DIVA CHALLENGE #156 - 'CURVY GRIDLOCK'

This week's Diva Challenge #156 is to turn a right angle grid tangle into a curvy grid tangle.  As Miss Laura put it - "Who ever said grids need to be straight?"  as well as " Feel the freedom of not being constrained in right angles!!"

SO - I decided to go for an orb.

Let me tell you something - I am soooooooo glad I am done with this one finally.  By the time I was nearing the end, there was not even a drop of zen left in me - it was more like a chore.  Add on top of that the fact that I made several stupid mistakes that forced me to have to change the design a bit, & then I had more pen problems.  The biggest being that a 005 micron I was using decided to die, & I went to another one (not brand new, a little bit of wear,) & the difference in the line width was ridiculous!  Anyway... here it is:

tangles used:  hi-c's, hibred, chainlea

This is another case of the smaller the image, the better it looks.  The real diameter of the circle is 6".  I am having a tiny love affair with the tangle hi-c's right now. 

I'll probably give this dare another go before the week's up - but, I can promise something right now - I am OVER hatching... cross hatching... any tight straight lines grouped together.  I had great control over my lines when I started this piece, but by the end, my hand was wobbly & so were the lines.  So there!

As ever, if you've got something you'd like to say - mean, nice, or indifferent - by all means, please comment away.

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 #92

... it's been a while -

FIRST thing FIRST, I've jumped back into the saddle with The Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #92.

tangles used: drack, hastate

I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with this - especially since I went through a virtual creative desert for a few months.  I just... couldn't do anything.  Since the beginning of February I have been picking up pen & pencil every day, & it's finally started to flow again.

I can't ever say enough just how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Miss Helen Williams.  Seriously.  I gladly purchased her e-book Flips, folds, ribbon and string (if you haven't gotten this, I HIGHLY recommend it!) & have been fillings pages & pages with her neat little tricks.  I missed out on the complete pattern folio that she put out at the end of last year, but Helen is issuing links to the folio with purchase of the e-book - so that was a huge bonus.  THE POINT of this is, I love her patterns/tangles, yet there were a few I just couldn't get a hold of.  Drack is one of them... but I thiiiiiiink I've got it now!

I haven't seen the tangle Hastate used by anyone before, I just came across it going through boards on Pinterest.  If you haven't seen this, here it is:

Hastate by Lizzie Mayne

I really love this tangle, but never knew where to use it.  Instead of drawing the tangle in a linear manner as shown, I broke it into individual pieces & made them face each other.  I think it turned out pretty neat.
_____________________________________________________

So, things were going pretty well when I last posted/did any challenges (mid November).  Then...

 BOOM

things got crazy.

A pipe in the walls between my bathroom & my master closet busted.  Of course, I didn't realize it (because it was between the walls) until much later when it had migrated along the concrete slab under the barely year old wood laminate flooring through my whole house.  I had to have a restoration company come in & rip ALL of my flooring in the whole house out - including base boards & some door casings.  All needed to be replaced.  I had huge noisy machines in my house - blowers & dehumidifiers - to dry out the walls.  None of this happened quickly & my home was a disaster area.

The day after I noticed the water damage, while dealing with my insurance agent & the manager at the restoration company & having a lot of workers in & out of my house - I had to put my cat down.

Chedder Kitty Pie - 2003-2013

my favorite picture of me & mistuh cheddycat

You know how if you live with someone - see them everyday - you don't really notice gradual changes?  Even if it's become quite drastic & quite obvious to someone who has been removed from it for a long time?  See, I knew he was sick.  He was having tummy problems & not digesting his food right.  He was hungry all the time but it would run right through him.  Sometimes he wouldn't make it to the litter box.  He had lost a lot of weight & his hair was thin & dull.  I was aware that he wasn't feeling well, but he seemed happy (if a cat can be happy) & I just didn't notice the physical changes.  In all the panic to get things done the day before, my mom came by to see if she could help me out any.  I had been telling her that I thought cheddy was doing kinda crappy, but when she SAW him, she got choked up immediately.  While workers moved in & out of the house, we took him to the vet.  There was really nothing to be done for him... some things that might, maybe work, but he was just too far gone.  I was a complete & total wreck.  It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life, & the sadness & pain of the decision & the loss was & has been one of the hardest emotional things I've ever had to deal with in my life.

