Fancy Letters a la Illumination

Hello Everyone 🙂 happy Thursday! I needed a project today that would consume me for a few hours as letting go of my anger from yesterday has proven difficult. So today I chose a project I’ve been wanting to try out. I’ve seen a couple of tutorials on illuminated letters and it didn’t look too hard (😁 not so easy). I played with different styles and finally decided to just do my own version. My biggest concern is that no one will recognize which letters they are!

My supplies today:

• Black card stock (A4) 8.5 x Prismacolor Premier Soft-core colored pencils :pale sage, Apple green, peacock green, cloud blue, China blue, ultramarine, blue indigo and white.
• Sakura stardust dark blue
• Pen-touch silver pen
• Gamsol blending solution
• Tiny paper stump
• Ruler
• Hb graphite pencil

The design is 5 inches tall by 8.5″ wide. After penciling in the letters, I used the cloud blue pencil to outline the design and then fill all ribbon parts with cloud blue and the straight legs with pale sage. When working on black, layering over white or a light color helps bring out the color of each subsequent layer.

Next I layered apple green over the pale save and China blue over the cloud blue. Then added my first layer of silver with my Pen-touch.

At this time I take the peacock green and give the green parts a nice outline for some depth. Then I used my ultramarine to deepen the blue of the ribbon. Leaving it off any part that will be highlighted.  I used my white pencil to give a good light layer over the parts of blue that are highlighted.

The last steps involved using the indigo blue to shade the blue ribbon, then outlining the part of the blue that is NOT outlined in silver with the Sakura Stardust (glitter pen that uses ground glass in the ink instead of glitter. I did the partial silver outline to bring out the bar of the h. Now I’m hoping you know that’s an H!

The last thing I did is to use the silver Pen-touch to cover the outline again as I frequently make a mess in the lines.  (this is an accommodation for my shaky hands and not required.) And I used my hb pencil to shade the silver where 2 silver parts meet to show some contrast.

One fold later and spray with workable fixatif and call it done. 

My question to you, dear readers, is if the letters are recognizable or not? (okay,  it’s an  L and H 😁)

Leave me a comment on this because i want honest opinions!

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Traveling to Hell and Beyond

Today was both a great day and it was hell. I had to/got to leave the house and see a new pain management doctor and it was terrible! However, it meant one of my boys (read man 😉 ) and his family hauled me all over then took me to dinner at OKC’s Hideaway Pizza! Since I rarely get to leave the house and never get out to eat, my sweet Keanu and his fiance Shai and their boys Karson and Kohen took me out to eat and shenanigans ensued! Those kids are so cute and sweet! They are my reason to smile today!

Unfortunately, I had to see the new doctor. Of course, I didn’t see a doctor I saw a PA.  I expected the obligatory urine test what I didn’t expect was to be TIMED! If I could not go in 5 minutes my appointment would be canceled and I’d be rescheduled!  Seriously? I was there more than 3 hours,  they did 8 X-rays (proving my spinal issues) but then refused to prescribe anything until another month and another appointment!  This is a pill mill and not a single person there acted as if they cared. And,  after my 3 hours of sitting in pain I left with tears of pain streaming down my face and nothing to show for the pain and humiliation of being treated like a drug addict. I don’t know what I’m going to do. What have we come to when chronic pain sufferers have NO other options than to be treated this way. Yeah, I’m really frustrated and angry.

Diva Challenge 273 Revisited

So I really was unhappy with my diva challenge submission this week so I decided to go through my tiles and try to get it right.  The result was interesting to say the least for several reasons. Here’s my before and after tiles:

This is a white tile with a burnt ochre watercolor wash. I started with my Sakura micron brown pen and was disappointed in the contrast but this made a perfect tile for #273. 

I have several sets of Sakura pens that I’ve never used so this ended up being a bit of an experiment. I used my set of Sakura glaze pens for the colored in sections of the aquafleur and what is supposed to be Veezy I believe. So what I learned is that the glaze Pens have a large nib I’m assuming to allow the ink to flow smoothly which it certainly does. It goes on extremely smoothly and when it dries it leaves an upraised glossy look to what’s underneath to give it a 3D look. Unfortunately this means that fine lines and drawing with them can become rather a gloppy mess so having tried those,  I really liked the dark brown aquafleur but the other was a mess! But in keeping with the Zentangle® Method  I kept working and finished the rest of it. I used a burnt ochre,  a dark brown and a terracotta prismacolor soft core pencil for shading which, as always, helped a lot. This tangle includes #opus #aquafleur #mookah #veezy and #fescue. (I’m terrible at remembering the tangle names so forgive me if I don’t list everything.) 

