Zentangles – Diva Challenge 265 & Negative Space Tipple ‘Hearts’

Diva Challenge Week 265 – Stripes!

I am not sure where the time goes, but it seems like 7 weeks have just all but flown by since my last Diva Challenge attempt 😛 This year seems like it is going even faster than 2015, and I thought 2015 was record-breakingly, gone too soon.

This week’s prompt is one of my favourites at the Diva’s. Since I have a black tile class this Saturday, I thought I’d get in the mood by going white on black for this challenge 🙂

To start with, I placed 6 parallel, curved lines on a black tile and the rest, they say, is history…. [ as always, clicking on the images will take you to Flickr ]

I like how it resembles a quarter of a circle… Like the rest of the bits of the puzzle are missing. I added Printemps, Zenith, Flux, Tidings and Msst and made up the rest as I went along 🙂

I used an array of white pigment and gel pens and shading with my white charcoal pencil made it complete.

 

Negative Space Tipple Hearts – a Walkthrough

I’ve been tangling these little “hearts” for a long time now, and I teach this as part of  my regular Zentangle 101 Class so I never really thought about making stepouts. However, I’ve recently had several queries about them from separate sites.

The lovely Inge Frasch, CZT, suggested on FB that I put up some stepouts so here they are.

Before we begin, I thought to mention…

Tipple is a tangle pattern that was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas of Zentangle, USA. This walkthrough presented here is a variation, also known as a ‘tangleation’, of Tipple. 

Please feel free to refer to the step outs to recreate these “hearts” in your tangles. However I reserve my rights to these images and they should not be copied or reproduced. Thank you! – Debbie New CZT 18

It is best to begin with a Micron 01 or 005, as you want to be able to achieve the most delicate and refined, almost-lacy effect.

This iteration of Tipple is especially pretty when added to flower and leaf inspired tangles such as Mooka or Flux.

[ If you click on the image, you can view it larger with Flickr’s zoom function ]

When properly tangled, your ‘hearts’ should not have any unintended gaps to distract the viewer’s eyes. And you will find that they are capable of filling up nearly any amount of space 🙂

Here are more examples of my past pieces featuring these “hearts”…

Bales, Flux & Opus fleurs, meet Tipple “hearts”

 

In collaboration with Beverly Gotthardt from Texas, USA. Beverly’s site: http://www.gottheartart.com/

 

Angeleafe, Mooka by Lisa Fedele CZT…

 

Tipple on Tipple 🙂

 

Bales meets Tipple “hearts”

 

Zenith meets Tipple “hearts”

Have a great week…!

…

I don’t always check in. If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com or via the Tangled Pursuits page on Facebook 🙂

Debbie New, CZT 18

Blog: hesedetang.wordpress.com

CZT Website: tangledpursuits.com

Zentangles – Diva Challenge 258 & New Tangle ‘Dealys’

Dealys

This is my fourth tangle, after Angeleafe, Cadenza and Cabbit.

Like ‘Angeleafe’ before this, I had been using Dealys long before I thought to publish it. It has shown up in my work from even six months ago. From its early days, it appeared very similar visually to Carla du Preez’s Auraleah, so I didn’t think much of it.

As it was already so much a part of my tangles, step-outs for Dealys only ‘resurfaced’ as a priority as I began working on black tile lesson plans. I’d wanted to use something that can be drawn in multiple ways, and I tweaked it so that the step-outs would be as distinctive from Auraleah as possible. As a result, Dealys may be tangled in several ways to achieve different looks.

Dealys is named because of the considerable ‘Delays’ in putting up the step-outs and also after one of my cats, Dyllis. [ Basically, one day, my stepmom happened to ask why I haven’t named any tangles after my cats……. I didn’t have any clue. So……. here we are. ]

Dealys is tangled in one continuous, curvy stroke, meeting at specific points. [ Clicking on the images will take you to Flickr. ]

[  Please feel free to refer to the step outs to recreate Dealys in your tangles, or link back to this page. However I reserve my rights to these images and they should not be copied or reproduced. Thank you! – Debbie New CZT 18   ] 

And here is Dealys, all fanned out…

And Dealys, in full bloom… shading makes it pop!

Dealys elsewhere…

Diva Challenge Week 258 – UMT Rautyflex

After missing out on ten challenges, I checked in to the diva’s blog today and discovered it was a UMT challenge, featuring Kathrin Bendel CZT’s Rautyflex.

