Quib - Diva Challenge 145

This is a new tangle called Quib and some folk have done really wonderful things with it, judging from what I've seen over on Laura's blog,  I am the Diva. I'm very envious of some of the entries to the weekly challenge as Quib is both a simple and yet very sophisticated tangle and there are some great examples of both. I tried my hand at one of each - in my own way!

I will, in time, master this one as I do like it very much. So much to learn from what others have done but here are my two first attempts!

This made me think of a jelly fish...lying on a sea 'bed'!

And this one uses my favourite metal tube....I started too high on the paper to be able to 'capture' my 'quibs' at the other end as they came blowing out of the end of the tube. Also, I didn't spread them out quite enough, so distinguishing one from the other was difficult as so many of them are quite dark....I live and learn!

Four Evening Pieces

I have felt strangely scared of doing more than practising new tangles in the past week or so. When I first began making tangles, I was delighted with the results but recently, I've been less impressed with what I've done. Does that mean I am more critical or less inspired...don't know.

But I enjoyed doing four tangles yesterday evening and whilst I am still not overjoyed with all of them, I have to say, the process of producing them was definitely worth it. I feel considerably more inspired now and will keep on trying.

This is me, giving it a go...

Apologies for the slightly out of focus edges, I think I could have scanned this better but it was in a bigger book that overlapped the edges of my printer....
This one is the first I did and I was practising 'Paradox' which you can see (a bit blurred) down the left hand side and the cubed effect of Cubine - which is great to do - and at the bottom, the spiky leaf and berry tangle is called 'Verdigogh' and reminds me of Christmas....more anon! There's also my first bit of Hollibaugh.

This is another curate's egg of a tangle. I was trying to do some clever paradox tangle through the middle - which sort of worked, but not perfectly. As I continued, I realised I wanted a sort of pathway effect - hence the stones along the bottom - and then thought perhaps a compass tangle - I chose 'Drupe' - might look good in the top right hand corner - but it lost something in the execution - artistic ability, I think!
I will try the idea again at some point and make the compass look more like a compass.. 

Now in this one, I felt the mojo was working a little better. 'Fengle', the star tangle is notoriously difficult to keep symmetrical, so I didn't bother to try. The curly rope pattern is one called 'Cruze' and when I added a few spheres, I thought it had quite a celestial appearance. And I rather liked it all together, even though I still need to practice 'Cruze' to really get it to work well.

And finally, the 'Verdigogh' that made me feel a bit Christmassy just had to be done in colour. I wanted a fairly simple background, but managed to mess that up a bit by missing my links somewhere in the middle....hence the rather ugly 'stumps' at the bottom!

Not wrong...you can't do it wrong...you just have to try and make it right - perhaps I could have got it 'righter'...all good experience!

Tangles for Christmas

Hot on the heels of making cards came the idea of making tangles into Christmas cards! My take isn't very original but my first attempt was a couple of cute trees with some little tangles inside them - very simple.

I was pleased with the effect of the watercolour crayons.

After that, I was sketching some 'cruffles' - another tangle that I really like doing and which seemed to lend itself to Christmas decorations. This was only ever intended as a sketch but my mum liked it so much she asked for some cards to be made from it. I saw some similar lettering on Pinterest and copied it. I keep using this style now as it's simple and effective. That lovely red paper I had was coming into its own too!

Then I saw a very complex poinsettia design somewhere - possibly on Etsy - and took the idea and simplified it and then painted it in watercolour crayon.

The really cool bit was running it through BeFunky's website to ring some changes - especially as Mum wanted lots of cards!

Firstly, I brightened up the original....














Then I toned it down to neutral colours - I went on to add gold and silver accents to this and loved the final effect

This one looks all blurry but is meant to...it's also in some great autumnal colours.





And this one adds some blue/green effects and makes the leaves really stand out.







I then decided on a couple more designs based on trees.




This one is as simple a tree as can be...in a red pot with a gold star.


And my final design so far this year is again inspired by one I saw on Pinterest, but amended to my own level of skill (!)...that is, very simple indeed, but rather sweet.











As I said, my mum was happy to take all that I'd made when she went back to England but I have done some good quality photocopies and have made a few more to add to the card collection....

Tangling in November

It's early yet. But I've discovered already that it's possible to really dislike a tangle - to think it's wrong - to feel the creativity of previous pieces has evaporated...

Why would this be? Well, I think partly it's because I haven't just 'let it happen'. I've started out with an idea and tried to make it work. And that seems to stifle the creative juice a bit - because I'm not an artist, I'm someone who enjoys being creative.

Anyway, here are some of the things I've done this month so far.

 This one was a sort of half-hearted attempt at a 'challenge' - not sure where from - to do a tangle with no straight lines and using only 'organic' shapes.

I thought snails were quite a good choice as they are very organic and have no straight lines...but mine are a bit uninspiring and look to be perched precariously on top of a pile of feathers...I also included my 'moomins' and 'mist' which looks a bit like dots coming from wiggly lines...and a background of undulating shapes. I think I have located the problem I have - that of the perching snails - but I used a string background and didn't really think about composing. Oh dear...it's just not good!

Despite some definite flaws in technique, I much prefer this picture.

This is really just a combination of some of my favourite tangles of the day....the shells down the left hand side in the bottom centre right...the black ribbon and the black Mooka are rather nice. The column that goes from bottom left to top right is distinctly odd and the lantern string, although quite nice, isn't sure if parts of it are transparent or not....