In the ensuing months, more damage was discovered in my home, & just this week the last of the workers finished.  I now get to recover my space for myself... & with no one coming & going anymore, there has been a VERY noticeable difference between being single living alone WITH a cat, & being single living alone... well, alone.  I'm getting used to it.

I don't like to say that anything good has come out of this, but I DO get to completely make over my spare room... & I'm going to fashion it as an office/art space/jewelry studio.  It's not a large space, but it's not exactly a small one either.  I want it to be highly functional, & I want everything to be visible & easily accessible.  I want a big table.  I want to be able to display finished/in-progress pieces & things that inspire me.  & I don't want to face a wall.  SO, if anyone has any studio space ideas that have worked for them, or that they heard/saw & liked, I'd love to hear about them.

That's about it for now.  It's weird, this is the first time I've written about everything that has happened in the past few months... it's not just the drawing that's slipped off, but written journaling completely stopped as well. 

Lets hope I'm finally back in the saddle again.  (gene autry <3 )

DIVA CHALLENGE #144 & I'M TOTALLY BUGGIN OUT!

I love drawing bugs.  Always have.  I don't necessarily like most bugs on the loose in my immediate proximity, but I can't deny that these little arthropods are tiny jewels on this big blue & green earth.  This week's Diva Challenge #144 was to use or hide bugs within colored tangles.

If you haven't yet done this challenge & are looking for inspiration, you should check out the work done by Eugène Séguy here & here. Heck, even if you've done it already, you should have a look.  You'll never look at insects the same way again.

Here's 2 pieces I've done for the challenge; a ZIA & a zendala:

tangles used: decostar (modified), fiddler, diva dance

tangles used: tipple, fishnet, all about v's

These were super fun.  

The first one is done with Sakura Microns, Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils & Derwent Inktense Pencils on cold press wc paper.  When I was looking at some of the butterflies, I noticed that the support structure that runs through their wings looks a lot like Diva Dance...  I hadn't yet decided I was going to draw butterflies, but that sealed it for me.  I've got a couple other favorites in that one as well - my modified Decostar flower, & fiddler.  (Fiddle head ferns are one of my favorite plants ever... I'm pretty sure they are magical.)

The second one, my beetle zendala, sort of just threw itself together.  I had drawn a beetle on tracing paper, then made a copy of it.  I left it on my desk for a while, came back, & the one on the tracing paper was on top of the copy, slightly askew, & I realized that if I put 5 of these together they would make a perfect circle!  This one was done on white 90lb Strathmore mixed media paper with brush tip markers & microns.

Unfortunately, I only own one Sakura JellyRoll pen - a white one, so I couldn't use them for this challenge, but I really think that even though in pictures & scans the glittery or metallic finishes don't show well, both of these would look great with some shine.

That's all for now, folks!  Don't forget to go check out Seguy's work!  
Please critique the mess outta my work below!  Really give me some constructive criticism!  

Or just 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 #143 - UMT v. XXII - CRUZE

This morning I had my first Root Canal.  The good news is, the Endodontist numbed me up 'real good,' worked quickly, & there were no complications.  He said I should have no pain - from the actual procedure.  The bad news is that the technician cut the bajeebers out of my gums, & now that I'm getting the feeling back in my face it is REALLY SORE.  Bummer.

Anywhoooooo... on to the important stuff...

