Sunday, 22 May 2011

My Sonshine

We seem to have jumped from a cold, wet, dark early Spring into full-fledged, fiery Summer up here in southern Ontario.  In keeping with this, and as my finish example from last week's challenge, "With A Little Help From My Friends", I am sharing the string and resulting tile from a collaboration with my 22 year old son.  My son is an artist, too, although I don't know that he recognizes this himself yet.  He writes the most amazing lyrics and poetry with a depth of understanding WAYYYYYYYYYY beyond his few years.  He also makes the most incredible art.  From early on he always processed his life through writing and drawing and by his early teens had developed a really singular design aesthetic to his work.  He created little characters that made repeated appearances in his artwork and developed a really unique and proficient style of pen work.  He is the third person I asked to draw a string for me; my parents also participated and their strings have already been shared.  I only asked for a single, continuous line that could be as long or short, curved or angular, open-worked or crossed-over as he chose.  This is what he drew:

And this is what I made of it:

Happy Sunday!

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Here We Go Loopy-Loo...

Yeah, I know... now you have the same earworm I have!!! *G*  I had so much fun yesterday I thought I'd try it again today; combining this week's challenge with the tangles that I found from the wedding of William and Catherine.  As I mentioned yesterday, I found the hats of the lady guests quite entrancing.  There was so much to see - texture, materials, unusual shapes, all kinds of design rules respected and broken - that I find myself poring over the photos of the guests quite as much as the bride and groom!  There was one particularly interesting hat in a deep blue that I just loved, and found it evoked a tangle I had just used recently, but not drawn up and shared.  So here it is! *G*

Today's string was drawn by my father:



And this is what I made of it:

And here's the step-out of the new tangle, LUPE:

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, 17 May 2011

With A Little Help

La Diva has excelled yet again and so I am driven to try the challenge!  This week it's to be done "with a little help from my friends"; someone else is to provide the string for your design.  Wow!  Cool idea, girl! (tipping hat).  I chose the three members of my family under my roof tonight - my dad, my mom and my son.  I took a Zentangle tile to each one in turn, along with the pencil, and asked that they draw a continuous line, in any direction they wanted, crossing itself or not, as they wished.  Three totally awesome strings later, I was ready to play!  This is the string my mom drew:
Cool, huh?  Here's what I made of it:
I really had fun, even though this was the least complex string given to me.  It also introduces the second tangle inspired by the recent Royal Wedding.  Mesmerized by the hats and fascinators and other accessories worn by the lady guests, I found myself watching with amazement the peculiar feathers bouncing from every direction.  Peculiarly stiff and never curling, yet bending and bobbing with each motion, a stripped shaft tipped with a pruned plume, I found these unusual adornments utterly irresistible.  I wanted to somehow capture the peculiar proportions and bouncy, bobbing style, which led me to design the following new tangle, FEDR:
Happy Tuesday!