Zentangle Canadian Flag

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 16

Canadian Flag

            Wacky Zentangle’s facebook page put up a challenge to tangle your country’s flag.  Once I got the hang of the maple leaf (barely, and after many many MANY attempts) I was able to proudly do this piece.  

Note: I still haven't gotten the better quality pencil crayons.  Looking forward to having a few extra bucks to spend on the high quality ones. 

Flower Tips

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 15

Flower Tips

            The facebook page “Wacky Zentangle” put up a weekly challenge for a flower inspired zentangle.  I remembered a beautiful piece by Pysanky Pittsburgh that had caught my eye.  I went back and searched it, (you can find it here) and used it for inspiration to create my own piece, though hers is far better (so you should really check it out). 

            Note to self: Use higher quality pencil crayons.

Cadent Circles

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 14

Cadent Circles (Monotangle)

            The facebook page “Wacky Zentagle” put up a weekly challenge for a monotangle.  Which means I probably shouldn’t have used the circles since the tangle I chose was Cadent.  Ah well, there are no mistakes in zentangling, right?

            This was the first piece where I really used colour.  I felt like a kid again, with better, more expensive crayons (or in this case, pencil crayons) and paper… I booboo’ed by using marker to fill in the whole circle (second to last one) but other than that, I think it turned out fairly well.

Fantasy Garden 2

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 13

Fantasy Garden #2

            This is my second fantasy garden, and I’m loving the flowers.  I had the opportunity to use my new pens throughout this one, and I love the depth they provide.  The gardens are a blast to do, and since my honey got me a bigger canvas pad, I’m hoping to do some larger ones. 

Spotting Dew

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 12

Spotting Dew

            I need a better scanner, since the shading is barely showing up on this one.  And there is a lot of shading.  I actually acquired a shading pencil and one of those white sticks that blends it all in.  I loved the effect and I’m quite disappointed that it doesn’t show up in the scan. 

            This was my first attempt at a “dew drop” effect.  If I were to wager on the main booboo in this one, it would be that I made the line around the drop too thick.  I’ve noticed in other pieces that the outline of the drop is usually very thin, to the point of being barely visible.

            Regardless, half way through this piece I started using my new pen set.  Good Bye Sharpies! Loving the new dimensions.

Fantasy Garden 1

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 11

Fantasy Garden 1

            I named this Fantasy Garden 1 because I imagine I’ll be doing a bunch more.  The Dragonair tangle is now one of my favourites.   The mushrooms were a lot of fun too, and I’m loving the vines and dangle-tangles. 

            

            It's hard to tell on the scan, but I added a little colour to the dragonairs in this piece.  I grated a pencil crayon with a knife and smudged it with a tissue and Q-tips to add a green tinge.

            I got some actual pens, not dollar store sharpies but I didn’t have the chance to use them on this tangle.  Having the 5 different sizes (.005, .01, .03, .05, .08) and some very funky micron color paint pens is allowing for some awesome effects, to be seen in future ZIAs.

Screwed-Up Circles

Zentangle Inspired Art Part 10

Screwed-Up Circles

            So this is one of the ZIA’s I screwed up, but I finished it anyway.  It did not turn out at all like it was supposed to.  I shouldn't have used the coiled rope design on the strings going through the circles, but I liked how well they turned out on the border so much that I wanted to keep using them.  It did NOT give the effect I was hoping for.  But… live and learn.

            Also I tried my hand at the Zendala and that didn't exactly turn out either.

 I attempted to do a sort of paisley yin-yang symbol with the top left circle and though it looks pretty cool, I don’t think anyone would guess that it’s a yin-yang sign.  I’ll be trying that again on a larger piece in the future.

The good news is, I got myself some real micro pens (no more dollar store cheapies), a shading stick and some coloured micro pens.  I'm excited to start using them, they should allow for more intricate designs.