Dark Matter...

from A Nearby Planet which means white gel pen tangles on black tiles :-)

During the "One Zentangle® A Day" class I was introduced to black tiles. I did a practice half tile and then a regular-sized one; then it was on to the next assignment.

I thought I would go back and make more!

My first black tile was "okay" but I like this one better.

The white charcoal gave me some more ideas:

I like the lightness and motion in this one. Yay!

Next tile:

Some of these new tangles in white gel pen are very dense.

My fave black tile so far is the middle one.

Shady stuff

I enjoy the depth that comes from shading:

Smudgy graphite-y depth :-)

Completed 3.5" square: a little "landscape" or something...?

Float away

into the zone with a bit of drawing - just a li'l Zentangle® tile and an espresso to start the day:

I love learning new "tangles" :-)

Moonlit tile

The "One Zentangle® A Day" online class ended on Friday. One assignment for that last class was to work with white gel ink on a black tile. The light source, if used, is the moon which means that highlights are used instead of shading. I normally head right into shading an object so I had to change the picture in my head when I used my white chalk pencil :-)

The gel pen I used had an "issue" with laying down a nice clean line, very frustrating. Anyway, this is my practice piece:

I also used some new tangles.

And then it was on to my first black tile:

Think moonlight - not sunlight.

The effect is nice overall. However, I tend to focus on line work and my eyes go right to the intermittent ink flow problem...but I'll get over it!

When I know how I am "being"

"One Zentangle® A Day" class finished today. I haven't begun the assignment because I am working on Lesson 5 tiles.

Here's my 7th tile of the class - using a brush pen:

Even the slightest pressure shows...

I wasn't in the best frame of mind for this one - a bit irritable, a bit impatient. Realizing this is essential because when I know how I am "being" and it isn't what I truly want, I know I have choices. I can either stop and leave it (whatever it is) for later, or let those emotions go.

I let them go - always the most rewarding choice for me. And then creating the tile became very pleasant and eventually a great learning experience.

Glaze and color

Yesterday I completed another assignment for Lesson 4 (Beckah Krahula's "One Zentangle® A Day" online class). It involved the use of a Glaze pen. I have pens of many kinds, but I have never tried one of these. I did a little test piece to check out its properties:

Sakura Glaze pen and Inktense colored pencils on 140# watercolor paper.

Love its "resist" property. I don't think there is another nib size available so this line width is it.

My first 3.5" tile with glaze and color was free form; no string was used because the pencil line remains visible even with the "white" Glaze color - see above. The tangles were mostly organic:

Sakura Glaze pen and Tim Holtz® Distress Ink on 140# watercolor paper.

So then, a lot of possibilities, and I understand there is a clear ink available too. Hm-m-m-m...

Talking to me without saying a word...

Remy's looking at me like this and his expression "speaks volumes".

Bored. Sad. "When can we go walkies???"

Br-r-r-r. We've been in the deep freeze for like what seems "forever"...well, okay, I exaggerate, but for many, many days the "high" daytime temp has been in the single digits. Oy, even Remy doesn't like his tootsies to be in the snow in temps like that. But he still misses "walkies". My sad little Golden.

However, today the temperature soared to 45 degrees (!) and Remy and I were able to get outdoors and enjoy the brisk temperature, slight breeze and beautiful sunshine. He had a smile on his face and his tail was waving like a flag - two signs he is really having a good time. Makes my heart happy :-)

Tangling

Beckah Krahula's "One Zentangle® A Day" online class, Week One, finished on Friday. I am looking forward to Week Two.
I've been investigating all kinds of 'tangles' (patterns) and some of them make me want to grab a 01 Pigma Micron pen and start drawing :-)
Although I'm posting just one tile, my sketch book is filled with practice tangles and tangleations. I had to stop exploring and get down to completing my assignment for class!

This is my tile for Lesson 3:

A mix of the organic and geometric.

These little tiles really are great - the theory being there are "no mistakes" in Zentangle. Also, in theory, a tile should take about 20 minutes to finish. I find that my tiles take longer than that to complete; I don't want to rush the drawing part which means I'll just accept that it takes the time it takes :-)

Addictive

Not to be dramatic, but 'tangling' is addictive, especially because I have always loved patterns and line work.

Here's my third tile:

Why am I making my tangles so small???

For me, one appealing aspect of tangles is that they are the starting point of patterns that can evolve in any direction I choose; and this 'personalization' is absolutely encouraged in a Zentangle®

When you draw one

it just leads to another one :-)

My second Zentangle® tile:

So much fun to learn something new.

