DIVA CHALLENGE #159 - "TOP 'O THE MORNING"

This week's Diva Challenge #159 is entitled "Top O' the Morning," which is a cute way to say that our mission was to create a piece inspired by St. Patrick's Day.

I'm pretty sure that when the average American thinks about St. Pat's day, they are inundated with visions of shamrocks & leprechauns, rainbows & pots of gold, beer (sometimes green) & a really great reason to party it up.  I won't deny it, that's pretty much where my thoughts went at first.  However, doing a piece to celebrate St. Patrick's Day that was all about the kitsch & commercialized cartoonish vision that, sadly, the day has become... well, I just sorta felt "eh" about it.  Which may be strange.  I have an intense love for the color GREEN, (did you know that green occupies more space within the visible spectrum of light to human eyes?) & hello - RAINBOWS?  YES... rainbows are awesome.  Also, emeralds.  Emerald Isle.  Emeralds emeralds emeralds, I will never love another stone, not even the most flawless diamond, as much as I love emeralds.  (Have you seen the 1958 movie Gigi w/ Leslie Caron & Maurice Chevalier?  Of emeralds, she says "only the most beautiful emeralds contain that miracle of elusive blue.")  ANYWAY - I decided to do a little googling & wikipedia-ing, & try to sort out some of the real essence of the day set aside to celebrate the life of Saint Patrick.

As far as symbolism goes, there's a lot more to choose from than leprechauns & shamrocks.  Also, green, white & orange may be the colors of Ireland today, but long before today's Irish Tricolour was raised during the Easter Rising of 1916 & accepted as the official flag, BLUE was considered to be one of the sacred colors of the country, & there is even a shade of blue associated with St. Patrick - appropriately named St. Patrick's Blue.

I could honestly go on all day about this stuff, but really, who's interested?
So, on to my challenge piece.

tangles used: monaghan

A Blue Irish Cross over a green background tangle.  In this case, Monaghan by Neil Burley, who created the tangle after an inspiring trip to Ireland.  This started life in my sketch book (& actually remains there.)  It wasn't supposed to be my challenge piece, but I'm pretty happy with how it ended up.  It also wasn't intended to be a monotangle, but I think that it worked out well. 

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DIVA CHALLENGE # 158 - DUOTANGLE: DIVA DANCE & CRESCENT MOON

Ok... lets see here...

This weeks Diva Challenge #158  is - Duotangle: Diva Dance & Crescent Moon.

I was surprised with how quickly I came up with ideas for this one, & another one (possibly two?) is in the works.  So let's just get down to it, shall we?

Here's numero uno

tangles used:  crescent moon, diva dance (waltz & foxtrot)

I started with 2 big overlapping circles, & the rest of it just sort of flowed from there.  I would be totally happy with this if I had chosen a different red pen - the red 005 micron is really disappointing as far as the color output goes.  Very pale & on the verge of pink - also, looks like a different color all together next to the red that comes out of an 05 micron.  Is anyone else in agreement that Sakura really needs to work on their ink colors?  They all just seem kinda wonky.

et le numero deux

tangles used: crescent moon, diva dance (waltz)

This one started with me just scribbling with markers on a large but narrow piece of paper that was trimmed off of a larger work.  It was 80 DEGREES f yesterday!  The sun was shining, the breeze was soft, & I sat in my office all day with the door open enjoying the fresh air.  It's messy, but I like it that way.  Uhm... & yeah, if you couldn't tell (because it is so messy) it is a sun.  This one was totally fun to do, scribbling away loosely with fat juicy fiery warm colors.

I've been totally blown away by many of the pieces found so far on the linky machine.  You people are AMAZING.  Now I just have to go back & tell each & every one of you Diva Challengers just how rad you are.

 

ZENDALA DARE #93 & THE MISSING CURVY GRIDLOCK!

I'm a few days late out of the gate on this one, but I finally finished with The Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #93 - Snowflake Surprise.

