Little Blue Planet

Home. My home. This little blue planet.

Tangles in the little blue planet: Black Pearlz, C-scape, Dust Bunnies, Florez, Flux,
Groovy, Ionic, Phuds, Purslane, Sanibelle, Tripoli, Zapateado
Tangles in the purple reaches of space: Afterglo, Cadox, Croon, Drupe,
Fengle, Fracas, Pearlz, Tripoli, Zapateado

"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."  --Baha'u'llah 

Home is the theme of this week's Zentangle challenge from the Diva. I thought a lot about Saskatchewan, but I've lived elsewhere too. Some say home is where you hang your hat. I've long felt that home is where your stuff is, and your people too. Home is where the heart is. I also really like circles, cool tones, the new Zendala tiles, and the above quotation.

(And if you want to see something tangly about Saskatchewan, see here!)

CADOX - a new tangle

Here's another of my tangles resulting from experiments with the official tangle Cadent. It's sort of a hybrid of Cadent and Paradox so I call it Cadox.

I also like it with these variations. First, with an extra line in the 'blades' and second, with Black Pearlz in the small circles

Like Paradox and Cadent, it's very striking in multiple:

DENTRI - a new tangle

This week I'm sharing the new tangles I came up with while trying to use Cadent for the Diva's challenge. These new tangles all use the small circles and S-curved line from Cadent, but they don't resemble Cadent much at all.

I rather like it when the 'rectangle' has an Aura inside, then filled black.

Here's a Zendala tile using Dentri, with the triangles also mostly black:

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Dentri, Zewm, stripes with highlights

FUNLS - a new tangle

While attempting the 75th Zentangle weekly challenge - to use Cadent - my brain went off in other directions and instead presented a few lovely variations of Cadent. For another very cool variation of Cadent, see CZT Patty Meijer's blog here.

Some of the things my brain sprouted are so different that I think they warrant their own name. I'll be sharing them this week.

First up, FUNLS, which probably bears the most resemblance to Cadent. Say 'funnels'. I think we owe our non-English-first-language tangle buddies some explanations of the odd/oddly-spelled names we come up with for some tangles! A hint: frequently they are rather phonetic and don't use the frequently bizarre English spelling. :)

For shading, go to the base of the squiggly lines. Here's a tile with Funls:

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Funls, Groovy, Knase, LinQ, Tortuca

Cadent derailed

Our dear DivaCZT's challenge this week is simply to use the tangle Cadent. Really, it's a simple challenge. I almost didn't do it.  Simple. One tangle; a chance to investigate Cadent, maybe try some variations. Well, my brain went off on a little-used trunk line and discovered some very interesting things. Here's the tile I like best, although there is no real, traditional, classic Cadent to be seen.

Tangles: Pearlz, Tripoli, Zewm and some extrapolations of Cadent

The first tile I did has a strip of actual, real Cadent running through the middle. Then the tracks diverged. I pointed arrows at some of the interesting things that happened during this flight of fancy so I could go back and develop them.

I think I've come up with some new tangles. More on this, with some drawing instructions, next week.

A cool Paradox variation

As with so many good ideas, this one popped out when I was trying to do something else. I'm still working on that, but here's a cool variation - or tangleation - of Paradox that I discovered in the meantime!

 SHAVED, OR FEATHERED, PARADOX

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Paradox, Pearlz, Phuds, Seljuk, Shing,
stripes with highlights (yes, I use that a lot!)

 You need to begin with somewhat widely spaced sections in the Paradox. Here's how to:

Once you have all the little black triangles in place, in all four sections, you can then add an extra line in each 'blade' if you like. That's what I did in the tile above.

Here's another example, this time on a Zendala tile, some sections with extra lines, others without. Only two tangles used! Read more about the tangle Paradox, a.k.a. Rick's Paradox, in my tutorial here. I did a fractangle of Crescent Moon.

Tangles: Crescent Moon and Paradox

Fractangals

While I was drawing Crescent Moon for the Diva's weekly challenge #72 I happened upon the idea of fractal tangles.

Fractals are absolutely gorgeous geometric images composed of exactly the same configuration of shapes repeated over and over and over, either smaller or larger than the one beside it. You can zoom in or out infinitely and the basic shape simply keeps repeating. I just love them! Here's one image of a fractal:

From Carlson's Fractal Gallery at http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/carlson/

A fractal tangle, then, would be when you choose a tangle and use the same tangle inside, or beside, the larger one, then smaller again inside or beside the second, and then again... You can see a few examples using Crescent Moon in my post for challenge 72.

I tried the idea with some other tangles. I found I had to begin with a very large version of the tangle I chose, even using only part of it. Of course, this is art not physics, so I didn't feel compelled to do exactly the same image over and over, just keep the same idea going. :)

Using Strircles:

Using Cubine, St. John's Cross, and Jalousie:

To my eye, I think the square grid tangles may not be the best choice for Fractangals.

 

Using Carole Ohl's Coaster:

... and also one Black Pearl, and some droplet shapes.

Using Hollibaugh:

Something like this might have happened anyway with Hollibaugh,
but I was thinking about fractangals!

