31st of May and Dreamdex

I aimed to produce some Dingbatz this month. But no planning in Zentangle! The last day of May is today and here is one:

I love the idea. I have done some but they are done in notebooks, on a program for something or as I am sitting listening to something I can´t concentrate on. They are not documented. I belive this is a good thing with Dingbatz. They don´t have to be anything else than a note somewhere! That doesn´t mean I don´t appreciate them.   I do love them a lot! And in May I have drawn them all with my Lamy pen!

The focustangle in Square One is Dreamdex by Debbie New. I don´t know why I had to struggle with it. The shapes are familiar. It is easy to learn. But I wasn´t satisfied with the sketches I made in my sketchbook. I like to draw it but something wasn´t what I wanted it to be. I decided I had to focus more on the pattern, so here comes a monotangle or almost a monotangle, since I couldn´t reject Beadlines (Margaret Bremner) coming in.

I am satisfied where this went. Now I think I know what was wrong. I felt a little locked in the pattern at first, but as I found out I really loved the negative form I saw I could break the pattern into other parts, which I loved! Maybe it is that fragmentfeeling....

Daily tangles and Diva´s challenge 317

I have been away, visiting my Dad far north of Sweden. I have been tangling ok, though no posts. A nice thing happened; my Dad has been through a surgery and his lifemate is of course concerned and worried about his health and recovery. When she saw me tangeling she wanted to try it. I taught her a couple of basic patterns an she liked it very much! I belive she found a way to relax and leave her anxiousness for a moment! Here are my tiles from the visit (drawn with my Lamy pen):

No 1: Showgirl (Vicki Bassett) meets Signalz (Bev Ripps)

No 2: Signalz, Paizel (Angie Vangalis), Sandswirl (Karry Heun), Antidots (Anita Roby-Lavery), Papz (mine) and Tipple.

No 3: Papz, Signalz and So Deceiving (Jutta Gladnigg). As I did this one I found out that Linda Farmer has published my pattern Papz on her site, tanglepatterns.com. So happy she did!

 No 4: Signalz monotangle.

As I arrived safely at home I found out about the challenge no 317 from the Diva! This was a quite different challenge! Before retirering I was a teacher and one task I used among children and adults was this: I gave them a piece of a photography and told them to use whatever they wanted but make that piece a part of their own painting/drawing. Now the Diva wanted us to use a photo for tangling. Here is mine:

I used a recycled tile (from an old watercolorpainting) again and cut out a part from a photo I took maybe two years ago. Then I tangled it using: Dreamdex (Debbie New), Fassett (Lynn Shelton Mead), Tri-Bee (Beate Winkler), Flux, Tipple and Flukes. First I didn´t know what this would be like but working on it (not giving it up) I really liked it! It was different but fun!

Reticula and Fragments in my calendar

This entire post is about Reticula and Fragments. In my calendar I have tried to focus more on the Reticulas and less on the fragments. The Reticula is the net which keeps everything together. First I tried 6 different Reticulas only, but then my curiosity won and I had to try them all with different Fragments. I worked with my Lamy-pen most of the time, not the micron. Here is the result:

16th-18th of May I did publish in an earlier post but I want to publish them together with the last three days because it is obvious when you look both pictures  what it means to use different Reticulas! The fragments are all from Zentangle Primer, but the Reticulas are from patterns I know well.

19th-24th of May came in a row. I had much fun doing this as I like surprises! It might look like a mess sometimes but there is a structure to follow! 

More Reticula and Fragment done with fountainpen

My fountainpen Lamy and I are old friends. I love to write poems with it, I have done a lot of sketches and drawings with it. I have tangled with it a lot in my sketchbooks. Now I wanted to try it on a tile (Fabriano Tiepolo) as I saw the results of Lynn Shelton Mead! 

The nib of my pen is a little bit broader than on Micron O,1. But I like how easily the ink flows over the surface. It is a different feeling and the pen is better in my hand than Micron. This is not the last tile I´ve done with my fountainpen!!!

I have tried to focus on the Reticula for some days now. The Reticula Glace (In Melinda Barlow´s video) is so fascinating. I tried it here with Fragment L25. It is simple but I like it a lot!

