I’m posting late today. But my taxes are done. Don’t leave yours until the last moment.
One of my goals for this year, which I really haven’t done much about, is getting back to Zentangle with more regularity. Since I couldn’t think of anything else that starts with the letter N that has something to do with the arts or the creative process, I thought I’d go to the wonderful website tanglepatterns.com and see what I could find. Out of the ones listed, I tried these four:
Nine Patch by Suzanne McNeill, which all the quilters will recognize:
Navaho by Caren Mlot:
Noodle by Angie Gittles:
Nayo by Angie Gittles (my favorite of this group):
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Every year around this time, I post some heart-related tangles.
Last summer, I stopped practicing Zentangles in favor of drawing people. But after the ICAD (Index-Card-a-Day) challenge ended, I didn’t do much drawing at all. Whenever I stop Zentangling, I lose my skills, and I feel like I’m starting all over again. I’m dissatisfied with this first one, using the pattern Amer by Maria Vennekens:
Next is Triskel Heart, designed by Ina Sonnenmoser:
This is Heart Thread, designed by Dolly Bolen:
Cross-Ur-Heart reminds me of a traditional appliqué pattern, which is why I repeated it like quilt blocks. The pattern was designed by Jenna Black:
I love “grid” designs. This one is by Helen Williams, and it’s called Hearts & Diamonds:
Another grid pattern, SweetHeart, also by Helen Williams:
The next tile is a string of several patterns, including LG by Adele Bruner, Fan of Hearts by Rachel Foster, Luheart (I made a variation) by Chen Su Chun, Heart Wrap by Ina Sonnenmoser, Heart Thread by Dolly Bolen, and Heart wave by Helen Williams. This is my favorite in this group:
If you read Creative Juice #280, you may have seen the Valentine tutorial. I tried it, but I didn’t like the colors of the Tombow markers I have (they’re skin tones, not perfect for hearts), so I tried alcohol markers. That technique doesn’t work with alcohol markers. So I substituted actual watercolor paints. My painting isn’t as cute as Smitha’s, but it was fun:
If you’d like to see my Valentangles from previous years, here they are from 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017.
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you get to spend it with the one you love. If not, can you do something nice for another person who might be lonely?
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Do you love words? Then you might love Oral Florist, a website of recordings of writers reading random stuff, like a manual or a recipe or anything that tickled their fancy.
In the weeks before Christmas, my drawings are generally Christmas-related zentangles. This year, I started out with some Christmas trees. The first uses the patterns Emingle (a variation) and Ahh:
This pattern is called Star Berries, by Dawn George:
For the next one, I created a hybrid from three patterns I know, Nipa, Crescent Moon, and Line Dance by Alice Hendon. I’m calling this Nipa Moon Dance:
I did this on the reverse side of the Emingle tree; unfortunately, you can see it peeking through.
This one uses Brr by Julie Isaac, Festoon Holiday by Joan Stark, and Holiday Ornaments by Suzanne McNeill:
Next, a couple of Christmas messages. The first one utilizes the pattern Purrlyz by Hanny Waldburger:
And this one features l’Eaura:
And finally, my favorite string in this group employs Ginili by Randi Wynne-Parry, Twistee by Livia Chua, Flux, and Luv-a by Sharon Caforio:
If you’d like to see my Christmas tangles from previous years, click the links: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.
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I love this tutorial on how to draw a house. I starts out the (childish) way I would draw one, but adds details step by step that take it beyond what I usually end up with.
These sculptures look like wood, but they’re really ceramic.
This is actually tomorrow’s pattern, baleselation, a “tangelation” of the basic pattern bales by Maureen Stott, CZT. I made mine a little less fancy than hers (she fills in the blank areas with lines running perpendicular to the others), but I feel so satisfied with the laciness. In honor of Halloween, I used an orange gelly roll pen on a black tile:
My intention for the month of October was to participate in two different challenges on alternating days: OctPoWriMo by writing a poem on odd-numbered days, and Octangling by drawing a zentangle design on the even-numbered days. I hoped I’d get 14 of each done.
I got mixed up and worked on the wrong challenge on some days, but I did do 14 Octangling drawings. My favorite is Maryhill:
ARHtistic License 