This was definitely a challenge, indeed. I haven’t been this confused by a tangle in quite some time 😛

I am not sure I can draw this tangle again without looking at the step-outs at every few seconds. Anyway, this was really fun to do…

Rautyflex in white gel inks, on a black tile with shimmering gold acrylic tints.

…

I don’t always check in. If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com or via the Tangled Pursuits page on Facebook 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – New Tangle ‘Angeleafe’

Somewhere in January this year, I am not really sure when [ ..chalk the bad memory up to age or this really bad flu I can’t seem to rid myself of! In fact, January has been one big haze, as I spent a lot of it in bed. ], I started drawing repetitive “S” strokes whilst at various talks and functions.

At some point, these started evolving into a leaf of sorts, and when they got addictive to draw, I decided to share them with my CZT chum Stephanie Jennifer over at Everything is Art. It was she who encouraged me to quickly put up these step outs 🙂

This is my third tangle, and a very different feel, compared to Cadenza and Cabbit.

Here are some photos of how I’ve incorporated this new tangle in my tiles. [ Clicking on the images will take you to Flickr. ]

Angeleafe cluster, or as a border..

Individual Angeleafies!

I’ve even used it on my custom notepaper and envelopes… [ can you spot it? ]

This lovely loot is going out for the CZT-only Travelling Tangles Project 🙂

I love how organic this tangle feels, and I feel like it has a life of it’s own, much like a seedling coming into Spring!

Since this is an opportune ode to Spring, I decided to google up plants 😛 I eventually picked this name because I think it has the potential to look like [ not identical to ] the leaves of the Angel Wing Begonia plant, if you tangle both sides asymmetrically.

There are many ways to adjust this tangle to fit any space and shape, just explore the width and lengths of each “S” stroke, including the main one; ie. Step 1.

Here are the step-outs! Enjoy 🙂

On a Bijou tile and embellished differently 🙂

 

[  Please feel free to refer to the step outs to recreate Angeleafe in your tangles, or link back to this page. However I reserve my rights to these images and they should not be copied or reproduced. Thank you! – Debbie New CZT 18   ] 

I don’t always check in. If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com or via the Tangled Pursuits page on Facebook 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – Diva Challenge 248 & The Sandwich Days of 2015

The Sandwich Days of 2015

Sandwiched between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day every year, are the five days where I can be found at my most deeply retrospective and reflective moods. I like to call them the ‘sandwich days’.

One of my earliest memories of these sandwich days happened when I was just a little girl, maybe about 3 years old. My concept of time; ie. how seconds become minutes.. minutes become hours.. hours become days.. days into weeks.. weeks into months.. months into years.. was only just beginning to take shape then.

It was strange to me, at the time, to find that my mother would encourage me to re-read, re-use or re-utilise toys, books, everyday items but never calendars. Those were thrown out every year and it puzzled me so. My two older cousins were staying over with us for the holidays, and they laughed at how dumb I was (kids can be really mean to each other! It didn’t help that I was the youngest and was always chubby).

It took my 3 year old self quite some time to understand that time does not return to us, that it cannot be ‘re-used’. After this ‘discovery’, I know I was never the same kid.

My sense of appreciation for time, and for the appreciation of all things developed quickly after this.

I never liked excess, and I always made sure I ate everything on my plate (this probably explains my weight!). I made sure I never left any of my belongings behind, anywhere. I was always mindful about using things responsibly and well. (And eventually, this ‘trait’ of mine would give me a desire to upcycle things into useables.)

As time went by, I’d lose some of my nearest and dearest family members to cancer, all at an early age. This made me grow to really cherish people, see people for who they really are, and really cherish the time we have with them.

I believe everyone is put in our lives for a season, to bless us. To love us. For us to love them, discover their inner beauty, learn from them and appreciate them.

This season, a close family member of ours, is losing her second battle to cancer. We are all saddened, still having to keep busy, yet determined to make lasting memories whilst we can. It is never easy to say goodbye.

As we turn the page on 2015, I recognise that I have been incredibly blessed. I have had the privilege to meet and, in some instances, collaborate with many amazing CZTs this year. I have been wantonly blessed with new friendships, new opportunities, and new adventures.

Thank you for being a part of this journey, even if you are only just reading this entry and we’d never met. Have an amazing 2016, our best year yet!

Click below for this blog’s year in review, powered by WordPress….. or scroll down for the Diva Challenge week 248 entry ^_^

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,300 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Diva Challenge Week 248 – Give the Gift of Zentangle

I realise that I am really late, as this challenge was issued on December 14th – LOL!

