a little lime

This weeks challenge was to use the new tangle Bunzo. It's a cool, organic looking tangle that I bet people are doing amazing things with.........unfortunately, it wasn't really working for me today. Tried my brainstorming page technique which gave me a few ideas, but in the end I'm just o.k. with the finished results, I just wish I really loved them. Ah, well. There's always next week! Love the name. Bunzo. Sounds a like an aussie guy that you'd invite around for a bbq. Bunzo. Bunzo me maaaaayte. Anyway, here is my weeks contribution. Bunzinky: the continuous pattern made me think of a slinky going down the stairs. Ribbon: Bunzo beads These two were fun to do :) Brainstorming page. The starfish thing actually creeps me out a bit. The bunzo in the centre looks like a writhing vortex. And the arms. It's wrong, oh so very, very wrong. Can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with! hx

I am not really all that comfortable with "doodling" - I usually start my drawings with a bit of a plan - sure, they often evolve and change as I'm working on them, but I generally have a concept to start with. Doodling starts with a random shape then grows from there - nothing predetermined. Well, this is how I am planning to approach it anyway. Some people are incredible at it.......me..... I'd just like to improve and learn some new things. So, I thought I would set myself a goal to get one doodle posted each Monday. I am using the Moleskine journals I bought a while back, they're a smaller format than my usual art journals - I am hoping that not needing to fill a big page will make these a quick and fun exercise each week. I might not necessarily do the drawing on Monday (in fact I probably won't), but I'll post then........until I get sick of it. Which might be in a couple of months..........or next week! So here is my first one: I thin...

When I was playing around making a video demo for  leaflet  yesterday, I experimented with a different approach to drawing it. Here's the result: I really love it. So flowy and organic. The video runs through how to do the basic pattern, some shading options, and shows the alternative way to draw as above. It does run for a bit over 8 minutes, though you won't have to listen to my voice the whole time (a fate worse than death if my husband is to be believed!!!), as I have sped up some sections. Love to know what you think! I had one more drawing in progress for the challenge   when I posted yesteday. I had sketched out a sun with straight lines for the sunbeams that I wanted to draw when I found  this gorgeous drawing by Melissa Johnson on my pinterest zentangle board - I knew then that I had to add some flowing sunbeams too! It was also a good excuse to colour using sunset tones - and give my orange promarkers a wor...

This weeks diva challenge string theory - stripes. Loved it. I still have a couple more drawings in progress in my journal, but wanted to get something up today. So, here goes! Pencil strips - meant to represent strips of patterned paper rolled around a pencil. I love my pencil and most of the strips, though the orientation on one of them is annoying me. Generally, when I am looking for patterns, I start flicking through my log from front to back - this time I started at the back so that I could use some of the poor, lonely patterns that normally get left behind :( Don't know why this looks fuzzy, if you click on the image you'll see a clearer pic. Patterned stripes - Transitioning patterns isn't something I do a lot of - so I went through my pattern log and tried to pick ones that I thought would flow together and this is what I came up with. I think I should've rethought the buttons on the bottom, great pattern, but not sure they're worki...

The kids and I made it through our volunteer event last week - cooking for 45 people! Fortunately we had 2 helpers (including my son) which made a huge difference and kept my stress levels just under the highly dangerous zone! We got rave reviews, and all I can say is I'm glad it's over and I can concentrate on drawing. This weekend I finally got around to drawing out a pattern inspired by what looks like a wood carving (though it looks to perfect to be hand-carved). I've had it pinterest board for a while - the actual pin is a dead link, but you can see the image from my board  here  - I love it, such beautiful flow from one section to the next - I couldn't get quite that look, maybe with more practice :) I have dubbed the pattern "leaflet". More poppies! Leaflet pattern on the tube. Love how shading really brings this pattern to life. The pattern step out: I found it a really forgiving pattern - it didn't matter if my curves lined ...

