Drawing in the Sweet Spot

 The "Project Pacts" are free to watch on YouTube.  1-10 are completed and each series has several videos to watch.  They are pretty much intended for experienced tangerlers who have already had at least one class with a CZT in person or on Zoom.  However, having said that, it is mesmerizing to watch Rick and Marie and Marie's two daughters complete the ink drawings before your eyes no matter what your experience.  

The above tiles are from Project Pact 11 or PP11 as we call it. 

Sometimes Rick and Maria put out a Christmas series too.  Totally fun with lots of cute ideas of how to incorporate the drawings into cards, ornaments, decorations, etc.  

We then tend to share our drawings online in FaceBook groups or Twitter accounts, etc.  And it's SO inspirational to see what different ways the tangles go as creative people design them!  

They are signed with a "chop".  Designed by each arts out of your initials.  Mine is an upside down V (Virginia) and the S for (Stiles) inside the inverted letter.  

The designs above are 4 different tangles.  Two mono tangles and then one where I've incorporated two different tangles together.  This particular pact is designed to offer ideas and suggestions about the new  3 x 5 size of Zentangle Tile.  Up to now we've had circles, triangles, and 3 different sizes of squares.  This is the first rectangle shaped one.  

The focus this time around is designing for the "golden mean" or the sweet spot in every painting or photo which makes the painting satisfying the artistically complete.  Note the little red square in one tile denoting this spot.  It's the spot an artist wants your eye to go first.

Lots and Lots of ideas floating around!

 This is a small painting (5 x 7) egg tempera on Aqua Board.  It is my response to reading a book about Andrew Wyeth for the Library Book Group at the Leesburg Public Library.  (We meet on Zoom on the 25th of September).  The novel is historical fiction by Christina Baker Kline called A Piece of the World.  Andrew's most famous paintings were done in egg tempera.  I got curious about that.  You can find recipes for it on line (of course).  There are various ones.  You should have "pure pigment" to add to your egg yolk but I didn't have any.  I have watercolor tubes, acrylic, gouache and ink.  I decided on tube watercolors for now but I think I'd like to dry powdered Derwent Inktense.  I have the bars of that and I could scrape the powder into the palette.  Anyway...I separated the egg yolk, and then you have to puncture the yolk sack and let the pure yolk run into a cup.  You add some white vinegar, some distilled water, and pigment.  It dries quickly once on a the board and it is very hard and permanent.  It was a fun experiment. 

The subject is from a photograph a few miles from our cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, taken in late August.  

As you may remember I am compiling a small accordion sketchbook of scenes from around my home here.  It was a suggestion recently on a blog I follow.  I liked the idea of having a memory of my home here and so am slowly moving around the house recording my favorite things.  Great for a rainy afternoon.  Below is the guest room which doubles as a hobby room for Greg.  

I am moving into several prompt groups now for fall.  One is a project pack for Zentangle.  That just started.  Zentangle has just introduced a new sized tile that is 3 x 5".  So the project revolves around finding the "golden spot" for this tile.

And I am prepping for Zen-tober which is a month long prompt for tangling during the month of October.  This time I am picking up on another idea of how to manage this rather quickly without taking up too much time.  This is 10.5" square and it has 31 blank spots.  The tangle list has been published and the idea is, of course, to complete one each day during the month of October.  I'll be publishing that on the blog probably every 3-4 days.  So be watching for that in October.  

A potpourri of sketches: odds and ends in my sketchbook this week

The story on this tiny sketch is that a friend stopped by with this little tiny molded drink coaster holder the other day. All wrapped up with a ribbon.  "Thanks for the Chat" she said!  "Saw this and thought you might enjoy."

People are so nice!  Anyway, I decided to put this little kindness into my journal as well.  

Below are some "tangle fun" from my journal this week. These are NOT original designs.  I loved all 3 of them and found them on a great FaceBook Zentangle group that I love called Square One. On the group there is a weekly challenge and this week folks could just pick their favorite tangles.  

The group is highly talented and these examples are derived from basic tangles.  I love the idea that I can show beginners that once you learn a basic tangle you can go wild and crazy and creative with them.  

Obviously these are MY interpretations of their ideas but I can't really take credit for the idea.  I just wanted to keep them handy were I can be reminded how to do them. 

Plus they were very meditative to do.