This week's Diva Challenge gave me a bit of pause for thought. Much as I love looking at Aquafleur, and I think it is a lovely tangle, it is one that I struggle with. So having it as the feature tangle for a tile? Well, I felt a bit of dread.
So what did I do? Did I just concentrate on Aquafleur and make what I could of it on a non-challenging white tile? Did I couple it with a comfortable or comforting tangle? Did I make my life easy? Hahahahaaha. No.
Renaissance tiles give me the heebies (which is weird, given I draw and paint on coloured grounds as a preference and love trois crayons), so I got out a Renaissance tile. In for a penny, in for a pound, perhaps.
Surprisingly, the Aquafleurs worked okay. Still not quite right. I can't quite get my head around how this tangle flows, but they are, for once, on the right track. Crescent Moon and Paisel just seemed to work, so that was okay. So far, so good. But it took me another 45 minutes or so just staring at the tile or maniacally flicking through my tangle notebook before I finally decided what to do. Molygon. Another struggle tangle. That's two pennies in the pound now.
Actually, I'm really happy with the Molygon. I really like the way it turned out. But it and the Crescent section have very different things going on. I wonder if I should have just done one or the other. The Molygon makes the Aquafleur pop while the Crescent Moon sort of... I don't know... behaves differently but equally well. I think later I'll experiment, producing a tile that's just Aquafleur and Crescent Moon and another that's just Aquafleur and that particular version of Molygon, and see how they compare. That could be interesting. And it will make me practice those tangles a little more. Maybe I will find the flow. Can't hurt either way.
Overdid the shading a little. Knowing when to stop is also another challenge. So a challenging challenge this week. It's good to push ourselves.
I've missed the last few Diva Challenges. When things get difficult I get a bit social media phobic, which is silly, but there you are. I've read the blog each time and looked at all the wonderful creations, and even done some drawing late in the evening when the kids are finally in bed and I can breathe for a few minutes. But posting anything has been too confronting. Funny that this challenge takes all the pressure off.
Drawing with the off-hand is surprisingly stress-less for me (see this post from way back in 2014 as to why that's so, if you are so inclined). There is no way it can be like the things I draw with my usual hand so my brain just switches off its self-criticism motor, which is normally in over-drive, and I just go with whatever happens. So what we have is shaky and shonky, and the lines don't all join up in places, but I kind of like it. About halfway through I questioned the wisdom of choosing Auraknot, but in for a penny in for a pound and I managed better than I had expected to.
I went back and revisited the diptych issue. Reading through some of the other blogs, I realised I had not quite got what a Zentangle diptych involves, so I had another go. Two cards this time, with a paper hinge behind. The two halves are more echoes than reflections, but it works. Next is to cut a tile in half and attach the two halves either side of a whole tile so they swing out like doors and thus become a triptych. If I can get up the courage to cut a tile. Whole other thing than simply folding one. Aaargh. I'll work up to that.
And finally, as promised some weeks ago, my "Jetties as a string" tile. This is the last of the "use tangles as strings" tiles that I began with Lianne Wood back in 2015. So this little tile spans about two-and-a-half years from start to finish. Slack, but I got there in the end.
Tripoli, Jetties, Meer, Flux, Bunzo, Coaster, Printemps, Pearlz, Purk, Finery, Tipple, Zander, Crezn't, Chartz, and two that I can't for the life of me remember the names of. I'll find them and put them in. Bear with me.
Yes, I missed last week's challenge. And I was almost a week late with pressing publish on some lovely comments (I moderate all comments. Prevents spam), for which I apologise. Thank you, everyone, for your lovely comments. I do value them. Things happened and I wasn't online. I haven't been online very much at all lately, and last week I didn't even manage to keep up with the Diva or the other blogs I follow. I looked at a couple of Challenge responses and then events overtook me, and that was that. There's a bit more of an explanation, along with a drawing technique, on my art blog, if you are so inclined.
Things are a bit less ga-ga this week, so here I am again.
This week the Diva posed us an interesting challenge. If you are going to be absolutely pedantic a diptych does not have to be reflected, just a hinged painting on two panels, but I did actually go with the instructions, so reflected it is. Which was a lot of fun. I don't think it would have been anywhere near so interesting to do if the reflection aspect wasn't there. But do you know, I found it really difficult to fold that tile. Part of me felt like a vandal. It was like the first time I made a note in a textbook (which I owned, by the way. I have ever since treated reading textbooks as having a conversation). I may as well have been sacking Rome. Once done, however, it seems churlish to stop. Tile done. Not the greatest, but not bad for a first go.
