The 100 Day Project (2): Black on Black

Happy March! My intention for this month is simplicity. "Simplicity is nature's default position," says Dr. Deepak Chopra. We've made it through the exciting energy of new resolutions and celebrations. For me, March is a time to hope for simple things: an emerging bud, longer days, greener grass, drenching rains that soften the soil so I can more easily weed and plant. 

For my 100 Days Project, which I wrote about last week, I finished February with the same color palette: gray tiles, pink ink, white charcoal and graphite. I liked the unity it gave to bring these tiny 2-inch pieces together. With the beginning of March, I was inspired by Stephanie Jennifer, Singapore CZT extraordinaire. She posted some black tiles drawn with black ink. I've done some black on black before, and was eager to do it again. I used a 3-D ink, Sakura Glaze pen, in black. 

First attempt

I rubbed some soapstone powder over the tile before drawing.

I tried to create textures to catch the light.

A tangle that has always challenged me, CanT, with this technique, seems more friendly!

I'm not sure how this will evolve over the next week. Black on black is fun, but a little rough on the eyes! The bold nib feels great, so I'll see what transpires tomorrow!

I hope you have a fun week, with light to make your black days shine!

PS: Just a gentle reminder that I am switching to another mail service on March 10. Please let me know if you would like to RENEW or UNSUBSCRIBE. Thanks!

The 100 Day Project

Have you ever heard of the 100 Day Project?  It is a free global initiative begun in 2013 inviting folks to choose a creative project and do it for 100 days. It doesn't matter if your 100 days are consecutive; just do it for 100 days. This is a new endeavor for me, and, in my current "no expectations" mindset, I've embarked! My creative project is to complete 100 2-inch squares of art. (The 2-inch squares of paper in Zentangle are called "Bijou tiles".) 100 days of Bijou. I'm thinking that I will use limited tools for this as I re-explore simplicity and the elegance of limits. And how much can you put on a 2-inch square without it becoming totally overwhelmed?!?

I picked up some gray Bijou tiles for these, and a pink pen. (That was unintentional!) Here's what we have so far:

Drum roll, please.

Tangle (pattern): Appease, by Connie Green

"Kruller", by Jody Genovese

Drawn on the back of the previous tile

"Heart Blossom", by Beth Gaughan

"Waltzy", by Sue Schneider

5 down, 95 to go!

I hope that this inspires and motivates you to participate in this challenge. (Leave me a comment if you're ready to give it a go!) Don't overthink it. Your challenge can be brushing your teeth in 100 different ways! As always, just have fun!

So long, squiggle. (See it grow: finale)

Having known several writers over the years, I've often thought about editing a piece of writing and how we "edit" in Zentangle art. We don't use erasers, so we might take an "oops" moment and cover it with ink or graphite. We might morph the marks into another pattern. Or we might just leave them, like a loose thread on a Navajo blanket. There is almost always an addition to the mistake, although on rare occasions we might cut the mistake out!

Last week, in my post "Oh, noooooooo!!!!!" I described how I had inadvertently made a squiggle in the white space around the large project I was working on, and panicked for a moment before continuing to work on the rest of the piece. Not sure how I was going to finish it this week, I knew I had to do something. I would not just leave this to the side, unfinished, or throw it away, or cut it!

I took a few days to play with collage. No connection to my Zentangle work, just for relaxation and something different. Then I took a class on creating a gold look with colored pencils. I just needed to clear my mind before going back to the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2023 piece. I'm glad I did.

"A Fragment of My Imagination", 11x15 in.

I'm grateful to 7F5RStudio for the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge. Grateful to Lindy's Magicals (and the squiggle!) for inspiring me to leave the fragments and see the flowers. Grateful to the Zentangle crew for Project Pack 19 and the courage to think big. And grateful to Rick and Maria for giving me the desire and the means to get reacquainted with my inner artist.

Uncharted Waters (See it grow: Week 3)

In one of my favorite TV episodes, Wally, the older brother of Beaver, explains to his perplexed parents who are seeking his input about the young sibling, something like, "Gee, Mom. How would I know? Beaver's never been this age before." Ah, the Wisdom of Wally! Lately, in my morning meditations, I've often seen words about the power of not knowing, learning to accept the "uncharted territory" in our lives, letting go of our "Expert Mode" of thinking and acting. So many crossroads that we have yet to come to. As I read somewhere "You've never been this old before, and you'll never be this young again." Sobering thoughts! But they remind me that every moment is new, that we are constantly challenged with learning and exploring. 

