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Diva Challenge 315 - Tangle study - Molygon

We are wishing Laura a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY this week! And we have a Tangle Study Challenge based on Molygon, so we are also very lucky.

I say this but the first time I tried Molygon, it wasn't my favourite - I couldn't get it to 'flow' and my shapes were too narrow to do much with. But there's nothing like giving it a second chance...

And I am really very pleased I did. I had a slightly distressed tile which I used as a background and here is my finished study. 

Again, wishing Laura a lovely day on Friday. Hope she has a great birthday and thanks for giving us such a great challenge.

Caught deep in concentration by my daughter....

Diva Challenge 314... UMT Scallamps by Sarah Uram CZT

Well, I have spent a very happy few weeks during April tangling on distressed tiles and, I have to say, in my humble opinion, produced some pretty amazing results. Huge and valuable learning curve - with many thanks to Eni Oken.

However, today, it was back to basics and the Diva's Challenge. It is Use my Tangle week and this week, Sarah Uram gave us 'Scallamps'. Looks familiar and interesting and I enjoyed this one, which I drew in a book. I am currently drowning in tiles...advice on what to do with them all would be gratefully received!

Also, as Laura mentioned, we're creating tiles with the lovely Lily Moon and her family in mind. I have always loved Lily's work and seen her grow in skill from her first tiles - she's now one of the very best, in my opinion. However, right now, she's having a very rough time and we are sending her lots of love (and tiles) and hoping that the power of Zentangle will help her through this dark period. A moonful of love from me...with Lily's tangles, Lealad and Andante..plus homage to Amphora...

Thanks for popping by!


And if you've scroll this far, I will share a couple of my distressed tiles...can't resist!

This is over a tile that I distressed with my Inktense crayons and some spray acrylics bought from Lidl (!)

This weird and wonderful creation is on a tile I distressed with just about every single paint, pen, stamp and colour I possess...trying to get the right colour for some drawings I'm doing for my sister....lol!!

And this may form a part of said drawing for my sister... colours are OK on this one. 

And these more gentle colours came from my Distressed Ranger pens...Feels very calm after the others...

Thanks for looking. Axxx

Colour, colour everywhere! Distressed tiles....but a happy me!

Over on Facebook, there's a burst of colour, partly due to Eni Oken's amazing technique of tangling over distressed tiles...well, the tiles are not distressed but the colours used include Distressed Inks. This is a range of inks, pens and sprays produced by Tim Holtz and whilst I'm not endorsing any products here, the results that can be seen on Eni's blog are incredible.

Personally, I only have a limited set of Distress Ink marker pens that I purchased on my last visit to the UK. However, at my local Lidl last week, I was able to pick up a box of four acrylic spray paints which have proved quite adequate for my purposes.

I have been making my own distress backgrounds and have spent almost the whole week working obsessively on them,,,, and now, I am beginning to really enjoy myself, At first, I found my colours seemed muddy and my tiles without much light but now, whilst I would never say I am an expert, I am much happier with my results.

For posterity more than anything else, I am going to post a selection of my efforts here...

A work in progress - and quite gentle colour tones

I liked an idea that Eni gave me - put a frame around one section to see how it looks

Another section with frame...

I really love the colours of this one. I am preparing something for my sister and sent her this to check out the colour scheme. Her husband thought it looked like E.T. fetching a stick....I can't see anything else now....

I have improved the highlights on Narwal and Marasu since I took the photo...they don't look too good here...

I wasn't too happy with the original tile as it seemed like just a bit blog of red....but I am happy with my tangles on it. 

Some distresed tiles awaiting tangling...

Pure fantasy! 

My favourite so far...a friend said she could see dragons in this one...

Not so very long ago, I was nervous about using colour. It seemed too difficult. Now I am so in love with the inspiration it creates in me...it may be some time before I go back to black and white! (But I know I will one day...because I love Zentangle!)

Zentangle Poems

Inspired by Maria Tovar-Perez, a CZT teacher here in Spain, our Friday tangling group have decided to use poetry as a base to create some art this week. You can see her work and that of her students on her Facebook page. I had given this technique a try a while back but wasn't happy with the results. I know now that I didn't go 'far enough' and was trying to avoid obscuring the words. The key is to select just a few words that you like or that make a different type of poem. The other words are lost to the tangles.

I had a go at a couple of poems before I took the class so that people could see some of the options to include on their own poems and in the class we practised on some of my old English class notes!


We don't like waste. I love what Belen did with hers...definitely an improvement on the untangled version but apologies that it's a bit out of focus.

I will post the final versions after out next class. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this and I am sure there will be some extremely interesting zenpoems produced.

These are some of mine. The first one is on a poem by Pablo Neruda called 'Un Amor' - A Love. I cannot explain the lemon slices....

Next is over a poem by Lorca, called 'Arbole, arbole' - Tree, tree,

And a poem by one of my favourite poets, W B Yeats, called 'The Song of Wandering Aengus.'

And this is not me touting for business, honest, BUT, if you have a poem that you would like me to turn into a Zentangle poem, please let me know. You could choose the particular words that you wanted highlighting and select a colour scheme for any gemstones, etc. or leave it to me.

Mainly it's just an excuse for me to keep doing them! Send me a message if you're interested.

Axxx

Diva Challenge 305 - Duotangle with Molygon and Marasu

How on earth did we suddenly get to challenge 305? I am slipping badly...the last one I posted was 293...although I have done several attempts at the intervening challenges, I haven't managed to write a post and make the link. I do, however, always read The Diva's posts and continue appreciate the glimpses into her busy life. What a woman! Good on you, Laura!

So today, I will! It's Andalucia Day so we have had a little holiday which has given me a little extra time to tangle and to post. I enjoyed this very much - actually, I am really enjoying my tangling these days as I have discovered a new passion. Colour. Colour using Derwent Inktense crayons. I have dabbled a bit in colour over the years since discovering Zentangle, but one of the things I liked best about it was the black on white with pencil shading. However, thanks to the very talented Jo Flaherty and Eni Oken, I have pushed my boundaries and started shading in colour.

So - here is my challenge piece and a couple of others that I have been working on in the past few weeks. Most of them have made it to Facebook and the shared group pages there but I will put them here too. I have neglected my blog for long enough.

Thanks for popping by!!

And some more colour...