Showgirl vs Paizel

Showgirl(Vicki Bassett)is one of those pattern I do love a lot. Today I went back to it thank´s to Melinda Barlow´s video. Sometimes there are a lot of new patterns around taking my focus, that I forget those I have been doing a lot just because I love them! But here she comes on a rennaisance tile:

As I have worked with Paizel (Angie Vangelis) due to the Square One focus it also came along with Showgirl. Paizel is a pattern I learned because of Square One and it will surely be one of my go-to patterns. It is so pretty! And as it is with Showgirl both can be drawn in a lot of ways. Here I wanted to try the technique Melinda Barlow shows in her video according to the shading. The shading is made with colorpencils and turpentine (odorless). So fun!

Striping the Diva´s challenge

Striping is a challenge I remember from last year. It isn´t about the pattern Striping, it is about using tangles in a striping way as I think about it. So here comes my entry this time:

Well yes, I took a before pic. Before shading and highlighting.

After shading and highlighting. This is made on a piece from an old watercolorpainting. Recycled Fabriano heavyweight watercolorpaper. I love this paper though I have to use thicker pens than on original tiles since the surface is quite different. I didn´t use the distress markers for the shading this time, I only went on with watercolor and graphite. The patterns are: Paizel (Angie Vangelis), Sula (Susan Kelley Pundt), Lealad (Lily Moon), Tattle (Milde Weiss), Nekton and Crescent Moon. I am still happy about the idea of recycling my old sins! 

Reticula - addictive!

This morning I watched a video by Melinda Barlow again. I was so excited, I made the entire page in my calendar from this. Take a look at the video first! Here is my entire page:

Watching Melinda´s explanation about the Reticula, I found out some points. The first one was that I should concentrate more on the reticulas rather than the fragments right now! The second point was, that I have been using some patterns as Reticulas quite a lot, without noticing what I have done. The third point is, this opens up even more possibilities with the Reticula-Fragment thinking!

Structures has always been interesting to me, especially in art. On this entire page I have done three Reticulas. They all eminate from patterns I love to do. The first one on 16th I got from Linda Barlow´s video and is a pattern called Glace. Or you can see, it also is an Oge-grid! 

Whow! Some days are better than others even if it is raining outdoors!

Paizel and the calendar

Paizel by Angie Vangalis is the focus-pattern in Square One right now. I have seen it before but not used it.

I filled in the spaces with Nekton as Angie did on her example and I like the way it changed the look of the pattern. Nekton is not a favourite pattern of mine but here I can see the qualities! Paizel is very meditative to draw and easy to learn. The other patterns that came by are Antidots (Anita Roby Lavery), She Leaf (Yu Ru Chen)and Tipple (Zt).

By the way, I love to work on tiles even more than before. The paper, Fabriano Tiepolo 290g (same as in original tiles) has such a lovely surface I can´t get enough of this.  

In the calendar I went on trying some different fragments in various ways. As I look at this page I find it quite messy and not what I wanted it to be but this is the way it went. I like the 14th most. Fragment T4 was the one that caused me trouble from the start. I think I will go for it another round and only use that one, now I left it this way because I didn´t belive this fragment liked me!

IAST 194

I haven´t left the idea of combining recycling and tangling. I opened up a box where I kept some of my old, not satisfying watercolors, chose a couple of them and cut them up into tiles, 8,9 x 8,9 cm. I guess some of them will work fine, some not. But that is not the point! The point is this; to recycle old paintings which all are made on high quality paper, is so refreshing and satisfying! I won´t show any beforepics, since that´s not the point either. 

This tile I wanted to use for IAST 194 featuring Adele Bruno´s last tanglepattern Trella. You can read about it here in her blog.

I used it together with N´Zeppel and Flukes, both original zentangles.

10th, 11th and 12th of May

This page i only use Fragments from the Zentangle Primer. I have thought about that for a while inspired by Simone Menzel´s work.

It was very fun and I only used one kind of Reticula, the one with squares. I started with one I have tried before, W7,  then I  went on with P6, M7, P5 and F2. M7 became a favourite! I think I will go on with this Fragment-Reticula-thing for a while it is so fun!

I talked a lot about Molygon in yesterday post. Today I tried it on a black tile and I got a tip from Sue Zanker, Australian tangler, to make them fatter.

