Diva Challenge #143 – “UMT v.XXII – Cruze”

This is definitely a record.  Three weeks of Diva Challenges in a row!

This week the Diva set a User Made Tangle and we were challenged to use “Cruze” by CZT Caren Mlot.  It was definitely a challenging tangle.  I need to practice way more.

I also kept tangling in my new mini-moleskine sketchbook this week. I got a LOT done.  I’m really happy with how they all turned out.  

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Diva Challenge #142 – Danger Zone

So managed to do a Diva Challenge two weeks in a row. That’s a first for awhile.  I had a bit of extra time doodling this week because I got to take a day out while minding a good friend’s munchkins while she labored with another.  The resulting munchkin is a beautiful girl who I am really looking forward to seeing growing. 

This week’s Diva Challenge is to move outside your comfort zone into dangerous areas.  I decided to meet the challenge head on by trying to do some Mooka.  Not really happy with how wobbly my lines go on this particular tangle.  I just can’t seem to hold I nice steady hand.  Or perhaps its just I’m trying too hard.  Anyway – I had a nice practice and moved on.

In my new mini-moleskine I decided to pick tangles I had never drawn before. This is the result.  I was pretty happy with it.   I didn’t use a single one of my comfort tangles. But I did use Chaining which is one of those tangles I just can’t do.  (Still can’t – as you can see).   Think the “BB” was my favourite new tangle. 

Diva Challenge #141 – DuoTangle – Fengle/Quandry

Found time to do a challenge this week which was nice. This week’s Diva Challenge is to do a duo tangle with Fengle and Quandry only.  I have used one of these before but not the other.  Can you tell which one I’ve never tried before? It’s pretty obvious in the first of these tiles. Oops. But carried on anyway because there is never a mistake with Zentangle.

In other news we are all on baby watch for my good friend over at Elmo. I’m sending her lots of labour vibes in the hope her baby arrives tomorrow which would be just the best present ever.  😉

And I’ve started working in my small Moleskine notebook and am really loving it.  This is just a plain 9x14cm notebook and it’s working out just fine. Here are some completed works from this last fortnight.

Diva Challenge #137 – “Duotangle Knights over Tipple”

Finally! I got time to do the Diva’s challenge this week before the deadline.  Probably because it’s school holidays and I’ve been taking things a bit slower this week.

I even managed two tiles.

The first one seemed really obvious and I haven’t looked at what other’s have done yet but I’ll bet someone else has done this too:

And the second one I did a string and went more traditional.  It’s been awhile since I did a standard string on a tile and just do what ever turns out.

The rest of the week I was working on a bigger tangle in my Moleskine.  Really liked how this one turned out. My inspirations were many but started with the Verdigogh on the left.  In fact the bottom left Verdigogh stayed on the page by itself for a few days.  It looked really nice.  But then I just started looking out for plant-like tangles to add.  I was particularly inspired by Virginia Burrows Creative Times blog on Tumbler and her flowers here. I don’t know what this tangle is called but I really like it a lot. (ETA 26/10/13 – I think it might be Henna Drum)

I’m nearly to the end of this Moleskine and I ordered a new pocket-sized Moleskine for my next book.  It arrived from the great people at Notemaker.com.au this morning. If you’re in Australia and haven’t found them yet – well –  maybe that’s a good thing.  It will save your hip pocket.

Until next time.

I’m off to look at all the other challenge entries for this week.

Somewhat sidetracked

Image

It’s been awhile since I had any time to do any Zentangling.  I finally finished a piece last night while I was studiously avoiding the very depressing Australian election coverage.

Anyway – here’s what I ended up with.

I was really inspired by a couple of tangles I saw on Pinterest during the week and also a graphic that whizzed past on SBS during the week.

The first tangle was called Big Zentangle over on a blog called Being So Well.  The artist was designing something big to go on her living room wall.  She incorporates many elements that I really love.

The second tangle was probably more of a doodle by a Japanese artist called Miura Takao (aka Noah) who has a site, called Noah’s Art, full of interesting stuff.  It was part of this doodle that got me inspired.  Can you see which bit?

Diva Challenge #125: Birdie Feet

This week’s Diva challenge was to use the UMT (Use My Tangle) tangle called Birdie by Owl Loving April.

I’m inspired often by the delicate patterns of feathers on birds. My favourite at the moment is probably guineafowl feathers.  That play of white dots on a dark background.

Once upon a time I used to be an undergraduate zoologist and used to spend vast amounts of my spare time tromping around the nearby national park in the breaking dawn trapping small wee birds in mist nets (all fully licensed etc.) and banding their legs and taking their measurements and sending them off to the bird banding society.

I loved holding those birds, briefly and gently, and seeing that the amazing patterns their feathers made.  It’s a whole other world: that boring brown bird that flits about in the bushes is actually magnificent in the hand.

Once I spent a whole year studying two species of thornbills in the ranges outside my hometown. These tiny birds are amongst the smallest species in Australia.

To this day I keep an eye out for their fluffy little brown shapes tweeping and chuckling in the scrub or high in the trees.

So thanks Owl Loving April and Laura (the Diva) for this weeks challenge.  I enjoyed my little bird reminiscences.

Diva Challenge #120 Bales

Bales.  Bales is a good tangle pattern. Even though I haven’t been tangling that long, I’ve used it quite a few times.  So it was with relish that I extracted a pair of new zentangle tiles from my precious stash and set to work this week on the Diva’s Weekly Challenge #120.

Here’s my first tile.

And while I was doing that I started to think about my second tile.  I also love the Zentangle pattern Cubine.  I started wondering whether you could merge Bales into Cubine on a tile. This is what happened when I tried. (Please excuse its upside-down-ness).

I’ve also been tangling away in my Moleskine over the last week, as I had a couple of days on the couch with a bout of tonsilitis. Boy, tonsillitis as an adult makes you feel really crappy.  Pencillin is a marvellous invention and luckily, as my GP said, it kills tonsillitis dead in about two days.  So having slept straight through all of Tuesday, this is what I was upto while perched on the couch under my quilt and listening to an audiobook all day Wednesday and Thursday. Zentangle is a lovely way to spend time recuperating.

PS. I was listening to “The Secret Keeper” by Kate Morton. (Our local library has a fantastic service where you can borrow Bolinda Audiobooks for two weeks at a time!!!)  As well as being good stories, Kate Morton really does a great job on the old narcissistic character.  There was a fabulously subtle narcissistic character in this book and an even better one in another of her books that I read (listened to), called the “Forgotten Garden”.

Hope you are all having a nice week.

Balls

Balls.  That’s all

Diva Weekly Challenge #117 – Schway/Aroz

I have to admit when I first saw this new tangle I was really not keen.  It just seems so stark and geometric and I do like a curve (as you can see from most of my tangles).  Nevertheless I also now have new official Zentangle Tiles thanks to Shelly Beauch CZT (who thank the goddess, stocks these things for those of us downunder) and so I thought I would just get on with this week’s challenge and see what came out.

I used a slightly wonky version of Maria’s dovetail arrows rather than the standard version and as I was going, three pine trees emerged, followed by three houses in front, followed by three schwaying women in front of that.  In the end – I am quite happy with my challenge effort this week.

Zendala Dare #50

It’s Monday night and I just finished my Zendala for Zendala Dare #50.  Thanks BRight Owl for the continuing weekly challenge.  I have been totally flat to the boards for the past month or so at work and had no time for art so I’ve missed a few challenges and I’ve missed tangling.