I decided to post my entry anyway, since it is better late than never 😉

On 19 December 2015, I had an amazing opportunity to participate in the first ever Tangle with Heart event to raise funds for a Singaporean charity called The Red Pencil that is committed to helping individuals who require art therapy.

Many of their beneficiaries are children in trauma.

Together with the organisor, four of us Singaporean CZTs raised $10,000 towards this cause 🙂 A total of four sessions were taught to people who had their first encounter with Zentangle! What a gift, right?

Here’s a peek into the session I taught.. [ as always, clicking on the images will take you to Flickr ]

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Here’s the class mosaic of our first tile 🙂

Second tile ft. Hurry ..

And, for our finale, my very own Cabbit on a Bijou ^_^

This was almost everyone that came – we had some people who had to leave earlier..

Here I am [in the back] with Shannen, the organisor [in red], CZT Wai Fong [in blue] and her friend, Season [behind Wai Fong].

With this, I sign off to belatedly visit everyone’s posts 😛 Again, better late than never, I suppose lolol.. Happy 2016!!

Zentangles – Diva Challenge 236 and Cadenza

Diva Challenge 236 – Tangle Unexpected

I have been busy – a good sorta busy 🙂

Since I have not been having much down time this couple of weeks, I am featuring past postcards and ATCs that I have made with old book paper (one of my favourite mediums because it is SO good to advocate upcycling this way!), including a larger piece on good old scrapbooking paper.

Here goes 😉 Starting with a few ATCs… [ clicking on the images will take you to Flickr ]

Postcards…
And lastly, an Opus-tile-sized wall art on scrapbooking paper …

New tangle – Cadenza

I am pleased to unveil my latest tangle discovery, the Cadenza or CadenZa. The emphasized Z being Z for Zentangle 😛

Those familiar with me and my tangling style, would probably know that I am not a huge fan of grid-based tangles. Nevertheless, this one really started to grow on me. Something about it makes me think of oriental lanterns! I have been filling all my tiles with it since I came across it earlier this week.

It is thus named, because when I deconstructed this pattern, I found that it could be built upon an official Zentangle pattern called the Cadent. 

[ EDIT: This tangle was not originally intended as a filling for Cadent, but I am aware it does look that way from the step outs 🙂 The pattern that inspired this tangle did not resemble Cadent until I was deconstructing it. In other words, it was only as I was creating the step outs that it became apparent to me that using Cadent as a first step would greatly simplify the process, as well as help to even out the very curvy shapes. Here is the image of the original pattern as seen in real life: http://goo.gl/MdISbQ  ]

Without further ado… I give you, the CadenZa 😉 Have fun!  [ clicking on the images below will take you to Flickr ]

Since the Cadent is an official tangle that was created by Rick and Maria, I decided to include a statement in my stepouts as a mark of respect.

The trick to this tangle is to insert parallel lines in Step 4., rotate the tile and insert another parallel line in Step 5. Another tip is to add the inner strokes in a clockwise direction in Step 6, because it can get very confusing if added on a whim.

Here are more examples of Cadenza in action 🙂

A closer look…

In blue, just because 😉
[  Please feel free to use the step outs to recreate Cadenza in your tangles, or link back to this page. However I reserve my rights to these images and they should not be copied or reproduced. Thank you! – Debbie New CZT 18   ] 

Now I am off to visit everyone’s Diva Challenge entries 😉

P.S. Thanks for all the visits and comments. They are always much appreciated ❤

P.P.S I don’t always check in. If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – Diva Challenge Wk 233

Hello again, September…

On a very random note, I am SO glad that September is here. I must admit that I don’t function too well in the hottest months of the year, and I struggle daily, just to remain positive and calm! And of course, I tangle… Here are some snippets…

[As always, clicking on the images will take you to Flickr]

Playing with watercolour pencils.. Orange and Purple..

Playing with watercolour pencils again – this time in honeyed hues… Methinks it needs more contrast..

ATC in autumnal hues.. turned out unexpectedly well 🙂

Spoiler – these are for upcoming class! I always test my tiles to make sure I achieve the teaching points I set out to make 🙂

A work in progress Celtic cross. This is my inaugural Opus tile…………… is taking me way longer to finish than I thought! I am using 01s and 005s for this piece, to make it even more intricate.

