Zendala Dare #62

This week's template was an interesting one. I liked it but it did pose some challenges in deciding what I wanted to do with it. I decided to end my Shattuck moratorium and included it in this one. Did not really intend to have as many organic tangles as I ended up with, but they just seemed to fit. Not sure that there is a whole lot more to say. Hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Shattuck, Zinger, Striping(variation),Scrawlz & Tipple

Non-tangles used: leaves

As usual there are all ready a number of great submissions on The Bright Owl's blog. Would strongly recommend that you visit often to see what others are doing also. I briefly looked at them after I finished mine but plan on going back and taking a little more time to peruse. 

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

Go Tangle!!

Rethinking is it a Zentangle

I guess maybe I have been removed enough from doing the challenge to take another look at the question.  One of the things that I think makes it difficult to answer the question is not knowing if we are using a common definition of Zentangle®. Are you evaluating it as a method? Are we evaluating it as the patterns or the image created by the patterns? The definition on zentangle.com is '... an easy to learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns."  Zentangle also refers to the image/artwork created. For me the key word is structured. To me this does not mean that it is just totally random lines. There is some substance to it. To me random is what occurred in my first tile. There is an image done by RitaN1 that is somewhat random and her image looks fantastic. Is it structured. Structured to me implies that it is something that can be repeated.  I think the one line method can be repeated, so it maybe is structured. I will let others more knowledgeable than me handle that one.

The way that I read the question posed in the challenge had to do whether could create a zentangle using patterns that were not established or their tangleations. To this I would say yes. I do not think that it is just about the patterns. I think the hard part is that there are so many established patterns that I am not sure if anyone knows all of them. If you have been using established patterns for a while, I think it is hard to change your mind set. I think what some people did was a way to approach it. They went looking for new patterns and deconstructed them.

To complicate it even more I think that have to include the method and characteristics of zentangle for it to meet the criteria of a zentangle. While my first tile did meet this criteria, I do not think it met using structured patterns.

I guess that the conclusion that I come to is that it is not an easy question to answer as there are multiple criteria that have to be met, not just whether you use established patterns.

I hope that I have not offended anyone with my comments. Would be open to hearing any responses that you might have regarding this.

Thanks for visiting

Go Tangle!!

Diva Challenge #123: " Guest Post, Is it a Zentangle?"

I had mixed reactions to this challenge. I read the challenge a couple of times and am still not sure if I understand exactly what is to be attempted. Is it just to not use all ready established patterns? Which could mean if  you created another pattern you would have created a new tangle. Or is the task to just draw and see if patterns emerge. Looking at the submissions of others was not totally helpful, although it did reveal some very nice images. People had varied interpretations. What I chose to do was focus on just using the five basic strokes in Zentangle®. I ended up doing two tiles as I really did not like the first. In the first, I started by doing the border and string. In each section I did one or more of the basic strokes randomly throughout each section. When I got done, was no discernible pattern. I began to fill in parts but still there was not really any discernible pattern. Is it  Zentangle? Look and see what you think and will share my thoughts below.   

The only thing that I would say that makes this a Zentangle is that I used the basic method to start. I did not get away from thinking about what to do other than when I was randomly doing the strokes. After I was done I began looking at it to decide what I was going to do with it. Did some fill and some shading. This really felt like what I would refer to as doodling. There was no pattern or sense to it, it was random line

I did the same thing with this one by starting with the basic method but then totally ignored the string. I again tried to use the basic strokes. Started with the larger "S" shapes. I then tried to do things inside and was a little more conscious of trying to create something that was somewhat of a pattern, but not an established one. This was work. What resulted are the patterns in the 3 larger S lines. I finished it off with straight lines around the outside and dots in the spaces. The last thing was the shading. I liked the way that this one looked but does that make it a zentangle. 

I guess to answer the question, "Is it a Zentangle?" for me is no. The second one is maybe a little closer as it did have some patterns. I guess I would go back to what I know of the definition of Zentangle. It uses structured patterns to create images. I think the Zen part is that one can get lost in the process as there is some repetitiveness to the patterns. It also is that you do not necessarily decide ahead of time what tangles you are going to put together. You can do it completely randomly. Since a lot of people participate in the challenges, which is not a negative thing, but it does set some parameters as to what is to be done. It does not, at least to me, mean that you approach the task with no thought. 

That is at least my take on it. That does not mean that you cannot create some great images using some patterns, but do not think that they can be defined as Zentangles. I would say at best they are ZIAs.

