Another Copic Mandala

This ZIA mandala also started on Strathmore Mixed Media 400 Series paper. It's a little bit more of a manageable size at 7" square. Tangles are: Undu, Oybay, an Organic variation that turned out to be more like Shattuck, Hua and K.T. (All can be found at tanglepatterns.com)
Have a great week.

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Ghosts of tangles past.

This week's Diva challenge is interesting! She invited us to recreate a tile from the past in our current style. I found Zentangle in the latter months of 2010. So this tile would have been one of my earliest ones. I was pretty proud of it as it graced the cover of my hand made art journal and I had incorporated die cuts into the string! That equated to awesome, right? Here are some things I noticed about that early tile. First, the paper. I wasn't using the Zentangle® tiles back then. I was hoarding them and using cheaper paper instead. Also, as a rubber stamper, I was more comfortable with smooth paper. And wow, look at those tiny tangles! I think there are 9 different patterns in there! I also noticed that I felt the need to have a "hard boarder", that thickened line to signify this is the edge of my drawing! All of my tangles sit nicely in their respective places, but they don't intermingle at all. And, no contrast! What little contrast is there, was totally by accident and not exactly balanced.

So in recreating the tile, I found one of the die cuts (I felt one was plenty) and I used some of the same tangles, but cut the number down significantly. Those that stayed were encouraged to play nicely together. And one section I filled in with black ink before tangling again with a white Gelly roll just for some contrast.

It'll be interesting to try this again in a while and see what happens next!

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Colorful ZIA mandala

Coloring with my Copic markers. A much better gift than roses for Valentine's Day! Here's how it turned out. I'm really happy with the results! And I learned so much (always a good thing). For the "before" version and a list of tangles used, check out this post. Enjoy the progression:

color blending with Copics

I thought I was done here...turns out it needed.....

a bit more shading

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Valentangle

My contribution to the Diva Challenge #254. The tangle is Lollywimple. You can find a link to it from my mandala which also uses this tangle. My Valentangle on a Zentangle® tan tile using black and brown Sakura Pigma microns. I also tried out a Graphik gray. I used three shades of pink polychromos along with a General's white charcoal, Cretacolor graphite and Gelly Roll white ink. Happy Valentine's Day!

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ZIA Mandala, before color.

This is what I've been working on for a couple of weeks now. In case you're wondering, I sometimes have several projects going at the same time. Thanks to having a blog, I do finish more than I used to!  I guess I don't want to show you just a partially finished project. Today however, that's exactly what I'm doing. My mandala has been very fun to watch grow step by step. I thought I'd share with you a little of the anticipation I've been experiencing!

I started by using a compass and protractor with pencil on Strathmore's mixed media 400 series 140 lb paper that I trimmed to 11 inches square. So my "string" was done with compass and protractor, but the rest was all freehand using a Sakura Pigma Micron. The tangles used were Pepper, Zenith, Fife, Copada, Jalousie, Lollywimple combined with Squid and finally 'Brella. You can find all but one tangle on Tanglepatterns.com. (Also note that I've added a badge to go to Linda's awesome site on my sidebar on the right). The one pattern that isn't on that site (...yet, I'm sure it'll eventually get there) is Lollywimple. You can find it at Sandy Hunter's blog, tanglebucket.blogspot.com by clicking here.

I'm working on color now. I hope to have the completed mandala for you soon. Not sure if it's a mandala or Zendala, probably somewhere in between! But definitely Zentangle Inspired Art or ZIA. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

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Bookmarks!

I've seen some great looking tangled bookmarks online and wanted to try my hand at it as well. I had two scraps of really nice watercolor paper. It took me a couple of weeks to finish these. I ended up scanning them and reprinting them before laminating.

Quipple in pinks and greys

Skwim with Zenith and Fescu

Ing

Land Girlz

And here is the finished "project" including cards which hold the bookmarks for mailing.

Have a great week!

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