Doodling on Ceramic Tiles

Do-Something-Everyday, Sept 8, 2016

These are mandala doodles I created on ceramic tiles that were left over from a kitchen renovation project. I did several of them one weekend. All the drawings were completely improvised and done without any tools except Sharpie markers. They are not permanent, of course. They can be wiped off completely with nail polish remover and replaced with a brand new drawing. This impermanence appeals to me. It makes me bolder in how and what I draw.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to EVA and Kristin for hosting.

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Tripoli Triptastic and the Leaf

I am sure you have figured out by now that I like painting leaves. This was a huge leaf that has turned completely yellow with hints of rust here and there but was still supple and soft. After I finished painting it, I felt that it needed something more but could not decide what. When I found out that this week's challenge at I am the Diva czt was Tripoli, I decided to surround the leaf with bits of Tripoli in combinations with other patterns. The mosaic patterned pot was entirely accidental.

Below are a couple of shots of my studio as it looked in the morning light.

Linked to Paint Party Friday and Iamthedivaczt and Art Journal Journey.

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A Tiny Taste

The challenge this week at I am the Diva is to tangle just a small part of a tile and to leave rest empty. Instead of using a real tile, I decided to do the tangle on this lovely autumn-colored leaf. I drew the tangles along the veins and covered just a third of the leaf. I like the overall effect of human-made design  co-existing with gorgeous natural patterning.

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Art Coloring for Adults

You may know by now that I love creating pyrographic art. But, my approach is a little different from the traditional way of creating wood burned art. Mine is more like zen doodle art--dense patterns that are colored later. I spent a very busy time this week creating several pieces to put in my Etsy shop. I made them similar to adult coloring pages except that mine are on wood. I think it is cool because after it is colored it can actually be hung on a wall. Along with each wood piece, I printed a paper copy of it and colored it to give an idea of how to work it on the wood. You can see below what I did it.

Here is the link to my Etsy shop.

In other news, I did this small piece of art to meet two challenges: Iamthediva zentangle challenge and Art Journal Journey November challenge.

I am also linking this post to paintpartyfriday.

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Tangling with Nature

This is my submission for this week's I am the Diva challenge #228 by Cari  Sultanik that celebrates all things natural and organic. I printed on a mixed-media paper this photo that I took of the cone flower and the butterflies in my garden. Then I randomly tangled on the background with white gel pen. It looks like I collaged the flowers and the butterflies, but I did not. I outlined them with a pen that gives them that dimensional look.

Linked to Paint Party Friday.
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Coloring Season

Summer puts everyone in a coloring mood, I think. This week's challenge at I am the Diva is to use colors for the tangles. There is, of course, the Summer of Color  hosted by Kirsten at Twinkletwinklelikethestar where the colors for this week's challenge are two shades of green and pink. 

I burned this ZIA on wood using a pyrographic tool. After the design was burnt, I colored the water, leaves and the flower using two shades of green and pink. The colors, especially pink, look a little darker because of the wood. 

Responding to several challenges in one art is a challenge in itself but it streches you in a way that is very satisfying. 

Linked to Iamthediva and Summerofcolor.

Sari Art: Lacey Circles

This sari art is a work in progress and an evolving one too. It started with the drawing of a stylized swan. Then I decided to put it in relief with lots of circles around it. In the zentangle vocab these circles are called tipple, which incidentally is this week's challenge at I am the Diva. It is one of my favorite tangles.

The completed sari art will be revealed soon.

Linked to Paint Party Friday. 

Doodle by Any Other Name

As a young school girl, I was an incorrigible doodler. I would fill up every available empty space in text books and notebooks with drawings of flowers, leaves and butterflies. It annoyed my mother very much and she would remark "scribbling hand means an empty head". Contemporary mind-body research confirms that she was right but not exactly in the way she meant it. I am not sure what caused me to be such a doodler but the habit has continued. The photo above on right is a page from a notebook from the 80's when as a young homemaker on a tight budget I used to keep detailed account of income and expenses. Perhaps, it was worry or hopefulness about money that caused me to doodle flowers around the numbers. I doodle a lot while in meetings not out of boredom but to hear closely what is being said or not said. I also doodle while thinking through a difficult problem. I have noticed that I don't break out for doodling while making art!

Today, doodling has not just achieved mainstream respectability but has even been elevated into a spiritual movement, albeit with a great commercial potential. It has metamorphosed from childhood deviancy to therapy for senior citizens. Along the way, it has acquired a prefix (Zen) and a couple of suffixes (tangle, art).

Whatever it is, I am happy to be part of it. I wonder what my mother would say to the fact I have even published my doodle art in a prestigious mixed-media magazine (photo above on the left in Zen Doodle Workshop from Cloth Paper Scissors, Summer 2015). I have a feeling she will be proud no matter what her personal opinion about it was.

