Ebony and Ivory

This week's challenge is "Ebony and Ivory" or Black and White. A lot of folks have been playing with a lot of color lately so it's nice to see a lot of black and white. We were challenged to try to balance out the blacks and whites. I'm pleased with my result:

I used Camelia, Daggerly, Demi, Eye-Wa, Antidots and Henna Drum

As always, it's fun to play with patterns that I haven't used much. I also enjoyed playing with my own pattern, Henna Drum, creating both black and white flowers.

Time to get back to our Open Studio Weekend at the Mountain Painters and Artisans Gallery during this cold/rainy/snowy Memorial Day Weekend. Come on in or stop on by our facebook page!

Coming this summer....a weekend full of Zentangle fun at Fletcher Farm School in Ludlow, VT.

Kute Kuke

I'm liking Kuke. It's a pattern brought to us by Katy Abbot, CZT via Laura Harm's Weekly Challenge #118: UMT v. XVI. UMT stands for Use My Tangle and Laura challenges us on the first Monday of every month (or thereabout)  with a tangle brought to us by one of her readers. Katy's Kuke came about from a cucumber slice. You never know when or where you might find inspiration!

I also was playing around with some color and art a la Stella (Loretta Grayson). Here's what I came up with:

 I'm liking it. Now my challenge, as always, is how to frame my work. I really have to plan ahead a bit more and choose some frames first THEN create the artwork so it will fit. I was looking at Facebook earlier today and there were some wonderful photos of northern lights taken early this morning. This kind of reminds me of those.

This Schway and that Schway

I'm a little late posting this blog, but it is what it is. The Diva Zentangle Challenge this past week was to  create a tile using the new official Zentangle pattern Schway. I enjoyed playing with Schway. I got confused a couple of times, but all is good.

I like the way some folks were able to loosen up the grid-like patterning of Schway so at first I decided to create something along those lines. I wasn't too sure about it but once I went back to it to fill it in with filler patterns, I began to like it. I decided to create some conflict (well, that was because when I was joining the zig zag columns I kind of goofed, but all is well in the world of Zentangle).

Schway, Knightsbridge, and Tortuca

Then I decided to draw a stringed tile using multiple tangle patterns. This was done late Saturday night while at my in-laws for a Happy Mother's Day/Birthday/Bon Voyage get-together. After dinner the boys settled down for a game of poker and I decided to get at least one tile finished.

Flux, Schway, Leaflet, my mistake :), and ?

Enjoy.

Blinded

This Weekly Challenge #116: "Blind Sighted" by our lovely Diva, was to draw the "string" with our eyes closed. Not bad. I had fun filling in the zentangle tile with Sampson, Kartwheel, Pepper, Yew-Dee, Shattuck, and Braze. I've been wanting to try out Yew-Dee since it was introduced to us by Peg Farmer, CZT. I love the look and the ease of creating it.

I got my kayak out on the water last Sunday for the first time this year and was so excited to see many different animals, especially the loon. It felt great to get out on the water again. Woo hoo!

I also got to finish off a couple of ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) pieces. This is the one I showed you in my last blog post, now completed (except the framing). Click on the image to enlarge it. The quote I used is: "Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden." by Robert Brault

I've been having fun with the Tombow Dualbrush Markers. It has been great playing with flowers as our natural ones are slower to grow.


Have a wonderful week!

Challenge #114 Stars

 So much happened this week! Yikes. I had a quick trip to Sanibel, FL over the weekend (3 nights), meeting up with my niece Fiona from Chicago. We walked the beach every day....twice if we could get it in, and found a slew of beautiful shells. It was heaven. My feet were so happy to be without shoes and to walk in the sand. Warm, sunny, beautiful days and wonderful talks with my niece. It was just what we needed.

Cute family on the beach

Shells, shells, shells

Sunset

Ahhhhhhhhh

My calves were beginning to hurt with all of the walking, but now that I'm back to VT I'm back walking in socks and shoes on the roads and they are happy again (but my feet aren't). My back is out, but it will get better (I did get to see a chiropractor yesterday). Phew! All that and the awful events in Boston have kept this a busy, busy week. I'm so glad that things are getting back to "normal" in Boston. My other niece told me that she has been living 1/2 mile away from the suspects! Oh my.

Time to tangle. Get the zen. Relax. Chill. Be creative.

This week's Diva Challenge was to create a tile using stars as the theme. I wasn't sure where to go with this one until I saw Helen Williams' Seeing Stars tangle pattern. Yup, that's where I was going to start. I needed to go organic since my mind wasn't in the mood to be orderly. Sooooo, I got to work creating some stars on a tile that I had done a watercolor wash on a while back. Great. Here's what I came up with:

Seeing Stars....unshaded

It needed something; more than just shading, so I got out my new Tombow Irojiten colored pencils and began to play. Wow! They sure are popping bright! I needed to explore the pencils for an online class I'm taking from Marie Browning, so this was a double hitter.

Needing to tangle some more, I started another Seussical Garden while gallery tending today and I kept on going with it when I got home. Here it is so far.....still needs a lot to complete (and fix), I'm using micron pen, Tombow markers, a glue pen, and a water brush:

Tally ho!

Z Challenge #113 Hip to be Square

I've been fascinated with the frames, or squares that have been popping up all over the Zentangle world lately. It got me looking at old frames even to the point as while on a 4th grade field trip to VT's State House, I was taking pictures of frames while everyone else was taking pictures of exhibits, people, etc. It's all about checking out the patterns!

This week's Diva Challenge is to create a square within a square within a square. Great. The outer square is inspired by one of the frames up in Montpelier at our State House.
Here's mine:

Dragonair, ??

Here's the inspiration:

Enjoy!

Using Tuxedo

This week's Diva Challenge is: Weekly Challenge #112: UMT v. XV "Tuxedo". 
Tuxedo is brought to us by LeeAnn, aka Ledenzer. Thanks so much for this fun tangle pattern!
I've been sick this week and not very motivated but that was then and now is much better. I did create the tile in my head this week, and today I finally put pen to tile and began. I like the versatility of this pattern. I had fun playing around with it a bit. As always, I can't wait until I get to see the ending slide show of everyone's entries. It always amazes me.

Kind of reminds me of a rug. Tuxedo and Enyshou