Diva Challenge Week 233 – Zenith

After giving myself a self-declared hiatus from the Diva’s guests’ challenges the last three weeks, I am pleased to see the return of the Diva herself. Zenith is a tangle fairly close to my heart. When I was in Rhode Island for CZT Seminar, earlier this Spring, Zenith [ though yet unnamed then ] was ‘discovered’ by Maria Thomas, Zentangle creator, on the morning of our second day. We even got to see and admire her original drawings on her morning newspaper. I was fortunate to take photos, which I have shared with my fellow CZTs but I will not publish here as I do not have permission [ it is, afterall, not my work! ] to do so.

I will share my own step outs instead. You can see the official step-outs for Zenith here, but the one below shows exactly how it was taught to us at CZT 18 🙂  I made it on my way home from my USA/Japan trip – by then it was my …nth flight via Delta that month and I needed to occupy myself any way I knew how. So I tangled, of course.

You might see the Zenith-inspired flowers and the cross if you look closer at my tiles 🙂

Zenith, is truly an ideal border tangle..

A page from my journal.. The Zenith border was tangled in at CZT seminar ^_^

And here is my entry for this week’s challenge. Again, I’ve been playing with colours and kept it simple this time 🙂

Photographed on top of my CZT journal 🙂 I am loving the white ink on colour ^_^

With that, I am off to visit everyone’s work 🙂 Seeya later~

P.S. Thanks for all the visits and comments. They are always much appreciated ❤

P.P.S I don’t always check in. If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – Diva Challenge Wk 229

Diva Challenge Week 229 – Negative Space Tipple Hearts

I enjoyed this challenge – I use negative space a lot in my tangles especially with my negative space Tipple hearts. I’m not feeling very chatty today so I shall leave you to enjoy the visuals. [ as always, clicking on the images below will take you to Flickr ]

And here is more #artforhayden …

And lastly, a sneak peek..

I have been putting together some of my pieces into albums for ease of display at class. This is one of the pages, just for fun 😉

P.S. Thanks for all the visits and comments. They are always much appreciated ❤

P.P.S If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – Art for Hayden + Diva Challenge Wk 228

Art for Hayden

Ever since my life took an unexpected turn two years ago, I have developed a lot of empathy for people battling long term illness. Before that, I was always just sympathetic. I mean, I’ve lost loved ones to cancer a number of times now, beginning with my beloved grandma and then my mom when I was just 16 [ and then some, but this post is not about that ]. I know how hard some people fight to stay alive, but I never knew how hard the fight was to keep mobile and active till my own fiasco came along. Some days, I am still fighting.

But then, when cancer strikes a little three year old girl, how does one make sense of that? I basically have no words to apply to the situation.

My friend Cari, a classmate from CZT seminar, has put up a call to action for this little girl, Hayden Weiss. She has written up a lot about this on her blog, so I would love to invite you to join us in sending art and prayers if you have not already done so.

[ FB page : https://www.facebook.com/ZentangleforHayden ]

My own contribution is actually already two weeks late due to some much needed down time, myself. I will be sending this along with some other Z art when I can finish those off.  [ clicking on the images will always take you to Flickr ]

H is for Hayden

This tile was also intended to flow with the nature inspired theme for this week’s Diva Challenge, which was, incidentally, also brought to us by my friend Cari.

Diva Challenge Week 228 – Inspired by Nature

Because of the discomfort I have been in these past few weeks, I have merged some of the themes and purposes. Cheated, if you like.

This ATC is for one of the upcoming ZIA swaps that I regularly host on Swapbot [ Autumn Aura ATC ], and was also intended to be my second entry for the Diva Challenge.

Whilst I was at it, I also threw in some nature inspired tangles for this other ATC – also for another upcoming swap [ Cabbit ATC ] on Swapbot.

P.S. the step outs for Cabbit are here or here.

As a last entry for this week’s challenge, I decided to include another page from my journal 🙂 This time, I was testing out a two-pencil string for my next String Theory class.. which I hope will happen soon!

As is probably evident, I do love these organic tangles, very  much 🙂 I use them SO often..

If you’d look closer, there is some white shading over the tangles in black ink – this was not intended.

I was trying out a new, fancy, eyeliner type glitter pen from ZIG which looks more like makeup than an actual art pen, but it is for all intents and purposes, an art pen!

The clear glitter dried really pretty and shiny.. The glitter particles being really delicate and I actually loved it…

Somewhere in this crazy heat and humidity, though, something must have happened chemically and the glitter disappeared, leaving me with this white shading, which is actually quite pretty.