This is it lying flat. Flux, Squid, Dex.
I was going to gatefold it rather than wingfold it, but I had this idea of mounting it on red card. Which wasn't really successful.
The same on red card. No, the image is not squashed, it really does look this distorted.
Weird, isn't it?
So instead I stuck it, folded the other way, to my book stand on my desk, using my kneadable rubber (so many uses). I'll do this exercise again, gatefolded I think, and also on separate tiles with a paper hinge.
And suddenly normalcy is returned. This bends the same amount as the one on red,
just in the opposite direction. Go figure.
I was going to post the tile with the Jetties string, but today's photos were taken very late as my daughter had borrowed my phone for the day and my camera is on the blink, so I rushed to get the challenge photos done and forgot the Jetties tile, and now the light is fading. Maybe next time.
Instead, in keeping with the idea of a diptych, but extending it (because I really do not know when to leave well enough alone), here's a set of three tiles that I did a number of years ago. If I hadn't sold them (yay!), I would be joining them and mounting them differently. I think on wood with metal hinges, in a concertina set up. That could be really interesting.
Cipher (yes, it got given a name), Tripoli, Jetties, Rixty, Shattuck, Web, Squid,
Msst, Hollibaugh, Nipa, Paradox, Waves, Tipple, Ixorus,
and a great big stripey snake thing (what is that, exactly? Barberpole?)
And now my brain is full of Patrick Woodroffe and his beautiful diptychs and triptychs (no, seriously, follow that link. His work is stunning. A great loss), and I'm thinking of Zentangle wooden panels, amongst other things and wondering about the possibilities.
In the meantime this was much more fun than I thought it would be (after the folding trepidation), and as usual I have been absolutely blown away by everyone else's Challenge responses. This is such an inventive and gifted community. Thanks to Laura for spurring us on each week.
No archived challenges today because I kind of went nuts on this week's Diva Challenge.
At the beginning of 2015 I had a lesson with Lianne Woods, the lovely CZT in the Sydney area. If you are on the east coast of Australia, it is worth looking her up and booking a lesson. Anyway, she was getting us to blow up tangles and use them as strings. We got the basics down on several tiles, but I didn't finish them in the time we had, put them in my box and sort of forgot about them. Last week I found them and finished them, keeping as much as possible to the style of tangling I had used at the time. Each one had some patterning already done. The Bb string tile had been closest to completion, I like the addition of the sepia pen and am glad that wavy bar was drawn through the middle. Sometimes you don't know what to do with an area, but it comes to you later. Then this week's challenge came and I realised that some of the tiles fitted the challenge parameters - to use stripes as strings. (There was a Jetties, which could have qualified too, as the stripes in the balls were tangled in. I might share that one another time.)
Even without the challenge I would have shared a couple of these, as I really like the idea of using tangles as strings. Thank you, Lianne!
Hazen string, Squid, Paisel, Msst, Tripoli
Bb string, Zander, Crescent Moon, Finery, Opus, Coaster, Shattuck, Nipa
W2 string, Onamato, Hibred, Finery, Shattuck, Meer, Purk, Akoya,
can anyone tell me what that last one is? I don't seem to have it in my journal.
And then, because I felt I should do an actual tile specifically for Diva day, there's this. Three very broad stripes. I am interested in how my style of tangling has shifted in the last two years, although that could just be because I need my glasses script updated. I suspect that seeing double when the tile is closer than arms' length is not a good thing (she types wryly).
Meer, Pearlz, Flux, Crescent Moon, Mooka, Fescu (doing a Sand Swirl thing again),
Nipa (without the circles)
Another week has gone by. Another week of running around after kids and appointments and whatnot. I had a biopsy taken from my left arm last Thursday, so I haven't slept well since then as every time I roll onto that side at night I wake up. So much fun. But fortunately it's my left arm so it hasn't stopped me drawing. I have been able to work on several detailed illustrations and have been tangling in the evenings. Catching up on challenges, tangling for my own enjoyment, trying out new things and techniques from the very talented Zentangle community. There are some truly amazing artists out there. The internet does have its benefits - we get to share in a much wider artistic community.