Whew! I think I now have a copy of this video that you can actually see!. I ended up filming on the iphone, then recording in vlc to convert so that I could open it in movie maker to flip and edit it. THEN blogger just wouldn't load it - so I have uploaded to my old youtube account. Fingers crossed it works o.k.!! The detail is clearer in full screen. Let me know what you think :) First video: basic twirl pattern This video: double twirl pattern - this one is a bit pixelated, but should be o.k. I have a new pattern that I plan to post this evening - just working on some variations :) hx

The challenge this week was to take inspiration from the Beads of Courage charity - wow, what an amazing program - courage made tangible. The inception of this program is inspiring, and shows how one person can affect the lives of many. It makes me think of one of my favourite quotes "be the change you want to see in the world" (mahatma ghandi). Now, beads, SO FUN to draw. Love. I sketched out a few ideas on Tuesday night and finally managed to complete them today. Beads : This one was the last in my series of sketches, more of an afterthought, and ended up being my equal favourite (along with the poppies!). Funny how that happens. I combined shading mediums on this one - I still don't have a replacement for my lightest grey marker (hopefully in the post tomorrow), so I shaded the beads with markers, and did the drop shadows with greylead. Poppies and beads ! Equal favourite place. I love them, the californian poppies are just starting t...

I am so disappointed - yesterday I put together a video demonstrating Twirl and by the time I had edited it and got it on to the blog the details were not clear enough so I had to delete. So frustrating as it had looked o.k. on the computer when it was converted to a movie, but once it was uploaded - terrible!  I really need to figure out why my DV camera isn't talking to the computer so I can use that instead. Anyway, I have a few drawings that I've done over the past few weeks that haven't really fitted in with anything I was posting. They've just been waiting for their moment. Tulips - this drawing came about when I was trying to find a use for the pattern on the LHS leaf, I don't love the pattern, but DO love the tulips :) I want to draw more of them very soon! Knyt beads: drew this right after the knyt post a few weeks ago, it's along similar lines to the theme I had going...

A quick one tonight - I can't believe it's midnight and I am still playing around when I have a book I want to finish before I go to sleep! I was playing around with this pattern "twirl" a week or so ago, but didn't have a drawing to show it in action. Tonight I finally got around to it- here's my twirl trumpet. the pattern : initially I drew a single one of these freehand (looks cute as a flower) and thought it would probably convert well to a continuous pattern - I found the dots the easiest for a workable pattern, though if you don't object to drawing pencil lines, you could sketch a pencil grid. It can be drawn freehand depending on how regular you want it to look. Click on the image to see more detail - take note of the "missing" dot in each pattern section: a closer look: love how this flows  some fill ideas:    hx

Another week, another challenge - this week it was string theory. I often start my drawings with a couple of loose, directional lines to give me a framework to work from, so I loved that we were using a string this week - particularly one that had such a lovely curving flow. My favourite type. The first drawing features mooka & morning glories, two things I LOVE drawing, and together I think they are perfect. This one is really quite similar to a picture I posted a while back, (you can see it  here  - also has the steps for the morning glories). So, though I've used this combination before, and had no intention of repeating it, my brain was chanting do it, do it, doitdoitdoitdoit - and I have learnt that resistance is futile. If I don't go with it, I am usually unhappy with the end result. It's like I need to get it out of my system before I can move on to another idea. I kept this one a bit simpler by just colouring the fl...

Happy day! My blenders arrived. Though instead of getting the moleskine journal that I ordered, I ended up with a moleskine passions cat journal - I love my cats but not so much that I want to keep a journal about them. It must be my month for messed up orders - this is the 2nd time I've been sent the wrong thing within a couple of weeks. I can't remember in all the years that I have been ordering stuff online that this has ever happened before. So, last night I was flicking back through my finished journals - I like to mine them for undeveloped ideas that I've forgotten or passed over at the time - so easy to forget in the excitement of the next project that there's still some good stuff in there! Anyway, I came across this page where I had sketched ideas for an earlier challenge - mooka v assunta. It was one of my favourite challenges and I loved most of the pieces I did for it - you can see them here and here - probably because I love moo...

