This is Your Brain

This is different. I started this week's goodies LAST week. It's quite unlike me to not procrastinate.

First, a carry-over for the IAST:

IAST 143

My scanner went to that great technology graveyard where so much has gone before....so it's a bit dark.
C'est la vie.

Then, it was on the search for....BRAINS!

It's the word for this week at EIM. Oh, the choices were plentiful!
I was going to go all-out Zombie, which would have required a LOT of thought as I'm not really into blood and guts. My favorite cartoon occasionally swerves into the territory, so I have to share this by Doug Savage:

Thusly, I can skip over the Zombies and move onto the choices I did go with:

We have: Stephen Hawking, brain extraordinaire, Brain from Warner Brother's "Pinky and the Brain," Einstein's Equation to describe Special Relativity and the image from the public service message from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (1987 version). You know the one, where they fry the egg? "Any questions?"

Over at La Casa Diva, it's a duotangle tango, this time with "Drupe," a floral, and "Poke Root." This reminds me of cherries and blossoms in bloom, a visual Haiku. It's a dedication of sorts to beautiful individuals that we have held dear, how loss and life are intricately intertwined.

I ended up shading it, but I like it better without, in it's "elegant simplicity." I was also going to just Photoshop in the black, but chose to draw it in with my trusty Sharpie. It's not quite so neat, but it was the right process, nice and slow.

Lastly, I have this:

I did this for the TwobyTwo. You'll have to tune in next week to see what this could possibly have to do with "Echo." Head over to that blog tomorrow--Tuesday, natch--for the challenge post.

Be sure to check out all the associated blogs! And have a brilliant day!

Drupe Flower

Adele Bruno of Tickled to Tangle put out her challenge of the week to use string 056 by Jill Dobis and some tangles that start with the letter "D." At first, I thought there was too much going on as there were a lot of loops in the string and some fancy patterns to chose from. I started to take some out of the picture then added some favorites for a high contrast image.
I like the official "Drupe," which forms a blossom. At the last minute I added some "dust bunnies," a pattern by Margaret Bremnan, in pencil to carry through the garden theme.

If I try this again I think I'd place the "drip drops," a tangle by Debbie Purdue, a lot closer together to create a definitive pattern. What do you think?
Make sure to check out how all the talented artists responded to the challenge! I always look forward to seeing what everyone else was up to.

Challenges with a Common Thread

So I'm a good week behind the curve for MadebyJoey. Last week the challenge was out for a five-pointed star and here is what developed there. Next time I'll let all the tangles describe the symbol rather than laying down outlines. At least I think that would be an improvement there.
The patterns I used included Knight's Bridge, Hollibaugh, Crescent Moon, Gingham, Static and N'Zeppel.

Then I moved on to an alphatangle challenge from Beez in the Belfry. The challenge was loosely defined as using a name as a string and only official Zentangle tangles to fill it. I chose a variety of patterns that matched up letter by letter for "TISH," a nickname that I acquired in college. Now, there's a story! Ha! For now, I'll save that for another day. And I have another variation floating in the grey matter for an alphatangle, but that, too, will have to wait.

I got the patterns and descriptions from those lovely people over at TanglePatterns.com. They are in order: Tipple, Tripoli, Tagh, Izorus, Isochor, Sez, Shattuck, Hibred, Hollibaugh and Huggins.

Lastly, I did the tangle tango with the Diva. Her challenge this week was to utilize a tartan plaid. I have a different source for the pattern and have practiced drawing it; the fun part this time was going to be what else to do? I went over to Random.org to generate some numbers and matched them up to the list that Linda Farmer has of official tangles back over at Tangle Patterns.

I drew in order: Locar, Rixty, Drupe (by Sandy Stein Bartholomew over at the Belfry), Nipa and MacDee by Anneke Van Dam. I have it as Kilt from Suzanne McNeill's Zentangle 8, that's where I found it, but I'm not one to challenge originality as I'm new to all this.

 

 

So when I put them all together I realized that there's a common thread running through these three drawings: they each have fabric patterns in them. No surprise, really, as if I'm not at my desk, there's a sewing machine waiting for me. Or three.

 

I could be busy with all these challenges all day, but I best get back to work lest I continue on the path of starving artist.