Showgirl and a new Tangle – Fluxecho

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog. First I was getting ready to teach a class at Tangle U (a continuing education conference for CZTs) and then on the way back from that I caught that horrible cold that was going around and was out of it for around 6 weeks. Since then I’ve been trying to get caught up on things. I’m glad to be able to post again.

This week I’m getting back to posting my Square One: Purely Zentangle focus tile. This week’s focus is Showgirl by Vicki Bassett. Step-outs for this tangle can be found here.

I actually drew three tiles for this focus, each one with something to share with you. In the first tile I used Showgirl along with a Tangle called Fluxecho that I introduced at Tangle U.

Fluxecho got it’s name from the fact that it looks a bit like Flux with additional lines that echo the original shape. It starts out with an orb and two opposing “S” curves so that it looks like an exclamation point! It grows very organically and tucks together nicely to form a grouping. Here are the step-outs and some variations.

The next tile I did I decided to make some of Showgirl’s “feathers” have transparent centers by drawing an inner aura so the feather behind showed through. This came out looking a lot like Lupe by CZT Christina Vandervlist. While the end result looks very similar to Lupe the process for drawing is slightly different. Step Outs for Lupe can be found here if you’d like to compare the two methods.

Here’s how I created this look. First start out with a completed Showgirl figure.

Then Draw an inner aura around the central “feather”. This is the top layer.

Then, draw an inner aura around the “feather” that is the next layer behind,
making sure to continue it’s lines behind the first layer so that it shows through.

Continue this process of drawing inner auras, continuing the lines of each petal
behind the lines of the “feather” that is on top of it.

The final result will look like this.

Finally, I wanted to draw a tile using Showgirl and last weeks Square One focus tangle, Puffin.

It turned out looking like Puffin had been appliqued on top of Showgirl out of some translucent material so that Showgirl partly showed through. To achieve this effect I just continued the lines of showgirl and filled them in with pencil, then continued the lines in pen when they emerged from behind Puffin. The perf lines around the edges of Puffin added to the applique effect.

I didn’t start out to draw three tiles that demonstrated different things but I like them all so I’m glad I could share them with you. You just never know where Zentangle is going to take you. As always if you see something in this post that you would like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Man-O-Man to Celtic Knots

There has been a lot of interest recently in drawing Celtic Knots and there are lots of techniques for drawing them. In my opinion, most do not really follow the Zentangle® drawing method, they involve too many steps or are just too complicated.

Here is a simple three step method I’ve come up with that originated with the tangle Man-O-Man. If you are unfamiliar with this tangle here is the card from my Tangle Deck that shows the step-outs:

As you can see this tangle starts with a square and then squares are drawn next to each of it’s sides to form a cross. Note there is an equal space left between the squares. Triangles are added to fill in the angles formed by the cross, again leaving equal space between the shapes. You can continue adding shapes out as far as you want, building on the previous ones and leaving equal space between them.

Let’s take this one step further. Start by drawing steps one and two in the man-o-man step-outs.

Then draw an aura around the perimeter of these shapes that is offset from them the same distance as the space between them. What happens when you do this is that you can begin to see the squares and triangles as spaces and the space between them as a kind of lattice above them.

I call this Lace Lattice because it reminds me of the holes and strings that make up a piece of lace. Here I’ve added some Beadline behind the Lace Lattice to make it more visible.

With the right configuration of hole shapes, aura and one final step, you can easily and quickly turn the resulting Lace Lattice into a Celtic Knot. Let’s start out the same way we would with the Man-O-Man tangle, with five squares in the form of a cross.

Then add rounded triangle and semi circle shapes as shown.

Turn this into a Lace Lattice by drawing an aura around the outer edges.

To turn this into a Celtic Knot, draw lines to connect the Lattice, alternating between
horizontal and vertical to create the over and under of the knot.

Ta Da! a Celtic Knot

I’ve spruced it up a little with additional auras and shading.

Here are a few other simple configurations.

And something more free-form starting with a loopy string.

Final drawing with perf line, aura, rounding and shading.

The possibilities seem endless with this technique and you can go as simple or complex as you want. The trick is to keep your spacing between the shapes as even as possible so that they will align when you connect them, but even then it doesn’t have to be perfect. I should note here that just drawing a bunch of shapes next to each other won’t work every time to form a knot. Play around with the technique and you will soon see what will work and what won’t. Finally, here is the drawing I did for the ShamWayRockBop challenge from Rick and Maria using this technique for the border.

