Zentangle Introduction

Zentangles are interesting.  I fully agree with the idea that they can be therapeutic but I can see how figuring out where to start and finish can be difficult.  I was particularly happy to try my hand at whatever came to mind but this tutorial also helped me figure out a few things about these mini-doodles.  With this in mind...

 3.5 x 3.5in with coloured pencil 

This attempt was my first try and while some ideas were original most were taken from the tutorial or other people's work.  I thought adding colour would help but I don't really like it.  So here's attempt number two:

3.5 x 3.5 in graphite pencil

This attempt was a little better but the pencil still wasn't working for me.  I've since made a few discoveries but it's still nice to know where I came from.  I'm just working on improving my Zentangle vocabulary from here on out.

Illustration Friday: Impossibility?

I have a memory of loving purple skies. I don't know why (among all the colours available to me) I liked purple most of all. It might have been an act of self-expression or perhaps something else - like maybe I'd lost all the other colours and the only thing I had left was brown, orange and purple. And if I was going to have a brown tree with orange flowers it didn't really leave me a choice.

But the thing I liked most about it is that nothing was ever impossible. So in a bid to recaptrue that memory I did a picture I used to like when I was a child. It was oddly more difficult to remember it and do it 'right' but I loved the idea of a purple sky which automatically came with a green sun, a polka dotted cat and a zebra striped house.

It maybe a natural impossibility but I guess it goes to show there are no limits to the creative mind. Whatever I can envision, I can create. It makes life seem so much richer. Not only can we pull from the great storehouse of what is already there and already beautiful to behold but we can take it a little further and make it our own.

That's why I will always love my art - even when it is a little strange to look at. So hurray for yellow trees and checked roofs and the chance to do some things a little differently.

Illustration Friday: Climbing

He was a secret agent working undercover in The Organisation - doing his best to rise to the top of the ladder and find out who was really in charge. They called him The Climbing Plant.
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Not as marvelous as my first try but this is an original concept so perhaps that gives me a few points. I couldn't get the pots to look right and the background was done as an afterthought...I wonder if that really matters. I like the final product well enough regardless.