Hey guys,
I watched another Art Club live online video (recorded version — I keep missing the announcement, boo) which covered ‘Back to the Basics’. Which means that Eni Oken revisited the first zentangle patterns you learn when you attend a zentangle class (Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Printemps, and Florz). I have never actually attended a Zentangle class in person (until just recently in a live online ArtClub class, if that counts), but I had explored those tangle patterns before, so the class was really interesting to see a new take on those patterns. Here’s the tile I worked on while watching the video…
I first learned about Zentangle back in July 2015, and I didn’t realize at first that there were step-outs of patterns, much less that there was a whole 8-step process to it. I thought that it was just, well, I guess I thought it was doodling on a smaller sheet of paper, with sections marked out. What I did know for sure was that it was pen and ink, that ‘There were no mistakes’, and that it was meditative… here is some of my first attempts into the world of Zentangle…
Once I realized there were tangle patterns out there with step-outs, I dived right in. I played around and did my own thing…
Eventually, I sought out books, and learned more about the 8-step method. Anyway, somewhere along the way, I found Eni Oken’s blog and bought some of her E-books, she expanded her teaching to videos, and then started a monthly subscription to ArtClub… I quickly joined because I just love her art and the way she teaches. I was able to find two tiles that covered the tangles in a beginner class, one is very much the ‘Z’ string, whereas the other’s string is not. One is from 2016, the other 2017… oddly, both were drawn in November of those years…
In other news
My pen for my new 2-in-1 laptop finally arrived (it was backordered)… so I’ve been playing around with figuring out the new computer in tablet mode with a pen. Time elapses, and I look up and it’s dark outside, heh. It’s been slow going as I learn how to slow my movements to not be faster than the computer can keep up with, and learning what options on the brush slow down the computer. Last night I realized that when the computer is folded the air-holes for the fan are covered by the monitor, which makes the computer hot (which seems to slow down the computer’s responses), later I will try to use it more in an L-shape to see if things go smoother. Here’s what I’ve been doing to test out the new pen and tablet mode…
I know I seem all over the place, it feels that way to me too! But I haven’t abandoned the Inktober monsters, I wanted #6 to look a bit more metallic because he seems to be more robot like, which is why I veered off for a bit to learn more about shading. I’ve been working on him with my wacom monitor, which I have already figured out the pen/monitor situation… I didn’t want to ‘mess’ him up playing with the tablet-laptop/pen scenario so I started the ‘throwaway’ project above. Anyway, monster #6, ‘Toots-kiss’ is coming along…
This post is long, I should get back to creating! Hope everyone is having a great week!
Until next time…
~nic
Photography by Nic 