See everyone next week for diva challenge 274! As always you can find a link to Diva’s blog in my top menu. 

Note to my visitors

Hello all, just wanted to let everyone know that this blog is brand new and I’ve never done this before.  I’m trying to get my pertinent content up and correctly configured as soon as possible. I’m still figuring out linking and Pages and menus so I beg your indulgence as I work to get things set up and learn enough to make the buttons do what they should. Thanks! Also, I figured out where the ® button was on my android yesterday! It wasn’t, I had to download the SwiftKey keyboard… I don’t think it learns very quickly. (big smile!) but I’m trying to give it a fair chance.

Thanks for listening!

Diva Challenge #273

I completely forgot to upload my diva challenge this week, sorry to everyone who stopped by to see nothing! But diligence should be rewarded so here it is! I’m not sure I shouldn’t have left it as it was! I swear I took a picture of my tile before starting but now I can’t find it so here’s the finished product and if I can locate the before pic I will post it.  

PETA HEWITT’S World- Wide Coloring Competition

Last week I spoke about Peta Hewitt’s coloring competition. This week I want to show you my finished entries although I’m not as pleased as I had hoped with the way they turned out. I know this is not surprising because most artists feel this way about their work before they’re finished. If you are interested in checking out Peta’s competition or her website or blog you can find her here Peta Hewitt’s website (la-artistino.com) 

Peta used three different pictures that she drew based upon an Australian theme and there are prizes for each picture.  

The first is a pair of sugar gliders in a garden: 

The second is a platypus napping in a stream. 

The third is the Australian National flower: the waratah flower. It was a real job getting the flower petals on bottom a rich dark red and still leave the main flower with a bit of pinky maroon. (Yes, pinky is a word.) 

Winners will be announced on July 4, 2016 (Peta’s birthday!) It would be nice to win but I learned about Australian flora and fauna and no finished product is useless.  I only wish all my Sakura stardust pens would show up in a picture.  The platypus pic is covered in glitter! 

New Tangle Pattern: Apcorg

Here is the step-out for my new tangle called Apcorg as the inspiration came from a picture in the Antique Pattern  Catalog. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll see in there and looking is free!  .http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/

 

 

Apcorg step out

If you use this pattern I’d love to see what you did with it! Send me a picture! Thetirelesstangler@gmail.com

Playing with Mungyo Pastels

I’m excited today because my package from Amazon arrived! (Who doesn’t like getting stuff in the mail?!) One of my gifts (to myself) was this set of Mungyo Pastels. This is the 64 color set. Pretty huh? 

So I’m playing with pastels today and working on my coloring entries for Peta Hewitt’s coloring contest. Peta is an amazing artist and colorist from Australia and I regularly stalk her wonderful YouTube channel la-artistino.com. Peta Hewitt la-artistino.com  Her coloring contest is Australian based and includes 3 special pictures drawn by Peta around the flowers and animals of Australia theme. If you want to give it a try,  visit Peta’s website at the link above for more information. 

This is my test page for Peta’s sugar glider picture.  I’m testing several ways of blending the pastels as well as looking at how it layers over colored pencils and how dark I can take the background without going black. The yellow steaks on the above picture are prismacolor soft core canary yellow. I started with light color combos then moved darker still blending. I’ve been using a paper towel over finger tips to blend. You can see at the right top the yellow pencil under pastel pink is a nice blend. The dark blue over it shows a blend, just not one I’ll use much!

Here I’m trying to see how dark I can go without going black. I plan to use this technique in my coloring books and it will be important to keep the pages sprayed with a workable fixative such as Krylon. I’ll also keep blank sheets of paper between the pages I’ve worked on to prevent smudging. 