But overall, one that I rather like...and








And it formed the basis for the next one I did where I tried harder to get a sense of depth and layers...
The paisley shape is a new one as is the pretty little button and ribbon string down the left side. There is a lot of shading on this one - at first I thought it was heavy handed but seeing it again, I think not.

More October tangles

Back to black and white
And really falling in love with the curled feathers, the pearls and pebbles, the poke-root and pansies. And that black and white 'Cat in the Hat' stripe....always reminds me of Dr. Zeuss!

I went back to England in the middle of October - travelling back there with my mum, who had been visiting us. My enthusiasm for tangling inspired her to have a go and as she was drawing, she kept giggling. I told her it couldn't be funny - there was no right and no wrong in Zentangle so why was she laughing? She showed me...and I couldn't help laughing til tears rolled down my cheeks at her attempts. Truly awful but awfully funny!  Later on, when she'd gone to bed, I 'tweaked' what she'd done and left it for her to take home. I don't know if she knows I changed it but she seemed much more satisfied with her work the next morning...

This one I did on the journey to England...

Tangling on the flight was a brilliant idea and both trips passed by in no time at all. I had to keep looking out of the window on the return flight because the day was clear and I could see Spain set out below me ....looking remarkably like a lot of tangled patterns!!

This one too I managed to finish before we landed

And this one I drew on the return journey. I was sitting next to a very nice couple so we ended up chatting once I'd finished. I like the star but the pearls didn't end up with quite the right effect - or the effect I was looking for...

And I also drew on some lovely dark red paper that I'd had for a long time. You can't see the detail very well but it was beautiful to draw on!

It took a lot of work but I was pleased with the result.

September tangles

I didn't do my first tangle until the beginning of September 2013 but once I started, I couldn't stop!

I  was still in 'card' mode at this time, so made tangles that I could turn into a greetings card. Colour was important for this purpose and I began experimenting for the first time in my life with crayons, watercolours, ...paintbrushes even! And was loving it!

This one I called 'Earthpearl' - partly because I thought the four 'Betweed' shapes looked rather like bandaged earthworms burrowing in or out of a tub of pearl shapes...nothing elegant or glamorous about it!

This one was - and possibly still is - one of my favourites EVER. I called it 'Stard' because of the star shape and there's nothing I don't like about it. It makes me feel like an artist when I look at it. It doesn't get any better than that...it really doesn't.

Continuing on the card theme, I did three more coloured tangles that are quite tiny and sweet. Unfortunately, they are both badly photographed and dreadfully mounted! There are still such a lot of things to learn.

As I was doing the first one, it felt as though I was being inspired by a friend of mine. This one was definitely for her.

And it's called 'Sammee'

In this one, I was practising the tangle that has ended up along the bottom edge and the lacy garter pattern along the top. You can probably see which are some of my favourite shapes now. I'm particularly fond of the one I call 'Moomin' - balloony, leafy shapes with little curls around the edges. They crop up everywhere.. 

This is a less elegant combination, I feel. I call it 'Tiger Horns' for fairly obvious reasons but I don't like the colouring and the clashing of orange and blue, but it was another good one to practice new tangles and I spent more time on the colouring on the horn pattern to get better depth.
Awful positioning on the backing card...

And all this time, I had a growing collection of sketches in my notepad...

I was hooked!

Doodling with intent...

I don't know what I was looking for one day about six weeks ago, but what I found was Zentangle. And what a find! I am a creative soul but my creative talents are really quite limited. I can (and do) make handmade chocolates and have done so for the past 26 years or so but our move to Spain - detailed in my ongoing blog  - means that chocolate making can only take place during the cool winter months.

This summer, my daughter Romy, who is 9, and I began making cards together. Something we could do in the hot, lazy afternoons when having a siesta felt like wasting time, but when anything more energetic was out of the question. I used to enjoy calligraphy and can only imagine that I was searching for something related to that when I discovered an art form that really beckoned me. Serendipity, it was.

Zentangle seems really big in the United States and there are now various 'branches' of the 'original' forms of it. I don't want to get too tied up in the politics of how it all works and understand that Zentangle is a registered trademark and there are obligations on those who use the word and the official patterns.

I don't want any obligations, I just want to share the passion that has been sparked in me by the idea that doodles can become amazing works of art. I like the word 'tangle' - which is one way of describing a more complicated doodle and I have to admit, the act of doodling with intent does create a state of deep concentration and relaxation that at times could be described as rather 'Zen-like'.

I didn't want my 'everyday' blog to become a tangle blog so have started this one to record and share some of the pieces I have done. I'd also like to take up some of the various challenges that exist - either in creating a tangle based on a particular shape or using particular patterns.  Wherever I can, I will use the names that are in circulation for certain tangles but some with be names I have invented because I have - or think I have - made up the doodle/tangle.

What follows is a chronological set of tangles. I don't think I am getting 'better' at it, I don't know that this is the approach I take. Sometimes I really don't like what I've done but they're all here - warts and all! (Now, that could be an interesting new tangle....'Wartz'...anyone done that one?

The very first tangle I ever did...inspired by Maria Thomas,
one of the originators of Zentangle - this, I believe is an Aura Star

Here there are nine individual squares that I worked on, one at a time, practising lots of different tangles. I started top right and finished bottom left, working from right to left along the three rows.

This is a close up of the final square. The star is also inspired by Maria Thomas - using a tangle called Betweed, which is one of my all time favourites.

And so it began!