Weekend Fun

My apologies for being absent for a while. Life and kids and stuff... you know how it goes. Sigh

I'm here to share with you some fabulous new Zen-Doodles. I hope you like them they're one of my favorite thing to do to pass the time on a rainy day, sitting having coffee, pretty much any time.

I was first introduced to the art of Zen-Doodling/Zentangling on the Milliande community art pages shared by other members. I was awe struck by how beautiful these creations were and how different and special each one was. I started searching the web for tutorials and found a good deal on YouTube. At first I was copying others (which is totally fine, you can use mine for inspiration is you like) and soon I was creating my own. I find my inspirations from men's ties, decorated boxes, clothing, books, etc. Designs are everywhere... just keep your eyes open.

The two main patterns here, the Zentangled Mooka (heart shapes) and the centre pattern I learned from YouTube videos courtesy of Rick Robert and Maria Thomas the founders of Zentangle. Their YouTube home is "Zentangle" and they have a lot of fantastic video's showing you how to create your own beautiful works. Many people find great peace and relaxation while doing this technique and use it as a form of Meditation... hence the name "Zen"-tangle. I know I could spend hours at my desk mindlessly creating Zendoodles, and I have. I find that the more I do the better I become at them... as with all art. The one area that I'm still not fantastic at with my Zendoodles is the shading in. But I will keep working on that. :D 

My second ZenDoodle is a combination of hearts, flowers and paisley's that are inspired by many amazing YouTube video's by "miraculousmosquito", her stuff blows me away. She has countless YouTube videos, "how to build" flowers, leaves, paisley... as well as some very interesting trees, and other shapes that are out of this world. I simply can't say enough about her... she is indeed "Miraculous". Along with Zentangles that I have picked up from "milliande" whom you can find on YouTube or at her art community site "milliande.ning.com" and share you work with others. :D Which I highly recommend by the way. The community is very encouraging and it has been wonderful getting to know other creative ppl from around the globe.

Lastly, my 'Flowers and Ribbon'. Yesterday I found a YouTube video by "rainbowelephant61" who, among other things, showed me how to create these fantastic ribbons. I wasn't sure what to do with them at first... so I thought, "Well, I love to do flowers" and that's what I did. I'm very happy with the results. I decided to do the ribbons in different colors and then keep to traditional black for the flowers. Just the thing I think. :D


So that's all. I hope you like them and check out the YouTubers and start creating some/more of your own. 
Cheers for now.
Danine

Doodle till your Hearts content!

"Doodles Unleashed", that is name of the online workshop that I started yesterday is titled. The artist, Traci Bautista, is lovely and talented and I'm thrilled to be involved.~Thanks Strathmore.

But, doodling is a new concept to me, well sort of. When I was in grade 8 or so I would doodle all the time, until a teacher caught me and would tell me to get back to work. I loved to doodle, but inevitably there was always someone there telling me I was wasting my time or that I should be doing something else, something better, with my time. Oh how I wished I hadn't listened to them. Sigh.

Now I'm actually finding it hard to start me doodles. "What if I make a mistake?" "What if it looks stupid?" "What if I don't like it?" and the Ego goes on and on, badgering me and making me doubt my self. Lucky for me I have never liked being told what I could or couldn't do. So I fight against that nagging feeling. I have learned, in a very short period of time, that it's just paint and paper. There is always more and you can always paint over top of it if you really don't like it. Mistakes are sometimes happy and some times not so much, but they are always a learning process. So now, in my wisdom, I welcome them.

I have begun my first piece for wk 1... this is the start (the background if you like) of that first piece.

Happy Doodling.