diva challenge 198:K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple, Silly.

The diva hands us the challenge of going back to the beginning, and simplifying.

Zentangle came my way at the beginning of the summer, and the first youtube video demonstration for me was Auraknot. It is a lot easier now that I've had lots of practice...and not just with auraknot, but with pens and paper in generally.

this is my first tangle done on tiepolo paper, the same stuff official Zentangle (R) tiles are made of.

I like the rustic, hand drawn feel of this. Adding Tipple finished it.










one early favorite is Mr E, which I like because it is so striking, and the numerous lines are relaxing. This is an ATC featuring mr E in  a simple string.

My plan is to create a simple tile every day this week as a meditative exercise.











I have loads of images, as I have been following the diva challenges, but not able to post them. And this may be my last post. Depends on if my computer co operates. They found that my mother board is corrupted (?) and the repair is more expensive than a new laptop, but I can use it until it's all used up. This was the first thing i did with it.

Diva Challenge 193, part two

Okay, I played with THX some more and came up with another offering for the Diva Challenge.

This time, Xyp was the star. It reminds me of some kind of bramble, climbing, thorny. I like the colors I chose. I need to play with color more, and learn the delectable shading and blending I've seen on so many pieces. But I think dark blue and tan work together in this piece.

It sure is blurry. Soon I hope to have a scanner, like Dave Hunter's.













Speaking of, we had our second Intermountain Tanglers Gathering last Saturday.

David Hunter, Annie, and Robin

 

 

 

 

Our Ensemble, in progress.

We were delighted to have two ladies show up, who had gotten word of the Gathering from Marie English CZT here in Salt Lake. There was another gal who tried to find us, but couldn't locate the library where we were. This was SO much fun! Annie has a supremely fine hand, and Robin has only been tangling since October of this year. Her tile is the lower left, and just look at how precise and detailed her work is!
When we get together in December, the ensemble will be complete, and David is going to scan it for us and post on his blog. The  artists are Upper Left: Annie; Upper Right: yours truly; Lower Left, Robin; Lower Right, David Hunter.
I hope this group grows, and I hope we have as much fun every time, as we have had for the two times we've gotten together up to now.

THX to the warriors

This week's Diva Challenge is presented by a guest CZT Holly Atwater.



An adorable post about her experience at the zentangle conference where she met Our Diva, along with great pics! And the challenge is a tritangle using three patterns, that start with

THX (for thanks!)
Trio
Huggins
Xyp.

Playing with it, I found Xyp reminded me of a fence, and Trio was like clouds blowing in the wind...and why not Huggins as a hilly rise?

Big Sky Country

I like this a lot, and Trio is SO much fun! I could go on forever with it...

Diva Challenge 192 UMT Seton

This is my first blog entry in a few weeks, as my computer is dying on me. I have been practicing, though, and i did play around briefly with Seton, a UMT by Cris Letourneau.

http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2014/11/weekly-challenge-192.html

I enjoyed Seton a lot. There's so much creative potential in it, so much scope for embellishments and play.

my first Seton piece. I like the freehand look of it

Here I used Seton in a piece with chimes, flux, flord, and a very simple version of amaze.

Seton here reminds me of drapes we had on the windows in the basement at home, when I was a child. With the "drapes" I thought of windows, so that's where chimes came in. In the end, it reminds me of maybe a sliding deck door out to a patio. I call it Window Treatment.




 That's all I finished with, using Seton. It's been a very busy week, and I've been following the course outlined in One Zentangle a Day and doing some little pieces when I get some free time (which hasn't been much) 



sorry about the quality. Even before my poor computer got sick, I had quality issues for not having a scanner, and used my digital camera and some minor editing. Well, that editing software is gone now, so the quality went downhill. Hopefully soon I'll have the computer back to semi normal, plus I AM going to get a scanner. Dave Hunter is guiding my purchase of that, thank you very much, friend!

UMT: Yuma diva challenge 189

Well, this is an interesting pattern. Lots of auras, so it's really relaxing. It's sort of three dimensional if you make the lines curved at the edges.

The Diva Challenge this week (accompanied by a hilarious and colorful story about Thanksgiving in Canada) is to use the tangle Yuma, created by Tina-AKUA whose blog is right here

To start, I made a page of yuma, to get the feel of it:

It doesn't show up well, but I used crayola crayons to shade and color this piece. Olive green for the lozenge shapes, and forest green for shading the aura area.