Here in the bottom right is about as dark as it will go.  I also switched from a paper towel for smudging to a q-tip. It’s much smoother and softer looking.  I also stopped putting pastel on the paper and started loading the q-tip by swiping it along the top of the pastel. These are so soft you don’t need to scrape it off which will save on wasted pastels! Also I wanted to mention, if you get it someplace you don’t want it (an almost certainty with pastels, you can easily erase any mistakes.  And lastly,  when using with colored pencils,  whatever kind, remember the wax in the pencils puts down a protective layer so if you get pastel over pencil it wipes right off.  It makes pastels ideal for coloring books where you’ve use colored pencils for the design and want a soft background. I’m not sure yet whether if you want it to stay over the pencil if the fixative spray will keep it there.  Ah! An experiment for another day!

I love these Mungyo Pastels and this 64 color set was under $10 USD on Amazon.com.

I will post my finished entries as soon as they are finished. They may look like grade school art projects but I’ll have fun doing them!

 

Introduction: Getting to Know the Blogger

My name is Cyndee Pelley, I’m an amateur artist with a spinal disability and this blog allows me to share my art, tangle patterns and coloring ideas. I’m also bound to touch on dogs and horses as well as family because they’re a big part of my life. My hands shake so my lines aren’t perfect but I’ve found expressing myself through art extremely important in maintaining a healthy perspective when my body is trapped in a bed.  Family,  pets, art and health are all topics that will arise but mostly this is about art.

One of the most significant things to happen to me in the last 15 years was when I accidentally came across the Zentangle(registered trademark)  Method created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. Instead of trying to explain their method let me quote from their official website Zentangle.com.

“The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns.

Almost anyone can use it to create beautiful images. It increases focus and creativity, provides artistic satisfaction along with an increased sense of personal well being. The Zentangle Method is enjoyed all over this world across a wide range of skills, interests and ages.

We believe that life is an art form and that our Zentangle Method is an elegant metaphor for deliberate artistry in life. ” (quote from the Zentagle.com website)

These are some examples of simple patterns and what you can do with them.

This is a tangle using the pattern “SKYE” deconstructed by the wonderful Margaret Bremner, CZT  (enthusiasticartist.blogspot.com)

This is called a ZIA (Zentagle Inspired Art). Meaning it’s a mix of patterns and ideas based on the Zentangle way but not conforming to the structure and rules of it. Like adding color.

This tangle pattern is called “pkok” the pattern was deconstructed by Sandhya Manne, CZT at Zen Temple Tangles and I added color for my own flair

I will be talking more about this method in later blogs but for now I’ll just say that Zentangle has changed my life. I’d encourage anyone who wants to draw but doesn’t know where to start to visit Rick and Maria’s site Zentagle.com. I also highly recommend tanglepatterns.com which is Linda Farmer’s collection of tangles including Rick and Maria’s official tangle patterns.

I  will also be chronicling my application process for a mobility service dog. I’ve always loved animals and in particular horses and dogs.  I just lost one of my rescued dogs (Daisy)  after 15 years.

My Daisy Mae (passed in April, 2016)

Her long time companion, Chance, is fading fast though I’m hopeful he will last the year.

This is Chance, who is also a rescue. His hips are quite bad and winter has me worried.

I also have a foster dog from a local rescue agency.  His name is Jake and he mostly likes to hide from the world.

Foster dog Jake who was rescued during below zero temperatures 3 years ago. He has serious anxiety issues.

The rules regarding service dogs in the home are usually that no other dogs are allowed to be present in the home. The reason for this is service dogs are working dogs and can get distracted which works against their training.  Having a service dog is a commitment to ongoing training and special care. I have made my application to an organization based in Norman, OK called “A New Leash on Life”.  http://newleashinc.org/ They take donated puppies (usually Golden or Labrador Retrievers for their natural retrieving abilities)  and train them for the specific needs of each client.  This takes between 1 and 2 years because the pups need to be fully grown to support the pulling, balancing and other activities a mobility dog must handle. So, I applied after Daisy’s death making me both sad and excited and guilty about the excited. Their letter to confirm my application was dated May 11, 2016. I’m trying to patiently wait for the next phase!

That’s enough for the first blog. I hope you’ll come back to see what kind of art we’ll be working each week. I also hope you’ll check out the 3 tangle patterns I’ve deconstructed. I’ve sent them to Linda Farmer, CZT at tanglepatterns.com to see if they conform to the tangle rules and can then be published there.  Either way,  feel free to experiment and share your thoughts and comments.