Inktober 2017 (2 of 2)

And on to the second half of the month.  Enjoy:

(fat)  My thought pattern went to a curvy ogee grid.  I looked up some ogee patterns and thought Mariposa could resemble a fat slice of watermelon.  Not to mention, Viveca's grid approach to the ogee grid is fabulous!

(graceful) Enyshou is my go to graceful pattern.  No instructions, (see your CZT) but some excellent examples at the link.

(filthy) I thought C-view looked like a microscopic piece of dust...maybe on Pigpen?

(cloud) at this time, NOAA was describing our weather pattern as a river in the sky.  Cloudfall seemed to fit the bill.  And those scales are Betweed and Shattuck.

(deep) Wellwellwell.  This is a fractal version of Well.

(furious) Floo (sorry, no instructions, but see your CZT!)

(trail) Luckily Bijou moves slow and I was able to still find him on the Skwim trail.  This was a really late night when I completed this.  I realized the next morning that I should have done the back side of Bijou for a proper snail trail!

(juicy) Molygon

(blind) This one stumped me initially.  But when I sat down to draw, Bronx Cheer easily emerged.  

(ship) Parasail-Z

(squeak) Nuwave

(climb) Static

(fall) Falz (slight variation)

(united) BB

(found) Organza Again.  This used to be a frequent tangle for me.  Through this Inktober, I found it again :-)

(mask) Enyshou and Rain

And the full calendar:

Yeah!I did it!

Have a good one!

Inktober 2017 (1of 2)

I have heard about and seen some participation in Inktober in the past, but not participated myself.  This year I thought I'd give it a go.

If you are unfamiliar with it, Jake Parker started it in 2009 as a way to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits by picking up a pen and drawing every day during the month of October. It has grown into a worldwide event with thousands participating!  Please check out the link above for more information including his list of daily prompts for October 2017.  

Although I wanted to participate, I was a little intimidated about getting something done every day.  So, I decided to go small, challenging myself to draw in each calendar square of my bullet journal.  Each square is approximately one inch.  In hind sight, I wish I had gone just a tad larger, but I was successful!  I posted updates to the Zentangle® Mosaic ap. Sorry I wasn't able to keep up with daily posts here, but you get the better(?), all-over (or half over in this post) view!  Here is the first half as I thought it was too many photos not to split it into two posts. Enjoy! 

My initial calendar which is a variation of 1/2 Orbs.  This pattern is easy and makes a great calendar grid!

Day 1 prompt Swift (look for daily prompts in parentheses in the duration of my post...or on the calendar itself) tangle is Riverstones.

(Divided) Tangle:  Funsin

(poison)

(Underwater) Gnarly

(long) one long line of Amaze.  There aren't online instructions for Amaze.  In this version the line doesn't touch, however you can also just do one overlapping squiggly line.  

(Sword)  Knightspeek for Knightstar ;-)

(Shy) Bijou hiding in Skwim.

(Crooked) Static (I don't believe there are online instructions for this one either, however if you've attended a beginners class for Zentangle you've likely learned this one.  If you haven't been to class, maybe you should! ;-)

(Screech) Needing to follow Bijou's advice to Stop, Btreath, and go on.  

(gigantic) To Infinity and beyond, of course!

(running) MoFins, because it just keeps going and going...

(shattered) Shard

(teeming) teeming with Tipple!

(fierce) Dragonair

(mysterious) There's nothing more mysterious to me than how crisscrossing lines make up Oblique.  Again, no official instructions online but it's pretty self evident.  Or, see your local CZT!

All of the ink is done with microns.  Shading is done with a combination of colored pencils and graphite pencil.  

Hope you return for the second half!

Halloween Visit

Wishing you a happily haunted Halloween!

This was stamped on a Brusho background using a rubber stamp by Penny Black, halloween visit.  

Check back in the next couple of days for my October project!

Leaves, leaves, nuts and leaves!

What to do with all these gorgeous fall leaves?  How about tangling on some?

same leaf looks so different depending how the light catches it. Tangles: Printemps & Shattuck

Yet another angle

Maryhill in both silver and gold

"Nzeppel 

I tangled with a few different pens I already had.... Sakura Pen-touch extra fine point (the gold and silver examples above), 

a Sharpie water based metallic paint pen extra fine point in copper rose (below)

Enyshou

a different angle really shows off the lines

 and a Gelly Roll gold shadow pink (below). 

Printemps

 And now I have a bouquet of leaves!

And another idea! If you have a die cutting machine, you might try this technique to transfer color and texture from the leaves to paper.  Here's a link to mostly more lovely examples, but there's also, eventually, instructions too.  Thanks Terry for reminding me about that video!

As you can see, I couldn't stop.  Different leaves and different paper create slightly different results.  

And here are a few I've turned into cards already.  Including one that I tangled a bit on (when in doubt aura!) with the tangle Patena.

For either the drawing or the pressing, I suggest starting with leaves that are still supple.  I placed mine in a bowl of water to soak off some dirt.  The ones I pressed, I carefully dried with paper towels and let them finish air drying before pressing.  I'd suggest trying to press them the same day you pick, clean and dry them just so they don't crumble.  For the ones I drew on, I added glycerin.  After some trial and error, I think you need about a ratio of 3 parts water to 1 part glycerin.  I soaked some and others I misted with a spray bottle.  Both seemed to work fine.  

my first attempts with dry leaves and my pen point kept breaking through the leaves

Oh, yes, nearly forgot the "nuts" part of the post.  I saw an interesting card design on Pinterest and followed the link to make this double diamond card.  I used Karen Burniston's Woodland Animals dies.  They are really nice quality dies with built in stencils for the faces.  I just followed her video instructions to put them together....so cute!  I also used a lawn fawn stamp and die set Cheery Christmas (the tree, ladder, bird and smaller squirrel).  I made a custom envelope for it too as it wasn't a standard size. 

And yes, I've been absent for awhile...but I am working on a project all of October.  I've been posting daily updates on the Zentangle Mosaic app.  I will be sharing the finished project with you shortly.  Look for more after the end of the month.

Thanks for stopping by!