In week 3 of the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge, this feels particularly relevant. Looking at the remaining inches of the design that remain, I have, in all honesty, started to get a little nervous. How am I going to respond to this space with honor and courage, and even humility? I imagine different options. I think, "But I don't really know how to do that?" Shading, the sixth step of the Zentangle Method, is often my favorite. But with this piece, I'm hearing that critical voice: "If you ruin it, you won't be able to correct it!" Ugh. The power of not knowing? I have 10 more days to draw. As I advance through them, I will see things a little differently, learning and exploring as I go. And then we'll see!

For now, here's what we have:

End of week 3

Week 3 Fragments

Other tiles from this week:

For a friend

Just for kicks

A gentle reminder

Are you in some uncharted waters? What are you exploring now?

Have a wonderful week, and Happy Lunar New Year! 🐇

Trust the Process and See it Grow: Week 1

Inspired by last month's large piece for the 12 Days of Zentangle Project, I've embarked on an 11 x 15 inch project using the prompts from the Fragment of Your Imagination Challenge 2023.  (There is a lovely FREE handout that you can download. Thanks to Debbie New in Singapore and Ildica Boyd in New Zealand for so generously putting this together for the Zentangle community.) Every day, there is a new little fragment to use, like little tesserae in Roman mosaics, but in ink! We are using square shapes, orbs, triangles and seed shapes. I'm not using all the suggested fragments, and I'm going out of order, but it's Zentangle, right? No mistakes. Here's my work in progress for this week:

The beginning of my fan

Day 2

Day 3

As you can see, after three days, I had covered a good bit of space. Rather than continue, I chose to put it aside for a week to come back to it with fresh eyes. Wanting to continue with the fragments, I found other uses.

These are all the Week 1 fragments in my sketchbook with

the names of their origins.

I used three of the triangular fragments for this week's 

cards for our friends at Meals on Wheels.

As with any of my art, I don't have a plan, other than filling in a fan shape with these fragments. Check back next week for a look at what has transpired!

 

Tangles from the other side

In the Zentangle community, we lovingly refer to patterns as "tangles". This weekend I started thinking about the negative meaning of "tangle": a confused mass of something twisted together, snarl, mass, knot, disorder. I've had some real tangles in the past two years in my relationship with a member of my family. I have felt confused, twisted, uncertain and disordered. Yesterday I received a letter from a dear friend with a prayer to Mary, the Mother who untangles knots. (I had never heard of this particular devotion, but trusted my friend.) As I read, I remembered how I had often untangled knots for my daughter and for kids at school. I also thought back to the frustration of being a kid who hadn't yet acquired the fine motor skills or the patience or perhaps the sense of depth to untangle my knots. Even the Christmas lights last weekend seemed to take forever to untangle. Untangling requires us to see behind, under, through, around.

This led me to try something on a transparent paper. What if I made a design of tangled filaments? I began drawing with a neurographic technique where you place a coin on your paper and, with a pencil, push it across the paper as you try to keep the coin centered on the pencil point. Then you trace over the lines with a pen, thickening some places to form more rounded shapes. (Interestingly, the side I had chosen for the front became the back.)

Here are some other examples of drawing on transparent paper. These all followed the instructions in Project Pack 18.

With a backlight

I'll keep thinking about changing my perspective in order to untangle this relationship.

What might you look at differently in your life?

I'm so excited!

Christmas came early this week! New techniques! New tangles! New explorations!

Zentangle HQ released 7 new tangles--and zen some!-- to celebrate the ZenAgain 2022 reunion for CZTs. Once the step-outs come out--probably in the Project Pack 19/12 Days of Zentangle release in a few weeks--everyone can enjoy them together! I'm still "unpacking" them, but will share some in a future blog post.

I took Eni Oken's "Eco-dyed Tangling" class online. (You can purchase it in her shop.) This was a totally new and exciting and messy experience, aka fun! The class addresses using eco-dyed papers, which have been prepared and dyed with flowers and leaves. However, Eni also teaches us how to make faux eco-dyed papers with distress inks and watercolors. Warning: I'm hooked! If you've followed my work for a while, you know how colored backgrounds are my favorites to work with--distress inks, watercolors, pigments. These faux eco-dyed papers go there, and beyond, as they use my other favorite element, leaves. Who could ask for more? Here are some pictures of my playtime:

Supplies. Notice paper towels, wipes, and hair dryer!

My first press with leaves and distress ink

The tan tiles on the right are the first press with leaves and distress inks.

The remaining tiles have some watercolor added.

The completed "eco-dye" effect

The next step almost lost me. Eni's tiles looked so different from mine. She started tangling. I thought, "This just doesn't work with what mine look like!" I tried to follow along, but decided to go with what felt right. I wanted the leaf shapes to stand out. Here's what happened:

My favorite. By now, I was gaining confidence.

