Thursday, February 28, 2013

Mayan inspired

Recently we returned from two weeks in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. What a great place to go for a break from Canada in February! We didn't really realize how much we needed to get away from it all until we were actually away from it all. (*gratitude*!).

The Yucatan is where the amazing Mayan civilization rose and fell. The Mayans developed the most accurate time-keeping system in human history, combining both the solar and lunar cycles into a calendar with a 52 year cycle. I've always liked the Mayan carved stone, squared glyphs with lots of interesting details.

Here's a photo of some real Mayan stone carvings - although not glyphs - taken at Chichén Itzá (pronounced chi-CHAYN eet-TSA).

I didn't take a sketchbook but I had lots of Zentangle tiles with me. (I took way too many art supplies, but you never know what you're going to need, right?) So I used the front and back of a tile and drew some of the glyph designs I saw.

Then I used another tile and 'picked and choosed' some of these to draw a little Mayan inspired piece. No tangles here, but a similar drawing method.

I tried another (tea-stained) tile using sepia ink and brown pencil. There are larger sections and I filled some with actual tangles.
Tangles included: Ambler, Hibred, Paisley Boa, Wud
This could develop into something interesting!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MANY MOONS - a new tangle!

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Diva Dance, Many Moons, Tipple,
Voga and a Black Pearl(z)
I first showed this pattern in the 'Moons zendala' post as an unnamed tangle. It makes a nice border, or could be done in a series of strips with thin white stripes between.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Florz, Knase, Many Moons,
Spinners and a Paradox variation.

 Here are the drawing instructions for Many Moons.
 OR, use black and stripes in the background and stripes in some moons!


BTW: It's getting harder and harder to keep track of tangles and names. If this pattern has been presented elsewhere, or if the name has been used earlier, please let me know!

Friday, February 22, 2013

KNIGHTSBRIDGE, and then some

Tangles: Knightsbridge
 Knightsbridge is one of the simplest tangles.
I always teach it in my Introduction class, on the first tile.
But wait! There is a lot you can do with a simple idea!


VARY THE SCALE - Do the tangle smaller or larger than you usually do.

HARLEQUIN - Do a series of parallel lines and do the next set of lines at an angle instead of perpendicular.

CURVY LINES - Draw all your lines curvy rather than straight.

MONOTANGLE - Use Knightsbridge in the dark squares of Knightsbridge.

 BORDER

Or a line. (Use Beadlines to fill - oops - extra space!)


ONE BY ONE - Draw the squares one by one instead of drawing a grid. It's a little more time-consuming but has a slightly different effect.

IRREGULAR LINES - Draw your lines with deliberately variable spacing.
OP ART EFFECT - Use variable spacing, but in a regular fashion. Start with wide spacing in the middle and gradually diminish it as you move toward the edges, or do the reverse and start with very narrow spacing in the middle and get wider toward the edges.

LIGHTEN OR DARKEN - Use thin lines to lighten (lines instead of black) or darken (lines instead of white).
Added March 6, 2013 with thanks to Maria Vennekens, CZT:
WOVEN EFFECT - When using thin lines in some squares you can shade the ends of those squares.

AURAS - Use Knightsbridge as an Aura around another tangle.
(Umm, yeah, that's a bit over the top, but you get the idea! Needs shading too.)
Tangles: Flux, Opus, Paisley Boa, Knightsbridge Aura


TWILIGHT ZONE - A Knightsbridge variation from Suzanne McNeill, also a CZT, found in her booklet Zentangle 2. Here Knightsbridge is done in the round with irregular circles. You can vary it by filling some of the squares with lines of different widths, or wavy lines.
Tangles: Cubine, Lava Juice, Rain, Twilight Zone

COMBOS - Mix and match any of the above!

KNIGHTSPEEK
I was quite taken by a new tangle from Donna Lacy, CZT.  It's a tangleation of Knightsbridge that she calls Knightspeek. Originally I read it as "knight speak" but, looking at the pattern I thought was "knight's peak", what with the pointy points and all. But it's 'peek' not 'peak' so... I don't know! But it's very cool.

