Creepy Crawlie

This week's It's a String Thing was to use a string that looks like candy corn and a particular set of patterns that spell out C-O-R-N. Well, I got right to it! I mean, who doesn't like candy corn? As I was drawing, it got a creepy look to it and when the 'NZeppel went in (WHAT in the WORLD is an 'NZeppel anyway?!), I knew I wasn't going to be done without a spider. Over to the free stuff at morguefile.com and lo! and behold!
Creepy crawliness like this:

I'll have to revisit the pattern selection another time, when it's not Spooktember, and try some of the other tangles that are on the list but I pass by. Until then: BOO!
Try your own hand at the String Thing and be sure to check all the fun choices next week after Adele collects the responses. It's amazing what all those tangly people do!

Betwixt and Betweed Challenge

The challenge from the Diva this week is to just use the pattern "B'tweed." Immediately I figured it would be a zendala on a bar coaster. I'm itching to drop random acts of bar coasters, but only have a few so far. I'm fairly certain that bar coasters and Zen don't really mix, philosophically speaking, but I like working in the round.
The examples of official Zentangles for b'tweed all show the pebbly 'tipple' pattern, so even though this is supposed to be a monotangle, I've included some orbs. Actually, a lot of little bubbles.

The mandala is to be for focus and the object of the designs is to return focus to the center; I think this succeeds in that manner. I look forward to dropping this one into the environment and to see where it goes!

Now, Run!

This week at Tickled to Tangle, Adele is up to IAST 63. The objective this week was to play with a group of "Q" patterns and string 066. Until now, I've not touched a pattern that starts with the letter 'q,' so this was all new to me, although the one which looks like ribbons could have been taken right out of my science notebooks in high school. (Doodles, anyone? It's supposed to help with concentration and I'm sure that's what I was doing!) This combination quickly filled up 8 pages, and not all are fit for human consumption. Here are the ones I deem worthy of publishing:

I bought these really loud running shoes the other day and I was going to fill in the rest--besides fuchsia laces, the shoes themselves are neon yellow with an N'zeppel pattern, but I didn't want to disturb Sleeping Man to get them when I was drawing this, so it's just the ties. 

And while it's still October and pink ribbons everywhere, I doodled more ribbons. Then I looked at the string differently and saw some really big buttons!

This last one has nothing to do with the other three, but while I was learning some new patterns and searching Tanglepatterns.com, I just arbitrarily selected a string, 128 by Margaret Bremner and found a fun pattern called Bridgen by Daved Levitan to work with. Add some Hypnotiq style auras and Black Perlz... Until the challlenges for this week start up again tomorrow! 

Shadow Play

The Inchie and Twinchie challenges this week came together kind of simultaneously. The EIM for the week was umbra, which after careful research I learned has to do with eclipses and refers to the deepest, darkest shadow created by the planets. To the best of my thinking, that would be pretty black, right? I went in search of magazine pages with black, which are hard to come by (printers hate all black as it uses all four colors of ink and a lot of it). But, I found a square inch and went old school. Not the most creative angle, but....

And then I was going to draw some leaves for the Twinchie, because everything is so GREEN (which is highly unusual here in the desert southwest any time of year!) when I realized that the olive trees were casting these really cool shadows onto my sketchbook, so I took a photo, instead. (and it kind of shows up behind my inchie image, too)

Is that bizarre, or what?

We did have an eclipse, a 40 percent solar eclipse, yesterday, but I couldn't tell. We certainly wouldn't see an umbra from here, anyway! Be sure to check out the creative ladies at EIM. I'm really glad that next week's inchie is 'vegetable.' I know what that is!

I Could Have Been Lost!

This past week I was invited out for a Girl's Day. Some shopping and some vino were the order of the day, plus some errands as I was going into the Really Big City. The first thing I did was check Google Maps to see where I was going as I was the designated driver. I like maps, real maps, to get a feel for directions, rather than relying on GPS. I plugged in the address of where we were headed and zoomed in to get the cross streets. The resulting paper had very little information on it, and the streets illegible, but it was useful to doodle on! (NOTHING is safe anymore!) The highways made a fine string to draw actual highways. HA!

Imagine, if you will, that I live one square over and four square up and my target was nestled in the middle of the Printemps pattern. BTW, I got around town without a hitch, all the errands knocked off the list, some shopping accomplished and the ladies did a fine job of 'lunching.'

