Black and White Photos – Day One

Well, I couldn’t help but notice that various friends, colleagues, and family members of mine were posting black and white photos on Facebook for a seven day challenge.

I found many of their posts to be very beautiful and inspiring! As a result I became quite intrigued by the task at hand, and decided to jump into the fray.

I happen to believe that black and white photography can be truly amazing (for example, think of a photographic artist such as Ansel Adams, and others). Breathtaking work! Never underestimate the aesthetic impact of a purely tonal image! Nobody tagged me on Facebook to participate, but I decided to enter the challenge of my own accord.

Rules: No people, no explanation… and one photo per day (from my life).

Starting today, I will post one black and white photo for the next seven days. All of these are photos which were personally taken by me.  None contain any people. Further, they are all recent photos. Most were taken within the past two to six months or so; but I will include a couple of photos (which I really like) that I took in 2016.

I argue that if I take a photo then it IS a part of my actual life, yes? At the very least these are images that have some sort of personal resonance.

Day One

Nandina Plant with Berries
Nandina Plant with Berries

 

 

 

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Square One: Dewd and Zailz

During the week of November 17 – 24, 2017, the challenge tangle for the Square One Zentangle group on Facebook was Dewd. As of this date, Dewd is the newest official Zentangle pattern. A step-out can be found here.

My Dewd tile appears below. The pattern is very close to aura’d Fescu (with a touch of sparkle)  I think. The resulting look is simple and appealing, and I think that there is a botanical look to it. As is my tendency, I went for  simplicity… in this case a monotangle. It almost looks like a bouquet!

Square One: Dewd
Square One: Dewd

Moving on, for the following week of November 24 – 30, 2017, the Square One challenge pattern was Zailz, by Loretta West CZT. A step-out can be found here.

When I looked at the Zailz step-out and other tiles, what I though of was an image of ocean waves cresting. Perhaps the Tipple (or Perfs) are bubbles? Anyhow, here is my Zailz tile:

Square One: Zailz
Square One: Zailz

Fins to the left, fins to the right? Or choppy seas? Fancy triangle shapes?

You decide.  🙂

 

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New Tangleation: Palmetta?

Hello fellow Zentanglers!

As a fan of ancient Greek culture and also a happy tangler I would like to introduce a possible new tangleation. I’ve been playing around with this pattern for a while now. As you will see it is related to tangles like Lanie and Balo, but as far as I have found, the basic design primarily has been used as a grid pattern.

Apparently this familiar design used in various tangles is based on the Anthemion motif from ancient Greece. It was a representation of the Palmetto plant in that part of the world. In examples of ancient Greek art I noticed cases of the motif appearing as  an individual “flower.”  I thought it would be fun to adapt the solo flower for use as a tangle. It can also be repeated to make a lovely border.

And so I present Palmetta. (I will add a step-out soon).

Palmetta pattern
New tanglation: Palmetta

So what do you think? Might this pattern also work as a more free form or singular flower pattern? And would it qualify as a tangleation or tangle? I look forward to reading any comments you’d like to share.

UPDATE: I finally got around to doing the step-outs for Palmetta.

Palmetta stepouts
Palmetta stepouts

They can also be found on my Patterns page here.

If you try Palmetta I would love to see what you come up with! Please leave a link in the comments below, or send me an email.

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New Tote Bags

Not long ago VIDA added tote bags to their product line. I’d been wanting to upload some of my designs to be featured on totes for a while and finally got around to it!

The first one (below) is a variation on a mandala that I created in Photoshop CC. I described the project in this post on my blog. For this variation I applied a different gradient and texture.

Textured Mandala Tote
Textured Mandala Tote

The second one (below) is a reuse of my first design for VIDA, an applied watercolor effect to a photo of a hibiscus flower that I took at Walt Disney World a couple of years ago. I continue to love the watercolor texture effect as applied to photographs!

Pink Hibiscus Tote
Pink Hibiscus Tote
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Diva Challenge #320 – Dansk (UMT)

Diva Challenge #320 Entry
Tangles: Dansk and Vivid

This week we have another Use My Tangle (UMT) challenge from Laura Harms.  The chosen tangle is Dansk by Margaret Bremner CZT. Dansk is fun to draw and makes  a great filler pattern. It reminds me a lot of Verve and Sand Swirl. Thank you for another great challenge! And thanks to Margaret for such a pretty and versatile pattern!