I hope you give this method a try and I look forward to seeing all the Celtic knot variations you come up with.

Blessings,

Lynn

Hearts to You

This week’s focus tangle for Square One Purely Zentangle is Flowerly (stepouts can be found here). It is a simple floral pattern made up of hearts. Also this week Rick and Maria have released the stepouts to Waybop on the Zentangle Mosaic app and will be sending out a Newsletter with the stepouts for a version with hearts. All this in time for Valentines Day, February 14th, a time to celebrate love.

I have to be honest, I was not excited about Flowerly. My mind needs a little more challenge. Then I saw how I could do a version of Waybop with hearts and include Flowerly in the center. Here are the work in progress photos.

I love that Waybop starts out by drawing what turn out to be spaces.

The next step is to start connecting these shapes. The lines I’ve added will be the tops of half of the interconnecting hearts of the finished tangle.

Then I added the tops of the other half of the hearts. Notice that they alternate directions.

Then I went in and added the bottom half of all the hearts.

Here all the interconnected hearts are completed and Flowerly is added in the center.

I also belong to a journaling group and the prompt this week is about wondering. On this tile I wondered what it would look like with some kind of vine interwoven through the hearts.

This is the stage where I sometimes wonder how things are really going to turn out. It can be hard to see where to go next. I pushed on and started adding shading.

Better but not quite finished, so I added a little weighting to the lines and flourishes.

There’s a lot going on here but I like the way it turned out. So, here’s my Valentine to YOU!

As always if you see anything in this post that you would like to try in your own work please feel free to do so.

Blessings and Happy Valentines Day,

Lynn

Also, as my valentine gift, I’m offering $14% off Tangle Deck 1, Tangle Deck 2 and Tiny Tangle Deck through the end of February. You can purchase Tangle Decks 1 & 2 for $30.10 each and Tiny Tangle Deck for $15.48. Get both decks 1 & 2 for $60.20 and all three decks (1, 2 and Tiny) for $75.68. (Tax and shipping are not included in the prices stated here.)

Use coupon code: heart at checkout. Please feel free to share this Sale information. Thanks!

Note: Discount does not apply to the Bundle, Family or Sampler.

Reticula and Fragments

Reticula and Fragments were introduced by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas (founders of Zentangle) in their book Zentangle Primer Volume 1. Reticula are simply frameworks in which to place pattern fragments. Fragments are little chunks of patterns that when rotated or mirrored and placed together in a reticulum (framework) create a larger pattern. Think ceramic tiles. Each tile is a unit and when put together, the elements of each tile work together to create a larger pattern. Depending on the tile’s pattern and how the tiles are put together a number of different variations are possible.

Recently, as I was looking at the photos on my phone I came across several photos of a tile rotated in different positions.

This is the tile

I saw that the tile itself could be considered a fragment of a larger design and immediately went to my computer and started rotating and flipping and combining. The results were very interesting and I wanted to share them here.

Of course then I wanted to experiment with other tiles. Here are a few of the designs I came up with. Note: none of the tiles were drawn with the idea that they would be rotated, mirrored and combined, so it was interesting to see how things lined up.

Hope you enjoy the results of my experimenting, I know I did. Reticula and Fragments are really quite fun. You should try them yourself although maybe on a smaller, simpler scale to start with.

It also made me realize that we are all just part of a larger pattern.

Blessings,

Lynn

Icanthis – Square One Focus

January 4, 2017

The Square One (TM) focus tangle for this week is one that was released by Zentangle HQ in December 2016, called Icanthis. The stepouts can be found here.

Icanthis was inspired by the Acanthus Leaf motif found in art and architecture from the time of the Greeks in the 5th century forward. My tile was inspired by the Acanthus wall paper designed by William Morris.

It is basically the Icanthis tangle drawn in layers in a Hollibaugh manner. That is, start by drawing one layer and then add additional layers by drawing behind.

Since this is a black and white tile, I began to differentiate the different layers by adding shading where they overlap.

before blending the pencil shading

after blending the pencil shading

I then added in the black background color which further defined the shapes.

I then refined the shading to add some additional detail.

