Zentangle - Zenspirations Silk Ornaments and Zentangle Sneakers!

Phew - it's been awhile since I've posted. I haven't had much time to do much of anything. I make 8 to 10 chauffeur trips per day - drop off first 2 kids, then come home, drop off 3rd kid, then come home, pick up 3rd kid, then come home, pick up kid, come home, pick up kid at sports, come home. It's never ending! I figured out I spend 3 hours per day in the car. But next fall all three will be in school full time and I'll have 6 whole hours per day!

I'm working on a few greeting cards for Sunrise which I will post when I'm done. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share the fun stuff I did yesterday.

My 12 year old daughter and I were working on homemade birthday gifts for her friend and I thought it was about time I combined the silk painting classes and zentangle/zenspiration classes together and make a zenspiration silk painting! I wasn't really prepared so the letters aren't all that well executed and I am out of practice on using the gutta paint tubes but I was so happy with this process! I cannot wait to make more. I know what I'll be doing for Christmas this year! And my daughter loved it so that was cool. I was bummed I only had time to make a couple. But stay tuned because I am sure I will be perfecting some letters and creating more of these.

Final zentangle ornament:

Close up:

Unfinished but ready for ribbon and beads:

The other fun thing I did this weekend was create my new zentangle sneakers! This was a trial run so I used cheap sneaks. But it was sooo fun! And I loved the results. Except I will need to get a new, brighter white paint pen. This one was old and faded. But I'll definitely be making another pair - if anything because my 12 year old wants a pair of zentangled converse!

Hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them! Until next time ....

Truly,

Erica

Belated Valentine's Day Zentangle

Kept wanting to post this but didn't want to interrupt the letterpress flow... I had so much fun trying to design the Valentine heart that when I was practicing with a marker, I decided to do this:

You may recognize some of the patterns from one of my favorite Zentangle artists, Sandy Bartholomew at Beez in the Belfry. A few were featured in her Tangle of the Week posts. I bought the Studios magazine which features her zentangle studio (wow!). I also purchased her AlphaTangle Book. Both are a worthy purchase for the zentangle enthusiast. WARNING: For some reason zentangles are extremely addicting! :-)
Truly,
Erica

Life is getting in the way!

So life is getting ridiculously bogged down and I haven't been able to do any art related fun things lately! But I have managed to squeeze in a little Zenspiration stuff at night after the kiddos are in bed. I'm still in the rough learning stage but I thought I would share the fun.

I still can't figure out why you can't click on my new images to see the larger one. You used to be able to do that in my earlier posts. So I must have somehow changed my settings. Sorry about that. I'll try to figure it out. :-)

In the meantime, here are some roughs.
Truly,
Erica

Zenspirations by Joanne Fink

WOW! I had the *best* time yesterday at the workshop put on by Joanne Fink. It was like decorated versals merge with zentangles and more! Joanne's workshop was called Zenspirations and was it ever!

Joanne is a terrific instructor. She was very organized, had wonderful handouts, and first quality supplies. What I really liked was that she shared so generously with her handouts so that once the workshop was done, you really have a good reference packet to use on your own. The workshop was extremely well layed out - meaning each step was useful and fun and did not waste any time. We got right to creating and I felt I had learned a great deal when the workshop was over and every minute was very well used.

The great thing about Joanne's Zenspirations is it really takes the idea of zentangles one step further. There are so many ways you can apply what Joanne taught. I was always intrigued with zentangles but hadn't made the leap yet because I didn't know what use it would have to me other than a fun time-eater and Lord knows I don't need anymore of those! :-) If you ever have the opportunity to take this workshop with Joanne - DO IT!

We started by learning some basic zentangle like patterns. Then we learned how to apply these to a series of curved lines. Here's my first go:

We then learned how to apply them to versal like capitals. The fun part is the letters are a series of sketched lines so if you make a mistake, you can correct it with another line. It takes away a lot of the pressure of trying to get perfect letter forms. To me, that is the zen part. You can create without worry! Here's a "K" which was one of my first letters.

Finally, we learned how to do something playful and apply it to illustrations and add color, etc. This was with a Sakura gel pen.

Can't wait to play more!

Until next time...

Erica

Zentangle Conference - yahooo!

I'm going to the Zentangle Monograms conference taught by Joanne Fink in Orlando! I am so excited. It's been so long since I've been to a calligraphy workshop - years even!

I have never done zentangle although I've heard about it. So I watched some videos on line and read some stuff on it and gave it a try last night with a ball point pen and regular copy paper. I think I'm really going to enjoy it!

It is complete coincidence that when I turned my paper, this looked like a woman's profile! I'll share what I do in the workshop when I get back.

Truly,

Erica