First week of the month & that means not just a new challenge from the diva, but also a UMT prompt.  This weeks Diva Challenge #143 was to use the tangle "Cruze" by CZT Caren Mlot.  I've been playing with this one since it showed up on TanglePatterns.com.  It's really deceptive - on first glance I was kinda like... whoaaaaa... but just like a ton of other folks who have done this challenge, once I saw the step-outs I breezed right through it.  It's really a fantastic tangle, & I've had a lot of fun in my sketch journal with it.  I did, however, have a really hard time figuring out what to do with it - not because I didn't have an idea, but because I had a MILLION of them.

I've done two ZIA's, & here they are:

tangles used: cruze

tangles used: cruze, torchon lace

Two very different pieces.  I've been playing with the idea of drawing Christmas cards for my loved ones this year to match the ornaments I've been planning on tangling (glass ornaments tangled using refillable acrylic paint pens.)  Thus, my inspiration for the first piece.  Another thing I have been really drawn to lately is drawing lace patterns.  I had this tiny 3x5 piece of blue canson, & decided to go at it with a white jellyroll pen for the second piece.

Overall, this was a fun challenge for me!

On a final note, Saturday is my 33rd birthday.  Which is awesome.  Wanna know what I got myself for my birthday???  A $995 buck root canal.  Which is not very awesome.  Although, a little birdie has told me that I'm getting a ton of Tria Markers.  & that is awesomeness times a bajillion!

I hope everyone's having a great week!  As alllllways, comments - critiques, criticism, & maybe a compliment or 2 - are totally welcome.  Please leave a message after the beep.

beep.

ZENDALA DARE #79 & A LITTLE RAINBOW OVERLOAD

For some reason... (I mean, there has to be a reason for everything, right?)  For some reason, November has thus far been full of taking color to absolutely unreasonable distances.  By that I mean... I think I am channeling LISA FRANK!  Full on - I'm talking unicorn vomit & psychedelic tiger farts.   I managed to get it under control enough to finish The Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #79... well... that is... on my second try...

I think that a lot of people wouldn't put out for public viewing & ridicule a work that they themselves laugh at & consider a complete mess.  However, I enjoy being able to laugh at myself, as well as make others laugh with me / at me.  Now, this is all a matter of taste.  Some people, (such as my lovely 9 year old niece Hannah,) probably wouldn't look at the following zendala as an example of just how excellently carried away far beyond all reason one can get.  For me... I found myself taking a break from it, & when I came back & actually looked at it, cracked up & realized that it had been embellished by the 10 year old girl I sometimes pretend to be.

tangles used: cayke, co2, footlights, japan diamond, paradox

This started out really well... I began with Derwent Inktense pencils to create a wash around the center ovals.  It looked really cool.  Next I dove in with my brand spankin' new set of Prismacolor Premier colored pencils for the outside.  Here's how it looked:

This is how it looked after the initial application of colored pencil

After blending with a wonderful Derwent Blending Pencil







Then things started to get really crazy once I busied it up with tangles & colored pens.  I can say it has grown on me.  The more I look at it, the better I like it.  I just seem to always move towards using an entire rainbow of colors when there are 6 or more elements to something.  It just happens.

I finished this first one just for the fun of it - because once you take something a bit over the line, it's kinda fun to push it even further - I pulled on my grown up pants, & sat down for a second go.

I'm pretty happy with this one, & I think I restrained myself appropriately:

tangles used: coil, hollibaugh, por-fin

The paper I used for this is Strathmore 400 series toned gray sketch.  It's my favorite for graphite work, & besides just being beautiful - it's excellent for shading.  You can get a deep scale of gray on it with a simple 2B pencil that can be gradually enhanced for greater dimension with white graphite.  The blue is from my new set of Prismacolors.

OH- I almost forgot - big up's to Mr. Rick & Miss Maria.  Thanks!

If you made your way through reading all this meaningless text - congratulations! you get a gold star!  Know that you're real swell & I appreciate your attention to my ramblings.  Comments & Criticism are always super, so if you are thus inclined, you know what to do.

I hope everyone is having a super-fantastic-awesome day!