DIVA CHALLENGE #157 - UMT - CHARLIE

GOOD GRIEF!

Get it... Charlie... Brown...

Alright, now that that's outta my system...

This week's Diva Challenge #157 is a "Use My Tangle" challenge using Erin (The Bright Owl) Olson's original tangle Charlie.

I'll admit, I haven't used this one before... but it's quickly become addicting.

I had an idea for how I wanted to use it almost right away.  Laying it out & drawing it the way I wanted didn't happen nearly as quickly.  I'm going to say right now that I consider this an unfinished piece - that being said, I have completed 3 versions while trying to figure out how to finish it off.

This is my original, uncolored waiting to be finished but I can't make a definite decision & it's driving me bananas version:

tangles used: charlie, zigahzigah

I think it looks pretty neat as just plain lines, but it doesn't feel finished.  I've paired Charlie up with a tangle by Neil Burley called zigahzigah.  It's basically a twist on a chevron pattern.  & I love chevrons.  There are so many different ways to shape chevrons & so many different variations, & so many ways to change the look of them with color.  Chevrons are a recurring pattern in my home.

I did have to make a change to how Charlie is drawn to  make this look right.  Basically, I created an imaginary center line down the middle to give it some symmetry.  I tried to make the diamonds down the center roughly exact on each side of the line.  The outside ones are a mirrored reflection of each other, & though they still have that imaginary center line running through it, I didn't feel the need to make the diamonds the same on both sides.
If that makes any sense...

I was so terrified I was going to mess up my original drawing that I not only made copies of it, but I scanned it as well as traced it so that I could try to figure out the fill.  2 of them are done in blues & oranges.  These are the main colors in my living room, & I was hoping to end up with something I could frame & put on the wall in a particular space that is lacking something.  One is in watercolor, the other in colored pencil.  The third one was done with markers in a sort of grey scale.  I had a boo-boo where the warm grey marker I was using decided it wanted to be streaky, so I attempted to cover it up with colored pencil & a burnisher.  It created this really strange effect - I think it gives it a worn/weathered look.

watercolor

colored pencil

marker

 

Because I've been playing with this for 3 days straight & last night started dreaming about it, I've decided to put it aside for a while & come back to it.  That's a pretty dangerous decision, most things I put aside & don't finish remain that way FOREVER! (Example - I have a second piece I did for last week's curvy gridlock challenge that just needs to have the color/fill done, but I can't find it!!!)

What I'd really like is some feedback on this... how should I finish it off?  Any ideas?

I'd like this to end up being the first piece of my own work that I hang in my home - I really am enamored with these 2 patterns mixed together.

Ideas, comments, criticism, smiles, 'you shoulda done this' -es or 'you shouldn't have done that' s are not only welcome, but thoroughly encouraged.

Now I've gotta get on this week's zendala dare... time to make some snowflakes.

DIVA CHALLENGE #155 - "A LITTLE WHITE SPACE"

This week's Diva Challenge #155 is to attempt to do one of those things that a lot of us seem to have some trouble with - leaving a large white space on our work.  Us pattern lovers just want to fill the paper up to the brim - & then some! 

I've got two for this week's challenge - one that I spit out in about an hour on copy paper at my desk at work using whatever pens & markers were hanging around, & a ZIA that I have been torturing myself with day & night for the past 4 days.

Here's the one that has haunted me for a few days:

tangles used: bloom, chainlea

 I must have made a dozen sketches of different fill & layout & colors before finally making a decision.  This is done on a 6.5" x 4.5" piece of mixed media paper.  The outlining was done in various sizes of Micron's, & the color is LUKAS opaque watercolor.  I'm not happy how the large single bloom in the center that I filled by using chainlea turned out.  It is SO FRUSTRATING when your pens decide they don't want to behave.  In case you ever wondered, Microns do NOT like being used over these opaque watercolors.  Otherwise, I'm pretty darned satisfied with this one.

Here's my quickie - & yes, I love green.

tangles used: sproxy, coil

This one is a tad messy for my taste, but from a distance/when shrunk I think it looks pretty neat.

I actually did last weeks Diva Challenge #154 - Valentangle, I just never got around to scanning them... then when I did, I thought they looked really messy on my computer screen.  But whatevvvvs, I'm going to post them anyway...  Here goes:

 These were all pretty much just intended to live in my sketch book, but the ones on white paper were on the same page as something I wanted to cut out, so out they came too.

In other news, it's beautiful outside right now.  A week ago we were hovering around the low 30's, & today it's 70-some-odd degrees outside.  I want spring to be NOW! 

As always, critiques, criticism & cryptic messages (?) are always welcome, & if you just want to say hi, that's cool too!

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!

DIVA CHALLENGE #140

Today I took a stab at The Diva's Weekly Challenge #140 .  (It's my first Diva Challenge!!!)  The challenge was to tangle using pointillism; which I must admit, I was super stoked about.  Pointillism is probably one of my very favorite techniques, as well as one that I haven't used in quite a while.

SOOOOOO, without further ado, here it is!

Diva Challenge #140

If you open the image to see it larger, it shows up HUGE.  The down side is that you can see my cheating.  I say cheating, because there is no way I could have drawn this using dots without guide-lines.  However; the up side of seeing it huge, is that you can more clearly see the range of different colors I used in each section to obtain shading effects.  I am very, very, VERY happy with how bitten turned out, & almost as happy with huggins.

As always, it would be awesome to hear any feedback - good, bad, indifferent.