I Am The Diva Challenge 178: Duo-Tangle

The challenge this week is to create a duo-tangle using tangles that begin with the first letter of your first and last name.  Since my name is Barb Sailor,  I had to find patterns that began with B and S.  I chose Boomerang and Sparkle.  

I worked on a 5" x 5" square piece of good white drawing paper and did my design mostly in .005 Micron Pigma black pen and poppy red Prismacolor colored pencil.  I also did some shading with a black colored pencil.  I tried to get this design symmetrical, but failed - oh well!  I enjoyed doing it anyway...I have to get over being such a perfectionist!!! lol

I Am The Diva Challenge #175: Crux

The challenge this week is to use the tangle "Crux" in your Zentangle.  We were allowed to use another tangle in our composition, so I chose "Tipple" which sort of contrasts with the straight lines in Crux.  I did three variations of Crux and varied the sizes of the Tipple areas.  I also tried to balance my dark and light areas using symmetrical balance.  I used a .005 Pigma pen and a #.08 to fill in areas.  I used a black Prismacolor colored pencil to shade.

I superimposed 3 strings for this design.

If you have seen some of my other Zentangles, you have already figured out that I am very anal and controlled.  I am going to have to work on getting looser and more spontaneous in my tangling.

Mixed Media Portrait Study

I have been experimenting with some mixed-media collage type studies. 

 In this, I started with a discarded watercolor and did a partial collage on top with torn areas of text from an old book.  Then I painted textures on scraps of white tissue paper with white gesso, and then collaged those scraps on top of the text .  All of this allows some of the original watercolor to peak through, but not that it is recognizable.  

I then took an image of a man's face, made many changes so that it is my interpretation of a face and drew it on top of the collage.  I painted it with watercolors, and then added prismacolor pencil shading and details. 

 Finally, I used block-out white and a small pointed brush  for the beard stubble and mustache.  I like the way the gesso collage shows through the watercolor.