Using Shattuck:

All of these examples are what are called monotangles, a Zentangle using only one tangle in various configurations. Monotangles and fractangals are a good way to investigate a pattern; you have to be a little creative and think up other ways to do something familiar. Remember this idea when doing other tiles, or zentangle-inspired artwork (*note to self*).

Try a Fractangal or two. Have fun!

Zendala dare #10

I haven't done one of these dares for a few weeks, although I have some templates sitting ready. This one was done on a blank Zendala tile in an interesting color of ink, a deep red/brown that I think would be called Oxblood. A Tuscan Red Prismacolor pencil did well for the shading.

Tangles: Bilt, Ionic, Jalousie, Opus, Providence, Shrock

When I finished the ink drawing it didn't look like much and I had the feeling that this was one where the shading would make a BIG difference. Was I right? :)

If you want to join in Erin's (Bright Owl) weekly Zendala Dare go to her blog.

Eccentric...

... rather than concentric. I love the word play! Also love the idea. The DivaCZT's challenge this week is to make the string of eccentric - in this case: non-concentric - circles. This was fun!

I've been enchanted by Lara William's new tangle LinQ, so I used it along the outer circle here. It's rather organic and spreads out quite a bit, but that's one of the things I like about it!

Tangles:  Beadlines, Black Pearlz, KrliQs, LinQ, Tipple, Tortuca
and stripes with highlights

Here's something more contained.

Tangles: Bilt, Chebucto, Knase, Perfs, Prestwood, Xyp
and something that ended up not being Not-a-Knot!

I've also been enchanted by Mimi Lempart's tangle Mi2 (me too). It's another tangle that's rather organic and can spread out at the edges.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Mi2, Pearlz

Workshop tiles

I have to show off the wonderful Zentangle tiles created by a really fun group of women on a recent Saturday in small town Saskatchewan. We did a morning session, had a pot-luck lunch and then an afternoon session. Congratulations and thanks to Janice, Marion, Bonnie, Marge and Claire.

Using only official tangles

This Monday I'll share some tiles I did recently using only 'official' tangles: tangles developed and shared by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, the founders of Zentangle. The drawing instructions for the tangles in the tiles below are all public, so you can find them if you're interested. Check Tangle Patterns or the Zentangle website for past newsletters.

Tangles: Assunta, Aura, Flukes, Rain, Tortuca, Tripoli

Tangles: Betweed, Knightsbridge, Munchin, Paradox, Shattuck, Strircles, Tipple

Tangles: Bales, Drupe, Fife, Finery, W2, Yincut

Zendala tiles in color

I love the striking contrast of black and white, but I also love colors, preferably bright.

Oh my, that's a verse! :

I love the striking contrast 
of black and white,
But I also love colors, 
preferably bright.

This blue/green mandala was done on a blank Zendala tile. I used the apple corer gadget and some small circles as a templates. You can read a little more about the apple corer gadget here.

Tangles: Black Pearlz (in green!), Drupe, Shing, Tipple,
stripes with highlights, and triangles

This fuchsia mandala was done on a pre-strung Zendala tile from Zentangle. It turned out particularly well I think!

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Copada, O-bob, Phuds, Tipple

The six divisions of one of the Zendala tiles made me think of a snowflake. I used blue inks, and tangles that were either divided in six sections and/or very angular. I put a pale blue wash on at the beginning. Now I'm not sure it was a good idea; the 'snowflake' would stand out better if it were white.

Tangles: Afterglo, Aura, Rain, Wunderwall and stripes with highlights.

Bridgen

What a fun tangle! I didn't know about this one before, so many thanks to Laura (the DivaCZT) for her Zentangle challenge this week: use Bridgen. This tangle is the brainchild of David, Carole Ohl's partner; they're both CZTs. You can see the tangle how-to and read how it developed on her blog.

Tangles: Bridgen, D'Uni, Rounding

This next one looks to me like paramecia under a microscope. It occurred to me that if the bars and circles became gradually larger and smaller it might look as if it was coming forward and going back. The idea needs more work. Some of the circles were so large I wanted to put something inside them, so I did.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Bridgen, Crossview, Pearlz, Tipple

As I was drawing Bridgen it kept reminding me of the tangle Lacing so I used Lacing on the border and Bridgen elsewhere. It's interesting, but too much overall sameness to my eye, even with shading.

Tangles: Bridgen and Laced

 Bridgen is about following your string with the tangle and after that... go where the tangle takes you. Sometimes I didn't really like where it went so I decided to try doing this with no string, just start drawing Bridgen on a blank tile. My result is a Bridgen ball of yarnl

Tangles: Bridgen and Tortuca

Tile mandalas by students

Last week I taught two classes where we created small, freehand mandalas on standard 3.5" Zentangle tiles. The results are amazing and I just had to share them! These are the tiles from one group. You can see the other group's work on my Facebook art page.

The first tile we did uses Crossview (from Daniele O'Brien) in the center and the second uses Not-a-Knot (from Joyce Block). Then we developed out from the middle. Of course, everyone has their own lovely, personal interpretations so they are all unique, and zen, and tangled.