Doing Art... well, maybe not EVERY day!

I wrote back in February here that I was going to try to squeeze a little drawing in every day. Well, I did OK for a little while that month and then kept it up sporadically in March while it gradually got to be a little art every few days, then maybe once a week. By the time April rolled around I was lucky to get some ink on paper once or twice that month! As I said a few posts ago, the semester is over and I have a few week break until the summer semester begins and I am taking advantage! I have been able to do a Diva challenge two weeks in a row (here is this week's) and a String Thing challenge two weeks in a row! Woo Hoo!

Here is this week's String Thing entry entitled "A tile within a tile". I used Betweed (one of my all time favorites!) and Beandlines and Beelight and a little Black Pearlz.












And now for the update on the March installments of "Art as much as I could" possibly manage...

March 1st - I like this one, especially the pattern on the right that I can't remember the name of!

March 4th - This one is OK, I always enjoy some nice PopCloud.

March 16th - this one was over several days and is larger than a traditional tile.

March 27th - this is the 15th AED 2014 peice

March 29th - I like this combo of Betweed, a variation of Bunzo, Y-ful and Bridgen with a shaded background.

April 12 - This one is very open and airy.

April 12 - I hadn't done anything in two weeks and then two in a day - I must have needed some relaxation!

This one was just the other day when I was working on the String Thing challenge...
a little different interpretation of the string in this one.

I still have one page left in the current drawing pad so I am sure to have at least a couple more this week! Then I will have to go shopping. I did buy a new pen this week and my goodness, what a change! I had been using some that are nice and black and consistent (and inexpensive!) but do not have a very fine tip and I had kind of forgotten how nice a good fine tip is. I hope to keep up the activity as the summer gets busier.

I have an exciting announcement I can 'kind of' make... Some of my older work has been accepted for publication in a new book due to be out in December. I need to be sure I can say which one before I tell you and maybe I will be able to get a couple of copies to give away on the blog in December. I was pretty excited and will now have to patiently wait for publication.

Have a great week!

Every Day Art

So, this week wasn't nearly as regular as the first partial week, but hey - we didn't have any weather realted emergencies or previously scheduled school holidays this week and I actually had to be at school ALL 5 days this week - whew! After so many partial weeks this one felt like it was a month long! I am sure I will get back into the groove of it soon (like I have a choice, right?).

This one is my favorite.

Here are all the tiles for this week, including a few I have included in some other posts about the Diva Challenge and the "Its a String Thing" challenge for this week. The first two were not included elsewhere. What do you  think? Am I getting back in my groove?

I like the Punzel in this one but the oval thing was a big fail in my opinion.

I like the dense feel of this one

This was the "String Thing" entry and the last two were the Diva Challenge entries using wavy grids.

Art *Almost* Every Day

So, this is the first week of the "Art Every Day" experiment. A few years ago I accepted a similar challenge to do a little art every day for a month and it was a great experience. I have gotten woefully sloppy and out of practice by only drawing a little here and there when I have a moment or in class. I wanted to see if I could manage to get back to the 'roots' of the Zentagle practice and do a little piece every day, small, quick, not too much thought...  of course the weekly challenge to leave a blank space was included in a few!

The one above has a pattern I have kind of done before, but not seen anywhere else in the bottom right corner. The one below originally had a blank spot where the netting is and it just looked wrong so it got filled in, however, it does have the sparsely populated Printemps area that gives a sense of light emptiness. 

So far I have managed doing one everyday. One day I only managed half, but the next day I finished and did another a well. I have a ways to go in really doing it 'quickly' and without too much thought. I have been trying to pick tangles that I haven't done in a while and don't pick often so I am looking through my book frequently so I don't fall back on the 'old familiar' ones. Here are the rest so far this week...

Have a great week!

Playing Catch Up

OK, So I was AWOL for a while over the Thanksgiving break. I did dabble in doodling and did a little applique, but not a lot. Since I've been back I have been feeling 'out of the groove' with my tangling. I have totally fallen in love with Socc, the new pattern that was presented at Tangle Patterns. Oh, its like magic how it transforms. I have been working on breaking down a couple of patterns inspired by vacation things as well.

First, lets get to the challenge from the Diva this week. BIGGIFY. This was an interesting excersize and I don't think I'm done yet experimenting with it, but I have one that I am fairly happy with. It is interesting because the pen line width does not biggify along with the rest of the pattern when you draw big so it totally changes the character of a lot of patterns.  It was a good thing to try for me right now because I have been drawing really small lately. The longer lines do take more concentration and are more easily accomplished when drawing on a table and not on my lap as I tend to do (because I am usually doing it on the go). Here is my challenge entry...

I was actually intending to use Socc in that middle section but was concentrating so hard on getting smooth lines I ended up doing the first section incorrectly so I just made the rest up. 'No mistakes' right?

I also have a lot of drawings to catch up on for Art Every Day Month since this is the LAST DAY! I missed a few days while away and spent several days working on sections of a single drawing, but there still seems to be a backlog...