The Diva Challenge for this week was to use Molygon. I have trouble with this one. A lot of my crescents end up looking like squashed bananas, so I really have to slow it down.
This attempt at Molygon isn't too bad, although I am not sure about the Pepper in the top corner. As a single element it feels too large, and the subtle shading is too subtle for my camera. Oh well, live and learn. One must try these things. I do like the Crescent Moons in the bottom corner, even if they do have smiley faces. And some of them definitely aren't crescents. I haven't really got the swirly thing happening with the Molygons. It sort of starts and then peters out. Ah well, it is what it is.
Far more successful from my point of view was my attempt at challenge #298, using Orbs-la-Dee. Going for a contrast between tangles that are flat and others that can be given a bit of dimension. While not there yet, this is definitely on the right track.
I had originally put Bunzo in every third diamond on the outside and Nzeppel in the others, but it wasn't working. So Nzeppel got drawn over with more Bunzos. The white gel pen was needed to get rid of the lines that showed, so the Bunzos ended up with more grey than I had planned. But it worked. Serendipity is a splendid thing.
And finally, challenge #290, using Nzeppel and Flux. I love these two patterns, they are on my list of go-to patterns, or comfort tangling, or whatever you want to call it, so I suppose this also takes care of the "Mac&Cheese" challenges of the past as well. Two with one stone. Although this was not entirely comforting to do. Leaving white space is always a struggle for me. I have a strong urge to cover everything.
Diva Challenge 290, Nzeppel, Flux, Cirquital
My eldest child keeps urging me to colour tiles before I start. When I paint, I always paint on a coloured ground, so I can see her wisdom in this, and I suspect it will calm that desire to cover all the surface. I certainly don't get the same drive with the black or Renaissance tiles, so she may well be on to something. There's no shading on this (I only just noticed), but I don't know that it's needed. It seems okay the way it is.
I can't believe I am actually posting on the same day the Diva Challenge was issued. It's been quite a disrupted week, with school holidays not ending till Wednesday and then both kids being off sick Friday and off again today. Which means I have been able to get some drawing done amidst all the boring things, like washing and cooking. They both seem to like snuggling on the lounge with me while I beetle away with the pens and pencils. Plenty of Goons or Goodies because, let's face it, laughter is the best medicine. Or at least good for taking the mind off things.
Scallamp is an interesting tangle. I overdid the decorations, something more plain may manifest tonight, with more chances to play with shading. We shall see.
The week also gave me a chance to work on archived Challenges. I found the tile I actually did for #189, before I was brave enough to post anything. Yuma, which is now a regular part of the repertoire.
Diva 189, Yuma
I've had a lot of fun with others, but I think to finish up I'll go with Challenge #305, using Marasu and Molygon. I use Marasu a lot, but Molygon bamboozles me a little. It requires some concentration to keep track of where the next little crescent goes. So this was good practice.
Diva 305, Molygon, Marasu (spot the curve where the cat jumped on my lap. Sigh)
There are plenty more with that came from, but I'll save them for another time.
I missed last week's challenge as I was away. As in right away. I went to my brother's farm outside Murrumbateman (a little town about 40 minutes from Canberra), and was without internet. Or news. Which was lovely. The television is satellite only, and bounced from Alice Springs, right in the centre of Australia, so it was kind of weird that I knew when their next rodeo was on, or where to get framing done in Alice, but knew nothing of what was happening in the rest of the world. Which given the way that week was seems to have been something of a boon. Ignorance really is bliss.
One of the cows dropped a calf. She is unbelievably cute. We dined on one of the steers (Space Ghost - he won awards on hoof and hook and was incredibly delicious), and there were fresh farm eggs. Plus I went in to Canberra a few times to catch up with friends and have beautiful meals with them. And I got painting done. As in real honest-to-god painting, in oils on canvas. And tangled in the evenings while watching television with my brother and sister-in-law and nephew. A very good week.
The kids stayed home with their dad and everyone managed without Mum for the week, so I am thinking I can really do this again sometime.
