Art Journal: 3D!

If you've been following the blog for a while, you have heard me mention CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) AE (Artifex Editio, or Master Class) 2023. This online class from 7F5R Studio in Singapore includes 27 classes from CZTs all over the world. Once purchased, it is available for 1 year. My year is about 2/3 up! So I've been working to move along through the curriculum, since I would hate to lose any of its great opportunities. 

This week, both classes involved 3D projects. The first, "12 Faces",  by Nina Dreher-Goddertz, resulted in a dodecahedron, from a single sheet of cardstock. (I used a lovely textured pink digital collage sheet,)

Step 1: Print the template. Cut, fold and crease.

Step 2: Draw. I used a Micron 05 in "brown", which is more of a maroon. I inked the edges with distress ink.

Step 3: Shade and highlight. I added color with a pastel pencil.

Step 4: Fold and glue. (No picture, since I had glue all over my fingers!)

Step 5: Appreciate!

My second project was "Graceful Grays", by Tomomi Galeano. I decided to go rogue a little on this one. The Kousa dogwood in my garden is in full bloom. This tree reminds me of Connecticut, where it grows profusely. They are not very common here in North Carolina, where the common dogwood with rounded petals grows wild, so I have spent some time every day admiring it. It became the inspiration for the floral "bouquet" in the center of my tile.

Step 1: Draw the centerpiece, using black and gray pens.

Steps 3 and 4: Tangle the border. Shade.

Step 5: Create a 3D blossom on vellum. Step 6: Cut it out and soak it in water for 1-2 minutes to make it curl up.

Step Seven: Apply it to the tile.

Definitely different this week!

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to Nina Dreher-Goddertz and Tomomi Galeano for these wonderful classes!

Art Journal: Embrace the Flaws

The Zentangle Method focuses on trusting the process. There is rarely any planning, other than giving a random line, or string, to break up our paper into smaller spaces. This freedom helps us be more meditative, more mindful as we fill up space, one stroke at a time. And the mindfulness frees us to follow unexpected leads that pop up.

I want to show you how today's piece evolved. I set out to follow the Zentangle Method, and put down my string in pencil. I laid out a rectangle, a circle and part of an oval. I used a compass and an oval cutter for this part, which we don't encourage in Zentangle classes. As I was trying to make an oval, I accidentally scored/cut the paper and the collaged photo I put down first. Great start. No mistakes. I went ahead and tangled around the photo.

Day 1, tears and all

When I came back to the piece the next day, I considered starting over on a new sheet. No mistakes. I decided to keep working. I added some more paper and tangled the "frame".

Day 2

This morning, I continued to have serious doubts! No mistakes. I tangled in some of the white space with my gray Micron. It looked so cold and ugly! I knew I wanted color, but something more than a colored pen. I picked up my glass dip pen, which I've never tangled with. I mixed up some Lindy's Magicals pigments and started tangling with the dip pen. This was fun. (I know it sounds weird, but I could almost hear the piece encouraging me. I was the baby learning to walk, and it was the parent, arms outstretched, standing just close enough to not let me fall.) I was drawing with glass! I filled in all the spaces, one stroke at a time. I still didn't like it. The Zentangle Method step 6: Shade! The graphite was not making me like it any better. I picked up my trusty dauber, and added some distress ink. Ahh, now it was warmer. (I was warming up to it?) I applied more ink, and even started bringing it onto the tangled lines. UH OH. By rubbing the foam dauber over the paper, I had roughed up the scored/cut part. At this point, I decided to just go for broke. I folded the scored line and inked it. Then I made more folds and inked them. To further highlight the tears, I varnished the oval area with clear nail polish.

Finally, I liked it! But the circle looked empty and needed some text. "Embrace the flaws."

Show your work!

In my former life as a middle school French teacher, I had colleagues in the math department who, to hear the kids talking, tortured their students with the phrase "Show your work!" In my days, we never had this demand. We got credit for giving the right answer, and didn't even have calculators to find it!

"Show your work" comes to mind this week. Making the art is not always the challenge, but sharing it is another matter. Technology doesn't frighten me. I would just rather do something else than sit at the computer or look at my socials. I just wanted to clarify this with you, reader(s). I know I could easily take pictures of the stuff I make and --click!--put it out there. And I undoubtedly should. But I'd rather just make it and then make something else.

All of this to say I'm sorry for being a few days late, and also not knowing any more what I did when. (Another teacher phrase: "Be sure you have your name and the date on your work." Oops.)

Anyway, here's what happened sometime!

Back to Basics. I like this better than anything I've done recently. Getting back to the meditation of Zentangle lines and patterns in black and white was really restful.

More Zentangle patterns. I love working with mixed media, but often try to cram in too much! I enjoyed the simplicity of this one.

Thanks for stopping in. As I try to find my balance between Zentangle art and junk journaling and mixed media and art journaling (and showing my work!), I appreciate your interest and patience. How do you go about sharing your work? Images only? Images with descriptions of your process? Everything that happens? Only finished work that showcases my best? Share my work?

Art Journal: Mixed Media

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Weil Lecture on American Citizenship at UNC-Chapel Hill. This year Judy Woodruff, veteran journalist and news anchor with PBS News Hour, gave the lecture: America at a Crossroads. How do we heal our polarized country? Her speech definitely had an impact on my art journal, which filled up with reds and blues as I used torn pieces of a travel brochure left over from a recent trip to Memphis. (I was not trying to react to her depiction of our red/blue country.) I pulled her headshot out of the program, previously destined for the recycling bin.

It's different!

 

Spring has sprung in all its pollen-y glory. Rumor has it that we are experiencing the highest pollen counts here in North Carolina in 14 years, due to climate change. I'm allergic to pollen, and to cats. My two cats love to roll in the pollen before they come inside. I now swiffer them. (Is pollen sticky? There's something in the undercoat that is like hairspray! A pollen fixative?) I had to address my pollen anger this week, so here's my new mantra: No pollen, no flowers.

Handmade paper on the bottom with leaves and flowers in it

I wanted to photograph this outside, but, you know...

Happy transition season, wherever you are!