The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #242

It's a new official tangle, Gourdgeous, for the Diva's challenge this week. I don't think it will become one of my favourites but I did enjoy it more that I thought I would. I found it to be one that requires quite a lot of focus which was good. 

First time painting a stobie pole

This week was a particularly creative one for me. I finally made it to join a group of people who are painting stobie poles around my suburb. They are doing a fabulous job and gradually more and more are appearing and looking great! Here are a few examples - 

I have been meaning to go along and paint as well but until yesterday haven't been able to make it. I was glad that I had the morning free and was able to paint my first stobie pole. 

It was a little scary at first putting the paint on the pole but I soon found myself enjoying it. The inspiration for my design is a picture book - 'Windblown' by Edouard Manceau. This gorgeous picture book is about 7 pieces of paper that are blown around by the wind and then transform into animals. At the end the reader is challenged to think of what they can make from the shapes. I made the little bird which I painted on the pole. 

Here's a few of the pictures in the book - 

I have read this book to a number of classes and then the students have made their own designs from the seven pieces of paper. The variety of ideas and the creativity has been amazing each time. It's certainly one of my favourite picture books. 

This is a Six Word Saturday post. To see how other people describe their week or part thereof go to www.showmyface.com. 

Tangle with O-A-C

This week's letters for Diane and Carolien's challenge are O, A and C.   I chose the patterns Oskie by Antonine Megger, Amoeba by Linda Dawson and Canard by Abigail Lalonde.  This string I chose is number 071 listed on www.tanglepatterns.com.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #240

The Diva's Challenge this week is to be inspired by the season. It's Spring here, with lots of blossoms, buds and roses out in full bloom. I've been noticing the blanket of bottlebrush needles over my driveway. The other day I was getting out of the car when I saw a cute little branch of gumnuts and picked it up. I was already contemplating doing some art inspired by it so when I read the Diva's challenge for this week it wasn't hard to decide what to do.

gumnut inspiration

First I tried to draw some of the gumnuts, blossom and leaves. Initially I thought I would tangle around and within the outlines but then decided to leave it as it is. Perhaps I'll add some colour later.

Next, I thought I'd try to draw some gumnuts bigger and do some tangling. After a bit of trial and error this is what I came up with -

I decided to tangle the background and with quite a bit of shading the gumnuts stand out quite well.

A fun challenge this week!

Tangle with U-N-D

For Diane and Carolien's challenge this week I chose the tangles Unme by Debra Castaldi, Nuwave by Beth Snoderly and DLSunray by Donna Hornsby. For this challenge I have also begun choosing a string from www.tanglepatterns.com. This week I chose string 122 from Adele Bruno.

Doing this one was a great example of the usefulness of persistence. There were many points I almost gave up on this one but it hasn't turned out too badly in the end.

Enjoyable, challenging end to the week

I hoped for some teaching this week. After having the flu at the end of last term and two weeks of school holidays I was particularly happy (and a little nervous) to get two days of teaching at the end of the week. What a lot of variety there can be in my day. From reading picture books (this week it was one of my favourites, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt), to singing and dancing, a game of kickball (with bases like softball but batters kick the ball), maths, art and more. I taught a year one class on Thursday and a year three and four class on Friday. On Thursday the year ones did some crayon art. I hadn't planned it exactly but it was a good tie in with the crayon book. What a great job they did!

 

 

This activity was suggested by the regular class teacher. It's one I'll definitely be keeping in mind for future relief days. It's really good for talking about working together, as a team and how everyone's contribution is important. Afterwards I was thinking too that it would go well with reading The Dot by Peter Reynolds. We got some maths in too, talking about quarters.

 

This is a Six Word Saturday post. See how other people describe their week or part of at www.showmyface.com. 

Tangle with L-Z-P

This week for Diane and Carolien's challenge the letters are L, Z and P. I chose Logjam by Wayne Harlow, Zonked by Barbara Finwall and Pais by Mikee Huber. I started out trying to draw a straight grid for Zonked but it was a little wonky so I decided to start again and make the lines deliberately curved. It looks quite effective I think. And I'll give it another go with a square grid sometime. It's one that takes a lot of concentration.

I'm posting the pre and post shaded versions again. I particularly like how Logjam turned out when shaded.

 

Tangle with R-K-I

I have changed my approach to Diane and Carolien's Weekly Challenge a little. I was using original zentangle patterns first where possible. Now I have decided to use any patterns  I find on www.tanglepatterns.com for the letters. I aim to choose them fairly quickly and to use one pattern for each letter.

What a difference some shading and a 'mistake' can make! I chose the patterns Reticulated by Livia Chua, Kitchener by Mary Sargeant and Inchworm by Lori Byerly. Three really fun patterns! I'm going to put my before and after shading photos here to show the difference. You'll notice there is also more black on the shaded example. It's said that there are no mistakes in zentangle. Doesn't it go something like no mistakes, only opportunities? That is the case here. I started colouring one of the squares as I had messed up the pattern I planned and added some strokes where I hadn't planned them. I decided to colour the alternate rows of diamonds and the border of the other rows. I quite like how it turned out. It makes Kitchener stand out whereas I felt it was getting a bit lost.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #238

It's a Use My Tangle challenge this week at http://www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com.au/. The tangle is Tri-bee by Beate Winkler, CZT from Germany.

I had a try at Tri-bee and wasn't that happy with what I'd done so relaxed and started playing and before I knew it I had something that I do quite like and quite different from a lot of what I do.

Tangle with F-I-N

This week for Diane and Carolien's challenge the letters are F, I and N. For the first time I have missed a week of this challenge.I may or may not go back to it. I have so many creative endeavours going on at the moment!

I chose the tangles Fiore (by Jana Rogers), Inapod (by Carole Ohl) and Navaho (by Caren Mlot). I thought I would do something a little different this week and as two of the patterns are grid based I decided to tangle on some paper which has a light dot grid base marked.

I was going to cut out a square to use but ended up tangling over the whole piece. I enjoyed all 3 of these tangles. Inapod is such a lot of fun to draw! It's tricky to get the lines straight in Navaho and mine certainly aren't but I think it looks alright when you've done quite a few. It was similar for Fiore. Some of my early ones were a bit wobbly but together they look fine.
Here they are, pre and post shading.