Gathering #15

Our Last Gathering....

...of the year.

This time we had the regulars: Dave, JoAnn (Josie), Lisa, Leslie, and Heidi Sue, with Leslie's sister Judy, and her neighbor Judy.

David and his scanner

JoAnn with her sketchbook

Everyone had something they were interested in or working on. Heidi's favorite right now is gemstones and dew drops. She shared the step outs for droplets. There are two techniques, one beginning with the shadow, and the other beginning with the shape of the droplet. Both end up with some pretty neat looking effects.

                                                         

start with the shadow

start with the droplet

Whether you start with the shadow, or the droplet, what really makes it work is putting a dot of highlight inside the shadow. Makes it look REALLY see through.  Everyone thought the technique of starting with the shadow makes a more realistic looking droplet.

Sharing step outs reminded Lisa of a fun project she had seen online: Tangle Folk. They are human forms, drawn with one line. Well, didn't we have SUCH fun with that! Our practice "folk" were so much fun, and gave us all the giggles.



The pattern starts out at the neck, but Heidi drew them from the top of the head, to these silly, hilarious results. What fun! Some of our folk were strutting, some were dancing. Some had beer bellies, some looked like rootin tootin cowboys. We had so much fun with these.

here is the link to the step outs for this delightful little technique:


http://tanglepatterns.com/2015/12/czt-billie-lauder-shares-how-to-draw-her-continuous-line-tangle-folk-in-six-easy-steps.html                                                  

JoAnn working in her sketchbook

How to make droplets

Heidi enjoyed showing Leslie the steps for making gemstones and droplets.

Lisa, HeidiSue, and Leslie

Leslie invited two Judy's...her sister (here)

and her neighbor

Smile at the camera!

Scans

Lisa

JoAnn

JoAnn

JoAnn

David

Heidi Sue

Leslie

Leslie

Gathering #14

November Friends.

Greetings!

Here we are, in November already. We got together at JoAnn's as usual, with a collection of friendly, energetic, creative people.

Dave was there with his camera, as always...but this time HeidiSue brought hers, too!

THE David Hunter

Leslie was there, a regular at the Gathering and on a lot of the online challenges. Here is her blog. Leslie is a talented lady! She brought her neighbor Judy, who was a fascinating conversationalist and enjoyed visiting and creating with us. Lisa was there, as well as Lorraine and Joanne.

One VERY special treat this time was when Kathy Steele, a manager at JoAnn's Fabric, brought samples of her needlework back for us to see.

What AMAZING delicacy and precision. She does cross stitch and regular embroidery, but what really blew our minds was the art of Hardanger,  a Norwegian version of pulled thread stitchwork. She had several samplers, and a few pieces that she uses in her teaching, to demonstrate the method.

JoAnn, holding a linen square used for teaching

 For a few minutes, Kathy's amazing artwork was the focus. Our admiration was unanimous, and our own projects and things were forgotten as we studied her pieces.

a tableful of supplies but we were
oohing and aaahing over Kathy's work

    

        




As always, we laughed and visited, enjoying each other's artwork and each other's company.

Heidi Sue's Jumble

JoAnn working on a piece in her sketchbook

Leslie and Judy looking things over

Heidi, Leslie, Judy, Lisa, and Lorraine

Leslie and Judy looking into a zentangle book for ideas

there is something so energizing about these gatherings. The company is enjoyable, and the topic is one we all share a great deal of passion about.

JoAnn and Lorraine

these autumn pieces are all by Leslie. She is creating greeting cards, and this is one sample.

a piece that Leslie did for the Diva challenge to use stones and cairns as inspiration.

There is some lovely layering here, and just look at those subtle spirals all over the background. 

A terrific rendition of the newest official Zentangle (tm) pattern "Gourdgeous"

you can find the step outs for gourdgeous here

Lorraine had fun with zendala

we all got a chuckle out of the bumble bee butts in Lorraine's piece. 

As always, the time just sped by. And remember this:

If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. 

                                             -Roald Dahl

Gathering #13

October 2015 Our 13th Gathering

Well, we did it again! Another delightful, enjoyable get together surrounding our beloved tangle habit. A few new people, an old friend, and four tangles to practice if we wanted. Finally HeidiSue got a grip on Alaura.

We had a good old friend, Donna who hasn't been with us since March, and a new gal arrived: Megan, who just barely started practicing zentangle. She had fun the entire time working on a tile, quietly and meditatively.


Joanne was there, along with regulars Leslie and Lisa. Lorraine was there again, her second Gathering with us and of course Heidi and David were there.

The whole group (except Dave the photographer) busy at play

As always, lots of good energy. Dave broke out  one of his sketchbooks, to the awe and admiration of everyone in the room. He has quite a talent, that one.

Heidi and Lorraine looking over a technique.

Lorraine 's skill with the patterns in a sample of "tangled hair" was  evident.

Joanne.

We played with aura's quite a bit. Different techniques and ways of aura'ing that lend new interest to a piece.














Joanne has some colored tiles there, brought by Leslie. Everyone chose several that they liked.

Joanne and Megan. This was Megan's first Gathering. She discovered Zentangle pretty recently, and is enjoying lots of practice. Her work looks mighty good, too.

Leslie has this amazing library of tangles, in a looseleaf binder with baseball card covers. In each cover is an artist card with the tangle on one side, and the step outs on the other. In this picture to the right, she has her tangle library open while she works in her sketchbook.

Leslie and Lisa visit.

Megan has her phone on Tanglepatterns.com

As always, we enjoyed each other's company so much. The creative energy was high, with lots of talking and laughter, and of course plenty of high quality ink and paper.

Sample Tangles

David

Donna

Heidi

JoAnn

Leslie

Leslie

Lorraine

Megan

This Month's Practice Sheet Patterns:

Alaura by Diane Tai

Alabastro by Tina Akua Hunziker, CZT

Allium by JJ LaBarbara

Alhambra by Lily Moon