It's all VI's

hahaha gettit? My title means "It's all sixes" ...or, six of one, half dozen of the other which also means "I have no preference" ... because six and half dozen are the same thing. So, it is a six mile journey going THIS way, and it's about a half dozen miles to get there going THAT way. Sixes.

well, that is the Roman numeral challenge this week at Joey's. We're up to VI.

I had my tile out, with the VI string on it, at work. I was leafing through my sketchbook, where I've been practicing new patterns, and some "buried treasure" samples, from tanglepatterns.com. Among the new patterns is D'rua, a fun "one line" tangle that reminds me of ghosts or idols. Well, I did a page with D'rua on it, (the new one for that week) and on the buried treasure page posted, there was flovine, rain, and hurry. I practice them on one page and ended up with something that looked sort of cactusy.

That was the page I leafed to when I had my tile out on the desk at work. It struck me how good D'rua would look in that V and flovine is a ribbonish pattern just right for the narrow spaces on the top and bottom. I was aiming for the cactus scape I had on the sketchbook page, so for the I of the VI I wanted something prickly. Flipping through the practice pages I found a random pattern, not from tanglepatterns.com.

It is called Vovz by Judy Murphy  fun and easy to draw, and with it being so spiky, I thought it would fit in with the cactusy look I was aiming for, and easy to work along a straight line.

It looked pretty good, until I put the tipple in there. Hmph.

so this morning, I started another tile. Left the TV off, and went through the zentangle process of breathing, and gratitude for the materials, and opening my creativity before starting.

and this is my second tile. It took me about an hour, counting the quiet contemplation before I started

It is Mooka, Rashell, and a pattern I can't find! but I think it is called Erbluen and it also isn't on tanglepatterns.com.

the shading on this second one is all stippling which I just love. along with weighting the lines, it is a really good method for shading. This piece is more architectural somehow. The rashell looks like the capital of a column. with the mooka there, it sort of looks like an overgrown Greek temple ruin.

Joey's V Challenge

Joey is leading her challenges through the Roman numerals, and this week is my first go at this particular series.

It is also the first time playing with Puf...oh. my. WORD!

what a cool pattern. I love how it morphs from a square spiral-ish inside bales, into the puffy petals. And shading makes it really delicious.

Fun pattern, fun challenge!

it's like a pillow with a big, tangly fringe on top.

Shattuck and Steampunk

Over at the Diva's place, it is a monotangle challenge, and Shattuck is the star. That was one of the first patterns I learned. With the repetitive lines, I find it very relaxing and started a page in my big book, but that one wants more than one pattern, so...

well, I played around a bit, and this is what I came up with:

The sparkles! the shading! 

Last week was a St Paddy's Day challenge, which I didn't do until yesterday...

It started out kind of "meh" but at the end, I like it.











And I thought I'd share this with you. For a reason that I can't remember, steampunk grabbed me this past week, and I made these:

from a photo of a brooch

with shading

As I was working on this one, I decided this would be what I give my co worker who requested a piece for her cubicle. Here's a cool little synchronicity: Sam (who asked for the art) is dating Jarick (who is my manager at work)...and Jarick actually has some pretty cool samples of ZIA here and there. For instance, a cardboard cup...all done up with zentangle ish stuff. Sam already has a couple of his things in her station, and now she'll get my first big time steampunk piece.

I have been exploring patterns that are conducive to steampunk, and wanted to recommend Molossus. If you search her name on Pinterest, you'll find a lot of suitable patterns. with plans of filling up some pages in my big book.

Maybe this little guy is my steampunk inspiration

This finch is from a Ben Kwok template, which I found on the FB page "Ornation Creation" His little waistcoat seemed rather Victorian so...
He was A LOT of fun!

blessings, all and thank you in advance for comments. I lurve comments. 