I was looking forward to seeing this week's Challenge, but when it came up it left me rather bamboozled. Something inspired by the Earth? Or something on a recycled support? Really, I was unsure. But Laura the lovely Diva was kind enough to clarify. Inspired by the Earth. Gotcha. Still, it took a couple of days for me to work it all out in my head. Lots of reading and research, which was fun. I know a fair bit more now about the Gaia Hypothesis than I did. And weather patterns. And the shapes of the Earth's tectonic plates. But nothing was really singing. I didn't want to just do leafy, organic patterns because I tend to do those most of the time anyway. And then I remembered the Earth's electromagnetic field, which protects us from the worst of the solar winds and stops our atmosphere from being stripped away. So the weekly challenge turned out like this:
Imagine you are the Sun, looking straight at our Earth, but able to see into it, in cross section. There are the inner core, outer core and mantle. The crust, so fragile and thin, is just a line, the biosphere and atmosphere are rendered in Fescu, with the ionosphere as the white halo. And then the magnetic field loops out in bows. Behind the Earth the solar winds push the field out in a great stream so that it looks like Earth has a tail, or long hair, but the Sun can't see that. If I were doing this challenge again I would fill every space between the loops with Meer, but it's still okay as it is. Not perfect, but okay.
Our planet is really quite fragile. That field goes and we and everything else are just toast. We should be grateful for our Earth and take much better care of it. It could all be gone so easily. The politicians and their corporate masters won't bother, so it's up to us to speak up every day and call them to account.
In keeping with the plan to catch up on all those Challenges I missed (well, most of them, but anyway...), here's one I did while on the farm. Challenge 304, using Waybop. Quite a fun little tangle that. I've been using it a lot. Funny how some tangles you just take to, while others take a while to catch on. I've certainly caught on to this one. I did Waybops that were more standard, but I really like the way this particular one turned out.
Diva Challenge 304, Waybop, Betweed, Msst
I also had a go at some of the Renaissance tiles, both square and round. They make me a little wary, so it's good to practice something that pushes me out of my comfort zone. Good old Bunzo again. Maggots in carapaces. I have jokingly called this Bunzodala.
I've been away for the weekend with my eldest. Went down to Canberra to see friends and family and the Treasures of Versailles Exhibition. We had a great time, but I was quite tired when we got home. Four hours plus of driving, with two near misses due to idiot drivers who weren't paying attention and clearly weren't expecting for someone to be doing to the speed limit. Still, home safe and sound, so yay for us.
Regardless of the tiredness, I couldn't help looking at the Diva Challenge last night. I figured it would be up, even though I hadn't got my email alert yet (time zones - one of the perils of living on a sort of spheroid planet). And when I saw it, oh, I was so excited. I nearly grabbed my pens and paper there and then. But instead I went to bed. And slept like a log. And spent all this morning running around doing the things that needed doing and itching to get drawing.
Laura has set a challenge that is right up my alley - a string with circles and squares.
See, here's the thing. I love sacred geometry. And the thing about sacred geometry, or classical geometry if you prefer, is that circles and squares are really important. And the presence of one implies the presence of the other.
I was reading recently "The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day" by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen1. On p.52, writing about varying cosmologies, Stewart and Cohen point out that to "many [ancient central American] cultures the world was both square and round". Which when you think about it makes perfect sense. The Four Corners of the Earth, anyone? A circle is the basis from which a square is constructed and they share the same centre point (which is often considered the fifth point of the square). Prior to the invention of the set square the only way to reliably draw a square, with accurate right-angled corners, was to start with a circle. Frankly, it's still the best way to do it, as far as I am concerned. And you can do it with just a compass and straight edge. No fussing around.
A circle can easily lead to a square. A square has to have come from a circle. No wonder I couldn't wait to get started. Although of course, life gets in the way. So here I am at nearly three in the afternoon and I have only now found time to put pen to paper.
Diva Challenge #311, CircleSquare, Bunzo, Cyme, Knightsbridge, Marasu, Printemps, Wasser and a spiral
Megan Hitchens, black ink, brown ink, white ink, graphite, white chalk on tan paper. 2017
It's a little wonky as I did it free hand, but using a mandala tile really helped. I think the Knightbridge was a mistake, or needs something else happening in it. And I should have gone much more carefully with the spiral, but otherwise... well... it will do.
For squares and circles I much prefer this, which I did with a compass and straight edge, but it's not the formal challenge piece as it was done for INKtober last year.
Playing, Paradox, Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh, Meer, Tipple, other patterns that I should go look up their names
Megan Hitchens, blank ink on white paper, 2016
You can really see the difference a straight edge makes. Oh well.