 The weather here is snowy with really, really frigid temps. So, I plan to stay inside where it's nice and warm and work in my studio; I will probably draw more of these tiles :-)

My first "tile"

Patterns interest me. In the past, whenever I would chance upon Zentangle® art I always found myself taking a second look.
So I couldn't pass up the chance to take a Zentangle-related class offered through Carla Sonheim's online classes: Beckah Krahula's "One Zentangle A Day". The class is based on Beckah's book of the same name.

Today was Day 1, Lesson 1 and this my first Zentangle tile:

Dizzying :-)

Each tangle (pattern) has a name and for some inexplicable reason I just think that's pretty cool. So I used "Hollibaugh", "Tipple", "Crescent Moon" and "Knight's Bridge" on this tile.

It's really is a lot of fun :-) 

BTW, does anybody see a dog in all of that patterning?

Small stuff

A phrase, a persistent thought, a made-up word could find itself on a small square of paper:

1- inch square.

Not sure why...the challenge of fitting it into a tiny amount of real estate? Oy, does it matter in the end? 

It's just a lot of fun :-)

Just a little nutty...

Quick, what do you think this is?

Whoa!

Just my Remy wearing a birthday toy...on his face :-D

So here he is sans "nose wrap":

Can you see the resemblance?

Remy's antics have me laughing all the time. Am I lucky or what?

Repetitive Variation or 'Just the scarf part, please'.

I carved a rubber stamp for our holiday cards last week. Off and on I have been sampling patterned papers to use for paper-piecing just the scarf part of the image but nothing really worked.
So-o-o, I decided to create my own.

Sharpie red and green colors say "holiday" to me.

I like this kind of thing; it is what I think of as repetitive variation and I don't find it to be boring. I go into a kind of zone and before I know it, voila, done!

Picasso Dog-ging the Rhinoceros

Never having really studied a rhinoceros before, sketching one (even of the "Picasso dog" type") has given me a new appreciation of this stunning creature. I don't know much (yet) about their nature, but I do remember reading long ago in the mists of  time that rhinoceroses are not heavily endowed with intelligence, but so what...have you seen a baby rhino? Adorable.
So here's my Picasso Rhinoceros:

"Picasseros"? or "Rhinocero"???

Up close...

a beautiful sight:

"Even with the cold and overcast sky, I am still so pretty!", said Rose.

Just one of the blooms from Romy's rose bush continuing to surprise me every morning.

And then, when I was out in the back yard with Remy, this fallen aspen leaf caught my eye:

Cool, huh.

Not obsessed...

with carving stamps - perhaps mildly addicted!
I found a nice cigar box to keep them in:

Yes, I will need more storage :-)

Why all the fish? I was working on a monotype that needed a LOT of changes - color being the most critical:

Not liking the red...

So after I added more color to obscure the disconcerting red and yes, the muddy pink, I had something that reminded me of the sea. And then of course where were the fish and vegetation?...a nice opportunity to make some stamps for a specific piece:

Transformation!

Bummer :-(

I used a different material (Moo Carve) to carve a positive image. The results were not great, unfortunately.
Here he is:

O no-o-oh :-(

The intact stamped image is my test image. I washed the stamp and when I patted it dry the stamp looked like what you see in the photo. Ouch.
Moo Carve is really easy to carve - very pliable. Previous stamps I have done were carved from Speedball "Easy Carve"; it's a bit more dense and holds the carved line better.
So I tried a negative image with more success (yay!):

Negative image stamp using Moo Carve.

I am so new to stamp carving that every stamp is a chance to learn...something :-)

A bird in the hand...

which in this case is a bird critter:

Rubber stamps, yummy :-D

He's a pretty big stamp:

As a rookie stamp carver, I'm still experimenting material removal.

With Copic colors - hmmm, guess he has a crown now:

Perhaps he's an extremely tall duck???

I use my Copics more like watercolor - very little blending..

On a roll :-)

This is so much fun - creating rubber stamps using my own images. Something magical happens when a two-dimensional sketch takes on a three-dimensional form; my little sketch that I can hold in my hand. I thought I would be more intrigued with the ability to stamp multiple images, but really I am in love with the stamps themselves :-D
Here's my second rubber stamp:

I was thinking "Romy", dog spirit, when sketching this.

This little guy is about 1-3/4".

And now for something completely different...

I took a quick break from my current Gelli plate printing to do something I've always wanted to do - carve a stamp. Remy was watching me - and since he's a sweet dog he didn't comment on my "process" or eat any of the pink carving detritus.
So of course I drew a little image of a dog, no surprises there! and burnished it onto the carving block. I had some idea of what to do from reading Geninne Zlatkis's book, "Making an Impression: Designing and Creating Artful Stamps" - a great book.
I grabbed my tools and started.
Et voici, le chien:

Freshly carved, yay!

