Munchin In Black

I have got Big News. On Saturday I attended a real live proper Zentangle® Workshop!! I was so excited the night before I couldn't sleep. Here in Ireland there is only one CZT - Peter Connolly. I have been unable to attend a workshop before as they are only occasionally held in Dublin in the evening, and due to a lack of trains and buses at night I would have been unable to get home.

Finally one was posted as happening on a Saturday morning and I requested a place like a shot :-) It was listed as a beginners class, but I was very happy with that. I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed out on the basics and was doing the Zentangle® Method properly. Anyway I was really going in order to meet other RL people that shared my passion for Zentangle®.

We were taught Crescent Moon, W2, and Nipa. The tutor taught Nipa a slightly different way to the way I had learned it and I found it so much easier. I learnt it in the order of draw your orbs, then draw a curvy line between the orbs, then continue auraing the curvy line. I had always struggled with Nipa as I found it difficult to keep the auras curvy. They tended to flatten out. Peter taught it in the order of draw your orbs then connect your orbs with a wavy line before continuing with the line auras. Such a relief to finally draw it with ease.

Here is the completed tile, which of course was drawn on a proper Zentangle® Tile - heaven!

Well, on to the Diva's Challenge. Munchin on Black. There is something about the challenges this week which is making me get carried away and producing more than one tile for them - or perhaps it was that Zentangle Workshop ;-)

Anyway I have to say I quite agree with the Diva, I am not really keen on drawing on black tiles either. I love to see them, some people can make them look fantastic, just not me. It is not the feel of the pen with me, it is just mine turn out very basic and it is hard to do strings, shading and shadows without a zen stone or white charcoal or something.

I did order some Sakura Gelly Roll pens, which I got at great expense, but I can't seem to get the white one to work. It lays down a transparent fluid with a milky look in parts of it, but that disappears and I am left with no white line. The other colours are much the same, a little more colour but mostly this transparent fluid. So, when I want to draw on a black tile, I currently use my white Derwent Coloursoft Coloured Pencil. In fact the pens which I find work the best are a cheap large set of rollerball pens which I bought from the local supermarket - Lidl. They were a set divided between fluorescent colours, metallic colours and glitter colours, so you can see how cheap they were and we would not normally have thought of them for art.

This is my first black tile, done with Coloursoft White Coloured Pencil, which I thought turned out looking rather like an origami type swan.

Then I wanted to try some variations. I tried blocking in alternate lines in alternate triangles, this one rather reminded me of badgers peeking out.

Next came curvy lines, and I attempted to add a little weight to the starting points with the crayon. I quite liked the way this turned out, sort of floaty.

The cheap metallic pens produced this S shape. The copper and the green goes well together doesn't it.

Lastly, back to my Proper Zentangle Workshop and Proper Zentangle Tiles. We were allowed to bring home the tiles we drew of course, and they are so precious I am determined not to waste any space on them, so rather than Munchin on black this is Munchin on the back :-)