Squares within circles, circles within squares, turtles all the way down.
No archived Diva Challenge today as I still have stacks to do.
1. Pratchett Terry, Cohen Jack, Stewart Ian, The Scicnce of the Discworld IV: Judgement Day, Ebury Publishing, 2014
Back again. Who'd have thunk? Two in two days. But I kind of got the Frunky bug.
Plus... Having posted, I went and looked at everyone else's Diva challenge responses for this week. Wow, there are some talented people out there. But... having looked at Katharina's whole post for Frunky, instead of just the step-outs, I realised that my little effort was very similar to something she had done. Maybe I half saw it when I visited her page in the first place and was subconsciously channelling. I don't know. But it did make me feel uncomfortable. So I went through the other Frunky tiles I had drawn (I said I'd got the bug) and decided to share another one that's a bit less similar.
On a Bijou tile, so signed with the little Tangle Bug instead of my usual monogram. I love these little tiles. There is no room for faffing around. Straight down to business and get it done. Although, having said this, I now have a 0.05 micron and am itching to miniaturise. Anyway...
Diva challenge #310, Frunky, Flux, Megan Hitchens, black ink and graphite, 2017. Better? or too figurative now? Sigh.
And in keeping with trying to keep to a plan, I did another challenge from the Diva archive - #198, which, incidentally, is also challenge #1, right back at the beginning. Simplify. So, on a Bijou tile, because it is small, in a circle string, because that is, let's face it, one line, a single tangle, Nzeppel. Shading is simple too. Not thrilled, but not unhappy either.
Diva Challenge #1 and #198, Nzeppel, Megan Hitchens, black ink and graphite, 2017
No fussiness, no thinking, no fear, just done. Simple.
Two and a third years. That's a loooooooooonnnnnnnggggggg time between posts. But that's the way life goes sometimes. All my blogs have been on hold, or only dealt with very sporadically. And as for tangling - hahahahaha. It has barely happened. But....
I'm trying to get back on board. I have still been drawing when I can, but not painting, and doing calligraphy when I can. And it is way past time I got back to tangling.
Do you know the funny thing about that? I was scared to start back up. Everything felt rusted shut. Over the last two and a bit years I have been maintaining my tangle manual (all the patterns I like, with the step outs), and checking out the Diva's challenge each week, and reading the Zentangle blogs and newsletters. And, of course, The Tangled Way (Lianne Woods - great teacher), Enthusiastic Artist (Margaret Bremner) and the incomparable Magratscraft (this is a must). I just haven't done more than read. Well, a tile here or there, but otherwise no (I might share them another time, I might not).
Other things have been drawn on Zentangle tiles in the meantime - the paper is so beautiful that it can't be ignored. Things that are quite detailed and need to be mapped out carefully, and corrected where necessary. And I've found out another reason why you don't rub out when tangling. One, it's not wrong. Two, the paper HATES rubbing out. It pills and shreds and generally reacts very badly. And then bleeds like no one's business. So never, never feel tempted to rub out what you've done. It's really not worth it. Turn a bug into a feature, as the computer people say, or turn it upside down, a la Mr Squiggle, or something. But Don't. Rub. Out.
Life is getting back on track, very slowly, and fingers, toes and eyes crossed that I have not just jinxed that. Some canvasses have been prepared (that's a story for one of my other blogs), some serious drawing undertaken, and actual research done too. So I felt I really, really should get back to tangling.
The fear was still there (I know that's silly, but there you are), but the Diva challenge made it easier. UMT challenge with a great pattern, Frunky, by Katharina Königsbauer-Kolb.
Diva challenge #310, Frunky, Megan Hitchens, white gel pen, white chalk, soapstone, 2017
For a black tile, this scanned remarkably well. The soapstone can be quite reflective, which makes images problematic. Not this time. I'm very happy with it. Frunky is a lovely pattern, and a great one for dusting off the cobwebs, or blasting off the rust.
Of course, then I got enthusiastic. Several half-finished tiles dating back to 2015 got finished (yay), and I thought "why not catch up on the missing challenges?" So I looked at the last one I did (#195) and then at the next one (#196 - the sort of Christmas/dolly one), which I have decided to sit on for a while. And then found in my box the tile I did for #197 way back when it was set, but never posted (nor shaded, I just realise. That could be why). That's handy. So here it is. Finally.
