Bridgen

Diva's Challenge #73 - Us My Tangle - Bridgen

Bridgen is one of those tangles that looks easy, but then proves to be tricky once you try it, at least that was so for me. I went through several unsuccessful attempts before I ended up with this one. 

 I will salvage the "failures" sometime soon.

Diva's Challenge #17

Diva's Challenge #17 - 15 Minutes of Fame

The challenge here is to create a whole piece in just 15 minutes. Drawing, shading, everything.

The notebook I use for Diva's Challenge entries is 6x6" while the official zentangle size is only 3.5x3.5", so my surface is almost three times the regular size, that's a lot of extra space to work with, which I love, but in this case it doesn't help. Still, I thought I'd be all right by using pens of bigger sizes. Perhaps it would have worked if I didn't choose to start with Cubine. I knew it would take me too long as soon as I started, even with a medium Copic brush pen. I hurried, hurried, hurried and got this:

But it took me 23 minutes. I think it's all right, but in terms of the challenge it's a fail.

Not wanting to settle for a failed attempt I gave it another shot. I started with a 3.5x3.5" square to be true to the Zentangle format and went for really simple tangles to make it easier to finish the task in time. I took a deep breath and dived into it. Fifteen minutes exactly and here's the result:

Not a bad one, I think. The paradox turned out nice this time.

I am glad I did this one, but I am ready to go back to relaxed drawing without a ticking clock in the background now.  

Diva's Challenge #16

Diva's Challenge #16 - Mooka

This was a simple and enjoyable challenge. Use Mooka - that's all. This was the first time I used Mooka as far as I can remember. I added it to my book of tangles and went on with creating the challenge piece. In addition to Mooka I used Huggy Bear, Artoo and a few others (I am terrible at remembering names). I think Artoo and mooka go great together.

I like how this one turned out.

Diva's Challenge #15

Diva's Challenge #15 - Love your curves, Baby!

The challenge is to use only curves and no straight lines. I loved what came out as a drawing for the previous challenge (#14) that required using just straight lines and I hoped I'd feel the same about this one. Didn't happen, unfortunately. It's way too busy. Just to add to the mess the drawing from the other side  of the page bleeds though to this page slightly, so it looks like a shadow (upper right corner). Ah well, it's not about perfection, anyway. I enjoyed making it, so all is well.

Diva's Challenge #72

Diva's Challenge #72 - Tanglation Nation - Crescent Moon

At the first glance it seemed like a very easy challenge. Just use one tangle and it's a simple one - crescent moon. Turned out a bit more challenging than I thought. It's in no way perfect, but this is the best I've got right now:

Diva's Challenge #14

Diva's Challenge #14 - I walk the line

The challenge here is to use only straight lines. This was a true challenge and one of the most fun ones so far.

Diva's Challenge #13

Diva's Challenge #13 - Non-Dominatrix

Use the non dominant hand to draw. I am right handed, so I used my left hand exclusively to make this.

Diva's Challenge #12

Diva's Challenge #12 - Something Blue

Use color blue.

Diva's Challenge #11

Diva's Challenge #11 - Monotangle

The challenge was to use a single tangle for the whole piece. I saw this as a good opportunity to practice a tangle I like a lot, but had trouble with in the past - striping a creation of the super talented artist and author Sandy Steen Bartholomew. 

I have definitely made progress with striping. I like how it turned out here although I would make a few tweaks if I were to do it all over again.

Diva's Challenge #10

Diva's Challenge #10 - The Space Between; Exploring white space

The challenge is to stay mindful of the negative space and it's role in the design.

Diva's Challenge #9

Diva's Challenge #9 - Use tangle Artoo

Diva's Challenge - Color Me Sepia

This week Diva's challenge is to use color brown.

I used the new tangle Chainlea, added some other random elements  and ended up with this:

I am happy with it.

Diva's Challenge #68

This week Diva's Challenge is "DuoTangle v.IV: Hybrid/Strircles" and as I mentioned in a previous post, my first attempt to create it ended up a failure since I didn't follow the rules. I chose to work on an atc sized paper, which is only 3.5x2.5" and that's presented an additional challenge. It turned out like this:

I don't know what to think of it. I both like it and don't like it, if that makes any sense.

I am looking forward to seeing what other participants did with this challenge. It's a really good one.

Diva's Challenge #68 - Almost

I love to read fiction. Non fiction and instructions - not so much. That's how I missed the rules of the Diva's Challenge for this week. I made this:

But just as I was going to post it, I gave the text a better look and realized I didn't follow the rules. The rules say only two tangles, nothing else. I thought it meant mix the two tangles into one. Obviously, this is totally out of the question for the challenge. Meh, serves me right for not reading carefully. I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

Regardless of the challenge, though, I do like how it turned out.

Diva's Challenge #8

Diva's Challenge #8 is called Hearts for Artoo. Artoo is Diva's baby son. He was ill at the time and he needed some positive energy, so the challenge was to make hearts for him. The challenge came with a twist - a requirement to use two of the previous 7 challenges together.

I used challenge #2 - two pencil string and challenge #4 starry eyed surprised. I added some color, flowers and strings to make it more fun in a way I think a baby would enjoy.

Diva's Challenge #7

Diva's Challenge #7 is called Breathe and the challenge is to relax, breathe and smile while working on the piece for the challenge.

I followed the rules and here's what I got:

I am afraid it might be a bit scary, kind of the opposite of what was required to create the challenge. But, what can ya do, I got what I got.

Diva's Challenge #6

Diva's Challenge #6 is called Ixorus and it's a fairly simple one. Use the tangle named Ixorus.

My way was to completely focus on the ixorus. I made it big and I modified it by adding colors, swirls and strings. It's not much but I enjoyed making it and that's all that counts as far as I am concerned.

Diva's Challenge #5

Diva's Challenge #5 - Orbs

I did this one late at night, I was sleepy, my concentration was not the greatest and it shows. My orbs are actually balls. Close, but not actually the same thing, the way I understand it. Very dark and very basic. I came this close to tearing that page out and starting from scratch, but I decided to leave it in after all.

Diva's Challenge - Earth

In honor of Earth Day, this week's Diva's Challenge is to use the prompt of the Earth. I did this:

I used simple repeating flowers and leaves and then added the background that I made up on the spot. Perhaps someone already created a similar tangle, but I don't remember seeing it. It's completely colored because I can't imagine the Earth without all the beautiful colors of the nature.

I know, it's not much Zentangle like, but I still think it qualifies as Zentangle inspired.

Diva's Challenge #4

Back to catching up with the old Diva's Challenges.

Challenge #4 - Starry Eyed Surprised

Once again I turned to Totally Tangled for tangle inspiration. I started with one big star and turned it into some sort of a marine creature with tentacles with Fyre (page 30). I was thinking that what I got did not look much like a star, so I added some smaller stars to the inside of the big one. They didn't look like stars either. I tried to fix it, making it even more complicated to see the stars within the multiple lines. I gave up on that, added tangles  inside the big star and then went for for very recognizable and simple stars. I turned them into a frame by adding some simple ropes and Nowell columns (page 39 of Totally Tangled). I am a fan of astronomy, so at the end I just had to add some dots to represent the many stars of the Universe. Finally, I added shading and I was done.