Posting again!

Look at me, posting two weeks in a row! I am actually just taking a break from reading complex geology journal articles about ancient supervolcanos that I need for a class project... did I just say that? A class project about volcanos... at my age. That is crazy! I am crazy! This class is actually fulfilling an earth science requirement in my course of study but is way more fun and interesting than a simple earth sciences class would be. I get to make a website!

Anyway, the new tangle from Rick and Maria called Quandry caught my eye last week and I had to try it out. To make it sweeter it was the topic of the Diva Challenge this week as well. To really top it off I loved Erin's Zendalla template this week so I had to do that too. That Zendalla dare is often so tempting but requires the additional steps of printing out the templates and tracing them onto my page so they often get missed. So I have a quandry about Quandry... I can not seem to manage the nice even pattern of 'rice grains' that I desire without a little more structure than is strictly 'allowed' by the official directions... so I have a confession. I begin with a grid of offset rows of dots and use them to guide the drawing of triangles of grains. I want to try it out and actually make those dots part of the design as a variation... I think it wold look great with RED dots, but I haven't had a chance to do it that way yet.

This first piece is Quandry used in the Zendalla template.

I have a little Sparkle in there and the Quandry in the middle and the one I used on the outside is actually one I came up with from a piece of fabric. I call it Hillndale, you can scroll down a bit in this post for the step outs. I don't often use color but I thought this one needed a little glow to it, hence the added orange/yellow. 

This is my second entry for Quandry. I am not sure I am done with it... but I wanted to get it in and I do like it like this. I was trying for it to convey that this neat little stack of grains was falling apart a little on the right side and ending up in a little pile there at the bottom. 

This is the step-out for Hillndale, inspired by the a print in the MODA Modern Workshop line of fabric. The the last thing I have included is what I am doing most of these days. I don't have too much of a chance to even take notes in one class and in another I am too busy writing things to doodle much. However, there is often plenty of time in another because most of what we do is discuss, not cover new things. This page was done during student presentations about their own cultural background. It has been interesting listening with plenty of time to draw as I reflect.

Until the next post... have a great week.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh my goodness, it has been a LONG time since I posted! I have actually been doing a fair amount of drawing while listening to parts of my classes... but it is all in my notebook on lined paper with whatever pen I have in hand and looks something like this

playing with Heartstrings last night in class

The Diva Challenge this week did catch my attention, however. While I was being bad and unmotivated and not folding the laundry or doing schoolwork last night I sat down and watched stupid TV and did this... Happy New Year and Happy Valentine's Day at the same time!

These are other random ones that have made it into the sketchbook for challenges but not made it onto the blog in time for the challenge itself...first Auraknot with Bunzo with a little Diva Dance thrown in... only it looks vaguely like a uterus and fallopian tubes to me so it is sort of tainted in my mind... now I can't see it as anything else. I hate it when that happens... I can't ever use Prestwood for that reason!

I liked this peice... more challenging than my usual string because there were lots of little areas to fill in. I usually choke and fill at least one area in with something that doesn't "go" or just turns out badly, but this isn't too bad... the Mi2 could be better I guess. It also includes a couple of areas of Dansk for the UMT challenge a few weeks ago.

And this one was to try out the tangle on the upper left - the name of which escapes me at this instant, but I really like it. I had also gotten into a bit of a curvy, free form rut and wanted to remind myself how to do some of the great grid based tangles out there, and have a chance to use B-Rad's Phicops again as well - love that one!

SO that's it from here... super busy with three classes - lots of reading which I have gotten slow at in my 'age' and lots of the usual kid stuff. March promises to be unmanageable so as much as I dislike February I am holding onto it for as long as possible because I won't have time to breathe in March. Have a great weekend - its a long one for us... teacher furlough day on Friday, presidents' day off on Monday. Maybe I can marshal the troops to get the house in order for once! Gotta run to robotics class!