Diva challenge #197, Arukas, Paradox, Nzeppel, Bunzo, Flux, Megan Hitchens, black Sakura micron, brown Sakura micron, 2014
I had decided to use Arukas, the set tangle for the challenge, as the string and then fill the spaces with whatever took my fancy, including Arukas. It's a little busy, but I like the two ink colours. Bunzo worked well. The brown ink makes the graphite look steely grey.
Now to keep the momentum going and catch up on all the others in-between. But, the best laid plans of Mice and Megans. We'll see long this lasts.
Another week, another Diva Challenge, this time set by Sandy Hunter. If it's a grid pattern, make it free form. If it's free form, make it a grid pattern. And use our favourites. Basically we are turning our favourite patterns inside out.
I am an over-sharer. Sit with me long enough and you'll hear more about my life than you could possibly want, and especially more about my children. I have three blogs, for crying out loud. Three.
This is only the sixth post on this blog, but already I've shared that I have favourite patterns. Squid, for instance. Flux and Nzeppel have been mentioned, Xyp too. Five posts and you know four of my favourite patterns. Like I said, over-sharer. And here it comes to bite me on the bum because I cannot lie about which patterns I have to work with.
Last week's challenge was supposed to put us out of our comfort zones, but I loved it, revelled in it, had so much fun. This week, however, this week the comfort zone was definitely somewhere on the horizon. I could see it, but there was no way I could reach it. My lovely, comfortable, familiar patterns were about to become unrecognisable, out of control.
It wasn't that bad. But it wasn't "bulk fun" either (favourite phrase of an old school friend).
There was nowhere to put Xyp, Flux I had seen on some other responses to this challenge so I left it for fear of subconsciously copying. I went with what was left of my best favourites, and then others that I often turn to, and a new favourite, Seton. Some of this I would do again, other parts - no.
Beelight is quite nice, although I wouldn't call it freeform. Take the grid out of Nzeppel and you just end up with crazy paving, or at least I do, so that's a big no. And Well just becomes a series of little flowers (boring). Tortuca? I could draw spirals until the cows came home, read for a while and then tucked themselves in and turned the lights out. Mucha in a big grid is quite fetching.
Seton without a grid was so much fun. I'm going to be doing Seton without a grid A LOT from now on. They look like Dorset buttons or fly wheels or something. So many possibilities.
And oh look, there's Squid. Again. Because I always seem to do Squid. But that was the point of the exercise.
I can do a freeform Squid
I can do it in a grid
I can do it here or there
I can do it anywhere
I do so love to draw a Squid
I do so love it, and so I did
Diva Challenge number 194. And look, it's the day of the challenge and here I am posting. Eliza Murphy set the challenge - draw with your off-hand.
I'm going to admit up front - I love this challenge. I was actually excited to do it, instead of the usual fretting over how to approach it. Usual routine, looked at what was already there from people, read through their processes and the comments, had a bit of a think. But instead of the usual procrastination that follows I headed straight for my desk and got started. My poor son had to come and remind me it was time for school (he loves school - he'd go on the weekends if they let him).
This one seems to have thrown some people a bit of a curve ball. We are so used to having the fine motor control our main hand affords us. And we know we are expected to be neat. Ever since learning to write, ever since learning to colour in, it has all been about control - "keep your lines straight, write neatly, colour inside the lines". And there are good reasons for this, but it is not all there is.
My spouse was born left-handed. He is of an age where lefties were looked down on and he was made to write with his right hand. He did it, but his handwriting was awful. His handwriting is still awful. When he got his PhD the joke was that the title doctor finally explained his handwriting.
I'm right-handed, but I have long experimented on and off with drawing and writing with my left hand (enduring fascination with Leonardo da Vinci, who was not only ambidextrous, but could do mirror writing. Great brain exercise if you can cope with the bizarre results of trying). When I was in Year 8 of High School we did a sculpture component. We were each given a plaster block and told to sculpt it (after working out designs and plans and having them okayed by the teacher). I could barely make a mark on my block. I told the teacher, who said it's plaster, stop being pathetic, get on with it. For two days I worked away, barely making scratches and becoming more and more tired and frustrated. Third day, I couldn't move my arm or open my fingers without large amounts of pain. Turned out I had severe muscle strain (and was in a sling for a fortnight). At which point the teacher decided he'd show me how silly I was and he'd carve part of my block for me. He gave up after a few minutes, apologised and declared my plaster block as hard as concrete.