Finally I added a little more shading to the leaves further back to give them more depth and enhance the leaves in the front.

I like the way this tile turned out. It reminded me how adding detail in layers can really add depth and emphasis to a drawing. As always if you see something in this blog that you would like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Stella – Square One Focus

This week’s Square One (TM) Purely Zentangle focus tangle is Stella by Jana Pharmer (formerly Jana Roberts). Stepouts for Stella can be found here.

I started out this week drawing Stella in my sketchbook. Here is my first attempt. Stella is a fairly straight forward tangle that uses the elemental C stroke. It’s the same shape around the figure but every other one alternates direction.

As I drew this first version I began to see that one could expand it out through several rings like this:

Here, I’ve indicated the Stella in red so you can see it better. the Stella shape changes orientation as it’s drawn on each ring, sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes on it’s side. The key is to align it to the shapes in the previous ring.

I then added some enhancements (tanglenhancers).

I finally added shading. I intended to do the background all black but got half way through and it seemed like I should stop.

It didn’t seem quite finished though so I added a little more shading around the edge on the light side of the tile. That provided the finishing touch for me.

Next I thought about trying Stella as a six armed figure instead of eight. When I tried it I realized that by making it a six armed figure I could turn it into a tesselated Reticulum (that’s a fancy name for a framework). Each shape was exactly the same so I could fit them together like a puzzle. The next pictures show the six armed figure I started with in red and then the finished tile.

Rick and Maria introduced “Reticula and Fragments” in their Zentangle Primer – Volume 1. Check here for more information about the book.

This weeks tangle really stimulated my tangler’s mind. I hope my examples stimulated yours.

As always if you see something in this post you’d like to try in your own work please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Introducing the first TangleLace kit: WinterLace

In November I was blessed to be asked to teach several classes to a wonderful group of Certified Zentangle Teachers at a retreat in Maine. Two of the classes were a series. In the first class I taught the Lace and Convergent Shading techniques. The second class was a project that was inspired by the tangled drawings I had seen posted that had been done on paper doillies. I had paper laser cut with a simplified lace design and used the Lace and Comvergent Shading techniques to create the following winter inspired design. I call it WinterLace.

The project uses metalic gold and clear stardust (sparkles) Gelly Roll pens which are difficult to photograph. However, this photo is a pretty good example of the finished product.

These two classes were very well received and as a result, in partnership with Acadia Laser Creations, I decided to make it into a kit.

The kit contains instructions for both classes (a 2-fer) and all the materials and supplies you need to create your own WinterLace project.

The Kit materials include a laser-cut pattern on dark blue paper, a light blue background sheet, a white mat with foam core backing and protective sleeve, 3 gel pens, 2 colored pencils, a royal blue Micron and 2 tortillons.

“But wait … there’s more!”

My fellow CZT, Jenny Perruzzi, suggested I should include a stencil that would allow you to draw the same lace shapes that are laser-cut in the kit. I rarely encourage the use of stencils in Zentagle as I feel they can too easily become a crutch and support that inner critic that says “I can’t draw” (therefore I need a stencil). Well she cut one for me anyway and I had a lot of fun with it. I realized that this project is actually considered Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) so playing is OK, and the stencil actually reinforces some of the concepts taught in the Lace technique.

So included in the kit is a 3-in-1 stencil to play with and create endless designs. There are 3 sizes on the stencil: Small (Zendala size), Medium (same size as project piece – a zendala tile fits in the center) and Large (Opus size). The overall stencil measures 10.5″x10.5″. See photo below.

Here are some sample pieces I created using the stencil.

This piece was drawn on a 10.5 x 10.5 Opus tile and
uses the large size stencil.

This piece was drawn on a 4-5/8″ Zendala size tile and
uses the small size stencil

This piece was drawn on an 8″ square and
uses the medium size stencil.

This example also uses the medium size stencil but
shows the use of a separate Zendala placed in the center.

So you can see, once you learn the techniques there is no end to what you can create.

Here’s what other Tanglers are saying about the kit…

“Lynn takes intimidation out of the drawing equation. What might appear to be a complex drawing becomes a simple step-by-step process with Lynn’s clear and easy instruction.”

“Lynn’s project is awesome! I was overwhelmed by the artistry of the finished product.”

