Tangled Up

A colleague recently introduced me to the wonderful world of the Zentangle....3....2....1....and it doesn't take much encouragement for me to really get into a new form of art. After a bit of browsing research, I came across Tangle Patterns ( www.tangle-patterns.com). After trying out a few of the many, many pattern tutorials and signing up to their newsletter, I decided to make a tangle birthday card for an artistic friend. 

I would just like to say that I am just a beginner with this. The card is not strictly Zentangle, but thus inspired, using established Tangle patterns. It is considered good form to mention the designers of each pattern, but I forgot to make note of each per design, so, many apologies and I will give credit in future posts.

Here is the beginning of the card front:

I'm not very good at shading, so I coloured some areas in to particularly highlight some of the pattern detail. Here is the end result of the card:

The card took me a week to complete using a Pilot P-500 Extra Fine 0.5 black pen. It's a wonderful pen to draw with. Some of the concentration involved with executing the repetitive detail of some of these patterns nearly sent me cross eyed though! Incredibly relaxing but tiring on the eyes (unless you listen when they begin protesting, which I did not. - Shame on me, given my day job!).

Another project I've been working on is a postcard swap with two friends. I liked the idea of the project that I read about on www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com. However, when confined to artistic deadlines I'm no good. I was talking about the  project to my friend and colleague, Karen (scrapbook crazy), and she suggested we do our own version. Wahay! I also got another friend involved, Sam, who is trying to find her lost creation inspirative. I thought the idea of this postcard swap on a theme, little pieces of art, would get her going again. 

The rules are to fill a blank postcard with art on a theme using any medium you like or have available. We each have one week to complete the theme and post it to the recipient.  Since I'm actually doing this with 2 unrelated and geographically challenged friends, I am posting to both Karen and Sam. Whereas, Sam is posting to me, as is Karen, but, if we get going with this, perhaps we can mix it up a bit....I'm also thinking that my Mum might be interested in this. She is a very creative lady.

The first theme of the swap is 'Magic'. Karen got really excited and created hers right away. I've been a little slower, and I've not received anything from Sam yet. This is the postcard Karen sent to me. It is SO beautiful:

The writing is a quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. It says 'Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen'.

Thinking upon the 'Magic' theme, I couldn't get Harry Potter out of my mind. Karen is a huge Harry Potter fan, so after a bit of a browse I found some of the HP spells online (www.pojo.com/harrypotter/spelist.shtml). For Karen, 'Avis!', causing birds to appear out of the wand:

For Sam, to cheer her up, I chose 'Orchideus!', conjuring a bunch of flowers from one's wand:

I am quite pleased with how they turned out. Hopefully I will improve over time. The next theme between Karen and I is 'Steampunk'.

Other News

I heard at the weekend that Harris and his owner are moving house at the end of the month. Very sad news for me. I just adore that cat.

I found out that that helpful chap from Blackwell's art department in Newcastle Upon Tyne, is called Paul. He's very knowledgeable, so if you are wanting art material advice, be sure to strike up a chat with him. I've also gotten him into tangle patterns.... and my friend, Cat, the receiver of the birthday card, is now also a tangle addict.

That's all for now. Have a pleasant week. Until next time...

Playing Walkabout With My Creativity

Yesterday, I had so much fun painting out the first colour layers of my art journal. I had picked up a childrens book last week from a charity shop for 50p. It was one of 'The Secret Histories' series. When I blocked out the cover image, I kept 'The Secret Histories' title. I like it. It has nice thick paper pages and a padded hard cover. I covered the front cover panel with a lovely Suzanne Woolcott, Gorjuss, card illustration, which says on the lower right corner 'I found my family in a book'. I love Suzanne Woolcott's illustrations and this image just seemed to fit the purpose of the art journal.

I thinned the book out by taking out a number of pages, and the remainder I pasted three pages at a time together, so I was left with, including the inner back and front covers, nine double page spreads. Most evenings last week were spent applying white gesso to the pages and I only painted one layer of gesso fairly thinly to allow some of the print through.

I went through my set of Derwent Art Bars, scribbling groups of colour across the double pages. Then, using a small spray bottle (travel size from Superdrug), spritzed water over the scribblings and blended with a paint brush. Because I am way too impatient, I then applied my heat tool to speed up the drying process. I worked this way throughout the book. The Art Bars, when dry have the look of a dense water colour wash, but with quite a matte wax finish....

Aside: I completed a page in another journal with Art Bars a couple of weeks ago. After researching online the best pens to use for journaling, I purchased a set of Sharpie 'Write on Anything' pens. They do not write on top of an Art Bar layer! The wax residue from the page lifts off onto the pen tip and this prevents ink flow. Had a very interesting conversation with the very knowledgeable gent, who works in the Blackwells book shop art department (Newcastle Upon Tyne), about the best pens to use. He highly recommended the Posca pen... Yes, it works fine on an Art Bar layer....

Back to my art journal. Where was I... Ah, yes, so after creating my first layers, I went about creating more layers with collage. I'm always cutting things of interest out of magazines and junk mail, which I sort into three trays: Imagery, Background and Type. I have quite a range of collected (hoarded) ephemera.

This is the first double page spread:

I am rather pleased that I had the type print to be able to put this in. 'I am playing walkabout with my creativity' encompasses the exploratory theme of this art journal. Enthused, I started playing about with another page spread. I went a bit wild with this one. I have no initial plans for the page designs, I just let my mind wander and see what comes up. This next picture I will entitle 'Dark Romance'. It began as an Art Bar layer of blended Alzarin, Primary Red and Black. I collaged areas with some torn magazine paper in shades of red. Pasted some type, imagery, flower dies cuts and sequins on. Sprinkled some lovely fine burgundy glitter here and there. Then I wondered if applying white tissue paper would add a distressed look. I am pleased with the result:

So, this is what I have done so far. I cannot work in silence and I find listening to podcasts in the background keeps me productive. Yesterday I listened to various episodes from 'Layout a day: The Simple Scrapbooking Podcast', 'Stash and Burn' (wonderful knitting podcast), and 'FAMM Radio' (Fiber Arts and Mixed Media podcast).

Okay, so, I am cat sitting Harris from upstairs and he has just plonked himself on my knees, front paws on the lap top. I think he wants to blog too! I'll sign off now and give this gorgeous boy some attention. Bye for now.