UMT challenge: Rautyflex

Well, it's been a few weeks. The flu got me good, and I've been wobbly and weak to say the least. Even the energy to work on a challenge has been beyond me, though I did play around with Tamisolo, Sati, Fission, and Dillo quite a bit in my sketchbook. Which I finished up yesterday. And now I have a smaller one, with lighter weight paper. Methinks I have been spoiled with the heavier stuff, even though it is in a larger size.

*note to self* 98 lb paper is SO much nicer than 65. Let's look into finding the 98 weight in the smaller size.

Meanwhile, one of my projects in this larger sketchbook was to go through the strings on tanglepatterns.com and I have a few more to post here.

string 56 Bubbles

string 54 Bag End

string 45 a WHAT out of hell?

string 41 Woven

string 42 In the Field

string 43 Starburst

Mooka and tipple. Shading mooka is one of my favorite things to do.











This one has Flux, Concert, Tellis, Onomato, N'zeppel (?) and Fescu. It reminds me of the round door of a hobbit hole...and why not Mr. Baggins's ? hence, Bag End is what i call it.









Looking at the string on this one, I was immediately drawn to a sort of bat shape so even though a bat doesn't have a curly tail, I did what I had to. I like this one. It makes me smile.









 This is possibly my favorite of the string project pieces. It is simply Arums on string 41, and I made the stems sort of cross over/under each other. Here is arums stepout

and visit Poppie's blog for many more patterns.









I call this one In the Field, because it depicts a wavy background, with individual shapes rising up out of the wave. It is similar to my ideas what the quantum universe is like: waves of energy with every single thing rising up out of the energy, to see and be seen by each other in the physical world.


This one for the life of me I can't remember the name of the pattern. And I'm losing steam fast so...
















 and with all this showing off of my string project, now for the Diva Challenge:

In the Neighborhood

this week is a UMT challenge, and the pattern we get to play with is Rautyflex by Kathryn Bendel. It is a complex pattern, but once you get the lines down, there are many shapes to play around with.

This happens to be on string 73, part of my project as a matter of fact. Across the middle is Cubine which was fun to put on a curved grid. The upper left is Rautyflex filled in pretty much the way it is shown in the stepouts, and on the bottom right I went with the outline of the square+triangle shape.

This one reminds me of rows of houses and buildings.

that's all I've got for now. Though the illness is largely behind me, there are many things that really sap my energy, and this blog post is one of them. Now I am feeling tired and need to rest.

Many blessings to all who visit, and of course I love any and all comments.

Zentangle Throw Back

We have a pretty cool challenge this week from Diva Laura Harms. Go back to the beginning, to the first pieces of tangle art we did...It's been fun looking at some of the pieces already submitted, but everyone looks so GOOD...I wasn't going to do it, because it doesn't feel like I've improved that much. (heh, maybe I was already so darn good at it from the very beginning, right? ha! Just kidding)

Well, I grabbed my first sketchbook, the one I was "on" when I started practicing zentangle. Honestly, my "style" hasn't changed much...though my lines are finer and I know a lot more about weighting lines and shading and such. So I couldn't find a tile that I wanted to duplicate but I did find a pattern.

My very first zentangle video was a tutorial on B'Tweed, by Maria (with some Rick in the background)...and I gave it a try.

Hahahahahaaa! wow. But look, I made a border for my "tile" (which back in those days was just squares drawn in my sketchbook...no actual tiles or anything)

And here is B'tweed, with shading, done soon after, or maybe the same day:

Add caption

I clearly was confused and uncertain. I didn't know why lines were supposed to go where they were going, and so I didn't have a clear idea of what I was aiming for.

Believe me, this was my best attempt back about two years ago.








And so, I am up to strings 49, 50, 51, and 52 in my "project"....and string 51 looks like this


which seems about right, to make a new, improved version of that 2014 Btweed

Which is what I did:

So, maybe I have improved some... though I do prefer Btweed in a pointed pattern...triangles and radiating webs and such.Still, going back and seeing what I attempted, my first try. Pretty encouraging. Like before and after pics when you are getting fit.


Now...should I do a post on Mooka?

