Home

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15 

This week's Diva challenge really was a challenge for me at first. She asked us to take our home and interpret it in Zentangle form. Since I was homeschooled for so long, you'd think home would be an easy concept for me to illustrate. But perhaps, since I have been in the home for so long and seen the many facets home life has to offer (darn, I should have used the tangle Facets!), I couldn't pick which facet to tangle. I decided to go with the most important part, the basis for our home - God.

New Tangle!

This is a quickie post with my "step-out" of a new tangle Rick and Maria asked us to untangle on the Official Zentangle blog. After examining the photos they posted, and spending a few minutes playing on paper, I think I got it - though it will take some practice and patience to make it look better. I was excited at possibly winning a contest, so I rushed a little too much...oh well. I haven't even thought up a name for this one yet! Thanks Rick and Maria for the fun challenge! No matter the outcome, I had a good time!

Introducing the Weekday Whatsit!

Ladies and gentlemen, I now introduce to my blog, the Weekday Whatsit!

What's a Whatsit, you ask? Look at the photo to the left. That's a Whatsit. The picture is of an everyday object, taken very close up. Your goal is to guess what the object is.

Process Paradox

My first attempt at art journaling in the style
found in Diana Trout's book "Journal Spilling".

Journal Spilling, Diana Trout's 2009 art journal technique book, is simply fantastic. I checked this book out from the library just a week or two ago, and it has already inspired me so much! I now present my first effort in art journaling.

The picture at left is the spread I created. I received this wonderful watercolor sketchbook for Christmas last year, and I love it! It is perfectly suited to this style of artwork. It features thick watercolor paper with a deep, rich texture. The edges are ragged and uneven, rustic and fibrous.

Cadent-ology

This week's challenge from the Diva (of I Am the Diva) asks us to experiment with the official tangle Cadent.  She says in her post that "This week is the study of 'Cadent'." The study of something is an "ology", right? Thus, Cadent-ology!

The Rolodex Project

In preparation for this post I was reminiscing on the origins of the project I will soon describe, and I sympathize with other creatives who are inevitably asked about the inspiration and genesis of a particular project. Ideas come from a myriad of sources, and concepts contribute to your thinking without your awareness. You may be able to tack down one or two main pieces of inspiration, but to list everything is impossible. On this project, for instance, I was inspired by Lea Redmond and her Rolodex Project, a pin I discovered on Pinterest, the Choose Your Own Adventure book series, the joy I experienced flipping through a full  Rolodex file, and many other venues, all diverse and unrelated snatches of information that I have let circulate in my brain. This truly illustrates the adage:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Fengle Tangle

Another Zentangle, just for fun. I tangled this one weeks and weeks ago, but never got around to shading it until now. Comparing this one and the one I posted yesterday, you'll notice I used many of the same tangles. I didn't even look at this tile before starting the more recent tile, so I must have had some residual tangle on the brain!

I believe the lower left iteration of Fengle (see the instructions for this tangle towards the middle of the page here) was my first go at this pattern. I really enjoy using it. 

Eccentric Circles

Laura Harms, Certified Zentangle Teacher, hosts a weekly challenge on her blog, I am the Diva, in which participants are asked to do a Zentangle in accordance with guidelines she lays down. One week we may be using a specific tangle, the next playing with color. This week's challenge (number seventy-four!) is to experiment with strings. She asked us to use "eccentric circles", which are circles drawn a little wonky and lopsided.

Altered Puzzle Part 1: The Beginning

The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity - Douglas Horton

I love altered art. Books, clocks, Rolodexes (Rolodice...Rolodeces...Rolodexes?), and now puzzles. Inspired by a pin on Pinterest, I picked up a cheap three-pack of puzzles from the Dollar Store. I bet those cute, unassuming puzzles never saw this coming! I'm treating each piece as a seperate canvas, which is one of the features I really enjoyed from my inspiration.

I've only completed the two pieces you see above so far, though I'm starting on a third. I wanted a driving force behind the entire puzzle (which will have thirty pieces), and I again took inspiration from a pin I found on Pinterest. Using this site, which is geared toward journal writers, I'm using a writing prompt from the random prompt generator as the basis of each piece. The first prompt asked me to describe the first thing I thought of when I woke up. The day I started creating the piece, the song "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold." came into my head right after the alarm went off. Random, no? With two illustrations (one from an old Alice in Wonderland book and one from a children's encyclopedia), some scrapbook paper, black Stazon ink, and cut out letters, the top piece in these pictures is a loose interpretation of that song. For the second piece the prompt was "List your hobbies", so I chose one, Zentangle, and illustrated the piece with patterns. Two down, twenty eight to go!

I'll post an update on this project when I complete more puzzle pieces.

Three Ws

Hi! I'm Zach, and this is my blog. As you can see, this is my first post. I'm a little nervous, but I'm just going to dive in and hope I don't make too big a mess with the splash. In this entry I'll introduce myself, explain what this blog will be about, and disclose the reason I'm starting it. Consider this the who-what-why post. Like many movies where the credits roll before the entertainment, this introductory post must be published before the fun content. Be patient, it will come!