AEDM Day 11 (...7...)

Woohoo!! Even in the midst of our busy day yesterday, I still managed to find time to squeak out the day's zentangle! Okay, granted, that's not how you're supposed to do zentangle...it's supposed to be a quieter, meditative process, hence the 'zen'...But, I had a little time before Bug's tournament to go over and sketch out the day's exercise, even managed to ink it in and start coloring some before the bowling got under way (the boys had a great day and fun was had by all, I believe!) Then later in the day I finished coloring and shading...and here ya' go!

 

I like yesterday's tile much better than this one...The day's patterns (only two) were Isochor and Printemps, with the added 'sparkle' technique, which I hadn't tried before. Isochor still confounds me. I had been drawing it a completely different way than the step out in the book (One Zentangle a Day), and I think I like my way better than this way (but does that make it something other than Isochor??) Anyway, I do love the sparkle (should've sparkled my Crescent Moon, I think...)

So this morning is church and then yard clean up for a good portion of the afternoon. I have Erin's weekly zendala dare printed out and ready to go and I'm pretty sure what I plan to do with it (though those weeks I seem to change completely and do something altogether different than what started out in my head...) and I will do my best to do Day Six of One Zentangle a Day--and I didn't think I'd get any arting done all weekend! If I didn't have the challenge, I would've skipped it though, so a great big Thank You to Leah over at Creative Every Day for helping me (make) take the time to tangle and create!

AEDM Day 10 (um, 6)



I took a little 'Creativity Date' yesterday and went exploring at our new Michaels store in Dartmouth. It's pretty big and, sadly, the shelving is so high, it's really hard to see around the store to find where everything is at. I almost felt a little claustrophobic...But we also have an AC Moore as well that I really like, so I should be good on art supply shopping opportunities, either way! After Michaels, I thought I'd stop for a latte at another new-to-me place, Mirasol's Cafe. What a great little shop! It's so cute, inside and out, the windows are all painted bright and cheery! And along with coffee and lattes and chai and smoothies, they also offer quite a list of sandwiches and pastries, monster cookies--oh my!! I just ordered my latte and headed home, having such a small window for play time with school letting out early. It was yum! I'll definitely have to head back sometime for lunch and other, hopefully longer Creative Date excursions!

 

So this is Day Four of One Zentangle a Day. The patterns of the day are Shattuck, Nipa, and Jonqual, and below is my tile:

 

 

I'm really enjoying this book and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a well stocked Zentangle pattern book--there's so many that aren't available online. Get it, get it, get it!

The next three days look pretty busy...I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up with AEDM, but I'm really going to try and in the very least, I will certainly jump back on board by Tuesday when life returns to what passes for normal here! Haha! Hope everyone has a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

AEDM-Day 9 (er, 5...)

 Continuing on with AEDM--we should do this every month! Of course, there is a Creativity Every Day challenge...Just somedays it's hard to find the time to sit and play. And looking at the long weekend coming up so quickly here, I'm wondering just how much art I'll be able to accomplish over the next three days. Saturday we have the Father/Son bowling tournament then family adventuring after. Sunday, weather permitting, is more yard clean up from these storms that have dumped leaves and branches all over, and Monday Bugga's home from school for Veteran's Day. So he'll either be gone all day or I'll have a houseful of boys crammed in the office playing video games on the computer and eating everything in the fridge and snack cupboard...Then next weekend's Thanksgiving already! How can that possibly be?? I really need to get cracking on wrapping for Christmas... and baking! This time of year always flies by too fast....

 

Anyway, I wasn't completely happy with my first tile response to the Diva's Weekly Challenge #94-UMT Socc and something in the auras made me think of Mi2, so I wanted to play with a combo of the patterns...and, I don't know, maybe I need more practice with Socc...it's still not quite what I was thinking of...

Then for Day Three of One Zentangle A Day, the patterns we were given were Poke Root (yes, I mislabled my sample as Poke Leaf but fixed it this morning after I saw it in the picture...my brain stops working after, well, it's not really worked all that well since Michael was born??...), Festune, and Hollibaugh. And my tile, with a little Tipple thrown in as well:

Ta-daaa! I do like this!