Now I think I found a way to work with Molygon that I feel more comfortable with. This one was really relaxing to do and I like the way it talks to me.

Molygon

I am the Diva´s challenge this week is the tanglepattern Molygon. I decided to give it a round, though I´ve not liked my result when I have tried it earlier. It looks so easy and it is easy to learn. I have seen other tanglers making amazing things with this pattern. It is fun to draw. But it is something that causes me trouble. So I wanted to give it a chance once again. I started to put it in a Dingbaz:

The Molygon is so small here but anyhow it needed some embellishment. The striping made it look like worms of a kind. I like the Dingbatz-idea so I am pleased with this. Next one is with watercolor:

I didn´t want to add other tangles, I wanted to keep it simple. As I did this I saw that Molygon is a tangle that doesn´t stand on its own without embellishments, at least when I do it. Maybe it will if I blow it up....But it is still fun to draw.

Then I made this:

I filled most of them with Indyrella. This time it went a little more 3D. The last one:

I liked this one better than the others. Before I did this I looked att Melinda Barlow´s video, which helped a lot. I was more satisfied this time with the result and maybe Molygon will become a friend of mine one day. 

7th, 8th and 9th of May

The patterns in the calendar the last three Days:

7th of May: Balo (Hsin Yah Hsu), Lenche (mine), Tropicana (Kate Ahrens), Cheesecloth (Suzanne McNeill) and Layered Crescentmoon and a kind of ribbon that I don´t know if it exists as a pattern. But now it does anyhow!

8th of May: Lenche (mine), Papz (mine), Balo (Hsin-Yah Hsu), Faux Weave (Helen Williams) and the ribbon I don´t know about.

9th of May: Papz (mine), Garlic cloves (Jacquelien Bredenoord), Balo (Hsin-Yah Hsu) and that something else.ribbon.

The last two days has been occupied of what was going on with my dad. Surgery today. He is on his way back we hope. Tangling in this mood has been a great thing to do. My evening meditation I also did with my dad in mind. 

The patterns are: Papz, Striping, Tripoli, Arukas, Fescu and Black Pearlz.

3Z - for Dad

Today my dad is going to the hospital. Tomorrow he is going through a big surgery. He is 88 years old. I am not there physically but with my mind. Of course I am worried. But right now there is nothing I can do. He is in my tangling. My thoughts go to him. My prayers as well.

As I look at the result of today´s tangling on 3Z I get a picture of the subconcious process going on. And it deals with my dads situation.  I can see that. But I also can see there is balance and strength. I appreciate that and I am thankful. The patterns are Crescent moon and of course Papz, the pattern I made up for my Dad. I filled it with pearls but now when I look at it they look like lamps....

I thought of giving this tile some color. Maybe it will come up... or not. Today it looks like this anyhow.

What about the string and Balo?

This is my first tile with Balo (Hsin-Ya Hsu).I wanted to learn about how this tangle works. I mainly to use a string when I tangle. It is like the string takes the responsibility, not me, where everything is going.

Actually there is no string in this one. Or more precisely: I made the dots in the corners and the pencil-line connecting the dots, then the penciled line also became the string!

The pattern Balo is a Ribbon, and a ribbon that takes it´s place and will be dominating any tile. It is very pretty and kind of lace-like. I found it easy to learn and relaxing to draw. In the middle comes Assunta again. I think I start to love drawing Assunta after having tried it a lot lately. 

On tanglepattern.com there is a tangle-randomizer. It works very good also with strings. there are 250 strings published on the site. I have tried them all, but now I re-try them now and then with the help of the randomizer. Today I got string 65 (Pat Ferguson). Maybe it is hard to follow, but it is there!

I found this string perfect for Starfish flower (Nicole Dreyer). It is my first Starfish flower but I belive it won´t be the last. It is a pattern built on Echoing lines and very fun to do! The others are Fun Bee (Beate Winkler), Crescentmoon (Zt), Meer (Zt), and Tipple (Zt). 

