The weekend in black and white

A blog that I follow participates in "The Weekend in Black and White." Only black and white photos allowed. Thought I'd give it a try.

 

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B-dub

Two posts today! I've tried the Diva Challenge again. This week's challenge is to use your initials as a string. The string looked just like the initials at the bottom of my photograph. Is that at E or a backwards B? You make the call, either is fine by me. And of course W for Wilson. Hey, these are kinda fun! You should try it.

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Moab

Back from vacation in Moab and the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge this month is travel themed: Road Trip! How appropriate is that? I'm not sure that this card is simple, but it's definitely one layer. I didn't really have any appropriate travel stamps. I was glancing at some entries when this card caught my eye. 6 1/2 year old Leah inspired me to draw my card! I started with Strathmore Imperial 140 lb hot press watercolor paper cut 4 1/4" x 11" and folded in half. Next I sketched in pencil, then brown sakura micron pen before erasing the pencil. Next some water coloring with Derwent Inktense pencils. Moab is stamped from the Davinci Alphabet set by Hampton Art using a stamp positioner. I thought it needed a touch of Zentangle® and the patterns used, spell out Utah: Undling, Tearce, Archer and Hibred all tangled with the Sakura micron again. Final shading was done with Stabilo CarbOthello Pastel Pencils. I liked the job it did on the zentangle shading, but found it a little too heavy on the rest of the drawing. Thanks Leah!

Check out Zentangle.com to find out more zentangle, or tanglepatterns.com for the patterns I used.

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A peek at my zentangle® pattern notebook

I use a standard notebook with baseball trading card sleeves. I started out using white cardstock (an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet makes 3 of my instruction cards with some waste) however I've changed to using a heavier weight, nicer drawing paper. Hey, these are going to be around for a while plus I've put much effort into them, why not use better paper? I'm now using Strathmore Smooth Bristol, 11" x 17", 100 lb.

This is the most efficient way I've found to cut the paper. The end result is 6 of my instruction cards plus two bonus ATC's (artist trading cards) and a small amount of waste. Each instruction card is 7.5" x 3.5".

After cutting the instruction cards, score each at 2.5", flip and score at 2.5" from the other edge. Fold accordion style. Next is an optional step, round the corners. I use the zutter round it all 1/4". It's great as it will cut through the 3 layers easily. I also round the corners of the ATC's.

Now you are ready to draw on your instruction cards. This is an excellent way for me to learn patterns. I save the front for the final example and name of the pattern. I go back to that after drawing the actual step outs. You can decide the number of steps needed and also decide if they should be square, horizontal rectangles or vertical rectangles, etc. I prefer to draw the box outlines by hand without a ruler. Hey, I meant it to be like that right? After drawing the steps I'm ready for the front final example.

When I began my notebook, my intention was to flip the cards over, and do another pattern from the back side. I've chosen not to do this because I like the freedom of sorting the patterns differently plus I can easily move them around to add a new pattern. It's also possible to use the back side for additional instructions, possibly variations or shading examples. In addition to my completed instruction cards, I keep a pencil case in my notebook that has blank cards, a red and black Sakura micron pen, pencil and paper stump. I have a pocket on the inside cover that contains printed patterns waiting for me to draw. I keep a couple more empty baseball trading card sleeves reminding me to to draw more instruction cards. The sleeves are also great to have some ATCs ready to trade.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

 

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