Inktober – Day #17 and: Inktober 2015 is dead – long live Inktober!

Hello again!

In case you are one of the few people who stopped by to visit this blog before, you MAY have noticed that I didn’t post anything for Inktober for more than a week now. This is neither because I didn’t fell like drawing or was already bored with blogging – this is definitely NOT the case! Unfortunately, private life AND work ganged up on me and robbed me pretty much of all my free time. Maybe I could somehow squeeze Inktober in sometimes, but I got so many other things on my list that it would only yield (more) stress rather than work off stress. That’s why I decided to stop after the first half.. However, I still have one last Inktober drawing for you – one of my favourites actually: The Queen of Hearts:

Tangles used: Beadlines, Join

I really like the Queen – although she looks a little too friendly, don’t you think? 😉  Join I definitely have to practice more to make the hearts the same size next time.. But it is a great pattern!

On the bright side, I might have some space now to finally continue with my “One Zentangle a Day”-project. Or time to FINALLY participate in the Diva Challenge. Or to simply empty my jam-packed to-do list which is full of other things… a frightening amount of things with a deadline in the near future. Oh, and if you don’t believe about that ominious list: I’ll show you some of the things that kept me from tangling as soon as I’m allowed to. It’s got nothing to do with Zentangle, but it is about ATCs and other artsy stuff. Hope you’ll enjoy this short diggression, too, until I can finally have some time to tangle in peace and quiet again and have something to show to you. 🙂

However, I’ll still follow Inktober on Twitter and retweet drawings I like for your and my own pleasure. So if you’d like daily updates on Inktober and Zentangle in general: Follow me on Twitter. 🙂

Inktober – Day #16

I was THIS far away from throwing the half-finished piece away since there were just SO many mistakes in the dwarfe’s anatomy… But since I’m so tired and wanted o have the drawing finished already, I just pushed through. I hope I made the background eye-catching enough to distract you from the mistakes.. ^^; Can’t really say I like the dwarf, but I do like the tangled rock in the background (it was supposed to look like the entrance to a tunnel or cave). I tried to make the tonal value darker towards the centre of the tile. Is that noticeable..? See for yourself, here’s my bijou tile for Inktober 16th:

Tangles used: Betweed, Knightsbridge, Munchin, Paradox, River, Tipple, Zedbra

I love the transition between Paradox and Betweed. In a bigger space I can also imagine a “tidier” and really cool transition between Knightsbridge and Zedbra (one of my favourite tangles).

For the next days, I’d like to avoid:

a) men

b) men’s anatomy

c) drawing hands

Let’s see if I can manage to get around all that..

Inktober – Day #15

This is day 15 of Inktober and I’m still in, yay! Now that I’ve come so far I don’t think I’ll drop out now (unless something big happens, but let’s not hope for this). I put all the bijous I’ve drawn next to each other and it’s a magnificient mosaic so far. I won’t post it until the very last day of Inktober, so please wait only a little longer – I’m sure you won’t regret it. 🙂  Today’s portrait takes the idea of tattoos a little further – although you can’t see any here. For me, tattoos and punkers go hand in hand – and of course, the punker has to wear a leather jacket – hello stereotypes… ^^;  Maybe that’s why my brain made me draw a punker from the string I drew this morning? Anyways, here’s my cliché-ridden punker:

Tangles used: Hypnotic, Lightning Bolt, Tipple

I’m already looking forward to seeing what tomorrow’s “person of the day” will be! 🙂

Inktober – Day #14

The end of the second week of Inktober is here. Wow, two weeks of drawing and tangling on a daily basis! I’m really proud I made it to this point, but I’m quite sad that this project needs all the time I can spare at the moment and that other articles I want to write and other projects like tangling through “One Zentangle a Day” by Beckah Krahula will have to wait until November.. Maybe I can treat Inktober as a warm-up to what will come?

Today I have the third male character in a row, which is another thing I’d never thought would happen before I started Inktober. Men are not my specialty (as you can deduct from this guy’s anatomy…), but it is a welcome change! How do you like my Djinn?

