lovefool

It was only as I sat to enjoy my Tuesday morning ritual of browsing through the array of tiles sent in for Adele's weekly String Thing challenge that I noticed that my tile was missing.  And only then that I realised that it was missing because I hadn't sent it in.  I'd drawn it, scanned it, and then forgotten all about it.

Drawn on Daler-Rowney Murano paper so those
white ink hearts would really stand out

So here it is.  The one that never reached its destination.  The one I encouraged (I won't say forced) myself to do despite the fact that I really don't like drawing hearts.  It's not that I don't like love.  It's just that hearts remind me too much of the commercialization of love.  But then I remembered that in the weird world of Zentangle a cirlce is an orb - which makes it far less scary to draw.  So surely therefore a heart is just a shape, with a point at one end and two bumps at the other.  So I just drew some of those shapes.  And as a result of that slight tweak in my thinking I had a great time.  Even if I did forget to email it to Adele!

something simple

What truths from the mouth of the Diva this week.  How easy it is to lose our way when there are so many paths to choose from.  How powerful it is to turn back and begin again from where we started.

Two and a half years ago I drew my first tile.  It looked like this -

Today, I sat down, with an Official tile , the recommended pen, a pencil and two and a half years of confidence and community and drew this.

I did it by the book, from the basic Zentangle principles.  No pre-planning, no thought as I drew, other than following the flow of the pen and my sense of what to lay where.  I drew with whatever tangles came to mind without needing to look up their step-outs or trying them out first.  I even left the smudges I made as I worked on the tile.

And for that it's wonderful.  And as I inevitably get drawn back down all those fascinating and fanciful by-ways I will remember to come back home once in a while.

deju vu

My first tangling day of the year - and for now I resist playing with the new pens I got for Christmas, or looking up more pens that I might want to buy, or starting on any of the tangling projects I've been pondering of late. 

I just dive in.  To a couple of old faithful challenges, to kick start that pen across the page.  And so to the latest Diva Challenge - a simple mix up of Auraknot and Diva Dance.  And this is what came out.

And I like it - but something niggled, it seemed familiar.  A quick search on this blog, and I found an identical Auraknot a year and a half ago, just with different fill and a border.  Oh well, at least I'm consistent!

a three-cornered problem

I have mixed feelings about Tripoli.  I quite like drawing it, and I like the look of it when it's done, and in some people's hands it is a wonderful tangle.  But I'm never really sure what to do with it.  And quite often, in fact usually, I draw a bit of it, on its own on a tile, and never really know what to do with it.  Whether to include other tangles, or let it stand alone.  In fact I usually end up with an unfinished tile.  I've got quite a few of them sitting in my little tangle basket - maybe I need to think about a project to finish the unfinished... 

But anyway, when the Diva challenged us to work with Tripoli I knew it would be a tough one.  I started well, laying down lots of triangles with my thick Sanguine Pitt Pen.  I like the way it looked a bit like potato-printing.  Once dry I went back and added some details with my Micron.

Work in progress

 But then I got stuck - with Tripoli hanging there in a unfinished state.  And it sat like that for days, and it could have ended there... but I risked inking in a few tendrils, so that the Tripoli looked like it was attached to something, like it belonged.

Done and dusted

And I think that worked out okay - I think it's good enough to call it finished.  Not an easy one, but a sense of accomplishment nonetheless.

whispering

For this week's Diva Challenge we were encouraged to give 'just a tiny taste' of tangle to our tile.  Easier said than done when that pen wants to lead a merry dance and fill every inch of those little paper squares.  But I was determined to make it happen...  I took a deep breath and waited a few days before even stepping near a tile.  Time to let all those crazy grand impulses subside.  Time to let the symphony settle down and just listen to the echoes.

XYP - with white highlights and arua

Hamail with Antidot-style fill and white highlights

It's a process I enjoyed very much.  It allows for a tile to be 'done' when there is less time available, but more than that it allows for far closer attention to the tangle in question, making it the star of the show.  And I felt thoroughly involved in the process.  Thanks to the Diva for the encouragement, it's a style I know I'll revisit.

trying to be everywhere

Tri-Bee, the tangle chosen for this week's Use My Tangle Diva Challenge, is one that is so addictive and mesmerising to draw it's a wonder I didn't carry on and fill every inch of my tile, and even then draw on across the table beneath.

But I stopped myself, constrained the spikey wonderland with a basic string line, and added detail down both the inner and outer arcs.  At that point it started to look a bit like a flamey biker tattoo - nothing wrong with that, but not what I wanted, so a few Fescu softened the mood.

And there you have it.  No doubt Tri-Bee will be a great tangle to have in mind to fill those areas where you want something not quite straight, but not too round. 

a long, long time ago

Not a lot of time this week.  No time for pondering and deliberation - just time to grab the pen and draw a frame using a couple of the variations of (the newly released official tangle) Zenith as encouraged by this week's Diva Challenge.

And in my head while I'm drawing I have American Pie on an incessant loop - and it's only when I'm finished that the line I keep coming back to is the one about the jester - and in a way that's what I've drawn - a thorny crown for the jester, so he doesn't need to steal the Kings.