Diva Challenge #281: It’s gett-ING addictive

Although it’s gotten a bit quiet here again, I’ve been quite productive when it comes to tangl-ING since I last posted here. I have no idea why, it just keeps on pour-ING out of me and is such fun since I’m gett-ING closer to the look I’d love to get to. Which is great! I still have a lot to learn, but right now it’s such fun to just tangle and tangle and tangle. Although I’m a bit worried when it comes to shading: Who is go-ING to shade all those pieces and when?? Shading is fine, but drawing is just so much more fun for me (right now and in general) that I skip that part for most artwork and simply start another piece.. Shame on me! 😉

I guess that by now you’re wonder-ING why I’m writ-ING in such a strange way? Well, when I read that the tangle ING is this week’s Diva Challenge Laura Harms had prepared for the tangl-ING world, I just knew I had to play. I really like ING although I hardly use it in my work – I wonder why? Maybe from now on it’ll show up more often because once I started tangl-ING, I just couldn’t stop! ING is such an addictive and really cool tangle that offers so much space for variations. If you haven’t already tried it, please do! This tangle really deserves to be tangled more often.
Here are my contributions for this week’s challenge:

I actually wanted to make a monotangle with ING and different fill-INGs (here: Tripoli, something I invented as a fill-ING, Paradox, DL Sunray, Munchin and Hypnotic), but it felt a bit empty… Then Zedbra crept in, then Printemps and Tipple – then I could finally stop. I noticed I have a tendency to clutter my work and don’t know when to stop… ^^;

This is a good example of me clutter-ING… I tried to overlap, but to me it looks only cluttered, too full of to much detail and the effect I wanted to get, which is that ING is sucked towards the center, is not eally visible. In the actual tile it looks even more like that than here. Maybe that’s because it is a scan? I don’t know but I hope that Eni Oken’s new ebook on Overlapp-ING will help me to improve here!
Tangles used: ING, Printemps, Flux, Tipple, Cubine, Paradox, DL Sunray, and some fragments I invented.

Here I tried the exact different th-ING than with the last tile, ING was supposed grow from one spot in a star-like shape. I think I like this tile best, it’s not cluttered and has some interst-ING contrasts and fill-INGs – especially like that triangle-fill-ING in the lower left! Only now I noticed taht I forgot to shade Printemps. 😀 I’ll leave it like that, it’s not too bad like that. On this tile I used ING, Knightsbridge, Printemps, River, Zedbra, Paradox, DL Sunray and Tripoli.

If you liked my contributions I’d like to hear about that! And please do check out all the other great contributions tanglers from all the world have linked for the Diva Challenge!

Have a great week!

Nihon no Zentanguru

Time flies by, the wedding is over and finally I’ve got some more time to devote to Zentangle – although I already started tangling again in the last weeks before the wedding for obvious tangling reasons: stress relief! I haven’t finished anything but just took my time to tangle some here and there and it worked like a charm. Although I must say that I’ve been so tired recently that pretty much anything made me zoom out…

Now I still have some wedding-related things to do, but I said I wanted to start posting again here in August and here I am! Actually I wanted to start with some artwork, but today I stumbled upon a post by Anya Lothrop CZT on her German blog and I just had to write about it here. The post was about her recent trip to Japan and the state of Zentangle in this intriguing country. Even if you don’t know any German, do visit! The pictures are very nice. 🙂 I myself am a big fan of Japan and have been there only last year on a nearly four week vacation. Well, vacation isn’t quite the correct term, since both my now-husband and I went there to study Go, an ancient board game both of us really enjoy (studying Go is fun most of the times but it can be tiresome and feel like work, too).

Of course, I also enjoyed shopping – not for clothes since that wouldn’t be any fun for me but for art supplies. And that’s where Zentangle comes in. When I went to the epic Tokyu Hands in Shinsaibashi, Osaka which was my favourite store during the trip, I found a small but select Zentangle corner there:

I have no idea what the colourful kendama is doing there in the middle if the Zentangle supplies!

And a close-up of the books – I assume you are familiar with the original versions of these books? Isn’t it amazing how different they look?

I was really thrilled to find Zentangle in Japan! I was even tempted to buy a book but instead bought some more light-weighted art-supplies. I was hoping that I might go back to Japan again soon and I though that by then I’d have a larger selection to choose from – of course the weight of my luggage at this point in time was NO reason at all for my decision… 😉

What about you? Have you already found Zentangle books or supplies in your vacation abroad? If so, I’d love to read about it!