Thursday, December 30, 2010

LILYPADS and TH@ - Two new tangles

LILYPADS may have been inspired by various photos I took in China of flowers in ponds. It does have a slightly Oriental look. Hmm... also thoughts of summer in this wintry Canadian almost-January :-)
Under-lapping some of the leaves gives it more dimensionality. This could be shaded where all the lines converge, or on the under-lapping, or at the edge of the tangle.


Here are a couple of tiles using this tangle:

Lilypads, Th@, Barnacle, Coaster, Crescent Moon, Gingham, Keeko, Lotus Pods, Munchin, Snookums

Oh yes, the tangle TH@ (pronounce it 'that'). I don't even know if I should take credit for a tangle pattern. Check out th@ second tile above. See the parallel bars going from top left to bottom right, interspersed with white bars with beads on threads? Check out th@ tangle.

It's a whole bunch of @ signs at various angles!!! Hahaha! This is yet another brilliant idea that popped into my head one morning when I wasn't quite awake. How 'bout th@?!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Weekly Challenge 2: Use a two-pencil string

Laura Harms, CZT, issues a weekly challenge to all zentangle lovers. This week's challenge is to use a two-pencil string, a fun technique I discovered and posted about earlier.  I've been doing a lot of two-pencil strings recently so the challenge was more, 'Which one to post?' On this tile there were three rather round areas, so I used Drupe, Daggerly, and Hurakán to fill them. And I DO seem to like doing stripes on cylindrical shapes! (Must remember that simplicity idea though.)

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Digital Oriental brush play


Looking for yet another way to spend fun time at your computer? Try some digital Oriental brush-and-ink play here
(You can even save your masterpieces.)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

'Simplicity'

Laura Harms, a fellow CZT here in Saskatoon, has initiated a weekly zentangle challenge. It's open to anyone who wants to participate. How 'bout you?

Some months ago their basement flooded and they've been fixing things. Laura also has a two-and-a-half year old ball of energy and a pre-mature baby just come home. This week, amidst the hoopla of Christmas busy-ness, the challenge is to do a simple zentangle tile. I decided to use the two-pencil string I've been having fun with lately.

'S' for Simplicity.

Monday, December 20, 2010

C & R project: The finished art


Wedding gift for Chloë and Robin, 2010 January 8.
Ta-da! Here are the finished letters, complete with four tiny gems each. They're done on (buff, I think) Stonehenge paper, which is lovely to work on. I used black, sepia, and rust colored inks, mainly Sakura Micron pens but a Pitt pen for the sepia. To shade, I used Prismacolor's Verithin pencils in three colors, plus a white 'chalk' pencil. The brown sections are a little more orangey than shown here.

Some of the tangles spread beyond the border I had set, which I was hoping would happen, although I didn't expect to go right off the page!

I plan to attach them to darker toned, fabric-covered matboard with some small hematite beads in each corner (thanks to Maria for that idea!) which will keep the glass away from the artwork.

I'm rather pleased with myself!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Fun! Two-pencil strings!

Now here's a fun idea! 
I used an elastic band to hold two pencils together and drew strings with a double pencil. I found that - with curving, and changing angles - often one or the other pencil would skip, so I'd have to add that bit of the string once I'd finished the main part.

In the two tiles below you can see that I also did the initial border with the double pencil. The double pencil gives a really interesting ribbon effect to work with. The tile on the left has a 'loop' string; at the center is my Lotus Pods tangle. The one on the right uses the familiar 'Z' or 'N' string -  much of it is filled with Tipple - and the center has my Ninja Stars tangle.


Here are a tile and an ATC I did using a two-pencil string. On the tile I used two '8's for the string, overlapping at right angles. It's an interesting string, although it can make the center a bit crowded. You can't see a lot of the ribbon effect of the double pencil, except that there's a lot more string than there might normally be!









On this tile I used the double pencil twice. I drew a two-pencil trefoil string. Then I placed pencil-tip-A where pencil-tip-B was on the first go-'round, and drew the same string again, following the first string's pattern. Clear as mud?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

C & R project moves forward!

You may recall the beginning of this project, more than a  month ago, when I figured out the size and designed the letters.

It seems that going public about my procrastination was just the kick in the pants I needed to 'feel the fear and do it anyway'. After the Procrastination post I got to work.  I went to my desk, got out a pen and one of the letters, and made some marks. That's all it took. I was off!




Here they are with about half of the inking complete:


After I finish with the ink, I'll do the shading, and whatever else seems fitting.
Update soon. So's the wedding!


In case you're curious, here are Chloë (our eldest daughter) and Robin. This is their engagement announcement,  which Chloë designed to be like a movie poster.

