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.

Zentangle Inspired

As far as I know one of the rules of drawing zentangles is to start with a string. I often don't follow that rule and just start drawing patterns and see where that leads me. This is one of those rare ones that did start with a random string. It was supposed to be just an abstract experiment with different sizes of tangle Groovy. Somehow, I ended up with something that looks like a dog head to me. I didn't even notice it until it was finished. Coincidence or not, I like it.

What do you say? Does it look like anything familiar to you?

Salvaging Cards Example #2

Today I have another example of a card salvaged from a failed Diva's Challenge attempt.

At the point of giving up on using it for the challenge:

After I worked on it and finished it:

I am pleased with how this turned out. Could have done a better job with the paradoxes, but overall, I think it's fine.

Looplopp Flower

I am really enjoying using colors with tangles. Here's my latest creation:

I used basic Looplopp for the flowers. It's a really nice tangle with great variations.

Salvaging Cards Example #1

I had a bit of trouble with Diva's Challenge #68. I had to abandon a couple of cards (I worked in the ATC format) before I got it right. In the spirit of Zentangle and the philosophy that no attempt is a failure I set out to salvage the cards I already started, but that were not good for the challenge.

Here's the first card at the point when I decided it would not work for the challenge:

And here it is after I finished it:

Not perfect, not great, but it was a good practice.

Tangled Fish

This one started out as a doodle. There were numerous moments when I thought I should just abandon it, but I kept working on it and in the end I didn't think it deserved to end up in the trash.

Stolen Idea

My first Zentangle inpired houses. The inspiration for this one came from Margaret the Enthusiastic Artist. I just loved her Zentangled houses and had to try it. I did it late at night so it's a bit messy, the lines are not very precise, but I still like it.

I enjoyed this, I think I'll do more of similar drawings soon.

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.