Just from checking out the other posts on the linky machine, I'm going to assume that I'm not the only one who had some.. well... issues with this one.  For me, it was mostly that I AM SO OVER SNOW THAT IF I SEE ONE MORE SNOWFLAKE THIS WINTER I MIGHT DO SOMETHING DRASTIC!!!  Ugh... snowflakes.  BUT, I guess, therein lies the challenge???

I wasn't the only one who looked at the template & scratched my head & thought... how do I fit a 6 pointed snowflake into this 10 pointed mandala?  Well, I finally figured it out.  I went through & nixed a bunch of lines, & came up with this.  Only problem... well... not really enough room to tangle anything... so I added some lines, & called it a day.  & here it is.

tangles used: ...uhhhhhhhh nope

 This weekend I found my missing 2nd go at Diva Challenge #156 - Curvy Gridlock.  I was in an experimental mood, so I decided to use a bunch of different markers on the same piece so I could look at how different/similar they are (how they lay down, saturation, color consistency, other junk like that.)  Then I decided to throw some gouache on it too... just because I've been enjoying using them lately.

tangles used: exis, brax

Lets seeeeeeee... the light blue is obviously the gouache.  The darker grey-blue is a Tria marker, the dark turquoise-ish color is a Prismacolor, & the slightly lighter turquoise-ish color is a sharpie.

Even though I have an almost literal TON of "art/illustration markers," lately I've been enjoying playing with sharpies.  Most recently, I've become fascinated with bleed through.  Particularly in my journal.  I'll draw something on one side of the page & color it with sharpies, then flip it over & use the bleed through pattern for something else. 

OK - so that's it.  I'm having a real bad case of the Monday's today.  It's been a very very Mondayish Monday. 

Comments of any kind are awesome, so please feel free to drop a line & tell me what you think - positive, negative, or otherwise. 

DIVA CHALLENGE #142 -or- THE DANGER ZONE!!

OK - this week's Diva Challenge #142 was to step outside of our comfort zones & into the DANGER ZONE.

I thought long & hard about the kinds of things I avoid, or don't like doing.  I made a list:
* I never really use organic, non-repetitive/tight patterned tangles
* I don't like to use only b&w/gray scale
* I have a hard time using strings
* I generally like to work with paper or board cut in perfect squares
* I find it difficult to throw symmetry out the window.
* I always sketch, sketch & re-sketch new tangles I'm learning before I ever put them down on paper
* I can always find a use for a ruler, compass & protractor - which is a Zentangle No-No.

I could go on further, but instead I'll just show you what I came up with.

tangles used: fern, zinger, decostar (modified into flower)

This first one is much looser & organic than anything I think I've done before.  I did this in gray-scale. Both fern & zinger are tangles I've never used.  I also have a tendency to not tangle with flowers at all (don't get me wrong, I can draw flowers for days - it's my favorite subject in any medium or style... but for some reason I just don't tangle with them.) 

next up:

tangles used: kandy ribnz, clothesline, fescu, por-fin, yew-dee, frillee, drack, asian fans, thumbprintz

First off - the paper.  This is a marbling that I did a few months back when experimenting with Mr. Sketch Scented Water Color Markers.  I know you all remember these things from when you were little.  I saw them in the store one day & snatched them up out of pure nostalgia.  Second, it's all done with black micron's.  Third (& most importantly,) each of these tangles are ones I've never even attempted before (excluding clothesline).  I didn't try them out in my sketch book on grids, I didn't use a pencil, ruler, compass, etc. to lay them out, & I started with a freehand string that I outlined in thick black lines to accentuate the use of the strings.  I really jumped in head first, & you know what, I really enjoyed doing this.  PLUS, it didn't turn out half bad!

I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions, criticisms... or anything else any of you'd like to say.

Have a happy, safe, & spooky Halloween!  I'll see you all once I'm done stuffing all the goblins back in the closet!