Tangle Pattern Apacore

Practicing a new Zentangle Pattern

The inspiration for this tile is from the tangle pattern Apacore by Lori Manoogian, CZT.  I've tried this pattern in the past and it came out all wonky?  It really is an easy enough pattern, but sometimes I make things difficult lol.  I decided to take another go at it because I love how the petals create a five-pointed star.

Art supplies used to make this Zentangle

I am running on only three hours of sleep,  so I'm going to make this post short and sweet.

• White Prismacolor (for highlights)
• Water-soluble Pencils for shading (see this post for more info on these pencils)
• Watercolor Pencils (<~ great price!)

And some ordinary cheap green cardstock that I punched with a 3-inch paper punch and that's it! :)

Zentangle Hearts

More practice with water soluable pencils

In this post I spoke about my newfound love of water-soluble pencils. I decided to give it a go on very cheap paper.  Eh, it worked out, but I probably won't do that again.  I ended up with (just like watercolor) over saturating the paper with water.  I had an area on the drawing that looked kind of muddy, ugh!  I was about 3/4's the way finished too (isn't that always the case?)

Art boo-boo?  Cover it up!

I wasn't about to just toss all my work away just because I was being a cheapo and used the wrong paper.  Instead, I decided to draw black hearts over my tangle patterns to make it look intentional and cover up my mistake at the same time.  I used my fav art supply to add a pop of color and Viola! I think I pulled it off :-)

Take me to your leader lol

Zentangle Inspired Art Aliens lol

Today I stumbled upon some old and inexpensive watercolor tubes in my stash.  I hardly ever use the color red or yellow in my art, so I decided to challenge myself and make some backgrounds for my tangles.

Tangle Pattern "Chorus"

I love Tomàs Padrós Zentangle patterns.  I started to practice his Zentangle pattern "Chorus" but I kind of flubbed it up a bit I think? 

Before Shading

After Shading

Abstract Art Aliens?!

I started to see alien heads in my drawing while shading this pattern.  And the funny thing is I had absolutely no idea about the whole Area 51 thing that's currently going on.  (I do not watch the news ever and I limit my social media to art or Christian topics.)  I just happened to show my drawing to my husband and he told me!  Isn't that such weird timing?

Distress Ink and a Bible Verse Tangle :-)

Bible Journaling meets Tangling!

I like to add Bible quotes to my artwork.  Biblegateway is a good website to get inspiration and encouragement.  I also like to find inspiring Bible quotes and save them on my Pinterest for future tangling inspiration. ;)

Can you see the glimmer in the paper?

I have dabbled a little in the past few years with lettering and brush lettering.  You can pick up books from the library or I've seen quite a few practice sheets on Pinterest.  In this Zentangle I didn't do too much fancy lettering with brush markers - but instead, I choose to just use my trusty Sakura Micron.  I noticed that my distress ink background had a little bit of a lighter area on it, so I choose to put my Bible verse in that area of the paper.  I think it worked out well.

Faber-Castell Gold Faber Watercolor Pencils

I just recently got these watercolor pencils and they are so wonderful to shade with!  I like using a water brush because it's portable and I can take my supplies easily with me to the coffee shop.  (My husband and I like to have what he calls, "doodle and coffee dates"). :-)

Here is a quick picture I took showing some of the linework (bottom part of the paper) before shading. You can see what a difference the shading makes!  I also used Derwent Water Soluble pencils to shade in the grey areas. (See my last blog post on my new found love for water soluble graphite!)

Eek! I found my heaven!!

Derwent Watersoluble Sketching Pencils

My local Pat Catan's (not sure if Pat Catan's is a nationwide craft store, it's similar to Hobby Lobby) is, unfortunately, going out of business.  I stumbled upon these amazing creatures that I had no idea even existed:

They are a DREAM to work with!  This pack is so reasonably priced on Amazon (click the photo to check them out) and you have everything you need to get started working with watersoluable graphite.  It even comes with two Derwent graphitone pencils which really lay down a nice dark color.

Loose and sketchy tangling is so different than the controlled precision that I'm used to, it was a really fun change of pace for me.  I notice my arms and fingers weren't as tired as they usually are when I'm drawing.

You don't have to draw loose and sketchy if you don't choose to with these pencils.  I used this water brush and rubbed it on the graphite pencil and then "painted" my shading that way too.  I will show another Zentangle drawing in a future blog post demonstrating what I'm talking about.  In the meantime, here is a Pinterest link with a tutorial on how to use these wonderful pencils.  There are alot of drawing websites that demonstrate how to use these pencils, but experimenting is really the best way to get to know your new art supplies.

Gelly Roll Pens for the final touches

Here is another close-up.  I used a Gelly Roll pen in white to add a little bit of highlight.  I didn't even pay attention to where the light source was coming from.  That's the best part of abstract art - it doesn't have to be perfect!