I had those lovely repeating patterns on shells on my mind right before we left, as we were headed to a great snorkeling location. So, not really a tangle... but some of the patterns in the shells have that same feel to them.

This is the one I worked on for several days. Fife takes a long time when done on this scale! Magma is just the right pattern for the gentle ocean waves and I am sort of in love with Whirlz... it is very meditative and would translate really well into quilting. In fact there are several versions of this in the Free Motion Design Project over at Day Style Designs. 

I just kept adding to this one because I didn't like it. It was the first one I did entirely after we got back... not yet in the groove. I do sort of like the square border with the open spaces... I will have to work that one out again since it just grew a line at a time as I added things trying to get to something I liked. The feathery one is inspired by a free motion quilting pattern by Leah Day called Tongue of Flames. This is a lot bigger than I typically have been practicing it so this is sort of a precursor to my BIGGIFY challenge entry. Leah's pattern and a video of her quilting it can be seen here.

In this one I tried another new pattern I picked up at Day Style Designs Free Motion Quilting Project,  Fossil Snail and used Whirlz as a line treatment instead of a filler.

This one I just did early this morning. Finally a chance to use Socc! And another example of Tongue of Flames and a new-to-me tanlge, Esses. 

Tangling the month away

I have been keeping up fairly well with my Art Every Day commitment, even if I don't post about it everyday.

Check out all the fun everyday this month at Creative Every Day

Some days it is sewing for 15 minutes, some days it is half a zentangle piece, some days it is more... but it IS happening!  The past few days it has taken the form of working on an entry for this week's zentangle challenge over at The Diva. She also has a fabulous giveaway going on until Nov 30th so be sure to check that out for all sorts of tangling goodies. I was really intrigued by this weeks' challenge which is to use three different geometric shapes as a string to fill in with new-to-you patterns. I had already been trying to incorporate at least one new tangle pattern into every piece and I am always stuck for string inspiration when starting a new work so it seemed perfect. It was harder than I thought! I guess there are reasons I gravitate toward certain tangles (I like the way they come out when I do them) and away from others (my results with them are horrible!) I was also having a couple of off days, even things that work pretty well usually were not coming out well. So here is my entry for the challenge, it is also Art-Every-Day-Month #15.

I like certain things about it... its regularity, its ballance, but it seems pretty constrained and the 'string' is still VERY obvious. There is no overlap in the pattern areas... for all of it's order and neatness, it is a little bland.  All the tangles are new to me, learned for this challenge: waves, claws, scrawlz, quiltz (my version), petunia, verdigogh. I did resort to using an aid to get nice circles since it was a big element. I hadn't been happy with my close-but-no-cigar attempts on other tiles. I do like some parts of the other attempts, AEDM13 and 14 respectively. New tangles include: knit, propell, floatfest, oke, whirlz (LOVE this one!), pokeroot, phud, verdigogh, misst, waves, flez, claws, petunia (can't you tell I've been visiting Helena's flickr stream!) and Fricle.

See, lumpy circles, odd shapes, wavy lines that are supposed to be straight... just 'off' for me. I almost think it would be better to do the shapes 'wonky' on purpose and not try to get them super regular and miss. I think I will try that next because this type of string is sort of an interesting challenge.



The final piece was one done on Friday and Saturday (previous to the posting of the new week's challenge) and inspired by the cave formations I saw on a field trip with my middle son on Friday morning. Three of those patterns are new to me and I am not even sure if two of them are patterns I saw somewhere, or something that morphed into being from my own head (the far left filler and the filler in the left hand 'drip'). I guess the left hand drip is sort of 'black pearls' in a grid and the other may be sort of a combination of archer and flukes. The others moving to the right are Sanibelle, marbles, tripoli and echoism. The other at the top left I really like and use all the time, but I can't recall the name right now. I suppose I should take the trouble to find out!

So that is what I am up to so far this week. The rest of the week will be devoted to getting ready for the holiday week coming up here in the US... and tangling and sewing when I get the chance of course!

More Art Every Day

I have been enjoying having a small daily goal, artwise lately. I have gotten some exciting sewing done on current projects, but as always, it is an 'in progress' thing so not much to show yet. I have been keeping up with tangling too and this is the result. In the last post I included a drawing that I wanted to add color to. This is the colored version and the black and white...

  

I added the puddle at the bottom and I like  Dragnoaire as a leaf.  Then there are Art Every Day drawings 8, 9 and 10.  I am happy with the first two but the one from today (#10) is a bit of a ramble, no real focus or point to it. I feel that way a bit today, lots on my mind, lots I should be doing but little focus available to actually be doing it. 

I have a busy weekend ahead I hope to keep up with my art commitment. I will likely post on Monday with a weekend review.  Pop on over to Creative Every Day and see what others are up to. 

