Today is Every Inchie Monday and the prompt for the day is "plum." I've been wanting to try my hand at watercolors, which I haven't tackled since school just about and the subject is worthy of a personal challenge.
I know I have some decent materials around, but where is the question. So, I picked up some paint at WalMart. The paints are ok, but the brush just disintegrated with every stroke. I used Daley and Rowney paints, Fluid watercolor paper and Morton's Kosher salt. It deserves another try when I have a brush that can do the job. But for now, this is an honorable attempt. (The latest catalogue from Dick Blick arrived yesterday with a sale on some very nice watercolor paints and crayons. hmm...)
The source image for my project came from Autumn Makes and Does, where I found a beautiful photograph of plums and an interesting recipe for jam. (I'm not thinking I'm making any money from watercolor painting and I only intend to hang this little artwork on my fridge). Now to take a look around to see what others are doing with their inchies!
While I was wandering the rabbit warren of the web, I was introduced to the "It's a String Thing" challenges by Adele Bruno, CZT. This week's challenge is a string (outline drawing) of a birthday candle to celebrate her one year of presenting challenges to all those tangly people with a list of allowable patterns. Here's my answer to the call (and I used up all the tangles!):
I wanted to do a more traditional Zentangle, so I chose to keep the candle as white space and work around it. The result looks to me like a woman in a long dress with a cape fluttering in the wind, like Little Red Riding Hood or something the Bronte sisters could conjure on the Scottish moors. Perchance, I might think too much!
i've included it on my Flickr photostream; perhaps we'll see this on Ms. Bruno's blog next week!
As I wander the treasure trove of the internet and meet some tangly people, I come across variou ideas and challenges. You, too, huh? This one from Erin Koetz Olson is a bit of a challenge for me. I've studied some mandala art and it was always full of a lot of angles; this one, not so much.
I started to add some straight lines, ever so much, and it started to flow, just as it should. I like the movement. So my contribution to Zendala Challenge 94, I call "The Blossom Within."
This art deserves a second look, but with color. For now, the drama moves me; to pause and separate from the drama, if you know what I mean.
I've been working on the daily exercises in Beckah Krahula's book, One Zentangle a Day, and today is for transforming repetitive patterns. At first, I was a little intimidated by the patterns for the day, but I just took my time with it. And I was going to cram a lot more drawing into this one, but left a swath of white space as it was getting too busy. I drew circles to help tone down the angles. The end result has an Art Deco feel to it, don't you think?
This is also on my Flickr page here. Thanks for taking a look!
I need to get busy as we have guests for dinner, the always entertaining Robert and his lovely wife, Michele with one "L." He's usually busy managing his gallery and painting his landscapes, but in summer the pace is a lot slower (as in, open by appointment only). So, we can relax on the patio with snacks and frosty beverages and perhaps, just perhaps, watch the rain. If we're lucky.
