On Saturday, I participated in a Studio Tour for the Artist’s Group that I belong to. My studio was the second one in this particular tour.
I created a Zentangle “make and take” project for the visitors to give those in the group who were not familiar with Zentangle to either sit down and do while here, or to take with them and do at home.
I used the tangle Verdigogh because it looks a bit like a sprig of Rosemary, which is a symbol of remembrance.
Most of the time, now days, I draw the “crazy” version of Nzeppel, rather than the “grid” version. So I thought I would do this for a change of pace.
I decided to add an internal aura to each bubble, just to provide some interest. That lead me to making the colored border.
Zentangle drawn on an Original, Zentangle Bijou tile using a black and a brown, Micron pen. Shading done with colored pencil. Border colored with Copic marker.
I liked yesterday's grid tangle tile so much, I decided to do it again!
I love the way Dex creates the illusion of depth in the paper. It’s as if you could enter one of the fragments and set up a room to sit and relax in.
Zentangle drawn on an Official, Zentangle Bijou tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Dex
It’s interesting how, as your Zentangle practice evolves, you sometimes veer away from grid-based tangles, preferring flowing, organic, individual elements.
Every so often, I feel an urge to return to those structured reticula, filled with repeated fragments. There’s something soothing about drawing them that fills you with peace and zen-flow.
For this small, Bijou tile, I chose Yincut. It is actually one of my favorites because of the overall look of the finished piece. It reminds me of an old-fashioned, lithographic print.
My second Aura Timeline tile!
You can read more about this project here. Zentangle drawn on Stonehenge White using a black, Micron pen.
How do you Aura?
Here you can see my first exploration of this basic, Zentangle technique.
Auras are a mainstay of tangling. We generally think of them as drawing a parallel line, a little bit away from a previous line or shape.
But did you know that they could be so much more? That they could actually be part of your overall design?
Follow along with Eni Oken’s Aura Timeline Lesson , and learn how to take auras from boring to beautiful!
A few days ago, I told you about the Bijou Raffle Game that Eni Oken introduced to the members of Art Club.
This lesson is also available to anyone as a stand-alone class on teachable.com ! So you don’t have to be an Art Club member to view it!
I’ve been working with it, and decided to add some of my own cards that weren’t included in the bundle. Some of these are from other classes and tutorials, some of them are prompts for unusual tangles (or ways of using tangle) and some of them are for using specialized tiles.
Can’t think of what to tangle today? What do you do, when you get stuck?
You can always pull tangles, at random from your repertoire. But even that doesn’t always work out well or offer enough variation.
What if you want to stretch your skills further, or go beyond a standard tile?
Check out the latest offering from Eni Oken! The Bijou Raffle game is perfect!
As you can see, I’m combining the lesson Bijou tiles with my own. My pile contains strings, types of tiles, techniques, and lots of other goodies from all of Eni’s Art Club lessons and other things I’ve learned in my Zentangle practice over the years. I’ve even included things that I want to try, but never have.
Yesterday, I spent the morning with a group of friends who are also artists. While we chatted, each of us worked on our own projects.
My project was to transfer some pictures of strings that I drew several years ago to bijou-sized tiles. I keep these in the front section of my bijou tangle index.
Generally, when I tangle, I don’t have any problem creating a string. However, once in a while, I just want to push the easy button, and I will pick one of these little string examples and go with that.
I have taken a lot of time off from traditional tangling. Basically, since the beginning of 2019. Sometimes, you need to take a break to evaluate where you have been… and where you are going. Sometimes, roads take off in unexpected direction. Sometimes we set off the road entirely to explore new territory.
And then the roads, the paths, the discoveries come around to a new understanding of where you were before.
How do you Mooka?
I am playing around with the various ways of drawing Mooka.
Here, I’ve drawn half a little bijou-sized tile using a traditional style and then just added some dots to create a bit of texture. I also decided to add some auras in the empty spaces to fill in the design.
On the other half of the tile, I’ve drawn Mooka using a simplified method. Then I filled in the spaces with Tipple.
If you recall, a while back I posted a couple of Bijou tiles with Muchin shaded in different ways. I thought that it would be fun to post the same thing, but this time, showing the shading and highlighting on a black tile!
Zentangle drawn on a black, Official Zentangle Bijou tile using a white, Sakura Gelly Roll pen. Highlighting done with white chalk pencil. Shading done with Copic markers and black colored pencil.
All dressed up.
This little bijou is a remake of one I did at the CZT seminar. I decided to dress it up a bit by mounting it on a tan tile and adding a few frames. Huggins has become one of my favorite, meditative tangles!
Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle Bijou tile using a black and brown, Pigma Micron pens and white, Sakura Gelly Roll. Shading done with graphite pencil and Copic markers.
No mistakes.
That’s right… There are no mistakes in Zentangle. Unexpected things DO happen, but they aren’t mistakes. They are opportunities to explore another direction. You don’t give up. You don’t throw away the work you’ve already done. Following a different fork in the road can take you to new vistas and allows you to discover new techniques. Some of the best tiles I’ve made come from unexpected twists and turns during the process. Here are some links to tiles that went off in directions that were unplanned.
Difference.
These two little Bijou tiles both have the same tangle, Munchin. The first tile, in the upper left, was done by scattering dots on the tile and then drawing the tangle in the traditional way. I added shading at the convergence of the lines for each small triangle.
For the second tile, I started in the center of the tile with one triangle. Then, I added each new triangle, growing off of the existing ones. The shading in each triangle was added at the far edge, where all the lines ended and are spread out.
Remembrance.
As we walk on this path, I am reminded to spend time with others I’m walking here with. The time will go so fast and we will, literally, be scattered to all the corners of the earth. But we will remember each other, and this special time here.
This beautiful, rosemary stem is drawn using the tangle Verdigogh. Rosemary is for rememberance. I wanted to add something to it, but I couldn’t decide what. Then I realized the Renaissance frame would be perfect. So this frame was drawn on July 3, 2018 and I set the tile from the CZT 30 Seminar in the center of it. I wanted to honor, treasure and remember my time there.
This little Bijou tile is going into my tangle index book. It shows a hybrid between Well and Florz. I like the way, when it is shaded, it looks like it is woven!
Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle Bijou tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: florz well fwell