One of the fun things is that it leaves part of that section empty. You can leave it that way or fill it with something else. Donna shows it as an 'X' through the middle of a section, but you can also do it along two or three edges of the section. You can even to it along all the edges, in which case you end up with a 'hole' in the middle. Try using it randomly in several places on the tile and see how it connects. Great fun!
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Knightspeek, Tipple, Voga
Tangles: Beadlines , Knightspeek, Palrevo, Perfs, Shing, Tipple

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Year of the Snake

I missed the Diva's weekly challenge but had done a snakey round tile while on holiday so I thought I'd share it with you. I used one of Zentangle's pre-strung Zendala tiles and made a few adjustments to the string before I began drawing in ink. In addition to the eight snakes with their heads in the center, there is an ouroboros intertwined among them around the edge. Being an unending line/circle it's symbolic of eternity.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Hurly-Burly, Tipple, Xyp,
(plus dots, stripes, highlights, lines, etc.
)
Happy new year!


Oh, and by the way, I've turned the 'word verification' back on in my comments. I'm just getting too much spam. When I returned to internet access after two weeks I had 88 comments, at least three quarters of which were spam. Sorry. I wish I didn't have to do that.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Rainbow center zendala

I was rather taken with a tile I did for a recent weekly challenge. It had black in the middle and a burst of rainbow colors at the edges. I wanted to try it again! This time I reversed the color scheme.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Paradox, Pearlz, Phuds, stripes with highlights

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Valentine ATCs

I'm involved in zentangle swap of valentine-themed artist trading cards. It's interesting to work on that small a surface! I used Zentangle's ATCs, some white and some black. I began all of them the same way, with Puffle through the middle doing hearts on one side and puffle lines on the other. Despite its darkness (maybe not very Valentine-y) I really like the black on black card and I'm so glad it shows up well in my scan!
Tangles used:
1. Künstler, Puffle, Bunzo
2. Diva Dance, Puffle, Crescent Moon, Tipple
3. Dansk, Puffle, Spinning
4. Florez, Puffle, Screen
5. Lotus Pods, Puffle, Rosé

All of these cards include special ink of some kind, and numbers 1, 4 and 5 have tiny gems added.

(P.S. - btw, ATC = Artist Trading Card)

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Muted zendala

This mandala began with a wash of blue and purple, and I used mainly purple ink. It's one of Zentangle's pre-strung zendala tiles.

Tangles: Dansk, Diva Dance, Drupe, Tipple

Friday, February 8, 2013

Moons zendala

This reminds me of moons. It's a mandala design from Erin, the Bright Owl. I know that. But I've gone through all the template posts and I can't find it (!!!) so I can't tell you what number it is. Phooey.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Tipple, and an as yet unnamed border design

Monday, February 4, 2013

Some recent tiles

When I drew the string for this I didn't expect to leave so much white space! Follow inspiration.
Tangles: Beadlines, Black Pearlz, Knightsbridge, Paradox, Perfs, Pia

I ended up with a large, black swath through the middle of this (great way to cover up something you don't like!).
I did Krli-qs in white ink but they seemed a bit too strong so I went over them in gray.
Tangles: Fleurette, Florez, Khirkee variation, Krli-q, Palrevo, Pearlz

And, using some of my current favorite tangles.
Tangles: Black Pearlz, Khirkee, Knase, Krli-q, Paizel,
Palrevo, Spinning, Tortuca
 
Tomorrow (Tuesday) my husband and I are winging our way to Mexico (!!!) for a real winter vacation! I've scheduled a few posts over the next couple of weeks while I'm away. I expect to be able to see and post comments so don't be shy!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Tangled letters by students

Last Wednesday we had our last in a four-class series and did tangled letters. It was around -35 C. and almost everyone made it to the class! Most are not quite finished, but here's what was created in two hours.

It was agreed that shading outside the letters looks better than inside. (You can see this in the 'gd'. The 'g' is going to be changed!)
I have a binder of tangle instructions that I take to classes like this so people can find other tangles they'd like to try. This group found quite a few: Betweed, Bateek, Boss, Riverstones, Lotus Pods, Lilypads, Seljuk and Tripoli.