ZENDALA DARE #80

If you can label days as either hit or miss; my last 2 days have certainly been misses... at least as far as my attempts at The Bright Owl's Zendala Dare # 80 have been concerned.

I'm just... not very happy with how anything turned out.  I forced myself to finish each of these because I have a tendency to want to just trash things once I feel the first inkling that they are starting to go wrong.  Everyone wants their visions to turn out perfectly on the page, I'm no different.  But there are bits & pieces of each of the following that I do like.  & we can't get any better if we can't accept our mistakes & either learn from them or just plain move forward.  I was going to keep going at Dare #80 until I had something I was satisfied with, but I'm fairly certain it's the template that I'm finding so challenging.  My head just isn't wrapping around it! 

so here goes nothin'!!!

tangles used: hollibaugh, kandy snake, poke leaf, poke root

tangles used: decomonds

tangles used: ona

I've also had an issue of just being messy... wobbly lines, not staying inside the lines when I applied color, and being super smudgy on everything!  I hate smudges!! 

In other news, I turned 33 on the 9th.  I'll be celebrating with my family on the 23rd - everyone has been super busy - but that's fine with me!  I'm blessed to be able to gather with all my loved ones whatever chance I get.  SO, I got to have this past weekend entirely for myself, & I gotta say, it was awesome.  I took a couple naps, went & had brunch both mornings with a book (most people think it's weird to go out to eat by themselves, but I enjoy it wholeheartedly,) but the BEST part was having tons of free time to PLAY!!!!

Here's a sampling of my experimenting: 
First - colored pencils.  I bought this 75th anniversary set of Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils, & I've gotta say, I will never use another colored pencil AGAIN.

Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils - 75th Anniversary Set

     Here are 2 pages from my sketchbook from my colored pencil playtime

blending fun in greens & yellows

blending fun in blues & purples

The quality of these pencils is so amazing it's almost absurd.  The set came with both blending pencils & blending markers.  I could just sit around all day & fill page after page with just color & blender.

I've also been having quite the love affair with Derwent Inktense Pencils for quite some time now.  The intensity of color you can get with them is ridiculous!  Often, when I can't think of something specific to draw or paint, I'll just play with my initials.  

initial fun with Derwent Inktense Pencils

Well, that's all I've got for now.  This week's Diva's Challenge #144 is already floating around inside my head... & I LOVE DRAWING BUGS!, so this is going to be fun!