part...but any suggestions gratefully received about how best to finish it. It's on a 30x30 canvas, so I'm going bigger! I have also bought a 50x50 canvas to do before the end of the summer!

And whilst out shopping, I saw this material and HAD to buy some. I now have two gorgeous cushions on my sofa and may have to buy more...next time, I'll pick a more photogenic spot to show them off...

Diva Challenge 227 - Guest blogger, Lee Darter and 'Circus Life'

Well here is a different challenge! This week's the Diva's guest blogger is Lee Darter, CZT and she has come up with the ingenious idea of using the circus as inspiration. And she picked us some great tangles to put us in the mood.

Tropicana, by Lady Kate Arhens - and if you're reading Kate, hope things are OK with you, sending big hugs - and Cack by Adele Bruno. Two lovely ladies and two lovely tangles as a start. We were then given the option of adding Fescu, Florz or Linq.  I did two this week, though not sure if either are QUITE as circusy as they could be but they were fun to do. It's hot here and just typing is leaving me feeling 'wrung out'. You may notice my heavy shading this week - sweaty hands help the effect!

The first uses Linq and the second, Florz.

This is upside down from the way I drew it, but I like it better this way.
I don't like that my scanner has removed my subtle shading under Florz though....

Bet we have some real fun entries this week. I will be checking them out during the week. Thank you Lee!

Axxx

Diva Challenge 225 - with Katie Crommett CZT and 'Simplicity'

It's funny really, that most people, when they see a tangled tile, assume that it's taken hours and hours of work and is really complicated to do.  I always find it difficult to explain in words that it's not so complicated and many tiles are started and finished well within the hour. So I was pleased to see that this week's guest contributor to the Diva Challenge, Katie Crommett, decided to focus on this aspect of tangling.

She talks about how there is a lot of emphasis these days on simplifying our lives - but the advice is often complex and creates additional work or expense or just stultifies us.

But not Zentangle. I think it is why I love doing it so much. You can just begin anywhere that there's a space for you to sit, with just a pen and a bit of paper (yes, having tiles is better, but it's not an essential when the mood is upon you, is it?) and, breathing out and in, start with that first, always exciting line. Thank you Katie for focusing us on this aspect.

I chose two tangles - possibly the simplest I could think of - Keeko as the border, and a little fat Btljoos - a very simple version too - taking centre stage.
(OK, so my Keeko didn't quite line up, so there's a single Tipple in there too....) And the rest, I left simply white.

And I enjoyed every second of the ten minutes or so that it took me to do.

Diva Challenge and String Thing 100!

Thank you to Jen Crutchfield, guesting  over on the Diva Challenge this week! She suggested we use colour - in fact, she suggested just two or three - in our tangles this week. Like Jen, I am not a great on for colour, never having had artistic inclinations or tendencies before I began tangling. Some people have great experience with colour and it shows in their work - I'm in awe of the effects that some tanglers achieve with colour. I can't do it - I have tried but it doesn't seem to work for me.

However, I have a little technique that I'm quite happy with. I paint a random background, either on paper or a canvas, with some lovely gouache paints that I once bought for my daughter. Then I tangle on top. It's not awfully good for my pens - they get a bit clogged up as I work, but it seems to be only a 'surface' clog and a bit of scribbling on a different surface, and they work fine again. I haven't noticed any lasting damage or problems, in case you wanted to try it yourself.

I was asked recently to a zendala for a friend and she wanted colour, so this week's challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity. I prepared my canvas with a selection of colours - not awfully well represented here by my photo, but they are nice, trust me - and then drew about three concentric circles as a guide for my zendala. The rest is just how the flow took me.

I need some advice though...the canvas was obviously not square so my zendala only 'fits' in the top part. Should I put something else in the bottom part or leave it as it is? And if I put something in the bottom part, what could that be? A smaller zendala...or two...? A 'reflection' of the top part? Some words.....? Any suggestions gratefully received.

And this week also sees Adele Bruno's String Thing challenge reach its 100th anniversary - the Zentennial!! Well done Adele for keeping this lovely challenge going all this time. I love this one as it produces such a variety of tiles, all with the same remit - a string and a selection of tangles.

For this week, Adele came up with a simple but effect string and also a new tangle based on '100' and I enjoyed it so much, I did two.

The first one was done as I watched 'Mad Max - Road to Fury' and I think the rather gothic, steampunk effects somehow penetrated my unconscious as I was drawing.....

And the second one was done as a sort of antidote to the first!

Do check all the entries out when Adele publishes them on her blog early next week.

Thank you for stopping by! Hope you like what you have seen. (Now I can go and see what other lovely tiles have been entered onto the Diva Challenge!)

Diva Challenge 224 - Tipple

Hurray! I confess I've been waiting for a challenge to do a Tipple monotangle and today is my lucky day!

I think I did this last September whilst waiting for my son to do a round of archery. A pleasant Sunday morning, taking in some good coffee and typical 'tostada' breakfast, which is a good long chunk of toasted baguette, topped with fresh tomato, olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. I could digress further.....but will stop now.

And I've been waiting patiently ever since, knowing that one day it would come.

I enjoyed this SOOOO much and I may well do another before the week is out.

I wish Laura a great summer break - time for family and other fun things - and look forward to the challenges that her guests will set us!

See the other entries over on the Diva's blog or have a go and enter the challenge yourself!

Hmmm... just noticed...no shading! How remiss of me!!