So, time for breakfast and some quality time on the treadmill before I get on with the day. Oh, I did make some great progress on the pet portrait as well yesterday (it was a good, good day!! And aren't you curious to see?? Haha!) Happy Friday everyone!! Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I'll have more to share tomorrow!

 

Art Every Day Month (Technically Day 8, for me Day 4...always been a late bloomer...)

So I'm jumping on board the AEDM train a little late because I didn't really find out about it until it was well under way-but I'm playing along anyway. Day One would've been my PIE zendala, Day Two the Diva challenge Socc zentangle, Day Three I started a new six week course called One Zentangle A Day, which should carry me well through AEDM and almost up to Christmas! Yay! These are the pics for Days Three and Four:

You are given three patterns a day to work with to create a Zentangle. Using an old leftover sketchbook--figure this will be a great reference piece when the course is finished.

 

I'm really excited about the next six weeks of zentangle as I work through this course. I've been playing with this since April and am totally in love with the art and the process. There's an amazing online community of incredibly talented artists who share their work and techniques, along with being a constant source of inspiration! I enjoy learning from them but I also hope to attend a certification course next year and then be able to teach Zentangle to others. Too much fun!

 

(On a side note for AEDM-I'm also working on an acrylic painting of a pet portrait and got the background completed yesterday. Not posting pics every day, but will update progress reports as it comes along...Nothing like a teaser!)

 



And, completely unrelated:

Things You Can Do With A Bassett:

She really does have eyeballs!

People can be so annoying....

 

 

 

 

Challenge 94: UMT Socc

This week's Diva challenge was to use the tangle Socc, created by none other than our beloved Zendala Diva, Erin at the Bright Owl! And as I had to spend a the greater chunk of my day sitting at my sister-in-law's yesterday, I took along my zentangle sketchbook and created this response:

Socc, 'Nzeppel, Cruffle, and Mysteria

Not thrilled with the end result-Socc looks more Bale-ish to me, but the process has sparked another idea to play with this pattern that hopefully I can try later this week...Meanwhile, today will be catching up on the week's chores I've missed and maybe a little painting, if I'm lucky...fingers crossed!

Happy Wednesday everybody!

November is Art Every Day Month--giving it a shot....

 

Zendala #30-Thanksgiving

I'm actually done with the week's Zendala Dare already! I seriously don't know how that happened but I love that I'm on track and all set for the Diva's challenge this morning--I may actually get more artwork accomplished this week! Hooray!

So this weekend's Dare came with a Thanksgiving theme, each of the patterns you used had to begin with the letters P, I, E, and at least one had to be a pattern you hadn't used before (ewww....) With the pumpkin pie thing in my mind, I wanted to use my orange Staedtler pen and viola:

Paradox, Ixorus, Echo, Echoism, Equerre (I'd not used Echo or Equerre before)

Bug said he loved it this morning, so I suppose it's a success! Thanks for swinging by, have a great week and hopefully I'll have some more goodies to share through the week!

Zendala Dare 29

Getting things in here right under the wire this week...though I didn't have much time to play. School and work both closed Monday and Tuesday had Bill and Bug home extra days, Wednesday Ash was here all afternoon waiting to take Bug trick-or-treating, Thursday I spent a couple hours after lunch at my sister-in-law's to keep an eye on Mom while Cindy went to visit their dad in the hospital, which left me yesterday to do anything really creative. Well, I did get my plan sketched out for the week's zendala while I sat at Cindy's so all I had to do was ink it in and color--after the day's house work was all done and getting Bug off the bus early since Fridays are half days here for school. Actually didn't see him after that until dinner time since he stayed up at his friends' playing X-Box all afternoon... Have I mentioned how much I love this neighborhood?? (Okay, not that I didn't see Bug all afternoon, just that he has friends to hang out with for a change rather than sitting here glued to the computer or bored out of his wits...) Anywho...

So this is my zendala for the week:

 

Aahh!! There's my color!! Channelled a little LeeAnn Denzer kinda sorta...I love how she uses color, she is truly a master of colored pencil! I was just happy this didn't come out feeling all dark and heavy like I've been doing so much of lately. It's maybe a little too springy for this time of year, but I think I needed some light airiness for a change...Oh, I saw a patch of pink daisies on the roadside this week, so wonder where that inspiration fell in? Haha...must plant pink daisies for my garden next year!!