My husband had to go out of town yesterday and I found myself just wanting to draw. So I completed 3 challenges (well actually two weekly challenges and then 4 days of a 12 day challenge)…
Let’s break it down…
Diva’s Challenge
This week’s I am the Diva Weekly Challenge #296 is a pattern by Anya Ipsen, CZT called Moowa. It is a combo of Mooka and waves, according to Anya… so I had waves on my mind when I was tangling it…
Moowa
The second tile I also included Nekton, Maryhill, and Shattuck. To me the second tile’s Moowa looks like characters from the Simpsons hands… haha. 😀
12 Days of 3Zs Challenge
The originators of Zentagle have a challenge each year for the Holidays. This year they are celebrating their new tile shape which they’ve called a 3Z. The Zentangle 3Z tile is a 3.5″ x 3.5″ x 3.5″ equilateral triangle. I don’t have these tiles, so I used a ruler and marked off a triangle on my 3.5″ square tiles… I realized that I could make a more equilateral tile by the third tile. I haven’t decided if I’m going to cut these into triangles yet.
UPDATE: I decided to cut the triangles so that I could play with the mosaics too! 😀 Since my first two triangles weren’t measured out as accurately the mosaic is a little wonky, but that’s ok. 🙂
So this year’s Holiday Challenge is the 12 Days of 3Zs. I was a bit behind because they started on December 3rd and I decided to join on December 6th… so I did 4 days. Each day they give you a new zentangle pattern to tangle on the 3Z tile, they would also like you to tangle the number of tiles for the day of the challenge… ie. 4 tiles on day 4. But I only did one tile per day.
Also I’ve been noticing a few other tanglers of zen using a bit of red in their tiles and I thought it looked cool. It turns out it is a sepia pen. For shading I used a Burnt Ochre colored pencil and a blender pencil (see image above).
Day 1
Tripoli
Day one’s pattern was Tripoli, I paired it with Maryhill.
Day 2
Diva Dance
Day two’s pattern was Diva Dance, I apparently was in the mood for a monotangle.
Day 3
Shattuck
Day three’s pattern was Shattuck, I did another monotangle. This is one of my favorites of the day.
Day 4
Marasu
Day four’s pattern was Marasu, I paired it with Diva Dance. This is my other favorite of the day.
Joey’s Challenge
Joey’s Challenge is more of a ‘finish my tile’ currently, other times it’s a given string, she changes it up. This week’s challenge was to finish the tile that Joey started with Japonica in a hexagonal shaped ornament…
Japonica
I paired Japonica with Shattuck and Maryhill.
So yeah, I was a bit creative yesterday. How is your week going?
Until next time…
~nic
Photography by Nic 
Lovely tiles.
Thanks so much, Susan! 🙂
How lovely to give yourself that gift of time. You created a lot of lovely tangled pieces.
Thank you so much, Jean! 😀
Sooooo beautiful and much fun Nic! Sounds so good having so much time for drawing and the tiles are terrific 🙂
Thanks, Nadine! 🙂 It is really nice when you can spend several hours just drawing. 🙂
you have an intricate hand!
Thanks so much, Cybele! 😀
You were very busy on your day alone :)) All tiles are beautiful. My favorite is the tile for the Diva with the blue Moowa.
Thanks so much, Bine! 😀 That one seems to be a lot of people’s favorite, which is interesting because for me that one I was the least sure about. 🙂
I like all your tiles 🙂
Thanks, Gudrun! 😀
I like all of these! Your Moowa is so wavy, especially the first one. But you’ve chosen good patterns to include with it, that balance the curves with more angular lines. Excellent work!
Thanks so much, HeidiSue! 🙂 The angle patterns worked out really well, I wasn’t sure they would… but I have found that I like to put a mix of isco shapes together and they tend to be pleasing. 🙂
Love your Moowa tiles. Your 12 days of 3zs are lovely too. I also have been cutting down my regualar tiles…. did the same thing as you did and didn’t figure out the equilateral one until in a few days…. Just going to leave mine a bit “long” so they are all the same though.
Thanks, Kate! 🙂 Yeah at first I thought I’d just draw a line to the center of the top to make a triangle… then I read the description again and thought, hmmm that’s not equilateral… So I figured out that the point would come down a bit and the angle was slightly wider… having them all the same will make the mosaic fit together better. 😀 I thought about ‘fixing’ the two that are a bit long, but it still wouldn’t fit right because the angle isn’t the same, so I’m leaving it — in true Zentangle fashion. 🙂
So very beautiful, done in your ‘alone’ time. I LOVE the first one with the waves! Today I will cut some of those 3Z tiles and try how it is to use them.
Thanks so much, Annemarie! 😀 The 3Z turned out to be more fun than I suspected… I thought they would be limiting but I drew strings intended for squares and it worked out just fine. 🙂
Wow! What a wonderfully productive post;-) I love your Diva tiles…the blue waves are my fave. Aren’t the 3Z’s fun? I love mosaic effect.
Thanks, Michele! 😀 The 3Zs are fun and so is creating the mosaic. 🙂 It’s funny you and another like the blue waves one, and that was the one I was on the fence about… funny how that works. 😀
Terrific Moowa! Great 12 days tiles too!
Thanks so much Deanne! 😀
I like the one that looks like fish scales, it has a real 3d effect. Had no idea zentangle was so involved and structured 🙂
Thanks, Stacey! That’s one of my favorites too!
Zentangle is one of those arts that it is what you make it. It can be just a few stokes with a pen that feels like meditation, or if you have a bit of flare and want to push your skills it can become an even more beautiful piece of art. There are some REALLY talented tanglers of zen out there… I aspire to be as good of an artist as they are. Just like photography, you are drawn towards the looks you like and then you try to improve your skills to get up to that level but with your own style. 🙂
Its not something that appeals to me but I can see that it really works for you, and can see a big improvement in your work over time – keep at it 🙂
Yeah, I think it was the next step for me… I was trying to turn all my photos into ‘drawings’ so clearly I had a need to express myself that way. Zentangle is small and you get a quicker reward, or if you mess up, it’s no biggie because you can start a new one. I’m improving my drawing skills and my shading skills and it is something I’ve always wanted to do but didn’t quite know what I didn’t know… stuff I’m learning now I didn’t learn in my art classes and light bulbs are going off which is awesome. 🙂
Learning is always good and when it starts to make sense in the bigger picture, even better 🙂
Definitely. 😀