I thought I’d start out today’s Tangled Tuesday post with a quote that really speaks to me – not about tangling specifically, but about “creative living beyond fear” – from Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book Big Magic (in the chapter on Permission).
Let people have their opinions. More than that – let people be in love with their opinions, just as you and I are in love with ours. But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work. And always remember that people’s judgments about you are none of your business.
I know I need to remind myself of this now and then, as I sometimes find myself falling into the trap of caring far too much about what others think about my art and why I choose to spend time making it. Can you relate?
New Tangles
This week I learned Organic, Fleavy, Zinger, and Gotcha, all from TanglePatterns.com.
I also learned Windfarm and Morse, both from Margaret Bremner, CZT of Enthusiastic Artist.
And with that, I have filled up my sixth tangle pattern sketchbook and set up a brand spanking new red Moleskine Sketchbook as Volume 7. That translates into 634 patterns learned since I started tangling in June, 2013, which I’d say is not too shabby!
Challenges
I started out with Diane & Carolien’s Weekly Challenge #34: Tangle with H-W-N, choosing the tangles Half Onions, Watusee, and Nuwave. All three patterns were ones I’d previously learned but had not yet had a chance to use in a finished project, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to do so.
Zentangle 116 for Weekly Challenge #34: Tangle with H-W-N
Next was The Diva’s Challenge #246, which this week was a guest post on “Monotangle Trees” from Dilip Patel, CZT. He tasks us to “choose any tangle pattern of your liking and create a tree using only the chosen tangle over strings representing a tree.” (Check out the blog post for his reason behind the challenge – it’s a good one!)
As soon as I opened my sketchbook a pattern I’d learned just this week – Fleavy – jumped out at me and I thought it would be a great one to use for this challenge. Even though the end result looks less like a tree and more like several sheaves of wheat, I still think the tile is rather pretty!
Zentangle 117 for The Diva’s Challenge #246
Finally I completed joey’s weekly tangle challenge #89, which was to use Zinger in a monotangle. I could have sworn I’d already learned this pattern, way back when, but a search through my sketchbooks showed that I actually hadn’t. It’s in there now, though!
Just to be different I thought I’d go with white on black for this challenge. Not really thrilled with how it turned out – I find the white pen needs a special touch, which I often forget how to do until I’m well into using it!
Zentangle 118 for joey’s weekly tangle challenge #89
Now on to a new week of tangling!
P.S.
The Zentangle® Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.
Previous posts in this series are all tagged Tangled Tuesday.
For background on how I discovered and got involved in Zentangle, and links to further information and resources, check out my blog post For the love of tangling.
You can browse my entire tangle gallery at Ten Thousand Tangles.
And, if you’re interested in having a little piece of my art for yourself, please click on the GoFundMe button below for more information and also visit my Ten Thousand Tangles portfolios and shops on ArtofWhere, DeviantArt, Etsy, Redbubble, Society6, Spoonflower, and Zazzle. (Pssst… links to my international Ten Thousand Tangles shops on Zazzle are on my “shop!” page – just click on the appropriate flag and you’ll get to the place you need to be!)
How have you been creative this week?
Please share!
