Zentangles

I don't have any minis to show you right now.
I just finished packaging up swap gifts for  Jane  , they should be in the mail in the morning.
I'll have pictures to show you after Jane sees what I made her.

So I thought that I would show you a few zentangles that I recently finished.

I bought a few new pens and a book on shading,

Made in the Shade .

I've been practicing shading.

And I even found a few pens that I like from the Dollar Tree, I drew this with one of them.

It is not the smoothest pen that I've tried but not bad for 2/$1.



They don't look too bad, if you don't look too close.  If you look close (please don't) you can see every slip.

There are many blogs about zentangles, many of them are amazing.

Many of my drawings began from an idea from bits of zentagles that I've seen. 

I tend to start many drawings but I have trouble deciding how to finish them.

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing my drawings.

Thank you for visiting, Mary

A Sad Day

Violence has hit New England again, this time very close to home, only about 30 minutes away.  Yesterday many people were injured or killed by terrorists during the Boston Marathon. 

I'm having a hard time concentrating on much today, I'm just too sad.

I'm going to go try to quiet  my mind drawing some zentangles, that has not been easy today.

I'm hoping that I will feel better tomorrow and will be able to show you more of the things that I've sorted, that you could win from my give-away.


 Thank you for visiting, Mary
 

Do you do the Zentangle?

Have you seen Zentangles?  Have you drawn any?

I had not seen them until I saw them on Casey's minis blog, thank you, Casey.
Casey  has been working on making 98 Zentangle squares, they are fantastic.

I had to try it myself, mine are not as detailed as Casey's.   The important part is that it is fun and relaxing.  I do not have any artist pens, just what was around the house.  All you need is a few minutes, a pen or two and a piece of paper.  You don't need any drawing experience,  just start putting your pen to the paper.   You will probably like more pens if you decide that you like it.   I like it, I want more pens.

There are videos on YouTube that show how to start and some of the patterns.  There are lots of example to see if you google 'zentangle images'.


Here are my first few attempts,

Then I did a few more.

I think that I see a  little bit of improvement already.  I made a few small squares of different patterns, they help me get ideas when I get stuck on what to do next.

I've also been practicing drawing some patterns using a 'lazy S' , I like them. 

 I also realized that I like  leaf and feather type patterns and borders.

Planning Jaynie's Loft was put on hold for a while today, while I played with  Zentangles.  While I was looking for ideas  I found a pattern for a fret work screen that I  had printed.  The swirly patterns made me think of Zentangles.  I copied the pattern at 200%, then started filling in the sections.   You can find the pattern for the screen here       Here's how it started and what I've done so far. 

I like most of it but not all and I'm stuck for now, so I'll put it aside for a bit and come back to it later.

What do you think?  Have you tried it?  Have you posted pictures?  I'd love to see your Zentangles.

Now I have to go back to trying to figure out what to do with Jaynie's Loft.  I have lots of ideas but no real plans yet.  My kit should be here Monday, I need to do some reading on putting a house together.  Do you have any advice, anything that you wish that you knew before you started your first house?

Thank you for visiting, Mary