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 !!

Diva Challenge #172: Duotangle - Auraknot vs Mooka

Did not get a chance to do anything for last week's challenge. I like Duotangles, but some are more challenging than others. Like a lot of others, Mooka is a tangle that I use, but not always satisfied with the way that it turns out. Really tried to just let it flow. I think maybe I got carried away. I was not that dissatisfied with the way that the Mooka turned out, but I think that it got too busy with the lines and the Auraknot got hidden. Tried to help this with a some highlighting, but not sure how successful it was. Will not have time this week, but really need to do a little more work with the black tiles and white pens. I have not done any for a while. Forgot how tricky the shading and highlighting can be. I did enjoy doing this though, so that was a plus. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

Used an Insignio White Angelic Colour gel pen for this. I think this has a smaller nib than the other Insignia pen. Used a Zenstone to do the shading. 

If you have not all ready done so, would encourage to visit The Diva's blog and look at the other pieces submitted. I plan on trying to look at them. There are usually some really great pieces of art. 

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

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #164: "Amanda (Earth) Day"

I was not exactly sure what to do with this week's Diva Challenge. My brain does not tend to work well on these types of challenges. After a little bit of thought I decided what I could do is finish the Organic Garden, ala Meredith Yuhas, that I had started. Was not sure if I was going to get it done or not. I had fun doing this. Still working on the highlighting and shading on the gray paper. Am pleased with the way that this turned out. I hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Sanibelle, Dragonair, Mooka, Flux, Antidot, Poke Root, Poke Leaf, Scroll feather, Ahh, 'Nzeppel, Msst, Featherfall, Wist, Chainlea, Zinger, Angel Fish, & Fescu. 

  

I think I got the names of all the tangles that I used.

The highlighting and shading was done with a white chalk pencil, Prismacolor white wax pencil, and HB graphite pencil

I have to admit that I did sneak a peak at a couple of entries this week before I was finished with mine. Do not think that I was influenced by them. I hope to get a look at all the rest of the entries over the next several days. If you have not all ready done so would strongly recommend that you visit The Diva's blog and look at the other great posts.  

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

Go Tangle !!

Playing with Renaissance tiles and white highlights

Have been wanting to use the Renaissance tiles for a while but just have not set down to do it. As much as I enjoy doing the Zendala Dare, not having one this week did give me some time to experiment. It also gave me a chance to practice some techniques and tangles that I will be using in a Zentangle® Garden class in a few weeks. Definitely takes a little planning not only for planning out the different size tangles but what to do.

Besides this I had the opportunity to try highlighting with some new tools. I had used the Zenstone a few times but have not used it a lot. I also received a PrismaColor White wax pencil in a package from my sister. I received it a while ago but had not gotten around to trying it yet. I was pleased with it and like it better than the white charcoal pencil that had used before. I think the Zenstone and the charcoal pencil blend similarly but the Zenstone leaves a smoother effect. Maybe is just a difference in how I am using them. I feel it is easier to completely blend out the charcoal pencil. Not as easily with the Zenstone.  Did not use a white gel pen to do any highlighting on this tile. I was having fun with the highlighting and may have gotten a little carried away with it.

I know that Zentangle is not suppose to be representational but because of doing the class I did start out with ideas of what I wanted to do. I used Pea-Nuckle to create a basket to put my organic tangles in. I have not used it a lot lately, but I really do like this tangle.

Well enough rambling, here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.