This lesson put me in a beginner mode. Every morning, I try to remind myself of a favorite Meister Eckhart quote: "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning." Being a beginner can be messy and uncomfortable. My inner critic shook her head and muttered, "You should have watched the whole video before you started!" (Smacks her teeth!) But, if I had, I might not have discovered what was in ME. And I think that's what this art thing is all about.

Finally, I close with my finished Zenbirds for Ukraine piece, taken from a lesson by Lynn Mead.

Wishing you happy beginnings.

InkTober 2022: Week 2

I mistakenly felt like I hadn't done any art this week, at least nothing on paper. I spent hours in the garden cleaning up Hurricane Ian's debris (still) and hours inside working on decluttering my studio and art closet. Those hours would definitely contribute to improving the flow of energy, and consequently, creativity. When I began gathering photos for the blog, I realized I had done more than I remembered. That felt good!

Two important birthdays in one week: my niece, Gala, and my friend, Rhonda. I really enjoyed making their cards. Gala's card used the autumn leaves piece from last week.

Here's Rhonda's:

Moving on to InkTober, I enjoyed a morning--yes!--shading what I had drawn and posted last week.

Before

After

The week's tangles

While waiting for Lar to come home, I gave my "friend" Narfello a go. 

Aargh. I always struggle with this one! I finally got it, in pencil, and inked over it. One day...!

Yesterday I enjoyed a class with Lynn Meade, CZT, on Escher-inspired tessellations of birds. The proceeds from this class went to SOS Children's Village, for relief in Ukraine. I haven't quite finished the whole piece, which is 7 inches in diameter, but I wanted you to see the birds. (They kind of remind me of Narfello!) I'll post the final result next week.

Solidarity with Ukrainian children

This workshop was yet another example of the talent and generosity that grace our Zentangle world. Beate Winkler, CZT in Germany, is teaching Zentangle to 60 some Ukrainian refugees in her area. There is also a FaceBook group called Zen Bird Club that has already had 4 Zen Bird classes, and plans to have 4 more. (The next one will probably be held on December 4th. If you're interested, check out #zenbirdclub , #zenbird5 , #zenbirdescherstyle.

Wishing you fun explorations!

InkTober 2022: Week 1

 Are you familiar with InkTober? Originally created by Jake Parker "in 2009 as a way to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits", it has become a worldwide event. Stephanie Jennifer, of 7F5RStudio, has made this challenge easier for tanglers by providing tangle prompts to use. You can find the tangles and stepouts for it here.

For this year's InkTober piece, I decided to use a distress ink background with some Autumn Leaves Magicals. Starting a few days late, I decided to go with the flow rather than limiting myself to one prompt a day. First, a page in my sketchbook to show you the isolated patterns for the first 7 days.

Here's how they look so far, without any shading, and with some others thrown in just for fun. (Rule follower that I am, I just felt like jumping around this time and that feels good.)

I'll be featuring an update every week here.

Wanting to focus on the gorgeous foliage colors and transitions I spoke of last week, I did this piece. And I did some more. Done. And I did some more. There. Finished! (I realized that sometimes I stop when I'm done, but before the piece is finished. Something to be aware of.)

I hope you can join me for InkTober, whether it's for a day, a week, or the whole month!

Transitions in the Dance

Autumn. New colors. New temperatures. New patterns in our daily routine. New light. So many people say it's their favorite season, including myself. But it represents a transition to shorter days, longer nights, and that can be challenging.

As my body tried to alert me to changing barometric pressure, changing light and changing temperatures this week, I thought, "It needs to learn about the weather app and leave me alone." But that's part of my life, with its thunky stiff joints. This too shall pass. In addition to the autumn changes, we had Hurricane Ian sweeping through. (We are safe and warm and dry and grateful for this good fortune that many cannot claim.) And this intense weather had me looking out the windows, watching the swirling treetops and intermittent moments of calm and marveling at nature's power. "Sometimes storms come through to clear the air." Usually after a hurricane, our skies are a perfect azure blue. For now they are still grayish white. But the sun is popping through, and we know that blue skies lay ahead.

Inspiration came from those hours in front of the windows, and from a birthday gift of more Lindy's Magicals. (Thank you, Lar.) The Autumn Leaves set showed up at the perfect time. After making some distress ink backgrounds in Walnut and Vintage photo, I made some swatches with the pigments and a background.

More to come...

And other stuff, before the pigments came.

Illern, by Annett Rumpler

Colors from "Prairies Meadows" set. They stole the show!

An ugly duckling tile. Yuck. 

But when I painted the Ukrainian inspired "Kivka" pattern on top,

 it suddenly transformed. So glad I didn't give up.

Inspired by Debbie New (7F5RStudio). I don't think it's a pattern

in the middle, intersecting BeadLinz with auras?

In this time of transitions, may our dance move freely, smoothly and with gratitude and appreciation.