She just arrived from Halifax for a visit. And a wedding!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

NINJA STARS tangle instructions

If I remember correctly, this idea came to me when I was half asleep one morning. I'm really happy I remembered it! Once I drew it, it resembled "those frisbee knife things ninjas throw", as I said to my daughter to see if she knew what they were called. She didn't. I consulted the Oracle (my husband's name for the internet) and learned that 'ninja stars' is just fine, although the Japanese name is 'shuriken'. Learn something new every day.

Here's the tangle:


The black areas could fill with thin stripes for a less bold pattern. An aura could go inside the 'squares' and other tangles could be put inside that. (Yincut? Tipple?) I'll have to try some of those variations!


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Procrastination is my middle name

It always has been. But I thought I was getting better at not procrastinating. I have a special project I've been wanting to start (see my C & R post) but I seem to be finding all kinds of other things to do instead.

So for your edification and amusement, and my embarassment and humility (and perhaps a boot in the rear), here are some of the things I've been doing instead:

Number One:  Moving
Three years ago my husband and I sold our house, sold some stuff, stored a lot more, and went to China to teach English. We were there two years, in two different cities. It was quite an experience and I'm sure glad we did it. Coming back to Canada, we initially stayed at my father's very cluttered home. That stretched to over a year and we REALLY NEEDED our own place. A friend has taken a position overseas for a couple of years and we are renting his bungalow. Yay! And we've emptied the storage unit!

Number Two: Buying a teapot
I expect we still own a brown betty teapot in the apartment our middle daughter is staying in, but she's probably using it on occasion. Besides, I wanted something more fun and funky. Found one! Ta-da! ----->
Unfortunately it pours a bit sloppily, but it makes tea and it IS fun to look at!


Number Three: Blowing my nose
A lot. And also having coughing fits. There's a virus going around here that requires a lo-o-ong time to regain one's energy.

Number Four: Setting up a studio in the basement of our new home. It's coming together. There are SO many ideas bumping into each other in my head!

Number Five: Unpacking boxes, which is kind of fun. There's the occasional "Oh yeah! I like THIS!" or "Oh. What did we keep THIS for?"


Number Six: Retrieving things from various other places we'd stashed stuff during our Oriental adventure. We've emptied our storage unit, but still have things in my brother's shed, my dad's basement, and my in-laws' storage unit. Also, re-stashing things we can't use or don't want at the moment.

Number Seven: Doing OTHER art projects
For example, AN EARLY SNOW, which is somewhat whiter that it appears here and includes some tiny clear and blue gems for sparkle. This year, in fact, we had late snow.
AN EARLY SNOW (pen & ink, pencil, tiny gems) 2010 © Margaret Bremner

 I don't have a name for this one yet, but I love the whirlyness of it.  I'd like to do a similar one in black-and-white.
(WHIRLYGIG (pen & ink, colored pencil, tiny gems) 2010 © Margaret Bremner
 
Number Eight: Blogging
Sheesh! Here I am telling you all how I'm not getting around to a project I really want to do!
Oh, and I've also been experimenting with fancier header bars for said blog, one with several images of my artwork, and a zentangle one ----->


I've wondered if it's not procrastination, but fear. I want so badly for this project to be terrific! Another Certified Zentangle Teacher suggested that it could mean "False Evidence Appearing Real".

There's a month until the wedding. I still have time.
I can still get it done.
Can't I?

Monday, December 6, 2010

Marvellous micro pencil-tip sculptures

I haven't (yet) used a magnifying glass when creating artwork, although the thought has occured to me on several occasions. Perhaps it's only a matter of time with my love of detail and my middle-aged eyesight. I'm sure if I was doing this kind of thing I'd be into the magnifying glass.




Dalton Ghetti carves tiny sculptures in the tips of lead pencils. Yes. Really, he does. Regular-sized, ordinary pencils.


I had his stubby pencil alphabet as my computer wallpaper for a while. I changed it  because I kept misplacing files amongst the shiny colors.







One of my other favorites is the saw, which uses the lead for the metal part and the wood for the handle part.


See more examples of his very fine motor skills here and here.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Take Time to Laugh


For an artsy chuckle, wander around the blog That is Priceless - Art's Greatest Masterpieces Made Slightly Funnier. Steve Melcher, who operates the blog, is a two-time Emmy-winning comedy writer. He finds old world paintings and gives them updated and humorous titles.




This lovely little oil on panel by an anonymous artist from the
Flemish School has been re-titled
Liberace’s First Day of Kindergarten




Here is an oil on canvas by the British artist John William Godward that demonstrates the Effect of Alcohol on Model's Willingness to Pose Nude.




This 1424 fresco by the Italian painter Masaccio depicts St. Peter Alerting Lunch Companion that He's Forgotten His Pants

Enjoy!