J is for Jellyroll...Diva is for Amphora

this week's Diva challenge is a UMT, with Amphora as the featured tangle.

It's a pattern I want to tangle with more. Haven't gotten it out in a long time, and it really is cool looking.

Because I fell in love with Crazy Huggins this past week, I wanted to use it, too. So I made an amphora frame, and filled it with CH.

I also did a line of amphora "inside" the Crazy Huggins... another thing I want to play with is putting a pattern IN another pattern, not filling the space inside a pattern but making it sort of go over the pattern, if that makes any sense. That's what I was trying for with that one line of amphora going up on the right, inside the Crazy Huggins.

So, that one still needs work. But I fetched a colored tile out of my stock, and did this:

After  making that amphora sea slug across the middle the colors themselves cried out for Aura Lea, so I complied. A few highlights in white charcoal pencil, and shading with various Faber Castell and Prismacolor pencils, and I think it turned out okay. It is vaguely Under the Sea-ish, which I've seen some of, from other artists in this challenge.

Now, on to Joey's challenge this week: The Letter J and the tangle Jelly roll

This is on a colored Bijou tile. I took a cue from Michele Wynn's page, who is making her Joey challenge tiles on a theme: Bijou size, with a coordinating color scheme, so she can use them for a project involving pattern sorting. I doubt I'll go that far, but using a bijou appealed to me, so I did.

Jelly Rolls on the bottom with a few Jetties, and Jilli all in the background. I filled in the j string with white charcoal pencil, and outlined it in white gelly roll pen. Jilli looks pretty cool overlaying all that color. I shaded with prisma and Faber Castell.

I do like the Faber Castell pencils. they have a creamier feel, and blend with each other SO nicely. they're oil based, whereas the Prisma's are wax based, and they cost about twice as much as Prismacolor, but their quality is superb. I bought all the "rainbow" colors, plus one brown and one gray. I'll be adding to this a few pencils at a time. They really are nice.

Some sketchbook play:

 I wanted to do a classic zentangle piece, just black and white and shading, using a string and filling with patterns. I used some tangles I haven't touched for a while: Knightsbridge, striping, bunso, and florz. With a little bit of flux, and some misst, printemps (of course) and Mooka is always fun. Hmm, I do like the contrast, and it has enough white space to keep the eye from overload. Hm.

Another tile from Kate Ahrens

She sent this delectable ATC in butterscotch, with Tropicana crossing it. I finished it with my own Concert  beaming up from behind. Shading with brown Faber Castell, highlights with white gelly roller and white charcoal pencil. It did turn out pretty neat looking, eh?

I'll be working on another tile from Kate today, as I've declared this a Stay At Home Day. It's 1:00 pm and I am in my jammies, watching some Hiyao Miyasaki, and relaxing deeply.