Though of course, not as pretty as the glitter had been!

Ta, for now.. ❤

P.S. Thanks for all the visits and comments. They are always much appreciated ❤

P.P.S If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – Diva Challenge Wk 225 & 226

Some ‘Test’ Tiles.. 

I have been still working on lesson plans and looking for a better venue to hold my Zentangle 102 String Theory class. It is starting to feel a little like I am taking forever 😛

Part of my preparation included these ‘test’ tiles…

The classic Z string… with a background wash of red, pink and purple ( if you missed my last post… I’d made up a batch of pre-washed tiles featuring various colour combinations )..

I used a pre-strung tile for this second piece.. and a tile with a pre-wash of very light pink and red..

Just to be a little bit adventurous, I even broke out my new Derwent Graphik Line Painters 0.5 in Jungle and Graphite and went over those with White gelly roll..

( These Line Painters were great – except you need to remember to wait for them to dry before going over them. )

Diva Challenge Wk 225 – Colour

I had this tile done on time, last week, but posting it up online was a different story. Life… happens, and there was just too much on my plate, as usual. This week looks a little better, so here are both challenges before life ‘happens’ again 😛

Since I was testing out Green, Orange and Brown Microns.. and similar tints on the background, this seemed like a very timely challenge.

Not my favourite tile, but something very different from my usual pieces.. I tend to stick to my black Micron a lot 😛

Diva Challenge Wk 226 – Simplicity

This week’s challenge strikes a chord in me – I adore simplicity.

As much as I do love simplicity, I tend to over-complicate things, even if I am aiming to keep things simple. It couldn’t be a more appropriate challenge 😉

My response to this one was very typical of me – I start out simply, but end up with complexity 😛 LOL.. Let’s see if you agree… here goes..

On my last remaining pre-washed tile, I started out with Flux and Tipple in a duotangle with a goal to keep it simple 😛 Although I do love the end results of this exercise, I must say it was definitely not what I envisioned ‘simplicity’ to be 😛

I sign off now to visit all the other Diva Challenge entries 🙂

P.S. Thanks for all the visits and comments. They are always much appreciated ❤

P.P.S If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com 🙂 Have a great week!

Zentangles – Diva Challenge Wk 224

Tangles, Tints and Tiles 

I am currently working on lesson plans for more classes and really enjoying myself at that. I never knew planning for any class could be so fun and rewarding. This past week I played a lot with colour. I have never been big on colour, but I have had a great experience, experimenting with colours and different pens for these pieces… (Clicking on the images below will lead you to Flickr…)

My first coloured Zendala…

Pre-strung goodness… before and after 🙂

I used a combination of 05 coloured Sakura microns [ green, yellow, orange, pink, red, purple and brown] and Pilot G-tech 0.5mm and 0.25mm [ in teal, blue, pink and red hues ] to achieve this. The 0.25mm being the most tricky to use 😛

A peek into my journal…

A certain page from my journal badly needed a wash of black to cover some parts I was displeased with. I had looked and re-looked at it many times, but I just could not reconcile any of it, no matter how I looked at it.

Finally, when I had a bit of free time, I went over the offending bits with a Sakura Graphic 1 micron. This seems to be my go-to method to recover my pieces now, not that I mind! 😛

I was reluctant to go completely black, so I’d left half unwashed. Then, whilst waiting for it to dry, I had an epiphany – I used water soluble colour pencils and a wet wipe [sans alcohol] and tinted the rest of the page 🙂

It was really quick to tint – took me less than 5 minutes in all.. and I am so pleased with the effect 🙂

Because that the journal page so successful, I then decided to apply the same method on a few of my tiles, before adding tangles 😛 Here are both my attempts 🙂

Diva Challenge Wk 224 – Tipple Monotangle

I love using Tipple. This is probably an understatement.

Friends who are familiar with my tangles, know that I love using Tipple to emphasise negative space. I use tipple to create negative space hearts a LOT, and have even taught this in class – they loved it 🙂 The end result always looks so layered, lacy, complicated, intricate and complex, but it is SO easy and fun to do. Not to mention, addictive 😛

Since it is really hot and sunny, I picked one of the tiles I’d tinted with yellow, orange and blues – Summery hues… and here we go……

I sign off now to visit all the other Diva Challenge entries 🙂

P.S. Thanks for all the visits and comments. They are always much appreciated ❤

P.P.S If you should require a response from me, or have any questions, I may be contacted at hesedetang[at]gmail.com 🙂 Have a great week!