eight days a week

Last week my world turned black and white - care of the wonderful videos that accompanied Zentangle's latest Project Pack.  You can find more details of Pack 06 and the videos explained in masterful detail by Linda at Tangle Patterns.

The fruits of my labours - all shapes and sizes, but all black and white

I didn't buy the pack, but wanted to join in with the fun - especially when I heard that the theme was No Mistakes - which is one of the central tenets of the Zentangle Method.  Apparently the Pack contains pens and also a special booklet, with black ink blots, drops, splashes, dashes and smears on each page.  In the videos we are guided to tangle back and forth between the black and white sections, switching pens as we go.

I decided to make do with whatever materials I had to hand.  Lengthy discussions took place among fellow tanglers about how best to create our ink blots.  I used a few different techniques - with differing difficulty and success. 

Day 1

Mooka, Tipple and Diva Dance on a small Relaxagon tile

I laid down the black using a Sakura Brush Pen

It took me a while to get the hang of moving between the black and white,
but then they started to blend quite seamlessly.  In fact I think the dividing line
disappears more on this tile than any of my later ones

On this first tile I deviated a bit from what Maria did - I used Tipple and Diva Dance around my Mooka instead of her Crescent Moon, and once I'd done this on one tile I brought little pops of those in on the other days too, just to help tie my set together.

Day 2

Arukas, Tipple, Diva Dance and some black ribbons on a watercolour postcard

On this one I used a black Inktense pencil - applied thickly then wetted to create my black mark -
the white gel pen skipped a little on this surface

I enjoyed the extra space, allowing those Arukas arms to extend and divide themselves - simple shading
on the white areas added dimension - but unfortunately my white chalk pencils wouldn't work over my black

Day 3

A line of pearls, spiralled Flux, Mooka, Tipple and tufts of Diva Dance on a
regular sized tile again with black section made using Inktense

This one was relaxing to do - there's something inherently calming about a spiral,
and running the detail line down one side of each Flux leaf gives a new look

Day 4

Munchin morphing into Paradox, with added Tipple

On this ATC I used my Black Soot Distress ink pad to create
the dark area

My gel pen ran very smoothly on the Distress Ink area
but unfortunely turned a little grey - but hey,
there are no mistakes here!

Day 5

More pearls, Printemps and Melting Mooka, and Diva Dance
and Tipple on an Inktense blackened square tile

This was my favourite day - something about Melting Mooka
really appealed to me - the way it grows and forms those
sections ripe for filling

Day 6

Ing, Tipple and various spiral fills and details

Having watched the video I knew using white chalk would be
necessary, so I made my black section using a piece of
black pastel paper stuck to a white tile.

I made the spirals in graphite on the left using a precision eraser pen!

Day 7

Indyrella, Tipple, Diva Dance on a Bijou tile
coloured with Inktense

I struggle with Indyrella, it takes focus to keep it neat,
hence choosing to do just a little tile on this day!

Day 8

An embedded word on a rectangle of Medioevalis paper - 8 x 11cm

I applied a swipe of black Distress Ink across this tile

Pure pleasure to pick a word - a word I need a great deal right now -
and then watch it disappear, while still remaining

I had a great time following along with the Zentangle videos, absorbing the enthusiasm and skill that the team share in each and every one.  It's been great seeing how others respond to these same projects.  I think this is a technique that I'll revisit again and again - I'm already busy researching the best black and white inks to buy to help me create even better tiles to work on.  I can also see that the technique could be adapted to work with colours too - particularly the deeper ones. 

Keen eyes might also have noticed that I'm trying to make better used of my chop (the initials I use to sign my tiles once finished).  Often I just stick it in somewhere without much thought - but I'm trying to make it sit more mindfully and creatively within my tangling - with success on a few of the tiles, and on one I forgot it altogether!