Tangles used: Ahh, Auraknot, Cruffle, Hollibaugh, Hypnotic, Something unnamed

When I had inked the Djinn, I thought that some tattoos would look good on him – tangled tattoos, of course. Finding the “right” ones was a bit harder this time. Auraknot and Hypnotic were easy, the rest was hard. This chain of spiky circles was an invention of mine since I couldn’t find anything that fit here for my taste. I’m not sure if I will name it or play a bit longer with it. What is your opinion?

I also thought about “violating” my black&white colour scheme here and give him a golden earring. But I think that some things simply should stay as they are and black&white  (and a little grey) are quite enough right now.

Inktober – Day #13

The string of today’s Zentangle-inspired Bijou tile for Inktober was a hard one, again.. It took me at least five or six tries to finally get something I could work with. Sometimes the drawing got too small and detailed, sometimes I had the impression it’s the same shape that I’ve already erased like 100 times before this month. Here’s something new: second guy in a row for Inktober:

Tangles used: Cadent, Cruffle, Paradox, Points and Curves, Tipple

To me it’s incredible that I haven’t used one of my favourite tangles yet for Inktober: Paradox. It is not only simple and easy to draw, but comes with just SO many ways to modify and to use it – I love it. If you haven’t yet read Margaret Bremner’s brilliant article “And then some… Paradox”, then I think now is the time to do so (she wrote even more “And then some…”-articles which are ALL great and a must-read for every Zentangle enthusiast).

Then I remebered something I wrote in this blog about tangle transitions and combinations and mixed some Cruffle into Tipple. Looks nice. Then I tried a tangle I’ve never used before: Points and Curves. It has a nice optical illusion and is easy to draw, I might use it again in the near future. Cadent I added because I then had circles, squares (or something similar) and triangles – I liked this idea a lot.

Inktober – Day #12

Isn’t a snotty-nosed prince the first thing you think about when it comes to Inktober 12th? No? Well… maybe you can/will/want to reconsider after meeting him:

Tangles used: CO2, Cruffle, Knightsbridge, Pixioze

Apart from my recent favourite CO2, I like Knightsbridge best here. Doesn’t it look as if his hat was coming out of the picture? It is a lovely effect that I really want to play with more. But I don’t really know any more tangles with this effect – do you?

Inktober – Day #11

New day, new Inktober drawing! I still didn’t get to draw anything für the “Zentangle a Day”-project.. or this week’s Diva Challenge… But let’s be positive that I can get around to do it (or at least one of them) today. I somehow have the feeling that the drawings for Inktober are getting a little harder. Of course, I don’t want any repetitions since that would be boring, but my method for drawing the basics of these little bijou tiles seems to run into a dead end.

You ask how I’m doing it? Well, it is actually quite simple and similar to some of the first few steps of the original Zentangle method:

1. I put a dot in each corner and then connect the dots to get my frame.
2. Then I start from the bottom line and draw a squiggly line up and down again (that’s something like Zentangle so far).
3. Now I look at the shape and think about what this looks like:
   • Is it a female or male shape?
   • In which direction does the person look?
   • Is that the hair or do I have to add a shape for hair (or a hat 😉 )?

   And so on. Sometimes it is very easy and I see something in my “string” (that’s what in Zentangle this squiggly line is called) immediately, but recently the strings look either quite similar to something I’ve drawn before, or I just can’t see anything in it – and erase it (the dirty word in Zentangle! ;-D) and start again until I see something.

4. Then I modify the squiggly line to my needs and start inking and tangling – that’s it.

Looks a little like divination with tea leaves, doesn’t it? Maybe my third eye has gotten tired? *g* I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to think of something to freshen this “technique” up a bit. I already used a geometric shape in the middle of the tile once and tried to draw my squiggly line from the top. But I wasn’t THAT excited about the result. Do you have an idea?

Today’s drawing is a… little different than the ones before. The person portrayed today didn’t want to be recognised and put a mask over his head (please, no comments on anatomical (in)correctness here.. I know that this is not quite correct anatomically..). So here’s the Frog(wo)man:

Tangles used: Msst, Lotus Pods, Pokeroot

As for the tangles, this was a very easy one: I immediately knew which tangles I wanted to use for the Frog(wo)man. But what might be striking you if you’ve followed my Inktober drawings so far: No CO2 today! But tomorrow is another chance to use it. 🙂

Tomorrow I’m off to work again, too. I sincerely hope that Inktober won’t keep me awake for so long like last week.. I’m happy I hung in there, bu it definitely was exhausting.