“Lynn’s easy step-by-step instructions will put you right at ease and have you feeling like a pro in no time! Not to mention feeling like a creative genius with the beautiful end product you will create with this amazing kit!”

“Lynn’s unique perspective on the world translates into easy to follow design techniques so that anyone can create beautiful art work.”

The WinterLace kits are now available on Etsy for an introductory price of $65.00 through the Winter Solstice, Dec. 21.
https://www.etsy.com/…/498115…/the-tanglelace-winterlace-kit

I’m very excited to reach a larger audience with the classes contained in this kit.

Blessings,

Lynn

Tiny Tangle Deck is here!

We went BIG with the original Tangle Decks 1 & 2
Now we’re going TINY!!!

Introducing…Tiny Tangle Deck – On Sale Now

Tiny Tangle Deck may be only 2” x 2” but it’s big on content. It contains all 100 tangles from the original Tangle Decks 1 & 2 and it’s printed on the same durable coated card stock.

Each card contains:

the basic drawing of each tangle
the tangle name and creator
the elemental strokes used to draw the tangle

Each tangle card is color coded so you know which original deck to look in for the step-outs, red for Deck 1 and blue for Deck 2.

Even more portable than the original Tangle Decks, it comes in its own metal tin.

On Sale Now for the introductory price of $16

or

Get the Tangle Deck Family (Tangle Deck 1, Tangle Deck 2, AND Tiny Tangle Deck) for $80

Click Here to Purchase

Moowa – Square One Focus

This week’s Square One focus Tangle is Moowa by CZT, Anya Ipsen. Step-outs can be found here.

While my tile this week does use Moowa (it is the tangle in the middle) this post is more about finishing a tile than about the tangle itself.

As you can see from the first photo I took, sometimes the tangle only drawing is just too busy. It really needs contrast and shading to differentiate the different tangles. From the center out I’ve used Moowa, Joki, Drawing, and Sandswirl.

You can see how just adding the black background is starting to give shape to things.

On this tile I worked from the background forward. Adding extra lines to the sand swirl darkened its tone a little and pushed it behind Drawings. I’ve also gone over Moowa and Drawings with a thicker pen.

Adding shading further defines the tangles.

And finally, I shaded the central section.

I love how this came out. It reminds me of Madeline L’Engle’s book “A Wrinkle in Time”. The middle is like a window into another world.

As always, If you see anything in this post that you’d like to try in your own work, please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

Rainking – Square One Focus

The square one focus for the week of Nov 11-17 is Rainking by Leona Shih. Stepouts can be found here.

Rainking can be considered a fragment tangle. Fragment tangles are the elements that fill the spaces of a grid. Fragments can be rotated or mirrored to create variations. Rainking reminded me of another tangle, Cornerz by Didier Gervy, that can be rotated and mirrored to create either a very ordered pattern or a more organic meandering pattern. Here’s an example of Cornerz. I drew the same fragment on 16 Biju tiles then laid them out in different ways, all the same orientation in one example and rotated randomly in the other example.

For my Rainking tile I decided to create a more random meandering version.

First I drew a grid with wavy lines to show some movement, and started adding the Rainking fragment randomly.

Here it is with the Rainking covering the tile.

I then drew an aura around the spaces that formed between the Rainking fragments and began filling them in with black. I wanted to cover up some of the grid lines and make the fragments stand out more.

After I got the spaces between filled with black I wondered what it would look like if I shaded each “petal” of Rainking in the opposite direction of the one next to it. I started by adding graphite alternately to the top or bottom of each “petal”. ( I remembered to take photos of the shading in progress for this tile.)

Here is the tile before the final blending.

And here is the finished tile. After blending I went back in and added more shading to the darkest areas.

The final result reminds me of fallen petals after a spring bloom. This was an interesting experiment.

As always if you see something in this post that you’d like to try in your own work please feel free to do so.

Blessings,

Lynn

We went BIG with the original Tangle Decks 1 & 2 Now we’re going TINY!!!

Introducing…Tiny Tangle Deck – On Sale Now

On Sale Now for the introductory price of $16

or

Get the Tangle Deck Family (Tangle Deck 1, Tangle Deck 2, AND Tiny Tangle Deck) for $80

Click Here to Purchase

We went BIG with the original Tangle Decks 1 & 2
Now we’re going TINY!!!