As I played around, it began to remind me of fish in a current, so I made a little tile with that in mind, but didn't like it, and decided not to display it.
So I started a new tile with the fish in current theme...but when I highlighted the ovals, they looked just like hair barrettes, so I finished it with ribbony stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

I love what shading does!

this morning, waking up, I thought about how I would finish this tile, and another idea came to mind: a large sample, with the shading to make the oval pop somehow. Make it look really 3D. And this is how that one ended up:

again, shading makes it really work!

My idea had been to make the oval look solid, sort of rounded, in a nest of auras...and as I drew the auras, the idea to try and make the oval look deep came. With a couple of lines curved around the "interior" and some shading, I think it really does look like it is deep, like a hole really.












I have a couple of starts that I need to finish, and I have a blank that I traced so I'll still play around with yuma. Maybe a tile with a string, and use Yuma along with other patterns.

See what kinds of variations come along.

Meeting A Fellow Tangler: David Hunter!

What a fun couple of hours!

I had the privelege of meeting David Hunter (a favorite participant in the Diva Challenge every week. His comments on everyone's posts are so encouraging and heartfelt. I'm pretty sure anyone who might read this will know JUST who I'm talking about, because if you've posted something  for the Diva Challenge, chances are David has commented very warmly and with detail. ) And let me tell you, he is just as warm and genuine in person, as he is in his comments. Two delightful new friends!

So, on Saturday. David and his sweet friendly wife Linda met me at the library for our first Intermountain Tanglers Gathering! We will make it a regular monthly get together, the second Saturday of every month, and I am super excited about it!

This time around, because we are all so excited to meet other tanglers in person, we just admired each other's work (Let me tell you, this guy is a TALENTED portaitist...he has a sketchbook from before he discovered zentangle, with lots of delightful pencil sketches of faces, and some great cartoon stuff. Whimsical and funny. He's GOOD)

we admired each other's work, and talked about what we were doing artistically before zentangle, and looked at various pattern practices we've been working on. It was a couple of hours of delightful conversation...oh! and David showed me his hand scanner "The Magic Wand" ...I've been wanting a scanner, and now I think I know what one I'll be getting. Putting it on my wish list on Amazon, and giving family members the link ha! Hint Hint.

Next time, we may do a Zentangle Tile Ensemble. If we have a set of tiles prestrung, so the strings meet each other, and everyone does a few tiles, when we bring them together, we can match them up and see what we get.

It would also be fun to pick a string, print it up so we each have exactly the same string, and everyone create a tile, and see how our tiles are different, and how they are similar.

I'm excited about this little fledgling group, and I hope we get some other participants over the next several months. A gathering of maybe six or seven would be perfect, In My Opinion!

So, if you read this...IF...and you live in Salt Lake (I know you're out there!)...the second Saturday of every month, 1-3 pm, at the West Jordan Library. Ask for Intermountain Tangler Gathering and we'll see you there!

Diva Challenge 188: LGBT

The Diva Challenge this week is to create a tangle in honor of upcoming "Coming Out Day" which is Oct 11...news to me, and I have a gay person in my family!

And therefore, this is a topic near to my heart. Coming out can be VERY difficult for people, and my relative was no exception.She agonized for a long time, glum, troubled, depressed, and anxious. When she did come out, no one was surprised, and she suddenly was carefree, joyous, light, and sweet. Coming out set her free.


My first tangle was rainbow shaped,and I colored it in

I don't like it much. Blue and purple are in the "sky" while the rest of the colors are in the "rainbow."
Patterns used: Leaflet, phicops, flord, fiore, something with a flower in a grid, ditto, and my first use of Bateek.

The second one I decided to use tangles starting with L, G, B, and T.

LaBel, Laced, Girdy, Graancirkel,, Betweed, Bateek, Tropicana, Tripoli.
And, I think my subconscious did this...right there, next to the betweed is a tangle pattern I developed, and I call it Hitched.

Get it? Same sex marriage is in the news big time right now, and I put HITCHED in my LGBT tangle! hahahaha!
Oh, there is also some fescu growing up out of the ends of the Girdy. Also, a variation on Bales that I have been playing with...it starts with the negative space of Bales, and ends up with circles kind of dominating. Anyway, it was another B pattern, but it really looks nothing like Bales at all...oh well.

At any rate, I had fun with this, and I actually do like how it looks.