A busy weekend. Not only did I go on a field trip to buy a 300+kg bag of pig feed, John and I got out in the veggie garden and put up our new raised garden bed this morning. I was so glad to get back inside to my nice, warm wood heater and my pjs. Luckily John is back at work tomorrow and not able to distract me with moving cows, building garden beds, having coffees and spending time together :) I've tracked down a "follow" button that wasn't the bulky, default one offered in blogger gadgets and it's now sitting proudly right column above the Pinterest button - I'd love, love it if you want to keep up to date with what I'm doing. I have plans..........oh so many (evil) plans........unfortunately probably not enough time implement them all, so I may have to cross "take over the world"  off the list. (Just having a bit of a Pinky and The Brain flashback here! My kids - yes, ok, and me, too - loved that show!). So, I did get some time to draw t...

Disaster has struck! My blender pens have not arrived yet (I use these to create blended effects like this on my morning glories. Hopefully Monday. And............my favourite light grey promarker has almost run out and it will take about a week for another to arrive! My visit to the  letraset site was dangerous - boxes of tria markers were on sale and I ended up buying the 12 set of grey tones. Can't wait for them to arrive. I haven't tried them before and they are meant to blend beautifully. When I was scribbling away in my journal yesterday, I started stacking these fat curly bracket shapes and the drawing soon became a ?blade? of wheat.  (I googled it and cannot find a term for the seed head and stem. Anyone?) My 02 micron has become really scratchy - ideal for the feathery strokes on the wheat. Since the individual shapes remind me of hershey kisses, or chocolate buds, I have dubbed them "kisses".  I love the...

Well, I do love my cone shapes. This is one that I did a week or so ago, it has been in my journal waiting to be scanned. Love the cones in various formats - lily, spiral and gramaphone :) I am reorganising. Currently I have tangle patterns in a spiral bound log book (sort of alphabetically) and also scattered throughout my art journals. It's not a great system, and I'd like to have them all in one place, in alphabetical order, which means being able to move them around when I find new patterns. I also don't want it to be too bulky, as I think a card, or pattern to page binder system would be. I think I have the answer: This  idea that I spotted when surfing the web yesterday designed by Sandy Hunter at Tanglebucket. Brilliant idea. Love it. It ticks all the boxes for me, reasonably compact. Easy to look through. And, most important, I can reorganise the tiles so that they always remain in alphabetical order. I know. I'm unbalanced. I ...

This weeks Diva Challenge . Sankegg. . Well ......... I was completely stumped when I saw this pattern, my brain pretty much a gigantic, echoing cavern. Nothing. I sketched it out a couple of times it just wasn't working for me. So, I took a closer look at the original picture of the Pysanka Egg and noticed that in the centre of every jet shape had a triangle. O.k., so now I had something geometric to work from and I could make a reasonable replication of the pattern as shown on the egg. Still. Nothing. I told my husband I wasn't going to do it, he muttered something, probably "coward", or maybe "goodnight" and went to bed clearly disgusted with my lack of fortitude. Though, that may be me projecting. He's probably not quite so invested in my decision whether or not to participate. So, this afternoon I sat at my desk determined to give it another go. I ended up taking one of my usual approaches which is  to turn a pattern into a flower. Thi...

Today has been the most amazing day in my little corner of the world. One of those beautiful, sunny, blue-skied Spring days that makes you forget all about miserable, muddy winter and has me feeling so glad I live in the Yarra Valley. I seriously hate the cold and cannot wait each year for winter to end. Those of you who live in climates that snow would probably find our winter laughable, but, hey, we do have frost a few times each season, and I can see snow on the mountain caps in the distance.......well, every few years, anyway. So, today. STUNNING. Slip on a pair of thongs and get out in the garden weather (thongs = flip-flops for those of you who just had the truly horrifying thought of me gardening in my underwear). I managed to pull a few weeds, remove the chicken wire fence from around my flower garden (the chickens kept getting in and ripping through my seedlings - we think we have now stopped them from getting over the house-yard perimeter fence, so my flowers are b...