To cut a long story short (too late!) I spent the next few weeks writing and drawing with my left hand. It was revelatory. Our abilities do not reside in our hands. They reside in our minds. Fine motor control is another issue, but ability...
The drawings I produced were different, looser, but had their own beauty. My mum has the drawings I did then, or I'd scan a couple and put them here. Writing was do-able, but like my poor spouse, it wasn't tidy. Calligraphy got set aside for the entire time (Most nibs are cut for right-handers. You can get left-hand nibs, but they are still difficult to use. I've had left-handed students. Most give up because it is such a trial. I feel so sad for them. Thank goodness our Sakura pens don't rely on handedness.)
So here's what I did. I liked it up until I added the Bunzo. I have to learn to ignore the string when appropriate. It's there as a guide, not as a dictation. Put your finger over the Bunzo and it's suddenly a much nicer tile. As it is, it looks like something out of Doctor Who and the Green Death.
Squid, Flux, Bunzo, Tripoli, Nipa, Fescu
Here are some things I found useful, if you are feeling daunted by this challenge:
Firstly, relax. Because it is just a tile and because you'll do better if you relax.
Try not to get the pen in a death grip. You'll actually have better control if you hold the pen gently.
Experiment with line creation. If you are shaky pushing the pen, try pulling it, and vice versa. Eg. using left hand, if you are shaky pushing the pen from left to right, try pulling it from right to left. Obviously reverse if you are using your right hand.
Be confident. Hesitant lines are never as attractive as confident lines. Even if you don't feel confident, just go for it. Seize the moment, draw that line!
And in the end, have a laugh, (I certainly did after I got over the maggot crawling over the hill). So here's a laugh for you (it is actually one routine followed by two songs. I have put this up for the opening routine, about two minutes long, so don't feel daunted, but by all means go on to the songs. Flanders and Swann were marvellous).
I thought for a moment I might skip this week's challenge. There seemed to be so much to fit in. Mind you, it has made me look on Seton more kindly. I even went back and worked on the first effort for last week. It is coming along but still not yet fit for human consumption. And I did alter the spiral on the finished one, just a little, but it works well now. No longer a bump on a log.
The challenge for this week, to use three tangles (Trio, Huggins and Xyp), was a bit tricky. They are each great tangles (Trio is a new one to me, but I can see it rapidly becoming a favourite), but to put them together? Well, I suppose it is called a Challenge for a reason. It has taken me some days to work it out. Every morning this week I have woken at 4 am, on the dot, for who knows what reason (alarm is set for 6 am). But it has afforded me good thinking time for a number of things, including 'how do I put these three together?'
So here's the end result:
I didn't like it much until I loaded it into my photo-edit program to reduce the size. Funny how you can find ways to look at things anew. Turning them over for a few days (like last week), or putting them on a computer screen. I actually quite like this.
Xyp was my starting point, with a two-pencil string. I love Xyp, as in really love. It has a lovely calligraphic quality, which can be really played up. Little Baroque flourishes, extra embellishments, all sorts of possibilities. I often play with this. My very first paying job was when I was twelve, using calligraphy to write names on invitations for the local music store (they had monthly concerts). So anything calligraphic I'm there.
And three cheers for the lovely brown Sakura pen. How to stop Xyp and Trio merging or competing in one easy step.
Oh, and you know how Maria says no erasers because nothing is ever wrong? Listen to her. Really, no erasers. I went a bit gaga with shading under the Xyp ribbon and hated it, so for the very first time I rubbed out something on a Zentangle tile. The paper really, really does not like it. It does not take it at all well. Next time I'll just live with it.
Diva Challenge 192. Well, they are meant to be challenging. And this one was. Seton is not an easy tangle to use. I looked through everyone else's and unlike last week, where I got more and more inspired, this week I got more and more depressed and uncertain. Quite a few people said they struggled with it (at least I'm not alone), but some just soared. Which was fantastic. But gosh, it set the bar high.
