Springing into Strings...and Making Art on Purpose...

This has been a heck of a week. Plenty of stress in my personal life...but that has eased up a lot, thank goodness. Amid the stress, and because of it, I've kept busy with zentangle, including creating a piece "on purpose" for a friend. That is to say, different from the relaxed, unplanned zentangle method, I had an image of what I wanted before I started, plotted it out on paper, and followed through, with several false starts.

deciding what patterns to use

My friend Tina is a California girl, living in Utah, and she really misses the beach. At her work station, she has sea shells and ocean art. So I knew I wanted something that looked like the beach.

Making notes for what worked and what didn't

Likely patterns were crest, zailz, sand swirl, and sand. Also, Sanibelle is so seashelly I knew that had to be in the piece.
Then the lightbulb event: Putting frickle where the crest "ocean" met the sand swirl "beach"...That REALLY looked like "tender, curling foam"...like waves washing ashore. And, since frickle is one of Tina's favorites, it simply has to be in there.

This was a first try at the whole piece, but at the end, it was way too busy. Sand simply didn't work in the piece, so I decided not to use it.

so, with these ideas and changes in mind, I did another piece

too much color

It has all the shapes I was aiming for, but coloring it in ruined it. ... and I knew the color would have to be more subtle.

And this is the final version. It goes to Tina today, and I'm excited.
I put a "Concert" sun in the corner, with ando patterning the rays. And the color relegated to shading.





Now, on to the Diva Challenge. It's string theory, and it is spring!

Spring Basket?

I wanted to use springlike patterns, and it just so happens, this week's new tangle at tanglepatterns.com is a flowery one called MA XII. It takes on a sort of basket look in that section of the string, so I put zinger and fescu in there. 
Another pattern new to me is Joust, that fan looking section there. I had just found that pattern on pinterest, and practiced it in my sketchbook. Joust fits with MA XII simply for the fact of MA XIII being based on a 13th Century gothic French cathedral...and jousting was a medieval pastime, right? Those joust sections morphed nicely into b'tweed, and ipso called out to me, wanting to be included.
Pepper and onomato in the center. Then some flux sweeping along the bottom, and lines of I can't remember what it's called, along the edges and in the corners.

Since I managed to get this done early in the week, I'll prolly play with this challenge again, maybe along with Joey's challenge.

and just to finish, some little tricky treats. Paradox on an octagon, and maryhill on a curvy spiral. COOL HUH!