Today, I took Eni Oken's Art Raffle app for a spin. This tile is the result! For my first tile in eons, it’s not bad! If you tangle, you should get this FREE app, it’s lots of fun! Zentangle drawn on an white, official, Zentangle tile, using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Antidot Bales Beedz Crescent Moon Emingle Hollibaugh Knase Knightsbridge Perfs Printemps Shard Shattuck Stiritup Tagh
Back to classic style! Random string with random tangles! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Claws Crazy Nzeppel Flux Nexton Pods Pokeleaf Poke Root Sez Shard
Textiles. She looked at varied shapes and textures hanging all around her in the stall. Of all the places on merchants row, this was the one that brought her the most inspiration. It was a never-ending kaleidoscope of color and patterns that constantly changed with the light. Looking for new inspiration for strings for your tiles? Grab a magazine and open it to a random page. Look at the picture on it. How can it inspire a new string for you? For this tile, it was an architectural image of part of the front of a building showing how the stones were arranged along one side. Try it and see what you discover!
Revelation. She stared up at the ceiling, trying to clear her mind. It was time to decide on a direction. Her ship was ready, but she was hesitating. This is an interesting tile, from my perspective. Those of you who have been following my art for a while, know that sometimes I create random tiles and write a few lines of a story to go with them. They are always from the perspective of a female person, one that is travling around the universes in some kind of a ship, exploring various planets. Up until now, the actual person has never been seen.
Christmas market. She loved this time of year. Even the cold weather didn’t bother her. There were so many things to choose from: exotic fabrics and trims, fancy jewelry and decorations, beautiful baskets and ceramics. Even the colorful awnings and tents brought her joy! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Bales Criss & Cross Dyon Huggins Mooka Quipple Sez Shard Striping Tidings
Giving thanks. I have so many things to be thankful for this year, it would make a very long post to list them all. So I am going to tell you that I am grateful for my wonderful husband, beautiful daughters, and fabulous grandchildren. I am thankful for my good health and good life. I also am very thankful that I discovered Eni Oken. She is a fabulous artist that shares herself, her talent and her knowledge with others. Over this year, learning from her has taken my art to a whole ’nother level, as they say. This tile is another one based on her Tan Treasure video lesson . I think this is my favorite of all the techniques I’ve learned so far!
Tiny details. This tile is a result of Eni Oken’s Tiny Details Lesson . This excellent video shows you exactly how to create and shade areas of a tile which include little, tiny detail drawings which can be a major challenge to shade! I love tiny drawing and repetitive patterns that are very close to each other. There is just something really soothing and satisfying about filling predefined areas with tangles like these, making this tile lots of fun to create.
Color. This was the first Zentangle that I ever used color on. I even used my markers to create the shading. I didn’t do another full color Zentangle until this year, because I really didn’t like the way this came out, at the time. It just seemed too alien for a Zentangle. Now, I don’t mind color and actually enjoy it once in a while! Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Coloring done with Tombow markers.
Shield. She hid behind the shield and allowed the expression of art to speak her truth. I found the shield shaped string to be an interesting challenge. I tried to arrange the random tangles so that they complemented the shape, making it the focal point. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Angel Fish Beadlines Bumper Fassett Raddox Shard Squill Yincut
Show time. This tile was drawn from Eni Oken‘s tutorial for the Showgirl tangle. I have to confess, I had a lot of problems with this one. Showgirl isn‘t my favorite tangle to begin with, and I‘m not really happy with the way these came out. But after several false starts, I decided to persevere. I was kind of surprised that the end result is better than I thought it would be.
Twisted Ropes. This is my first attempt at trying the twisted rope techniques introduced by Eni Oken . I had a small problem with my pink pen… it started puddling and making inconsistent lines shortly after I stared. I decided to carry on with it anyway because I didn‘t want to start my tile over again. It turns out that, IMHO, the blooping pen actually added to the designs. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron and pink, Sanford Uniball pens. Shading done with graphite pencil and Polychromos colored pencil.
Fire. Black opals are the most valuable opals in the world. The most beautiful examples of these come from the Lightning Ridge mining area in Australia. Opals are classified according to the pattern of the fire within the stone. This example is a cross between pinfire and palette. While some lists show that Tourmaline or Pink Zircon is the gemstone for those who were born in October, opal is actually the traditional stone. Now days, Tourmaline is said to be an alternative. I think that came about because they come in so many different colors. I don‘t know who came up with Pink Zircon, but it was hugely popular when I was a kid as THE stone for October birthdays. Personally, I never considered it valid.
Turquoise. If you ask Google to show you images of turquoise stones, you‘re going to see a very wide range of colors and a large range of markings. This is because these stones are found all over the world, and each location has it‘s own special characteristics. This stone has long been used for protection against traumatic injuries. It was thought that the stone would shatter, thus warning the wearer of imminent physical danger. It was also used to decorate the bridles of horses, to protect them against broken bones from falls. Among the Native Americans of the Southwestern United States, Turquoise is believed to be a connector of Earth and Sky. It is one of the four “elemental” gemstones of the Pueblos; (the others are coral, jet and abalone shell). This is considered to be one of the Birthstones for December.
Symmetry. Not really, but this string gives you an illusion of symmetry because of the repetition of patterns on each side of the tile. Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Centipede Florz Kule Meer Scallops Shard Tink
Ca-Ray-Zee! Ok, this is old, and I don‘t remember what I was trying here, other than to try tangling on a colored background with a different colored pen. This tile has no shading, and frankly, I don‘t think adding it would help at all. It looks like the string had lots of curves, but who knows how it all began! Zentangle drawn on colored card stock using a sepia Micron pen.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Zentangle Tile . Tangles: Cadent Dribbetz Gourdgeous Msst Orlique Shard Stoic