Breast Cancer Awareness Zentangle

The Diva Challenge this week was to honor the memory of the Diva's grandmother or others affected by breast cancer. The aura of Breast Cancer has hung around me since I was in college. I've had a couple scares and been through some surgeries that, thankfully, only found benign masses. One, the size of a golf ball, was particularly scary, painful and full of anxiety for way too long. My mom and my daughter have had similar situations.
But that compares none to having cancer of any sort. It doesn't run in my family (although, there are a host of other choices that afflict us: diabetes, heart conditions, MS...), but I've had to become vigilant because of my particular medical history. And I can't eat chocolate. But, I digress.
My siren call is: I avoid mammograms and I believe they are onerous. Every time, I have to also have ultrasounds and believe everyone should skip the mammos and go straight to this method. They are less painful and more reliable. And cheaper, about ten percent of the 'cost' of mammos here in the States. (And while I'm at it, a big kudos to the folks at John C Lincoln for fabulous care and talents!)
OK, that's my story. Now, here's my drawing (I just happened to be at Arizona Art Supply yesterday and I was able to pick up some pink Sakura pens. Woohoo! An excuse to buy more art stuff! I don't get there often, but I like to support the local, independent art community):

I was going with a floral theme initially as I believe I'd rather have flowers now than when I'm gone, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It kind of got lost while I was doodling, but the thought is still there.
Everybody should be mindful of the potential for breast cancer, men as well as women. And everybody should have a boobie buddy. Isn't that more fun, anyway?

Yuma V2

I didn't want to be accused of cheesing out and using one response for two different challenges this week, thus I revisited Yuma and Uncorked again. Yuma was on my mind early this morning as I wanted to try my hand at a more straightforward approach to the tangle. (At 1AM MST I really could be doing other things!) Here's a much more traditional ZIA for the Diva Challenge:

Be sure to see what all the other tangly people did with Yuma, starting with the Diva herself! And thanks so much for all the wonderful comments on my first attempt. 

Teenie Challenges

The Inchie challenge this week was a toughie. It took some time to work my teenie brain around "ungual." Go ahead, look it up.
Now, wasn't that fun? I knew there were unguates, but not the particulars of the trait.
I was going to go with a picture of my very own toes, but I'm in between mani-pedis. (Yeah, right!). Then I was going to go with a horseshoe. A horse is an unguant by definition and to be a functional animal, he needs shoes. So, I Googled horseshoes and I had to go with this, as I am, by definition, a photographer:

That's Horseshoe Bend, Page, Arizona. Beautiful spot and it should be on anyone's list of to-dos here in the States. The Colorado River winds around that massive rock structure and will bypass it all together in, oh, about 10,000 years.

Then over at the mostly defunct Twinchie challenge, the word to work with was "quotes."  Here's two:

Check out what all the ladies are doing at Every Inchie Monday, as for some reason, it's an all Girl's club. Multi-talented all and from all over the planet. I applaud their efforts from my little corner of Arizona.

Peacock Feathers

As I wander the internet and blogosphere, I meet some wonderful people and some crazy awesome talented people. A couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon Tina/Aqua-Art new tangle pattern that she calls "Yuma." I like Tina's style and I was intrigued by the Yuma pattern, as I am Arizonan, after all.

Yuma gets a bad rap for being just an overblown trailer park for snowbirds. It's hot, it's sandy. It's everything that people think of when Arizona is mentioned. I've not spent much time there, usually stop for a bite en route to California. Supposedly, it's the lettuce capital of the USofA. If you have a head of Fox lettuce in your fridge, it most likely came from Yuma. But none of that comes to mind when you see her new pattern.

I also participate in Adele Bruno's weekly challenge, and sometimes I actually submit my response by the Saturday deadline. She also came up with a new pattern she dubbed, "Uncorked." There may have been wine involved. I immediately thought the two patterns could do a duotangle tango. Again, there may have been some wine involved. (Usually). Her challenge this week is to use her Uncorked, with or without another choice.

I also participate in the Diva's weekly challenge by Laura Harms and this week the challenge is to use the tangle Yuma. (Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, BTW). She is quite talented and manages a huge community of tangle artists from around the globe.

So, Lo! and Behold! Twist all of these together and I got this:

Oh! and full disclosure: I had to get Photoshop involved and I know, that's a big NO-NO! But in order to fully realize that artistic vision in my head, that's where I had to go. (That and the Morgue Files to see what peacock feathers look like!)

Other tangly people drag out their Copics and Sakuras. I use a Sharpie, plain paper and voila! So many blessings for a brilliant, sunny Arizona day to all the viewers of this blog entry! Be sure to check out the multitude of talent across the planet for the two challenges from this week.

Rainbow Vertigo

In order to get to this week's posting for the Diva Challenge, I need to get up to date on some older work. I got bogged down trying to follow "One Zentangle a Day," when it came around to drawing a feather. That and doing a little traveling, I got off the Zentangle train for a few weeks.
Here are days 27 and 28:

Then it was time for Day 29 and this feather pattern, which I've been avoiding. Until now.

I decided to tackle it along with this week's Diva Challenge. I didn't want to play with rainbows and bright disparate colors (as my collection of color pens is paltry) or to have to explain my politics.

So I stuck with a fairly straight forward Zentangle drawing and drew little compartments full of B&W rainbows. It's a little dense overall, but I think the verdigogh pattern still stands out.

I hope I did that project proud.