Inktober – Day #10

Finally a drawing for Inktober that I can post on the same day it was drawn (and “supposed” to be drawn) without falling asleep doing so, yay! I hope you like my Zentangle-inspired “Elvis”:

Tangles used: CO2 (what else! XD), Diva Dance, Tipple

Do you remember being in a concert and the lights are very low and the band/singer starts to sing a live song and everywhere lighters (in the good ol’ days) or smartphones (like at the last concert I went to) were held into the air? Well, that’s what I had in mind with “Elvis” here. And what would have made a better way to draw the lights than CO2? I also thing Tipple works really great as sequins. As for the breast hair: Sorry to all fans, I just couldn’t resist… 😀

(Hope to) See you tomorrow for Inktober 11th!

Inktober – Day #9

Another late post for Inktober. I as simply too tired to post this yesterday after drawing it late in the night. This is yesterday’s Zentangle-inspired portrait:

Tangles used: CO2, Beadlines, Hollibaugh, Msst, Reticulated, Triangles

I wonder how many more uses of CO2 I can find! 😀  This time I used pencil shading again because I thought that the softer shading would be more appropriate for the young lady. I think it was a good decision.

But thanks to the weekend I’m positive that I’m back to the normal rhythm of posting it on the same day. At least for two days.

Inktober – Day #8

Start of the second week of Inktober! And a late upload again.. but better late than never! First week of Inktober was a lot of fun – not only tangling my own bijou-sized tiles, but also enjoying all those wonderful drawings everyone else has made for the challenge. I retweetet a few for you to enjoy (Zentangle, Zentangle-inspired and more). You can look up my favourites from all those pictures I saw on Twitter under my Account @tangleoflines. It’s only a very small number compared to all the drawings that people link via Twitter, the sheer number of tweets with #inktober is absolutely amazing!

Here is my drawing for Inktober 8th:

Tangles used: CO2 (it looks good just everywhere! XD), Cat-Kin, Diva Dance, Keenees (dress)

Like this on a lot! Finally a chance to use one of my favourite tangles, Diva Dance.  It find of looks like she has flowers in her hair, don’t you think? And Keenees just looks SO different since the circles seem to vanish into nothing and the bright parts seem to make up a whole different pattern.

I really love this challenge, but I wish my busy private life would leave me a little more free time to continue my “One Zentangle a Day”-project, too.. I’m sorry that I have nothing else for you at this moment than Inktober, but promise I haven’t forgotten about the other project or all the other interesting stuff I have in mind for this blog! I already pretty much finished the tile for the third day last weekend, but “have” to draw a new one. Why? Well, you’ll see and understand when I show you… 😉 I hope that I have time to tangle the second tile this weekend.

Inktober – Day #7

Wow, that was fast: The first week of Inktober is already over! How was it for you? Did you manage to squeeze in a drawing every day? I’m very proud to say: YES! Although I didn’t get to upload it on the same day and even though it was a bit of a hassle sometimes, I’m very happy with the decision to participate in Inktober and with my results so far. The Zentangle bijou tiles from day 4 and 6 are my personal favourites so far, but I really like day 7, too. What do you think? Here is grumpy granpa:

Tangles used: CO2, Flux, Join, Pixioze, Tipple

Actually, I wanted the rainbow to get lighter going “up”. I’m not sure I really got the result I wanted but it still looks nice to me.

Just like yesterday, this is another tile without pencil shading. I only added a little (sloppy, I’m afraid) hatching and cross-hatching here and there. I like the effect and I guess it is more truthful to the original idea of Inktober.

I hope your Inktober challenge has been a success and a lot of fun, too! And if not: Tomorrow is another day to jump in! Hope to see you here then, too.

