Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Weekly Challenge #83, WOYWW #167



Okay, I'm doing something a little different and slightly odd. At first I was hesitant to try this, but then I realized it's my blog, and I can do whatever I want! So without further ado I want to welcome folks from the I Am the Diva blog for the Weekly Zentangle Challenge #83, folks from the Stamping Ground blog for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday #167, and those who just want to check out what this blog is all about from wherever you are right now. Welcome y'all (as we say here in Texas)! That's right: I'm combining the Weekly Challenge and WOYWW into one super-awesome post! Boo-yah!

The Diva's Zentangle challenge this week is to use the tangles:

Thank you picture, now I don't have to type the tangle names!

I have used Assunta maybe twice since it came out last year and Mooka only a handful, and I now find that unfortunate. 

My excuse for not using Mooka: I'm really not a good Mooka-er. I think out of the six Mooka iterations I did in this tile, I truly like only one of them. Oh well - practice makes perf, er, improvement.

My excuse for not using Assunta: I was turned off when I first tried it because until you finish the entire tangle, it looks rather chaotic. When you add those final sides, though, it comes together and you get an "Aha!" moment. I don't think I even completed the first Assunta I tried, which is unfortunate indeed. More Assunta to come in the future!

This tile is actually a part of the ensemble I showed in the post Zentangle Philharmonic. I went ahead and shaded this one. I completely forgot that I haven't shaded the others yet. So much for a big work up to the shading! I ignored much of the string for this tile, so it doesn't fit extremely well with the two that border it, but I'm fine with that. It is what it is.

Now on to What's On You Workdesk Wednesday! I was going to skip this week, thinking my desk was rather uninteresting without much going on atop it. Then I saw that Lisa Richards admitted that she wasn't doing much at her desk, yet her post was still interesting! While it may not be quite as interesting as hers, here's my desk:
I just got these two books. I'm excited to read "The Artist in the Office", since for some reason I love office supplies. I purchased "The Race Forever", which is one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books, to use in my Rolodex Project somehow. I might read it before I dissect it in the name of creativity :-) Then you have my still-empty sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project in its little orange sleeping bag beside my laptop. 
On my laptop in the first WOYWW picture, you'll notice a transparent spinner. I got these from a garage sale on the cheap, and I'm itching to do a guerilla art piece with them. 
Gotta keep up my artsy desk series, so here's my desk all sketched up:
Thanks for stopping by, everyone! 


30 comments:

  1. Hi Zach - I just found you via The Diva and I'm glad I did. I really like your challenge response and how you displayed it. Cool!! Looking forward to future visits...

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  2. Very interesting desk, Zach! I've always been fascinated by The Sketchbook Project, but don't need another commitment right now! You'll be great! You know, a lot of people mention that they have trouble with Mooka. Me, too! It just never looks great, though I've seen some beautiful examples from other people. On the other hand, I haven't really practiced it much, so what can I expect?
    Hope you keep up the WOYWW throughout school. I'm going to try, though I'm not sure how much visiting time I'll have.
    Draw on!

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    1. Have you seen Maria's Mooka? Superb - as you would expect from one of the originators of Zentangle!

      I spend a LOT of time on my college campus, so my desk is very neglected during the semester, but we'll see what happens! I'd like to keep up the WOYWW...

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  3. Your zentangles are really cool! I had to google mooka and assunta. Very interesting :)

    Katie (110)

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    1. Thank you! I guess I should have linked to them, huh? Fixed it :-)

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  4. Have you ever seen those roses they make at Valentines time with two Hersey kisses stacked together? Well I must say I love your assunta because the way they come together is so like the rose.....and the way you shaded gives assunta a new character that I love! And your mooka has the perfect flowing lines that gives it grace. Wonderful post. I like how you have shared so many nice things with us. Oh by the way, I love everything about your zentangling style but your shading is what really puts it over the top...just wanted to tell you.

