Black Tile Technique: Zenstone wash with Glaze pens.

Did these as examples for a class I am doing. Had tried something similar to this before but cannot find the picture that I took. That one did not use the Zenstone but used colored pencil wash. They were hard to photograph because of the reflection of the Glaze pens. Tried to diffuse but was not successful. Is a little beyond my photography skills. Ended up scanning them.

Basically, the process is covering the tile with a wash using the Zenstone and then using the black Glaze pen to make your tangles. Think it would work equally well with other gel pens, just would not get the 3-D effect that get with the Glaze pens. I did find out after doing the first one that you really do need to load up the soapstone as some of it will rub off as you are working on the tile. Did not do this with the square tile. Here are the results.

This was the first one I did. The wash shows up a little on the scan. It is also lighter as I tried to put a fixative on it and accidentally sprayed too much on it. Since it is wet, it took away some of the contrast. Still looks good though, probably better in person.

On this one I put a lot more of the Zenstone on the tile and it did not rub off as much. Not sure that the scan really shows the 3-D effect of the Glaze pens that well. While the black on white is a nice effect, I think I may like a little color for this technique.

Still learning to use the Glaze pens. Like the other gel pens have to use a light touch to get a thinner line. If not, it does drop a lot of ink and will use the ink quickly. When have some time plan to experiment with what it will look like with different colored pens or even metallic pens.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Experimenting with Black tiles, White gel pens and Mooka

Was impressed, and inspired, by some of the Mookas that were part of the Diva Challenge. Like a lot of others, I can look at what I have done and am not totally satisfied with the results. Had some time so decided would work on a couple of  things. One was Mooka and the other was practicing working on the black tiles with white pens. Did not post this in the Diva Challenge as it is not a Duotangle. Did not include Auraknot.

This tile is really "out of the box" for me. When I have used Mooka, I have generally been pretty conservative. I wanted to push this a little and see what happened.  It really was an experiment in different ways that I could embellish Mooka without totally eliminating it. There was not anything original in my embellishments. I am sure that you have seen them in others work. They were however not things that I have tried before.  The only thing I was really conscious of as I was doing the Mooka was to make enough of a curve on the end. I did try to keep them a little consistent in width. I have always tended to put a larger "bulb" on the end of mine than some folks.

I remembered to take  at least two pictures of the process. Did not take pictures of what the original Mooka looked like. Figured that most people could make this out. It is one before shading and one after shading. This was done on a standard black Zentangle® tile.

Here is the one before shading

Not sure why, but to me this has a little bit of an aquatic feel to it. Was not intended.  

May have gotten a little carried away with the shading. I will let you decide. Most of the shading was done with General white chalk pencil. I also used a Fabrico grey marker in a couple of places. I wanted to go back to the Sakura to compare, as I have been using the Insignio more lately.  I used the medium nib for the basic lines, weighting and fill. I did not have any problems with it globbing. Like the Insignio, there were a few times that the ink did not flow as well and I had to go back over a line. I really was conscious about how I was using it. I do not remember if it was something that I heard from Rick & Maria, or someone else that mentioned it in a blog, but they said that you had to "tickle" the paper with the pen. This seemed to work well. That may have also caused some of the lighter cover at times if I had too little contact. I did not feel much pressure at all from touching the paper. 

Here it is with the shading. 

Over all I am pleased with the way that this turned out. There are a couple of embellishments that I am not thrilled with, but I figure that is the purpose of practice- to figure out what works and what doesn't.

I appreciate it if you have made it through this post. It is longer than what I usually do. I hope that some of the information I provided was useful as you experiment and work with black tiles, white gel pens, and of course Mooka. 

Thanks for visiting, As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!

Zendala Dare #70

This week's Zendala Dare was interesting. I liked the way that the template looked but I did struggle trying to decide what I was going to do. Some of it is that I think there were a number of smaller spaces that made it difficult to use actual tangles. I like line work, but did struggle ( probably obsess) with what to put with it. I tend to think more about doing Zendalas than I do the square tiles anyway. I think I really need to try one using a random string. After seeing Erin's I was also challenged to use one of the black zendala tiles that I have. I have had them a while. While I have used the black square tiles, I have not used any of the zendalas yet. It was a lot more interesting transferring the template, but I managed. Will have to work on that. Not really sure what I think about these. I do not dislike them but they do not evoke any strong connection either. Shading on the black tiles is always a challenge. I used the gray Fabrico marker. I do not have one of the new zenstones. I will probably order some the next time I order things. Here they are. I hope you enjoy them.

I actually did the black one first. Tangles used: Betweed, Shattuck

This was my second attempt. Tangles used: Crescent Moon, Zinger, Purk, 'Nzeppel 

Have not looked at what has been submitted by the others. Since I am getting this posted early in the week, will have to check back regularly. Would suggest that you do the same. There are always some great things posted on The Bright Owl.

Here is a little extra ( I guess it is depending on your perspective). I usually do not post these things but I did have a little time to play last week.  The first is a mini-version of the one line, one breath technique. It was interesting to do. Not sure how much I will play with it. Not really sure what to make of it. Can get lost in the process though.

The second one I was trying out some new things for me. One is that this is a larger size than I usually do. It is 11"x 14" (27 x 35 cm) piece of Strathmore Bristol vellum.  This is also the first time that I used a water color wash. I had seen others examples but never tried it myself. Will probably try on other paper, but this is the pad that I had available. I used my Inktense pencils.

It is not finished yet. I put out all the tangles that I was going to use. Will post later when it is finished. I may do other posts in different stages of completion.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated.

Go Tangle !!