Tippel Challenge

There is a monotangle challenge this week at I Am the Diva.  The challenge is to use tipple and only tipple.  As I am currently working my way through some stencils, more on that in a later post, I wanted to work on a ZIA using the idea of this week's challenge.

I used my fish stencil, and not really sure what fish it is, I searched out the silhouette on google and I think that it is an Angel fish.  I went with the markings of a French Angel fish.  I used green and purple for the fish and blue and blue/black for the water.  It may seem like a test for color blindness, but I think it works.

This post is short, but kids and work await.  I hope that you have a great week!  Happy 4th to American readers and a belated Canada Day to my friends to the north.  Thanks for stopping by!

UMT: All Boxed Up

A new month, a new tangle to learn over at I Am the Diva CZT.  This month the tangles is called All Boxed Up from Alice Hendon.  This is a fun tangle and reminds me a lot of my own pattern Zuan Shi.  Alice's tangle is so simple though.  There are a lot of variations possible with this and I can't wait to use it more.

I started this tile with a stencil outline as my string.  I added the dot and dash to the outline. I know it has a name but I can't think of it.  While I was trying to think of what else to add, I decided to play with the idea of a mirror image. After coloring in half black, I added the All Boxed Up but managed to mess the variation that I planned on using.  No matter, it just adds more interest for the tile.  After that was done, I added more black and kept going with Printemps.

This was a fun tile to draw.  The gelly roll pen that I used for the white worked very well.  Maybe it was because I was drawing over the prismacolor marker or maybe it is because it is really warm and the ink likes it warm.  Whatever the reason, I was glad.

I hope that you all have a great week.  Thanks in advance for your wonderful comments and for stopping by.

White on Black

Draw in white on black is the challenge that Laura has put to us this week over at the Diva.  I am not sure what happens to me when I make this simple switch but just changing the ink color can stymie my progress faster than anything else.  Maybe it is just that I over think it.  Who knows.  This week though, I wanted to embrace the challenge.  Getting things started has been difficult for me these days, so I used the challenge to do something, anything no matter how it looked.

For white ink these days I have been using a dip pen and white ink from Speedball that has been thinned with some water.  The ink is great but when it isn't thinned, I have to fight with it to get the ink from the pen onto the paper.  I still have my white gelly roll pens but when I want to do a lot of drawing, not just some highlights, I go for the Speedball ink.

My first try at this week's challenge was going well.  I started with Arukas and went from there.  It was when I decided to give Athitzi a try that I jumped to a new piece.  I almost never just abandon a drawing, it is a rule of mine.  Pushing through a drawing that I am not excited with has resulted in some of my favorite designs.  Other times, a little piece that I love turns into a study for a new drawing to come.  Either way, today I didn't want to push through, I wanted to try out more Athitzi right away.  The pattern is so simple, yet I have not had good luck making it work the way I wanted it to.

So, launching onto another 5x7" of black drawing paper, I drew some circles randomly and got started.  My first circles are very controlled but I can tell when I got the hang of the pattern.  I worked quicker and the lines weren't so straight any more.  They get a little hook on the ends and while I do pick up my pen for each stroke, they touch and seem to be connected sometimes.  The dip pen worked for me here and a against me.  I like the way that the ink becomes more grey as the reserve is used up.  It makes for nice variation in the strokes and even makes over lapping strokes stand out a bit more.  Where it worked against me is my lazy hand.  I smeared this a bit by not watching where I placed my hand.  In all though, I think the smears work rather than ruin.  In the end, I think it works and I am trying to decide if they look more like dandelions or fireworks.

This is a zendala that I did a few weeks ago.  I wanted to try a larger drawing in white and black. Sorry for the odd photo.  It is too large for my scanner.  I hope you all have a great week!  Thanks in advance for stopping by and comments you leave.  

Labyrinth Tangle

I was so excited to see this week's challenge over at The Diva. The challenge is to use a labyrinth as the string.  I was excited am I have had this idea kicking around in the back of my mind but I haven't pulled it out.

 The challenge gave me just what I needed to pull it out. While Laura gave us instructions to draw our own, I found a layout online and traced it onto some grey paper.   I love the look of a labyrinth, it is so graphic. But at the same time, as the designs are so often in gardens, I didn't want to go graphic but wanted it to have a more natural feel to it.  I drew in brown ink for the basic out line and then used a micron to draw Betweed in the spaces.  I "walked" this labyrinth several times while making this piece.  First to draw it, then to draw Betweed, then to embellish the design and then finally to shade.

There are some great labyrinth paths on line and I think that I will have to check them out and see what else I can come up with.  Drawing my own would also be a great place to start and see what I can come up with.

Last week Ginny Stiles asked me to show her my dip pens that I use.  I was unable to figure out how to load a photo in the comments so I am posting a photo here.  The pens in the image are the three that I use most often.  The brown with the gold nib is one that I can change out the nibs on.  I use my pen for drawing and not calligraphy, so I keep the nib to one that makes a thinner line.  There are those that can make a thick line but I haven't used them much.  All I can say about working with a dip pen is practice.  It takes a light touch and dipping in the ink often to keep the line the same.  I am by no means an expert.  I have made many mistakes and am really just making it up as I go.  My favorite ink is Winsor and Newton drawing ink.  It mixes easy and has great color saturation.  I just have an initial set but there are tons of colors.  Anyway, I hope that seeing the pens help Ginny.

Have a great week everyone!  Thanks for taking a look and for your wonderful comments.