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    1. You're right! I definitely see some Hershey kisses in there! The funny thing about the shading is that I don't really enjoy the shading part of tangling. I like the result, just not the actual doing. I'm getting there, though.

      Thank you so much for the comment! It made my day!

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  5. Great job, love the touch of scrabble, it enhances your piece. Paradox and Hurry are a perfect accompaniment. Love what you've done with Assunta!

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    1. Thank you! I had those Scrabble tiles sitting on my desk and inspiration hit. Now I'll have to figure out unique ways to photograph all of my tiles...

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  6. I think you did a great job with both tangles. Assunta is lovely the way you made it!

    Annemarie Huijts

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  7. Love the picture!
    I think you Mooka isn't as bad as you think ...

    I really like your way of writing on your blog btw, with a funny twitch :)

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    1. Perhaps I just need to settle into my own unique version of Mooka and quit comparing it to other's Mooka-style. Thanks for the encouragement!

      I get that quirkiness from my grandpa - he's a joker, a word wizard - quite a personality (love you Chi Chi!)! I'm glad it gets through :-)

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  8. I really like what you did with assunta (and you are on a roll with mooka, keep at it). Great tile!

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  9. love this tile (and also cheese. and bacon), such beautiful, controlled lines (not my strength). assunta looks great done this way :)

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    1. If only there were a way to make a Zentangle out of cheese and bacon...if I come up with anything, I'll let you know :-)

      My advice for controlled lines is to draw draw draw. Muscle memory is your goal. Also, if you pull the pen toward you rather than push it away from you, it tends to make a more controlled line.

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  10. What an interesting post; and your shading on your tile for the challenge is really wonderful. Also, I'm going to have to look for that book you displayed, and I have got to get me a journal. So far all the ones I've seen have lines on the pages and that isn't what I want. Maximum would be3 little dots, best would be blank pages because I'll fill them mostly with art and only a little writing.

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    1. Thank you!

      You ought to look into the Sketchbook Project! Here's a link:

      http://www.arthousecoop.com

      You fill a sketchbook with art, send it back to the Brooklyn Art Library, and they show all the collected sketchbooks in a world tour. You get emails when someone checks out your sketchbook, too, which is cool. Their sketchbooks are blank - not too impressed with the paper, but you can always rebind it. I think it might be good for Zentangle, but IMO the paper's too thin for wet media...

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    1. Thank you! I've admired your style for a long time now. It's fun to get to know someone through their tangles!

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  12. Great tile and a really cool way to display it.

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  13. Love your tile and the way you photographed it! If only we could use tangle names while playing scrabble....hmmm. You took the thoughts right out of my head about Assunta, chaotic until finished is right, but I love how you finished it. Enjoyed your post!

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    1. You could play a Scrabble game with a twist: you can only use tangle names! Hmmmm, probably wouldn't work to well (I can see it getting stuck really easily), but it would be interesting to say the least :-)

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  14. I love your tiles, especially the one in the bottom right corner. That spinner does look like an interesting project to work on. Blessings!

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    1. Why thank you! I did that tile over a year ago! I hope the spinner will become the center of a really neat project - perhaps I'll post about it on Monday....

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  15. Tangles have names? Shows you just how ignorant I am about them. I just love the look of them and thought they were just random doodles.
    Your desk looks very interesting.
    Happy very belated WOYWW!
    Tertia #116

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    1. Oh yes, tangles have names - that's one of the fun things about them! There are steps drawn out to each tangle as well. If you'd like to see some, I'd encourage you to go here:

      http://www.zentangle.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=131

      to look at back issues of the official Zentangle newsletter. You'll notice in the description of many of the newsletters they'll say "New Tangle: tangle name". Those are the ones you want to look for! A word of caution: Zentangle is addicting, and I cannot be held responsible for the sudden urge to tangle(or buy tangling supplies) :-)

      Thanks for the comment!

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