If you want to see more of my "doodle art", click on the Zentangle Inspired Art tab at the top of the page or click on this link.

Submitted for PPF.

Thanks for visiting. Your comments are always welcome.

I Am All Boxed Up!

This week's I am the Diva challenge is to use "All Boxed up" tangle by Alice Hedron. This tanagle nicely followed last week's challenge to use only straight lines. So, I continued with last week's project of planter redo and added a bunch of I am all boxed up around the outer edges. I all also added some turquoise blue color in the middle rectangle to brighten it.. I like the way the whole thing is shaping up.

Thanks for visiting and your comments are much appreciated.

Drawing Straight: Diva Challenge Straight Line Tangle

Ths week'schallenge at I am the diva is to do a tangle using just straight lines. The planter redo I have been working on lent itself to this challenge perfectly. I applied white gesso to the wood surface first. Then used a fine-tipped black sharpie to draw the lines. Finally, I applied Golden liquid acrylic to some parts to give it a pop. I have a feeling I will be doing more with it as I look at it more. But it is kind of finished too.

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Tangle on Found Object

This week's challenge at I am the Diva is to either tangle on black tile using white pen or tangle on a found object. I chose to do the latter. I found  a heart shaped rock near the cafeteria at my campus.  I drew with Sharpie extra fine for magenta and black. For white, I used Daler-Rowney Pro White watercolor with a brush. Needless to say, the markers worked a lot better than the brush. That's how  it goes sometimes!

On a happier note, two of my art work was published in the just released Zen Doodle Workshop magazine from Cloth Paper Scissors. The magazine is really very well put together. Digital version is available here and print copy is available for pre-order.

Thanks for visiting and your comments are much appreciated.

Duobirds and Duotangle

This week's challenge at I am the Diva is to use just two tangles, Dex and Bunzo, to celebrate Laura's 35th birthday. I have been working on this painting for the last few days and the tangles found the right placement on the edge and side of the rock! This is a mixed-media painting done with watercolors, ink, pastels and markers.

This is also my submission for this week's Paint party friday.http:/paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com


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Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is one of my most favorite celebratory days. To honor all mothers of this world, human and non-humans, I did this art with my favorite elephants. Happy Mother's Day!

This is also a response to this week's challenge at I am the Diva. If you look carefully, you will find BRELA scattered in various places.

Enjoy and have a great Mother's Day! Here's another one the same theme.

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Earth Day

This week at I am the Diva, it is celebration of Amanda Day also known as Earth Day :). To celebrate this day, I am posting this watercolor of an airborne green parrot. There are many ways to capture the glories of our wonderful planet Earth and a soaring bird is one of them.

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Tangle or Doodle with Objects as Strings

As the snow melted and the ground began to thaw, some of the buried treasures of last fall began to reveal themselves. I found one  large oak leaf, soft, pliant and still vibrant in its autumn color, near a pile of garden stones. I brought it inside and  sealed it in a ziploc bag to use it at a later time. This week at I am the Diva the challenge is to use stencils to trace as strings. I thought what better than  leaves which are nature's most bountiful stencils? I used the leaf as a traced object and tangled on it. The red, whit and blue on this leaf is just nature's cycle in a continuous loop.

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Cat on a Wall :Weekly Challenge Fanz

This succulent planter was a gift from my daughter for our wedding anniversary. The blank space of the wooden container was beckoning to be filled with drawing. Last Saturday morning, I began to draw  a tangle cat sitting on a wall first. Even as I was doing it, I realized that this could be my substrate for the Diva challenge for a while! This morning I extended the wall to include a bit of Fanz to it. It is not  perfect because I had to tilt the container to draw which was awkward at best. Also the graininess of the wood made the lines wriggly. That's okay. I like the imperfection of it.

Flux as in Tangle Challenge

For some reason, I kept associating leaf with Flux, this week's challenge at I am the Diva czt.  So, I decided to do the tangle on an actual leaf. This leaf is from Grandiflora Magnolia on my front yard. It is an evergreen tree with bright waxy green color and makes an excellent substrate for doodling and lettering. I used a gel pen to draw the tangles. You may also use acrylic ink.

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Hamsa Doodle Paint

Hamsa  (hand), drawn, doodled and painted on an index page of an old atlas using India inks and gelly pen.

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Many Spirals

For the Weekly Challenge #210 "Spiral", I decided to draw this familiar image of Buddha with a crown covered with spiral ringlets. The drawing shows a Buddha a lot younger and more stylized than I originally intended to :).

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Weekly Challenge 209: St. Patty's

We are to use green in our tangle in honor of St Patrick's day for the Diva Challenge 209. What better spot for green than a parrot (my favorite bird)?

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