Lastly, for the week, it is "The String Thing" challenge using a bunch of tangle patterns I've not tried before and one, called river, that is reminiscent of doodles I've done since high school. I think the result looks like a mummy in the center, an attempt at Halloween, perhaps?

Check that blog next week to see what others have done, always beautiful work and nicely curated by Adele Bruno.

Thistle Bee Good, I promise!

I'm settling into some of this weeks challenges. At the Diva, it is a LGBT theme: I'll be getting to that, just not right this minute. For now, I'm focused on a cause that's more to my heart--October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I love to watch football with all those macho NFL players wearing pink gloves and athletic footwear. And if anyone is interested in supporting the cause, send money directly to something you feel deeply about. (really, that applies to any cause whatsoever--the closer to the matter, the better. Buying pink "stuff" doesn't really get the $$ where they need to go). So, for the weekly Twinchie, I had to go with "cupcakes." A local group, which did the 3-day cancer walk, used to be called the "Cupcakes." Their husbands wore pink t-shirts that said, "I'm here for the Cupcakes." That's what THAT's all about.

For the Inchie, I pulled out a photograph I took that I call "Thistle Bee Good." Har-dee-har-har. I peeked at some of the offerings this week at EIM and there is some beautiful embroidery and drawing. For whatever reason, it's all women who "do" the inchies and every one of them is super talented. Check out their thistles. It'll be good, I promise.

And I had to include a picture of the woobie I finished over the weekend. Not your typical 'baby blanket,' I hope the child can use it for many years, she's an autumn baby after all.
Thanks for taking the time to view my work and for the wonderful comments that you all leave behind. I really take them to heart.

String Thing 58

While I'm working on this weeks "It's a String Thing" challenge, I'm still gathering all the responses to the week before last. I never did get to post any of them on time, but it was, all the same, an interesting experience.

The first one was just a little too fussy, but I liked the gingham part (even if it's not quite right). The second one is what I really had in mind, to go "macro" on the patterns, but I caught a peek at Lori Byerly's response on her blog "All Things Tangled"--I love her elegant style--and felt I couldn't own it as far as originality is concerned. The third looks like a strip tease to me, complete with stripper poles! The last one is my favorite, even if I had to sneak the pattern "Girdy" in with pencil.  They're all pretty similar--"Gerlande" follows the string while the fabric patterns create the background, but they're all unique.

I can't quite figure out why I can only post one image at a time and I'm sure it has to do with my "ancient" operating system, so these are all batched together. They are on separate pages on my Flickr feed, along with most every Zentangly-related drawing and some of my other creative meanderings. (Warning: Unabashed self-promotion!) Thanks for looking!

Blind Faith

The Diva Challenge this week was to draw the string with eyes shut tight. My first was not one that I really liked, but I posted it on my Flickr feed for full disclosure. It lacks contrast and some of the patterns are kind of squished into the small spaces. So I tried again and I'm much happier with my official response:

This one has contrast, movement, flow, space and a bunch of favorite tangle patterns: crescent moon, nipa, sez, cadent, facet and fassett with holibaugh ribbons following the string. I didn't use all the teenie spaces the string created and I think that worked out just fine.
Thanks so much for the kind comments that have been bestowed upon me and for taking the time to view my work. Be sure to check out all the tangly people at the Diva Challenge, each and every week. This week in particular the responses are sure to be very different as everyone is starting from a different vantage point. It's definitely a method I'll try again.

Ode to Commode, etc

On the Every Inchie Monday, this week's challenge was "throne." I drew mine up on Sunday after debating how to go about it. I was not going to shy away from the inference to a toilet, my boyfriend works for a plumber, after all (and if you're ever in need of one in the Phoenix--Arizona--area, I can tell you I know of a couple guys you can trust!). I first went to his stack of trade magazines and they were woefully deficient in potty pictures. Cool faucets, lots of fittings and fixtures, but really only one good johnny and it was, as they are, without a lid or seat. Pooh! So behold, my throne with my royal sceptor and crown. For more serious attempts on this challenge, be sure to visit that blog, there is some beautiful work there.

 

I also am trying to keep up with the weekly twinchie challenge. The word for last week was "circles" and I've been drawing the pattern "Sez" a lot. I did these with Sakura glaze pens, including white for filler circles. They're barely visible, but I liked the white-on-white effect. This week's challenge word is "purple." It's a color that either you like it or you don't and I fall squarely into the latter category. My daughter, who is struggling with the income from being a teacher paraprofessional, has a baby shower to go to next week. I offered to make a blanket for her friends baby and now I have a new challenge: to get the woobie finished by Tuesday! (See the movie Mr. Mom for where the word woobie comes from. It's what we call blankies). It will also be number 496 of my all-time woobies. When I get to number 500, that'll be a story unto itself. Stay tuned.

 

And don't forget: a Royal Flush beats a Full House anytime. Whoosh!