Tangle challenges 22 Feb

This week I've been playing around with the new official tangle Waybop. How lucky for me that both the Diva and It's a string thing challenges feature it this week. 

Here's my Diva tile. I've added Hollyhock, Crescent Moon and Flux to Waybop.

Here's my IAST tile for last week. I've added Mooka, some odd heart-shapes and a pathway of B-tweed. I used some new blank post card paper for this which comes in at 300gsm. Very nice to play with. 

I added colour by first wetting a section of tile with water, applied with a broad paint brush. Then I sprayed blue and yellow Mist sprays onto baking paper. I then  placed the paper on my tile and gave it a rub, which produced the solid colour and the fine spray at the same time. 

Finally, here's an A5 sized ZIA that I made the other night. In this one I've linked the Waybops, added Emingle to the centre pieces and then Sandstorm in light grey pen on the outside. Dark blue Derwent water colour pencils for the contrast colour.

This week, as usual, I participated in Made by Joey's challenge. Joey started with Hollibaugh. I added Huggins, Hibred, Hypnotic and Hurakan.

This week's Kitty Pic is a photo I took yesterday of Arthur playing with a new toy. He's such a cutie! And he is as sleek and soft as he looks.

Thanks for visiting and adding your comments to my blog. Your comments give me a lift.

Miss L

Tangle challenges 15 Feb

This week I'm drawing with a bad cold. After the extreme heat of last week (nights in the high teens, low 20s and days above 35, including two in a row above 40) we've had mild and even cold weather. 

Sunday's temp fell to 15 by 4pm when the cold front hit. Nights have been deliciously colder, going below 10 while the days have been in the mid 20s. Much more sensible weather BUT... 

So I'm at home, not getting much school work done, drawing, sleeping and binge-watching Nurse Jackie.

Diva #303 - Valentangle

I don't get into Valentine's Day but I do get into Zentangle challenges. My approach to this week's challenge was to create a tile based on what the Husband most wants - time. My string is based on the letter T and uses old favourite tangles: Tripoli, Ilana, Mooka and Emingle. Plus mist sprays for colour.

Made by Joey - G and Gnarly

I really struggled with this letter. I'm trying to use tangles starting with the theme letter but this week, not so many tangles to choose from. I'm continuing to only use my handmade journal for these challenges and to experiment with ways to apply colour. 

Here's part of my first attempt, using Gutz.

Here's my finished page, using Garlic Cloves, Golven, Groovy and Gothic.

Other drawing

Continuing to play with Hamadox on some standard tiles and on an Opus tile. 

With a little help from my friends

These guys keep me company when I draw. The big(ger) one is Luna Lovegood while the small(ish) one is Arthur Weasley.

Have a great week and thanks for dropping by.

Miss L

Tangle challenges 8 Feb

Diva #302 - Hamadox

Hamail is a tangle I tried a few times last year but could not get the hang of. Hamadox, however, seems to come off my pen fairly smoothly. 

Here is my first tile. The second is not finished yet - I'll add it later in the week.

Made by Joey

This week it's the letter F. It was fun to find how frequently F tangles find their (f)way into my (f)work.  Sorry for the bad, bad pun. Could not resist.

Here's a page from my Tangle Journal. I used Festune, Fengle, Fleavy, Florz and Flux. The colour is a combination of blue, apple green and denim spray inks with I first sprayed onto baking paper before applying over a stencil. Colours don't blend well in this journal as the paper is thin and fragile as it is hand made, so I've been forced to be inventive.

I also made a tile, where I added Flukes, Fescue and pale Flux to Festune. The colours are from the same sheet of baking paper, applied to a tile that I'd dampened first with a paint brush and small amount of water. 

Other drawing

I was inspired by my new-found ability to finally draw Diva, so I played some more with it. Here's one of my tiles. It uses Verdigogh and was inspired by the examples shown by Maria.

Life matters

Enjoying my new school very much.

Am getting very tired of the relentless heat and humidity here. We are heading for 36 tomorrow, 40 on Friday, 41 on Saturday then back to 36 on Sunday. At least the classrooms at my new school have ceiling fans.

Have a great week and thanks for dropping in.

Miss L

Tangle challenges

I'm not doing so much drawing at the moment but I'm trying to keep up with at least the Diva and Made by Joey challenges.

Diva #301

This week was a duo tangle of Paradox and Diva Dance. I've always struggled with Diva Dance. I've seen lots of examples of it done well but somehow I've never had success. However, this week the Diva linked us to a video of Rick and Maria using it. Now I get it. 

I created two tiles. I'm very happy with both but the second is my favourite. It may even be one of my best tiles ever.

Here's the first.

The second uses Derwent watercolour pencils in two shades of blue. I'm proud of the progress I'm making with colour and getting dimension with colour.

Made by Joey

This week's letter was E and the feature tangle was El Prado. I added Dex and Tripoli. (Side note - I hate the name Dex as this is the name of a medication I was on during chemo. Dex was used to manage side effects of chemo but came with a whole host of nasty side effects itself. The tangle is one I use often though.) I added colour by spraying mist colours onto bubble wrap then pushing that onto the page.

Zentangle Apprentices

I start teaching a Zentangle Apprentices class at my school next week. (I have read, re-read and double checked all the copyright information on Tanglepatterns.com and on Zentangle.com so that I'm confident that I'm working within the law here).

The Zentangle Apprentice kit is out of stock, so I don't have their lesson plans but I have ordered the apprentice tiles and pens.

The tangles I'm starting with are: Knightsbridge, Flukes, Crescent Moon and Tipple. I'll start with a Z string.

The following lesson I'll use Hollibaugh and Paradox. 

What other tangles do you think I should introduce this term? Students will range in age from 10 to 15 years old. I'll have 5 one hour lessons. Possibly around 15 students. 

New School update

All is well. I like the staff and my students seem interested in learning. I'm teaching a mix of English (or English literature as it may be known in other countries) and Humanities. The school culture and traditions are strong, even though the school is only about 10 years old. Overall, I'm very pleased to be here.

The weather has been over 35 degrees most days (or nearly 100 F) which has been horrible. The students have coped remarkably well though and without complaint. 

Onions, onions, anyone for onions?

This summer we grew tree onions for the first time. These onions grow bulb-lets from the end of their green stalks, which you can eat but which also sprout more bulb-lets. We've been harvesting just enough to eat but they looked like they needed to harvested in one go, so that's what I did. Here's me sorting and cleaning them ready for storing in the garage.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

Miss L