Molygon Mayhem

  I had planned to put this post up after I'd finished teaching a class, and boy am I glad I waited. Look what Mihika finished the week before. (She's just twelve years old.)

We had done a class on black tiles last week. She combined that with her knowledge on Zengems from a previous class with us, and voila. I'm so proud of her.

  Want to learn to draw Zengems? I have tutorials on my YouTube channel. You can view them by clicking this link.

  Last week, I was all caught up with using my new Zig Brushables for shading. But at the start of this week, I went back to using a graphite pencil to shade a tile, and it was like falling in love with graphite all over again... There is this softness to graphite that I just can't recreate with markers or ink. And I haven't yet mastered how to blend completely smoothly with markers...

I made this Artist Trading Card (ATC) for a friend who is currently studying in London.
When she came back to Singapore during her school holidays, I had showed her the Zengems I'd made and she loved them so much. She also mentioned she loved feathers. So here we are- something I hope will brighten her day when she receives it.

  Recently, I also visited the Singapore Art Museum. And one of the art works I wanted to show you was this piece titled, "Bloodline of Peace" by Suzann Victor. It's a really large scale work... 40 metres by 2 metres (131 foot by 6 foot).

Visitors shown in picture for sense of scale.

It is a beautiful piece made of fresnel lenses hooked together by metal pins...
And the lights that were directed onto the piece illuminated it so beautifully. Just look at those light patterns on the wall... I stood in awe of it for a few minutes.

But the symbolism behind it was even more beautiful. In each segment of the art work, there was a single drop of blood contributed individuals representing Singapore's ket communities such as the armed forces, medicine, civil defence, the arts, and the pioneer generation.

The explanation card for the art work states, "Blood is life, visceral, and when drawn by force, it implies brutality, pain, and death. Yet, when donated voluntarily, it is an act that saves the lives of loved ones- and strangers- during medical emergencies. Ultimately, the symbolically rich gift of blood signifies the utmost sacrifice for a fellow human being and for a nation, and poignantly, peace- that most fragile of conditions- can oftentimes only be attained, upheld and protected through a willingness to make this highest sacrifice." A transient state of peace is defined by the absence of war and bloodshed.

  I thought it was richly significant to Singapore's history, especially since we celebrated our country's 50th anniversary last year. I can only hope that Singapore continues to stay a safe country to live in for the next fifty years to come. I thought the art work to be beautiful and hope you liked seeing pictures of it, but onwards to something less morbid, though...


  Have you tried the new tangle "Molygon"? I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of it when it first came out, but I had a student request to have me teach it during class... So I persevered and eventually, I fell in love with it. I made many many coloured tiles to play with because Art Friend is currently having a sale on Canson papers/sketchbooks. (I'll be writing about that soon... But just know that they're currently selling Canson products at a price that probably is the lowest you'll find worldwide! Whilst stocks last, so if you're a Singapore reader, do hurry down soon.)

  Here's one of the tiles from the batch, that I did for the Diva's weekly Challenge:

Done on Canson paper cut to an Apprentice tile size. With coloured background done using Derwent's Inktense blocks.

And here's a page from my sketchbook where I explored many different possibilities for Moygon. It was lots of fun to create and I'm very proud of it.

  Thanks for viewing. ^-^  I hope you have a wondefully creative week ahead of you~

inspirational week

  Joni says: I tried to merge colours with Zentangle patterns and channelled some inner Piet Mondrian.

"Striping"

"Scrolled Feather"

Playing around with "Mooka".

  Then I did some focus tiles on "Paradox". I'm probably going to teach this pattern to some students of mine in December.

  Stephanie and I also made some ornaments for our tree. This year, the tree is going to be white, and the ornaments are going to be red.

  The unfinished one was drawn by Stephanie:

  I also re-did a tile I had done for a Munchin challenge:

"J" for "Joni".

My tile for Diva's Challenge: Hollibaugh.

Monotangle of "Yuma" for Joey's Challenge.

rainy days make for grey-ish pictures

  Stephanie says: I heard my first Christmas song at a mall near my house yesterday. Christmas is actually my favourite holiday of the year because of all the joy and festivity surrounding it.

  I've already sent out hand-made Christmas cards to my family and friends living half way around the world in America and London... And cards that will go to loved ones closer to home will go out probably next week.

Here's one of those cards.

The ATC within the card.

My submission for Diva's Challenge: Hollibaugh. The top one has "Grained" with it, and a coloured pencil background. The bottom one has "Tropicana" and a glitter-y "Tipple" background.
I'm sad that the glitter doesn't show up better. We're having a rainy day here in Singapore, so the pictures aren't the best.... :(

A little feather on a tile.
The tile was white. I messed up too badly and couldn't salvage it. So I decided to paint it black with acrylic paint, then draw something else on it. Works like a charm.

And here's my submission for Joey's Challenge: Yuma.
It's a really elegant tangle.

  What have you been up to this week? I can't wait to go through the other submissions for this week's challenges.   ^-^