For my piece I decided to make a Zendala which would consist of an inner and outer band. For the center I chose Vivid by Ina Sonnenmoser because I thought it would be a good companion tangle for Dansk. And obviously I used Dansk for the outer band.

After inking the Zendala I thought it would be pretty to include some color. I used Tombow dual brush markers to color in the drop/petal shapes in both the Dansk and Vivid sections. Lastly I added in the shading. I’m happy with the resulting tile!

I’d like to also share with you that I found a handy gadget for drawing circles. It’s an Angle & Circle Maker by Helix which I found on Amazon.com (although I would assume it can be found at other office supply stores). This circle maker fits a standard size Zendala tile perfectly! I used it to make the above tile and it worked really well.

Thank you for visiting!

 

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Diva Challenge #319 – BEad INSPIRED

Tile for Diva Challenge #319
BEad INSPIRED: Echoism, Beadlines, Eke

The call for this week’s Diva challenge is to take inspiration from Beads of Courage in creating a tile (visit the link to learn more about it). This program gives children with chronic or serious illnesses a way to chronicle their “medical journey”. They are given different types of beads which symbolize various aspects of their specific course of care. Beads of Courage is clearly something that is near and dear to Laura’s heart. What a wonderful way to honor this “arts in medicine” program for children by representing it through Zentangle art!

My first thought was to draw Beadlines to represent the beads, but after thinking about it some more I wanted to use Echoism — so I ended up combining the two tangles. For the finishing touches I added a frame of Eke and shading.

 

 

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Diva Challenge #318 – Diptych

Diva Challenge #231 Entry
Diptych tangle: Printemps, Viaduct, and Sand Swirl

The challenge from the Diva this week is to create a diptych tile.  What is a diptych you ask? To quote Laura Harms on her blog: “A diptych is two panels joined with a hinge – and the panels are mirrored – and i use the term ‘mirrored’ loosely.”

Previously I had encountered the term “diptych” in connection with photographs. Frequently they are presented as side-by-side photos which are related in some way (for example, “Before and After” pictures). The idea of tangling a diptych was something new and interesting!

For my tile I used Sand Swirl as the hinge to unify the two sides. In the middle I drew rows of Viaduct and mirrored them on the other side. Lastly I filled in the remaining areas with Printemps in “mirrored” fashion and added shading.

Thanks to the Diva for another great Zentangle challenge!

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Diva Challenge #317 – Photo Tangle

Diva Challenge #317 Entry
Tile for Diva Challenge #317. Photo credit: https://wallpaperscraft.com/

The Diva’s challenge for this week is to create a photo tangle. The idea is to use a photo as the string and then tangle around the image.

Initially I thought I’d look for a photo of a model with curly or long hair. It seemed like it would be interesting to draw tangles to extend the hair outward to fill up the tile. As I searched online I found this photo and thought it would be perfect for this project. The tangles included are AHH, Queens Crown, and Telis.

I really enjoyed this challenge. It was a fun change of pace.

 

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Double Diva Challenges: #315 and #316

Diva Challenge #315 Entry
Tile for Diva Challenge #315

I’m late in posting my tile due to a very hectic schedule last week. The challenge for last week was a study of Molygon, an official tangle. The step out is available here.

Molygon is a fun and versatile pattern and you really can do a lot with it. I decided to keep mine simple and loose, and I added shading consistently to the “insides” to help make the moon shapes stand out more.  Thanks for this opportunity to explore Molygon further! Continue reading →

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Diva Challenge #314 – Scallamp

This week’s Diva Challenge #314 is another Use My Tangle (UMT) challenge. For this one we are asked to create a tile using Scallamp by Sarah Uram, CZT. A step out is available here on Sarah’s blog Zen and Zin.

Scallamp reminds me of shallots for some reason. Anyway, I had a little trouble with this new tangle. The main problem was in keeping the wavy parts reasonably symmetrical. I also think the ends are too wide on the central tangle. The lines should be closer together, and I didn’t do the c-curves correctly. But overall I think my first attempt at Scallamp looks pretty good. I will have to practice, practice, practice! Thanks to the Diva for another good challenge. Continue reading →

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