Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Playing the Blues

The Diva's Challenge #12: Something Blue!
  This was a toughie. It's been a little while since I had used color in Zentangles. I felt a little intimidated and stumped... like there was a 'supposed to' in the mix. There were expectations (self-imposed) swirling around, so I let it be for a day. When I saw Maria Thomas' post, I was inspired to get out the box I could feel myself in.
   I don't have much to color with, except some really fun watercolor pencils. I figured I would start with a blue string, or even a blue blob. Here is what happened first:


I then used a wet brush to smear the color. I forgot that a little color goes a long way with these pencils and the blue ended up much darker than I was hoping for. Oh well, onward and forward! As it moved along, I felt like I wanted more highlights, so I dug up a white pen (Sakura Pentouch) and tried to add some blinkies. It was a little hard to get it to smear just right, since it's an opaque marker, but after some messing around, it finally perked up. For as light as I thought I was starting out, the whole process felt very heavy-handed. I think I was still working out the box issue, with all of its "shoulds" tucked neatly inside it.


Still looking for something airy and blue, I started another. This time the blue was barely on the paper, just a hint of a string. Using the tangle Artoo as a beginning, this springy tile was more of the feeling of blue to me. After the pen, I added a little more blue and pencil shading.


The last one was a tile that I had started a few weeks ago, but only had gotten a small amount tangled. I added blue after I finished the pen tangles. As I worked on all of these, a little blue "rule" ran through my head. It's always been one of my favorite rules, because in the statement contains the allowance for breaking the rule: Blue recedes except for when it doesn't. The fun was to see what the blue was going to do in the end ...will it or won't it?


27 comments:

  1. WOW, just WOW. These are all beautiful

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  2. These are all just YUMMY!!! I love the organic feel to the bottom two Zentangles - you are such an inspiration - thank you for sharing!!!

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  3. Every week I look forward to your entries. I love your style. It is fabulously beautiful. These three are most definitely exactly what I was hoping you could accomplish...perfection!

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  4. These are stunning. I like all three, but the free motion of the second pair are really calling me by name! I do love the third tile but that second one.... how does it know my name? *G* Excellent stuff. I really like your style.

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  5. Breathtaking! And wordtaking ;-).
    Your ZTs are always amazing beautiful… Can´t decide which one would be my favorite, because I love each and every one of them!
    The intense blue of the first one and its contrast is just my thing. The minimalism of just one or two tangles of the second and third as well… So, I´ll take them all ;-)!

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  6. I like all of them. But if you really pushed for a favorite I would have to choose the first one.
    Thanks for a very entertaining post. I like how you think..I think...

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  7. Stunning! These are all gorgeous!!

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  8. More breathtaking and powerful tangling Carole, love them all!

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  9. Oh wow, these are really stunning! I'm loving the first one the best, I think. I might have to get some watercolour pencils and give them a try sometime as the effect here is wonderful.

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  10. Great job on all three. It's fun to see them together - each one is so unique and different from the other two. I think the second one is my favorite, though. You really captured the light and airy feeling you were after.

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  11. Thank you everyone. I feel very lucky to have found this art form (I know you all feel the exact same way). And very lucky to be part of this challenge fun and this community.

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  12. These are all awesome, I love the light and airy feel of the last one. The Motion of the second one really draws the eye, and the first one is just beautiful. What an amazing touch you have with the pen.

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  13. Thanks for sharing about your process. It is helpful to hear how something came to pass. I think they all turned out lovely - with a nice, soft blue.

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  14. These are so delicate! You may not use color often, but you use it so very well!

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  15. Lovely! 1 and 3 are my favorites. Hadn't heard the 'blue rule' before, but I like it!
    Interesting. I also go out some watercolor pencils and used blue... :-)
    --Margaret

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  16. Lovely, and my fav's are also 1 and 3. Very intresting

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  17. you would never know you had any issues with this challenge, Carole. Beautiful, as always.

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  18. Lovely tiles! And if ya look at the middle one long enough, it moves and flows!! Fabulous.

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  19. You have a lot of movement in each one of these, and they are all so organic! I like the approach you took by adding the color...nice.

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  20. These are just gorgeous Carole. Your tangles are inspiring.

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  21. I think you did a great job, They all so beautiful!

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  22. Wow! Carole, these are wonderful. They remind me of the winds of March. I love the movement in all of them.

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  23. All of your pieces here are just beautiful.

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  24. I love the unique style of your tangles. do you ever post tutorials? I would love to know the technique used to make them look so layered and 3 dimensional. I hope to become a certified teacher soon but I am in western Canada so a bit far away from any courses. I'm a fan of on-line classes if you think you ever might do some, it would be great!!!

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