4th, 5th and 6th of May

4th of May: I started exploring Assunta (Zt), a tangle I  am not familiar with. I have seen it some times but it hasn´t attracted me. The negative form in Assunta looks like Cadent as Linda Farmer noted on the description of the tangle. It is a little bit tricky, the pointing "leaves" or "petals" goes in several directions. As I played with it I tried to transform it into cadent but Huggins was in the way so it went totally crazy! 

5th of May: I wanted to try Carole Ohl´s fragment-play with Pokeleaf. I did, but I draw the grid with my Micron, not with pencil and I think it came out pretty cool! 

6th of May: I used the idea of Dingbatz, to make frames and put the tangles inside. One Scallamp had to join, though it broke the frame att took Pokeleaf with her! Assunta and Huggins stayed calm.

Scallamp

Scallamp is something else! The pattern is deconstructed from a lamp bought in IKEA! I have got an idea what lamp it could be. But I prefer to look at it as a pattern and it is so nice to draw! Thank´s Sarah Uram for charing it! And thanks to the Diva for using it in the challenge!

Now i am back to b/w and I used Papz (mine) and 5C Aura in the background. This is the way it went. I was interruptet not one time but several times so I almost gave it up. But I didn´t and that is a satisfaction. Anyhow this is the way it turned out during these conditions but i will try it again when I have the opportunity to start and finish without interuption!

IAST 193

My first post after a long time to Adele Bruno´s challenge IAST = it´s a string thing.This challenge is also a tribute to Lily Moon. You can see why on Lily´s blog here. Lily is one of those bright shining stars on the sky of zentangle. Once you have seen her art you´ll know why. She is outstanding and a great inspiration to tanglers all over the world. Ofcourse I wanted to participate in this IAST. Here is my entry:

I choose to work on a rennaisance tile this time. To me it is very much Lily Moon! When I first saw her art it was on rennaisance tiles and I was absolutely stunned. I wanted to try it and ordered these tiles from U.S. That was quite long ago now.

The tangles I have used are some of my favourites from Lily Moon: Drogon, Andante, Reel and fragments from Amphora. I also used some golden Tipple. Doing this I was thinking of her and hoping she will find some light in darkness. 

I am the Diva´s weekly challenge 314

The UMT this month is about Scallamp (Sarah Uram). UMT means Use My Tangle and is a recurrent challenge from the Diva. This is fun, it is a way to find unexpected patterns and Scallamp is such a pattern. I went on recycling the same watercolorpainting as last week.

As the grang is rough (surface of the watercolorpaper), it is quite difficult to use Micron 0,1. I started this with the Micron but than I grabbed my Lamy Fountainpen, which worked so good on this surface! One problem though, I forgot that the ink from the fountainpen isn´t waterproof! So shading with my distress marker almost went into a mess!the rest of the shading is graphite for that reason and I used white charcoal and white gellypen for highlitning.

Except Sallamp I used Ruutz (Eni Oken), 5C Aura an 5C Wrapped (both Ina Sonnenmoser)

From this I learned, that I´ll look for some old watercolorpaintings with fine grang to recycle! 

1st, 2nd and 3d of April. It is all about Dingbatz!

Dingbatz is taking over mydesk right now. Small little drawings I didn´t know about a week ago. Or I didn´t have a name for them. I have seen them in books and on typhographical things. They are all special. All unique. Or should be. I had not connected Dingbatz, or Dingbats as the typhographical term is, with zentangle. But Rick and Maria did and trying to do this it is all obvious. So my latest calendar page is more sketchy than it use to be:

First I tried to identify the patterns I used, but now I have decided not to do that. It is like going into the djungle, there comes new things all the time! And working on this there will be more fragments than anything else. Ofcourse, if there are obvious patterns like Paradox and Fescu f.ex. I can name them. As I did here.

Dingbatz are fun to draw on Bijou-tiles or on ATC:s. Here is one little Bijou:

Yes, it is easy to identify Pokeleaf and the Mooka-parts. But from now on I won´t talk about that when it is about Dingbatz.  They are fun to do and absolutely addictive! They are made in a very short time or no time at all. And very special! Love to do it!

I have a lot of beautiful books in my library. One is a collection of Russian Fairy-tales and these fairy-tales are illustrated by an artist called I. Bilibin.  His drawings are amazing and there are a lot of Dingbats to be found on the pages. Look at this one: