Zentangle Challenge #286 - Straight to it

The challenge this week from Laura (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca) is to use straight lines. I chose tangles from one of my step out booklets, but chose tangles that to me also implied some sort of movement. I'm happy with the way this fun challenge turned out - as usual, totally not what I had envisioned when I started with Afterglow! My apologies to those who don't get comments from me. I am looking at most entries when time permits, but I'm not able to comment on Flickr or Instagram photo's, and sometimes don't comment when there is a blog post that covers several challenges. I am looking, and I am enjoying, and I do try to comment when I can.

Zentangle Challenge #285 - Relax, bro.

When we tangle for ourselves, as opposed to tangling for something we are going to publish somewhere for others to see, probably, our tangling is more Zen, more relaxed… And that is the premise for this week's Diva challenge (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca) It's true for me sometimes - especially if there is a challenge or focus on a tangle I'm unfamiliar with or don't particularly like. For this tile I took one I had worked on at an outdoor music concert this summer, and really didn't like. The basic tangles I had done were only Betweed, and Molygone. I set the tile aside. (I have a stack of potential tiles to finish…) For this challenge I finished the tile by adding in a few more tangles - the first that came to mind when I looked at a spot, then shaded. I wish I had taken progress photo's: the tile I wasn't happy with, the tile before shading…) I'm happy I kept that tile, and really should go back and touch up my other unfinished, not loved tiles….

Zentangle Challenge #284 - Monotangle to Tripoli

This week's challenge from Laura at www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca is to do a monotangle of Tripoli. I love Tripoli, but also have a love/hate relationship with it. The part of me that wants things perfect or at least reasonably close doesn't love this tangle because it always goes wonky for me no matter how careful I'm trying to be. On the other hand, I'm loving this challenge, because today I decided to "just do it" and let the pen go where it wants. I was stressing at first because I wasn't liking the initial look, but this is one of those cases that showed me that embracing the imperfections is why Zentangle is so magical. I'm happy with this in the end…. I also want to say here, that I do try to see everyone's entry, and comment on as many as I can. However, I don't do Flickr, or Instagram, or Yahoo, so I can't log in to make comments. Sometimes too I don't read all or comment on a blog post that encompasses several challenges in one post. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy looking and love the work… just so you know...

Zentangle Challenge #283 - UMT - Centre Square

This week's Diva Challenge (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca) is to "Use my Tangle" - Aleesha's Centre Square. I'm not a big fan of lots of filling in, but it can be quite meditative if I could just keep my mind on it. I wanted to play with the shading in this tangle, and it didn't actually go where I thought it might, but it's all good. Aleesha, thanks for the tangle, and Laura, thanks always for doing these challenges and making us go where we might not otherwise venture!

Zentangle Challenge #282 - Spill it!

Oh boy… this one was a challenge for me. Not specifically the tangling (though I had trouble with Tipoli)- but I ruined 4 tiles trying to "spill" stuff on them. Three were too sticky, and one was just… grey. I wanted to do a red wine spill, but didn't want to open a bottle of wine I wasn't in the mood to drink. I found this tile in a pile of "to do something with" tiles, and don't remember what was spilled on it. Anyway, here is my tile for this week's Diva challenge (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca), before and after.