Zentangle-Inspired – Art Journaling Video!

I decided I wanted to make an art journal spread, and record it, for future use in my art journaling videos.  It’s basically a spread with my blog information on it.  Just an excuse to play in my journal, really.  And, I wanted to start using my pre-prepared journal spreads.  I often just do backgrounds, because they are easy and mindless, basically.  But I often don’t like the results, so I never end up completing it.  This one started with some Golden mediums that I wanted to try.  I did it so long ago, I can’t recall exactly what I did, but I know I started out with gesso on the left side page, and Golden pastel ground on the other side.  I then layered ink sprays and paint, and alcohol inks.  It turned into kind of a hot mess.  I’m not crazy about pink, either, so the color just didn’t inspire me until today.  I actually ended up liking the end result! 

The zentangle-inspired dangles were inspired by  Joanne Fink’s technique – more details on her blog – www.zenspirations.com

Product List:

• Golden Gesso and Ground
• Dylusions ink sprays
• Doodling pens – Faber-Castell PITT artist pen, Sharpie paint pens, Montana acrylic paint marker, Sakura gel pens, Uni-ball Vision black waterproof pen
• Unknown washi tapes
• Heidi Swapp (discontinued) letter masks
• Pan Pastel in black
• Krylon Workable Fixative
• Black acrylic paint (watered down for splats)

And, here’s the video:

Copic Marker Play

This is the back of my Joanne Sharpe “Magical Marker Mystery Tour” art journal.  I drew the shapes with a circle template, and colored everything with Copic markers.  I used my white Signo Uniball pen for the white areas.  I love the way this turned out! 

Twinks

Hey everyone!  I’ve been playing with my Twinkling H2O’s in my watercolor journal, and thought I’d share a few pics.  As many of you may know, shimmmery does not photograph well.

For this first image, I drew the hexagon shapes with a template, and Faber-Castell pitt marker, and colored them in with FC Big Brush pens.  The background is twinks.

I drew this Zendala with Faber-Castell pitt pen, and colored everything with my twinks.

Zendalalala la la

I just received Suzanne McNeil’s book on Zendalas – Zen Mandalas .  I’m loving the  process of creating some new tangles in mandala style.  I’m not lovin’ the purple, but, it is what it is!  :0)

Zendala!

For your viewing pleasure.  lol  I just received Suzanne McNeil’s book on Zendalas – Zen Mandalas and was inspired to try my hand at a mandala in zentangle style!

Creating every day

Helloooooooooo out there! How is everyone doing today? The sun is shining here, and it is starting to feel like spring! I sure hope we are finished with the snow for this year.  The forecast is looking fantastic for this week!

So, even though I haven’t been blogging, I have been creating a LOT!  I also got a new toy – an Ipad!  I love love love it, but I have not figured out how to post pictures on my blog from my Ipad.  If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know!  I would be so grateful!

Today, I took some time to scan a bunch of art journal pages – thought a scanned image may be better than a photographed image, but I’m not so sure.  Anyway, I’ve been cooped up inside now for a few hours, and really want to get out and enjoy the sunshine, so I’m just going to do a quick drive-by post today.  I’m going to make more of an effort to post daily, even if it’s just a quickie!  I did quite a bit of tangling (in Zentangle fashion) while on vacation, and was totally into the new tangle over at Zentangle.com – called “Mooka”.  This new tangle is so much fun, and there are so many things you can do with it to make it your own!

Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of Zentangle®, show how to tangle “mooka.”  on this Youtube video.  Zentangle is an easy to learn and relaxing method of doodling!

And, here’s my Mooka Zentangle:

Soooooo….that’s all for today!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

Abstract Zenmylar

I completed this piece in the art class I am taking at Artventure.  I used graphite, charcoal, and my Panpastels to create this abstract, zentangle-inspired piece on mylar.  It turned out a lot better than I thought it would.  Several times during the creation of this piece, I almost gave up on it, but I plugged on, with Erica’s encouragement, and, once she hung it on the wall, I kind of liked it!  It was fun playing with my Panpastels!

Mixed Media Fun

Hello out there!  I have been so inspired recently by mixed media artists, like Pam Carriker (who is offering FREE art journaling worshops over at  Strathmore Visual Journal Online, Milliande (who is also offering FREE inspirational videos of her daily January journaling here), Tam (aka Willowing), Suzi Blu, and many, many other talented artists out there!  And, I’m continuing to develop my drawing skills, through a local course at Artventure, and through the many Youtube videos out there.  While I’m not brave enough to share all of my artistic endeavours, I am particularly happy with a couple of art journal covers that I recently created.  The first one is sthe cover of my Zentangle journal.  If you are a regular follower of my blog, you may remember this.  

 

Well, I took these tangled letters and reduced them in size with Photoshop Elements, cut them out, and added them to my multi-layered, mixed media book cover, and  here is the result:

I had so much fun with that one, that I decided to make another cover for my collaborative art journal.  My artsy-fartsy neice and I started a journal together about a year ago, and it’s far from finished.  We passed it back and forth a couple of times, but life got in the way for the last few months, so I decided to pull it out again and play.  I love the way the cover turned out:

Scanned images just don’t do them justice.  They are very textural.  I even added a layer of beeswax as a protective coat.

So, that’s it for now.   Thank you so much for stopping by.  Leave me a comment, if you have a minute…it always makes me smile. 

Zentangles again

I decided to participate in a Zentangle challenge, over at TanglePatterns.com – for the first time EVER!    lol  However, I should have READ the challenge more carefully, because I didn’t do it correctly.  The challenge was to tangle your name.  So, that’s what I did!  I have such an easy name – only 3 letters, so I thought it would be fun to do a “real” zentangle, in the “official” zentangle size.  So, I couldn’t stop at just one.  I couldn’t decide to tangle the letters, or tangle the negative space, so I did one of each!  lol.  I just realized I forgot to shade them, too.  I always do that last, but I did these in bed, late last night, and didn’t have a pencil handy.  I do like how they turned out, even though they don’t meet the challenge requirements, which is to take the letters of your name, and select a tangle beginning with each letter of your name.  So, in my case, I would divide my tile into 3 sections, and tangle each section with a tangle beginning with K, I, and M. 

So, what do you think?  Which one do you like better?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Maybe I’ll try to do the challenge correctly next time lol.

ZEN TANG LES

I made myself a Zentangle sketch book.  I’ve been zentangling in my Moleskine, but decided that I’d like to tangle on some WHITE cardstock (instead of the buff color inside my Moleskine).  So, I made a sketchbook with Canson 150 lb drawing paper, and my Bind-it-All.  I zendoodled the letters to use on the cover of my sketchbook.  I love the way my new zentangle sketchbook turned out!  I’ll have to photograph the completed project.  I’m actually thinking about making another one – an art journal with watercolor paper, so I may put together a tutorial.  I haven’t posted one in a long time. 

In the meantime, here are some of my recent zentangle-inspired doodles from my Moleskine: