Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Diva's Challenge #76- Home, Plus a small gift for a friend

As usual our lovely Diva, Laura, presents us with a fun and thoughtful challenge that really makes us take time to sit back and reflect on how we are going to respond in the form of a Zentangle®.  This week she gave it a new twist.  Since the Canucks are celebrating Canada Day this weekend, and we 'Ole Yanks are celebrating the Fourth of July next Laura decided that this would be a good week for us to take a look back at home–be it nation, state, town, street or living room–and interpret it in Zentangle® Inspired Art (ZIA).

My first ZIA has more of a national feel.  There is a broad stripe and bright star (which unfortunately is so bright it can look greenish depending on how close you are to the monitor :-).  You are probably wondering what the heck the C is doing there.  When I was young and would go to summer camps we would sing our patriotic songs.  One of my favorites was "My Country 'Tis of Thee."  But it never made sense to me why we would sing, "Of Thee I 'C'.



When I was a child do you know what I thought the Fourth of July was for?  I thought it was to celebrate me!  That's right, I'm a firecracker baby, as they say.  My mother always made sure that I had the best birthdays possible.  This ZIA is a bit of an homage to her.  The wording on top is the beginning of the song that she wrote after I was born.  She sang it to me even after I graduated college.  Of course she always called me her Sweetie Pie.  And the heart it a drawing of my first tattoo, which she payed for on my eighteenth birthday.  It was a great day!



Finally– My friend Taiya's birthday was this past Sunday, June 24.  I have a small ZIA just for her.




-Jennifer Gayle

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Eccentric Circles–Who Knew Circles Could Be Nutty Like Me

When I first saw the title of this week's challenge, "Weekly Challenge #74: 'String Theory v. X: Eccentric Circles," I thought it must surely be a typo.  I'd heard of concentric circles, but never of eccentric circles.  So I looked it up in the dictionary.  Geometrically speaking it means, "not having the same center; not concentric: used especially of two circles or spheres at least one of which contains the centers of both," as opposed to peculiar or odd when speaking of a person.


I am still struggling with strings and and since this was a string challenge I have eccentric circles all over my sketch book.  What I present to you is a close version of Striping.  I personally love it for the optical effect that it has.




If you'll also indulge me–I have been having problems with my migraines lately and have missed the opportunity to upload my Tangles from the past two challenges.  

Weekly Challenge #73: UMT v. V: Bridgen-
The small Tangle is the first one that I did.  I like it for its simplicity and it's kind of cute, but I keep having this nagging feeling it needs something.  The second, the Christmas ornaments, I'm sharing with you in their raw state.  I haven't done any shading yet because I haven't decided how I want to color them.




Weekly Challenge #72: "Tanglation Nation-Crescent Moon"-
This challenge proved to be a bit difficult for me, but it also proved the idea of going with your first instinct.  The pattern that I ended up with is actually the first one that I drew, but I set it aside to try to draw something more 'exciting'.  After several frustrating days I returned to my first pattern and found success.  



And don't forget, June is Migraine Awareness Month.  For information and support go to Migraine.com.