A Hearty Challenge

This week being Valentine's week, the Diva challenges us to create art that is Valentine centered: hearts, red or pink, lacy, etc.

So...at first my heh "heart" wasn't in it, and this is what I made. It is from string 21














I used HeartBox, LoLo, Heart Strings, and Kisses.

but they weren't enough...so I put in some hearts of my own, and added those spirals. I actually call this one Ugly Heart Art...It just didn't speak to me...but...

I liked the spiral hearts so much, I made a piece based on it...

Spiral Heart. with a background of Caught...first spotted on Tickled to Tangle, in last week's Wednesday Wisdom Words. and...
...Shading.
Oh, how I love shading!







And, with the monotangle in mind, and having peeked around on Adele's site, I remembered her LG pattern. A new tile, filled up with LG

Some color on this one. Magenta centers, violet shading

The little black dotty hearts to finish. Oh my GOODNESS, the shading!


And so i thought I was finished, until today. I got up to string 32
    

and when it came right to it, HeartBox called out my name.

I filled up the centers (that four corner area) with HeartBox...except I put the fourth one in a different corner. Put my trademark spirals (hee hee trademark hahaha) in the hearts. Then lines of hearts going up along the legs/arms of the 4

4 of Hearts string 32

It just turned out I put four hearts on each "limb" and that's when I named it. Four of Hearts. Then AND ONLY THEN, did I realize the string itself is a numeral four! ha! And if you're counting, I did put five on that bottom leg of the 4. what was I thinking!

So, Four of Hearts. And yes, the shading makes is SUPER cool.  Turned out to be a fun challenge, after all. 

and with that, I have a few more string tiles

Van Gogh is a Star string 20

  

Party in the Fabric Store string 23

Harmony string 31

Grotto string 26

Looking over my sketchbook, I've come to a conclusion. I like the pieces that use fewer patterns. A good monotangle, wow! And the simplicity of only two or three patterns makes a big difference.

However, if there is a piece that i like, with a lot of patterns, what appeals is a unity within. There should be a shape in common, or some kind of line that goes through the whole piece.

For instance,

this one has lots of patterns. Many more than I usually like. But I like this piece, and when I sat and tried to figure out why, it came to me: unity comes through in the black satiny ribbon that appears in the HeartRope, the Up&Across,  and in Bunzo, and it is there in the ribbons on the very bottom. There is a unity of form in the black perlz, and the heart shape is repeated in HeartRope and Join.

Hypnotic repeats the bunzo curves, and undling takes the repetition to a whole new level. You also see the repeated lines in Meringue.

Hollibaugh, crosscro, and the rivulet pattern (I invented that, but haven't named it yet) provide variety and balance.

Overall, a pleasing piece that could have been overly busy, but unity and balance bring it around.

The Molygon Challenge

  string 13

In the Flow

I used Frond and quib with my molygon. (this is my second favorite)

The Diva Challenge this week was to use the new official tangle: Molygon! Oh what fun! and because I have a project of sorts going, where I'm using the strings from Tanglepatterns.com, one at a time just in my sketchbook...well, I just used strings 13, 14, 15, and 16 for this challenge.





Worms of Doom

I sure have been enjoying my personal project. It's got my creativity flowing. This one, "worms of doom" is string 14. There is lots of Lava Juice here, and that kind of wheel thing (Maybe that's similar to the old fave "Pepper"?) and I just made up that fringy looking stuff with an aura around it. I actually like this one the best, and second is "In the Flow" (see above)

Here we have Palm Party, string 15.

I had to add color, to bring out the palm tree effect.

The trunk is A-fog and would have

worked better lengthwise. Oh, well.



Palm Party



A Loverly Bunch of Coconuts

And here we have string 16, which ended up looking palm frondy too, especially with the two Purk type things. Also, Flux and a banner across the bottom.  When I added some teardrops to the molygons, they look more like orange slices now, or maybe some other fruit with seeds. But the Purk still look like two nuts hanging there. :)












Okay, so this was lots of fun. Now, back to my string project!