Art Every Day #3

So far so good with Art Every Day Month. I did some hand sewing on the hexie project I showed yesterday a bit today and did a couple of tangles while on the phone and sitting at the table with my daughter who wanted to draw/paint (if I don't sit there other things besides paper become her canvas... table cloth, skin... you get the picture). Not much new to show on the hexie project, but the tangles turned out OK. This one was inspired by one of the entries into the Punzel challenge over at I am the Diva a couple weeks ago. I had flipped through the slide show (here) and saw a take on it that made an impression. This version is still a bit awkward, but it would improve in its general line if I did it again I think.

Then I got really carried away with my paints. I do really like the direction this one is going in. It is more the style I would like to achieve in the range and type of tangles used. I may fiddle with the color a bit more and add some pencil shading, or I might do another one and start from scratch! I am using Peerless Transparent water colors and I love them! The background around Purk came from another visual impression from browsing the internet today. The Enthusiastic Artist posted her AEDM post for today which included this tangle, Jalousie. It came from yet another Zentangler, Stephanie Kukla. What WOULD we do for inspiration without the internet!

That is all for today. We shall see what tomorrow brings (and Saturday should be great since I have a 3.5 hour time slot to fill while I wait for my son to finish his Saturday enrichment class!). Catch you later.

Wednesday's creative pursuits

I actually got to sew today! So my 'art' today for Art Every Day are the new crumb blocks I made and the new layout I am testing on the design wall. I will also link this post to Jo's latest Crumb post over at Jo's Country Junction as she is the hostess of the Crumb Along that spurred me on with this project.  Along with this I have actual progress to report on my hexie project for both WIP  and One Flower Wednesday! Yea me!

So let's get rolling. These are the new crumb blocks that were made today. I have eeked out a few others, or parts of others in the past two weeks but these made it onto the wall from the sewing table today. I made/completed 4 4" blocks and two more 8.5" wonky stars. I have been contemplating how to finish this quilt off. I think I may put a 2" border of my accent color (gold) and a row of 4" crumb blocks all the way around. By my calculations, if it is a 7x7 layout of 8" finished blocks plus the 4" of border I should need 15 4" blocks for each side plus the 4 corners, for a grand total of 64 blocks. I started out with 40 4" blocks and have used maybe 20 of them for the wonky stars and a few 8" blocks. I need to get busy making more 4" blocks. Fortunately, they are fun to make, go quickly and use up lots of very small pieces!

This is the top half of the layout with a sample border. What do you think? I can stretch my border blocks by making some longer than 'regulation' like the line of flying geese shown above. That is a fun size to work on too. The gold border will be sections of various length of the gold fabrics I have in the stash (I think I will pull the orange square out of there... too distracting). More of this quilt can be found by searching for the tag "crumbs".

My hexie project has been creeping along. I did not get to work on it much this week, but it is showing progress. All full flowers and both half flowers are attached now (although both need an additional petal)  and I have a whole stack of  new green hexes ready to go. A blue border on this one is looking more and more likely, I will keep you posted!

Thanks for stopping by! I am enjoying 'making' myself work a little at a time at one of my many projects and passions on this, day two of Art Every Day!

New Month, New Week, New Challenge...

I learned only today that November is "Art Everyday" month. I would like to make that happen at my house... we will see if it does. I can try right? The guidelines can be found at the link below if you care to increase the creativity in your life, at least for this month.

Art Every Day

Today, my art will be my entry for this week's Diva Zentangle challenge... "Halloween". I did several, the last one turned out like a more traditional tangle...

The background behind the pumpkin was inspired by the shapes of all the candy the kids brought home last night. For whatever reason I thought it needed a take on the pattern 'Barberpole' on the left. I have been wanting to add some water color to my tangles and I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I like the effect, although I have to say that watercolor paper is terrible about smudging the graphite shading! Next time I am going to wait until I am finished before adding that! And before you wonder... being the dork that I am, yes, I looked on-line to recall exactly what a pumpkin leaf looks like!

The other two are more ZentangleInspired Art-ish (ZIA-ish). Although this is more just a plain drawing, the tree did grow in a tangle-like way from straight lines with little plan but to bring them together toward the bottom. I also like the 'wind' in this one, and may use that more when I need a 'light' filling tangle. Unlike most free-form patterns, this one came pretty easily and is easy to morph around existing features. 

This was the first response to the challenge. Of course the web needed the addition of beads as a take on the tangle pattern "Beadlines".  I tried to come up with a random spidery pattern by drawing random intersecting pencil lines. In each space between lines I added a circle and 8 lines roughly perpendicular to the circle that radiate out toward the boundary of that space. Once the spaces each had a spider I erased the lines. It might be more effective if the lines were in black also.  I don't think it is quite 'there' yet but could be cute. The rest is obviously inspired by sections of a pumpkin, although this is not the best rendition of it. I like the swirls as the pumpkin tendrils. 

In addition to this week's challenge, the Diva has posted a most excellent giveaway to celebrate 200K hits on her site. I highly suggest you go here to check it out! LOTS of great Zentangle goodies and it is super easy to enter. 

I hope this is the start of a great month for each and every one of you. Thanks for stopping by.