Inktober – Day #6

Here’s Inktober drawing #6, this time without pencil shading but with a (very) little crosshatching. I guess that so many people doing a Halloween Inktober has influenced me a bit. Meet… a romantic Mr. Frankenstein:

Tangles used: CO2, Join, Trentwith

Really like the result! Especially that for three days in a row, the tiles have a somewhat consistent look to them. It might only be one person drawing after all, right? And I also like his face and how the tangles used fit in.

Again, I’m afraid it was too late to post my drawing for Inktober on the right day… This might continue to the weekend, we’ll see. But the format of small Zentangle tiles (bijou) works really well for me and so far I never missed drawing my bijou before going to bed. That’s why I still consider this a success!

Inktober – Day #5

Fifth day of Inktober and the first day I was really struggling. Other things kept me very busy so if you want to be very strict, I’d have to skip day number 5 and make this my drawing for day 6 because most of this bijou wasn’t drawn on Inktober fifth. However, since I finished it before going to bed, I’ll still count it for the fifth. ^^ Here it is:

Tangles used: Bubbles (tangleation), Knightsbridge, Zinger

It’s so cool how many possibilities you have to use the tangles for hair and clothes and background. I love playing with it! I played the 5 drawings next to each other yesterday and it is striking that they are all so different… I don’t even think they look like they were drawn by the same person! This is a bit awkward actually, it would be nice to have a recognisable “style”. Maybe Inktober will help me to make a few steps in the right direction.. that wouldbe great!

Today I’ll probably have as little time as yesterday, but I still hope to squeeze today’s bijou in earlier.

Hope to see you later!

Inktober – Day #4

Day 4 of Inktober and I’m still confident I can make it. The format works well for me, even on busy days I was able to finish a drawing. Keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps going like that! I hope Inktober is going well for you, too. Here’s my Zentangle-inspired portrait on a bijou tile (2″x2″) for today:

Tangles used: CO2, Cruffle, Meer, Nekton, Tipple

Nekton is definitely becoming a favourite of mine. Really like Meer für her hair and Tipple as a sequined dress!

See you tomorrow/later for number 5!

Zentangle “competition” at modell-hobby-spiel fair in Leipzig

This weekend, the fair modell-hobby-spiel about building models, a variety of crafting hobbies, toys and games takes place in Leipzig, Germany. I went there yesterday, mainly because of a “Zentangle competition” I read about on the fair’s website. This competition, however, turned out to be a huge flop: It was only one beginner’s workshop after another (for 5€) and it wasn’t a very well done one. After just 2 minutes of watching, I noticed several things that were not QUITE right (e.g. they didn’t teach Crescent Moon but a tangleation of Crescent Moon – you definitely should point that out!). No CZT was involved in the teaching (a CZT would have been more accurate). It seemed to me that the method was presented in a pretty “loveless” way, too. I know that there are no mistakes in Zentangle, but… this was not a good workshop. By far not as good as the one with Michele Beauchamp I took two weeks ago. Although I’m not 100% positive about this whole CZT principle, I think this is a shame because I guess a CZT’s introduction is far better than this.

I took a picture of the workshop running when I arrived – the umbrella on the right side is a nice idea. I Hope that the pen used is waterproof! 😉

They also sold the official material by Sakura of Europe there. I met a woman yesterday who only wanted to buy one of the white gel pens. With the Sakura sets she had to decide if she wanted to buy a set of 4 pens (including 2 of the gel pens she was looking for) for a juicy 14€ – or no pens at all. I find this not only way too expensive but also too inflexible having to buy those kits all the time. Why aren’t the pens sold individually? I’m so glad to have my own sources for the original material and that I’m not dependent on Sakura’s kits.

Another disappointment was that there weren’t that many REAL Zentangle books on display, too. They only had a very small selection of German Zentangle books – the best one being aone lonely German copy of One Zentangle a Day – and a HUGE variety of these so-called “Zencolor”-books. I really dislike those books because they simply have nothing to do with Zentangle at all but are borrowing the reference to it by using “Zen-” in the name now that Zentangle is getting more popular in Germany. They are just colouring books and that is what they should be called in my opinion..

All in all, I don’t think I’d have come to the fair if I had known all this in advance. But it still was a nice day because of the boardgame part of the fair. I meet new and interesting people there and also bought two new card games.