Here he is with a couple of impressions:

Woof, woof and woof!

I had a bit of a problem with carving the paws due to carving-tool-driver-error; I wandered over the line ;-)
I had a lot of fun and I will be making more.

New Gelli :-)

Monday was the first day of Gelli Plate Printmaking (online class from Carla Sonheim); I had never used one of these plates before so you know my curiosity knob was turned up to "eleven" :-)
I made the required eight prints... and then some.
Here's one I like:

The start of something....

This is the first layer - with more to come.

I've been painting...

an 8"x10" mixed media landscape on canvas (Flowers In the Mist):

Going for a dewy-moist, quiet ambiance...

I was into all kinds of acrylic and watercolor paints with pastels and charcoal. I always start with brushes but invariably I use my fingers - in this instance to work the color into the fiber paste texture. Okay, and the flowers, too, and the sky...thank goodness I have a scrubbie thing that removes all that "media" from my hands :-)

Wet Remy dog

Wednesday and Thursday we had to stay indoors due to the constant rain here in the part of  Colorado we call home. We live about 1/4 of a mile from the Big Thompson river, but fortunately we're not in the flood plain.
All of this is irrelevant to Remy: all he knows is that we are staying in the house. So when the opportunity to run amok in the back yard presented itself off he went. After a few passes under the shrubs, larking about chasing some tennis balls and seeing how fast he could run around on slippery grass Remy was pretty much soaked.
We came inside for oatmeal (my breakfast) and a treat for Remy (oatmeal on a spoon).
Whilst I eat my breakfast Remy lays down at my feet until he knows I'm done. Then up he pops so there's no way I can ignore this:

The "look", semi-wet fur and all :-)

Then of course, it is time for this:

"nummy, nummy"...

I love my boy...

Picasso Bunny 2

isn't as wonky as the first one...hmmm? I am over-thinking the process.

Relax...time to contemplate :-)

I like cloudy days like yesterday because colors are deeper, richer and it was a  pleasure to just be outdoors comfortably for a spell.
And so I sat on the deck with Remy and just enjoyed his company. For the past couple of days the weather has been pretty stormy - so Remy being Remy, he was on the alert for thunder and lightning and scary stuff like that.

Painted a little painting...

using techniques I learned from Diane Culhane's online class, "Between Speech and Silence". I enjoy painting this way; it's very liberating and forgiving :-)

"Meeting"

Walkies...

is something Remy and I look forward to every day. And yesterday evening this was the beautiful sunset we enjoyed:

A beautiful evening for walkies :-)

Baby bird by chance

because he started out as several random daubs and strokes of watercolor and gesso:

"Peep".

Um-m-m, not sure

Still on the Picasso Dog thing; I had a "traditional" dinosaur elements in mind, however this is what happened:

Something a bit different.

I think it's a Dino-Bird. The tail became a wing and then a beaky thing happened. A bit different, but I think the little critter has an endearing quality to the face. I just kind of have to follow my pencil :-)

Where is my carrot?

Feeding my "Picasso Dog" drawing addiction :-)
Bunny time:

"Where is my carrot?"

Remy's Crocodile...

This is Remy with his new toy. The expression on this crocodile makes me laugh. Anyway, Remy loves this style, the kind with 16 (!) squeakers.

Remy looking very cool...

Remy, say "hello" to Croc...

A Golden greeting.

Flying...more

Yes, another version of a "Picasso Dog" drawing and this time it's a horse.

Not jumping...Flying!

Fly Boy

I do my best not to do any planning in advance as it defeats the spirit of a Picasso dog drawing. but I suppose do I have a particular breed in mind, though it's difficult to tell, huh?
So after turning the page around and around this dog made his appearance ;-)
Meet the soaring "Picasso dog":

AKA "Fly Boy"

Assignments done, yay!

The base paintings from a few days ago now look like this:
Yellow red base:

Funny birds, huh.

Blue red base:

This would have to be Romy and Remy with me!

"Between Speech & Silence" assignment

Diane Culhane's "Between Speech and Silence" online class ended last Friday (!) and I have the final two paintings to complete. I tend to do either controlled graphicky things or large, non-objective swashy pieces, but this final assignment is somewhere in the only recently explored "middle". I am thoroughly enjoying this class - it's so freeing to experiment.
So, here is the first base painting:

Light

And here is the second:

Dark

I have some collage elements to add and then I get out the brushes, pens and acrylics. Hm-m-m, I have no idea what will happen :-)