Black and White Zentangles

I've been working on Zentangles again. I love these because they're very easy for me to tote around and work on in little bits and pieces. These are a few pieces I've done for a swap recently and I found them a bit hard to pass on. I love henna/mehndi designs and was inspired by them for some of the art in these pieces.

This piece here reminds me a little bit of lace. Well the top design does, but not necessarily the rest of it. I love to do these sorts of images and then do washes of watercolor over the top. It adds that little bit of extra pop to it. I've also done things like this in the past where I've then added blended sharpie over the top. I'll have to dig through my past art files and see if I can find any of those older pieces. A lot of those are from about 14 or so years ago and I don't know if I was scanning things at the time or not.


I think this piece is a little too higgelty piggilty. Too much going on and not enough contrasting design work. It just doesn't seem to flow as well as the other pieces. I think my next attempt will be to do a larger zen piece and then dice it into atc size, or even 2x2 squares. I'll have to see how to work it out and exactly what I want. Atcs would be ideal.
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I loved the way this one turned out. I started with the little round in the corner and was going to work it outward in shapes, but liked the round effect so just continued on with it. It reminds me of the medallions around light fixtures on ceilings, or a fancy carved wall hangings.

For the rest of the weekend I'll be working to finish up a few more custom fairy names, and a few custom fairy orders. I'm amazed at how quickly Christmas is sneaking up on me. I guess that's what happens when you go back to work. Time flies and you seem to get less and less done.

Keep watching! I'll be posting a few of the newest custom fairy ornaments and pins I've done this past few weeks. I'll also be loading a lot of new fairies in my artfire shops.

Creations from the week

Here are some things I've done this week!


Zentangle-esque bookmark. This was the first I made, then lost, then found again. I did a second to replace the first one but as always, the first one was nicest.
Well I guess looking at them both close together... they're both nice in their own way. The first one I did based around a henna design idea. I love mehndi, it's such a gorgeous artform. I've done a few images in my own mehndi style. I'm getting a bit better each time I do it.. I'd love to atually try doing it with real henna sometime, but that's a whole other beast. For now I'll stick to my sharpies.

Speaking of my Sharpie addiction: Here's a sharpie piece I did yesterday.

I did this piece intending to send it off for a swap that's due in December. I decided instead to send it to my friend's mother-in-law. She's battling cancer for the second time and going through chemotherapy again. I figured something so bright and cheery just might make her day.

Then I've been getting back into atcs again! HELLO atcs! It's been so long my friends. I was in a totoro swap and did a little white totoro atc. That's the other piece of art that disappeared a few days ago and I had to make a replacement for. So this is my replacement piece:
He turned out pretty cute I think. My other one was a bit better if I remember correctly, but i could be totally wrong.

YAY! Now all I have to do is break out the paints for the painting guild and I'll be on a roooooolllllll!

I've been wildly crazy about henna patterns lately. This is a 7x5 card that I've been working intricate patterns on. It's still a work in progress but I had to share. I'm loving the way it's turning out already and plan to do a series of ATCs based on henna designs. I love the look of actual henna on the body. The burnt umber color just appeals to me and there is something so powerful and drawing to me. I've been hoping to find a local henna artist so that I could get a good henna tattoo done. Heck, I would like to learn to do henna tattoos. They're so beautiful . I love reading about henna and the history and importance in the cultures it appears in.