I did not know what to do with this. The pattern itself is not too hard, but it has so much going on that it can be overwhelming. This is the first time that I have done a tangle and thought "No". I mean, really no. I'm not always happy with every tangle I do, but even if I am unhappy I can usually find something where I think "that bit is fine", "that combination worked", "I like the shading there". My first attempt at the challenge... Well, it's sitting upstairs, turned face down, until I can do an objective reappraisal and decide if any of it is salvageable. (I use that strategy with my art. If I am not keen on something, or am at a loss of what to do next, I turn it around so I can't see it. That way, when I come back to it I am looking at it fresh. Can work wonders. Doubt it will this time.)
So there I was, sitting at my desk, completely stumped.
On the wall above my desk and all over the cupboard next to it (side and both doors) are images of artwork I like, or find interesting. They are all cut from the member magazines of the Art Gallery of NSW, which means good quality printing on good quality paper. Lovely to look at. When I get stumped I often look at the images, calming myself, letting my mind wander, seeing if there's any inspiration among the images. Today my eye settled on two I have of Anish Kapoor's amazing installation piece "Memory". You can view a slide show and short article about it here.
Memory Anish Kapoor, 2008, Cor-Ten steel. Image c Anish Kapoor
I love the photos I have of this monumental sculpture. I know it was at the MCA in Sydney, but I have a feeling I missed it.
Anyway, I was looking at the photos and thinking how much I would love to see the real thing and draw it. And then straying to the tangle issue and thinking the obvious - Nzeppel. So why not do that while I work out what to do with Seton? Well, it sort of turned into this:
Seton, Flux, and a spiral
Not great, but not bad. And I have a few more ideas and possibilites now. Not sure I like the spiral. It may well get drawn over in the next few days. I'll turn it face down and then see what I think.
... but it wasn't. Because I was too excited about putting up my responses to the Diva Challenge.
And this should have been my first post because this is the "why this blog" post.
So, why this blog?
I have two other blogs, but they are quite particular. One, History in the Making, is for my genealogy stuff. I really need to get back to that. It's been four months since I last wrote on that. Slack, but there are reasons, just not very good ones. The other, Grasping Nettles, is for my art production, keeping myself on track by going public with my progress. That gets used a lot. This one, Catching the Bug, is specifically for things Zentangle.
There are some tangle posts on Grasping Nettles, in the context of exhibitions. You can read them here, here, here, here, and here if you are interested. But I came to the conclusion yesterday that if I am going to regularly do the Diva Challenges, which is my aim, and as I want to post more Zentangle-related things, I could do with a specific blog. So here it is.
And the title? I am a punner and my son is a literalist. So we have been joking around since January with the idea of the Tangle Bug that I caught being an actual little bug, or beetle. Then Maria Thomas introduced the world to Bijou, so I felt inspired to bring the Bug to life on paper. And now it's gone virtual.
The thing about bugs, and it holds true for this, is that sometimes they are beautiful and fascinating and just what you need in your day, and other times they are really irritating and won't let you be. And won't go away. I have a few bugs, the Tangle Bug being just one. Sometimes I feel like Charles Darwin, one in each hand and one in my mouth, just so I can carry them all (yes, he really did. Boys).
Finally got up the courage to try a Diva Challenge. Using only Betweed.
I had a lot of fun looking through what other people had done. I love doing that, it's a great way to see a familiar tangle afresh as people have all sorts of ways of using it. It got me all fired up and raring to go.
The black tiles have been a bit of a challenge for me. I did a class with the lovely Lianne Woods (CZT), which helped a lot but I still view them with a bit of trepidation. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound. So I decided that, as I was having my first go at a challenge (something else trepidatious), I may as well combine the two. And came up with this...
Is it just me, or do other people have trouble with photographing or scanning drawings and tangles on black? The Zen stone particularly seems to be highly reflective and what is a soft luminous grey on the tile turns into a strong, defined blob or, as in the image above, almost non-existent. In real life, the entire tangle has a soft glow of soap stone around it. Not so much in the photo.
While waiting for the white ink to dry so I could shade without smudging, I got out a Bijou tile and went to work again. All my Bijou tiles I sign with the Tangle Bug rather than my monogram. Don't know why, I just like to do it. Each bug (so far) has an individually decorated shell. We'll see how long that lasts.
Anyway, the Challenge was fun and I'm actually looking forward to doing another, and doing some more Tangles on black. If anyone finds this who is thinking about joining in on the Diva Challenges but isn't sure, give it a go. It's not so scary once you get started.
