Monday, August 8, 2011

Ok, so now what? How do zentangle and stamping relate?

The conversation on the twopeasinabucket stamping forum was exploring how zentangle could be used with stamping.  There were lots of beautiful examples.   In most cases, an outline image was stamped and the interior was filled with zentangle patterns.  So, I started looking through my stamp collection for a possible image to use.  Instead, I kept noticing patterns in my stamps.  I stamped the following two pieces with the stamp set shown.

  Kind of sloppy water coloring!  I made the picture smaller so you can't look too closely!



I was worried the recipient of this card would wonder why I left a pencil outline, so I went over the original "square" with an 03 microperm pen and emphasized the corner dots.



Stamp Set : Stampendous   April Shower Flowers


The flower outlines with the patterned oval rings and oval shapes reminded me of zentangle designs.  I stamped in the traditional size zentangle "square" (3.5inch square of 140lb watercolor paper with a loosely pencil sketched wavy square inside).  I stamped with archival ink and colored with Tombow markers.  The first example used a watercolor technique.  The second example (already made in to a card) I got bolder color by only using water on the background.   Hmmm, these were ok, but not exactly a zentangle.  What's missing?  Ahhh, the string!  A pencilled in random line that divides the area in to sections to be filled with pattern.  I'll post my next experiment with zentangle and stamping tomorrow.  Thanks for hanging with me so far!  In the meantime, if you haven't checked out the zentangle website, they describe strings and tangles and supplies there. The newsletters are a great way to learn.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Playing with Zentangle

My first zentangle

I was thinking about taking a zentangle class, and then a conversation started about zentangle on the stamping forum on twopeasinabucket.com.  I decided to go ahead and try it myself first to see if I would enjoy it.   I read up on the subject at www.zentangle.com .  They say, "With Zentangle, anyone can create beautiful images from repetitive patterns."  It is fun and relaxing!  And I don't even pretend to know how to draw.  That's why I like rubber stamping so much; the drawing is already done for me.  But zentangle is a series of repetitive strokes, easy strokes!  The zentangle above is my first attempt.  I learned the patterns from the zentangle website.  I looked under their Newsletters tab and a few of the patterns actually had video demonstrations.  Tips on shading were particularly helpful!  The patterns (or tangles) I used above from top left to bottom right are mooka, betweed, cadent, (un-named filler of circles/dots), and paradox.  I think I will definitely try this again!  I hope you'll give it a try too.  There is lots of good information at the zentangle website linked above.