Diva's Challenge #81- Guest Post-Relay For Life

This week our Diva is dealing with some sick kiddies, so CZT Erin Olson was kind enough to step in and present us with a challenge.  In celebration of Erin's upcoming participation in her local Relay for Life she presented us with a Zendala challenge.  Zendalas are a combination of Zentangle and mandalas.  Their repetitive nature is meant to be meditative.

The challenge was certainly a change of pace, especially since I had never done one before.  I rather enjoyed working on the Zendala and had originally intended on doing two.  That was before the coffee table got in my way.  I've been on crutches since last October and coffee table has had it out for me for months now.  :-)  It finally got its shot Tuesday night.  I ended up rolling over it and landing on my right side.  I ended up finishing my Zendala with a sprained wrist.  Although this was my first, I look forward to many Zendalas in the future, once I get my revenge on the coffee table.

-Jennifer Gayle

The Diva's Challenge #80– Mi2

When I first encountered Mi2 I was a bit awed.  It is one of those Tangles that, in the right hands, can be done so that you could never figure out where one penstroke ends and another begins.  When I brought up the instructions on TanglePatterns.com however, I was very overwhelmed.  I tried several times to get the Tangle to come out right, but it just didn't want to work.  I was about to throw in the towel when I read Rick's blog post about simplifying Mi2.  That helped so much.  My drawings weren't ready for the cover of a magazine, but they were much improved.  And I'm glad they were, too, since this week's challenge was Mi2.  I was still having some problems with lining up the dots, so I decided to stick them in a circle and what do you do, it worked.

-Jennifer Gayle

Zentangle Inspired Art Journal #28- Fruit

I have recently discovered the Yahoo group Zentangle Inspired Art.  The community and resources are wonderful.  After I broke my fourth pen nib in six months many people offered suggestions for alternatives to Micron pens.  It was greatly appreciated.  I am also looking forward to participating in one of the many swaps that the group hosts!

Another thing that the group provides is a weekly prompt for some Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA).  This week's prompt was fruit.  At first I was rather stumped.  I could't figure out what fruit I wanted to use–I didn't want to draw a round orange.  So I Googled fruit for some inspiration and there it was, staring right back at me.

I broke up the apple based on the positions at an Apple Store–Specialist, Creative, Genius, Back of House, and Manager (they get to be the little leaf).

I really enjoyed doing this one.  It was nice and relaxing, as a Zentangle should be.

-Jennifer Gayle

The Diva's Challenge #78- Auraknot

"Are so!"  Seriously–Last week Rick and Maria debuted a wonderful new tangle named Auraknot.  It is a tangle that is beautiful in its simplicity, yet so versatile because of its simplicity.  As you can see from the website it has numerous variations.  Take a moment to visit the Diva's home page to see her variations, as well as everyone else's.

I am particularly happy with my response to the challenge this week.  I had spent several days practicing Auraknot before the challenge, so I felt a little ahead of the game this week.  The only problem I was having was that I couldn't draw a straight star to save my life.  They were all coming out 'wonkie'.  That's when I decided to embrace my inner 'wonkie' and just go for it.  I decided to use a variation of Mayflower by Ellen Wolters that I like to doodle in my sketch book.  It turns out that I can draw curvy lines a lot easier than straight ones.  Who would have known.

-Jennifer Gayle

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

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.

Feelin' Groovy- Challenge #69

This week's challenge is what our diva, Laura, dubs a "use my tangle" challenge.  Anyone is welcome to submit a tangle pattern they have created and at the beginning of the month Laura chooses one, with the help of her trusty random number generator, to be our inspiration for the week's challenge. This week we were challenged by Eden's 'Groovy'.

Like many others this was a pattern that I had tried in the past, but was frustrated with it so I put it away for another day.  When it was assigned as our challenge pattern I spent the first two days filling up pages in my sketch book trying to get my foundation lines to match up.  I looked at the first few posts and saw the mention of Simon and Garfunkel's song, 'Fellin'Groovy', I decided to pull it up on the iPod and give it a listen.  After relaxing a bit I realized I was trying too hard.  Once I relaxed the foundation curves fell into place and the rest just fell into groove, so to speak.

This first piece is really more of a ZIA homage to "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)", by Simon and Garfunkel.  The cobblestones are a more rustic form of Brix by Carol Ottaway and the 'dropping petals' are Frairum by Molossus.  The overlap shading doesn't show up quite as nicely as I would have liked, but the most important part it that I was enjoying myself and feelin' groovy.

This is actually the first piece that I did.  I wanted to play with the shading of the Groovy so I picked a background that seemed to appropriate- Hopscotch.  I think the shading came out quite nicely.

I'm really glad that we had this pattern as our weekly challenge.  No longer will it sit, forgotten and alone in a corner of my sketch book.  Now that I more comfortable I definitely plan to use it more often. 

-Jennifer Gayle