Would recommend that you visit I am the Diva and see the images that others have created and to get their views and their answer to the question, Is it a zentangle.

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

Go Tangle!!

Zendala Dare #61

This was an interesting Dare. I may have been a little overly ambitious with this one. When I saw it, all I could see were the layers. It was a lot smaller than I thought. I am glad that I had a 005 Micron to work with  because I ended up using it a lot. I was a little undecided about what to do with the spokes. I had thought about filling them with black, but felt that might be a little overpowering. Could not really think of a tangle that  I thought would fit so just decided to leave it open. Since I usually fill in most open spaces was probably a good decision to just leave it alone, even if it was a little disconcerting. Over all I am pleased with the results. I hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Muchin, Chard(variation), Cubine, Bales. 

I usually do not get mine done and posted this early so am not sure how many others have all ready been posted. Would encourage you to check The Bright Owl frequently during the week to look at what others have done.

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

Diva Challenge # 122: "Grid (un)locked"

This week's Challenge is taken from a recent post by Rick and Maria about the different ways that can embellish and build off of grids. In the blog post/ newsletter there was a 10 x 5 grid showing different ways to fill a grid.  It was ala Tripoli in her journal. The Diva called them grid seeds.The Diva challenged everyone to take one of the patterns in the grid as a starting point or to create their own. This provided me the opportunity to play with the the grid based pattern I had recently deconstructed and used in last week's Zendala Dare.  I still do not have a name for it and am not really sure that it has not been done before. If anyone recognizes it let me know. If there are names that you can suggest would also be open to that. If not, may have to go the random word generator to come up with a name. I did three different variations. I am sure that there are more that could be thought of. Some of the time, what you can do with it may depend on the size of the grid that you use. This was a little bigger than the Zendala so I could do a few more things. Hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Unnamed tangle, petals, Mooka, Zingers

If you have not all ready done so would encourage you to go to I am the Diva to look at the other tiles,ZIAs that others have submitted. There are always some great things posted there.

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

Go Tangle!! 

Diva Challenge #121: UMT XVII: "Birds on a Wire"

Was not sure that I was going to participate in this weeks Dare as am trying to get things ready for a display/demo/show in July. Need to have some inventory. When I saw the tangle being used, felt a little compelled to submit something. I first saw this tangle when Mary used it on her name tag at the CZT training. She had used it as a border and I really liked it. She was kind enough to do the step-out in my journal. I have used it a number of times since. I used it on Zendala Dare #37 as a border. I ended up framing it and entered it in the local Art Association spring show. It helped me get an Honorable Mention ribbon. Thanks Mary! I have generally used it as a border so this time I decided to try to use it as a main tangle. I chose to do a monotangle, ( will Mary hit the trifecta and add Adventures in Monotangle to her credits this week?). I had not done a spiral for a while and thought that would be fun string. It is nothing exciting but I hope that you enjoy it.

I have not had a chance to look at many of the submissions so far, but I did notice that there were a lot of them all ready. Would strongly encourage you if you have not all ready done so to visit I Am the Diva and check out what others have done.

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

Go Tangle !!

Zendala Dare #60: The Devil That You Know

I finally had to time to work on this weeks Dare. I have to admit, the template I chose is probably not the most troublesome for me but I was not ready to go back to doing the zendala in pencil so soon. I could not think of any other templates that I had used that I really was that uncomfortable with. So what I did was go back through the dares that I had not participated in and looked at those templates. There were a couple that I could have used but I chose Template # 20.

I chose this one because when I looked at it my thought was, "What tangles can I use in that?" Honestly, the only thing that I could think of was for the center. That is maybe why it took me so long to get started. Once I did, it came together rather quickly. I am generally pleased with the result. Hope you enjoy it. 

Tangles used: Betweed, Zander, Flux, Hibred, Knightsbridge, 

I hope that people have read this far. The pattern around the outside is one that I deconstructed a couple of weeks ago. I do not know if this is one that has been out there before or not. If anyone knows if this is a tangle someone else has posted, let me know. I have not thought of a name for it yet so any suggestions there would be useful also. I was not really planning on using it until I had a little more time to research it but after seeing Maria's blog post on grids I thought it fit in with this. Did not see this in all her variations. When I first did it I did it in a grid  oriented as a diamond. I like the way it looks that way better, but felt that this space was too small to use it that way. 

If you have not done so, would highly recommend that you visit The Bright Owl to look at the other tiles that have been submitted

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

Go Tangle!!