Adorable Aurivox

 "Aurivox" is a tangle inspired by The Little Prince. In one of the chapters, the little prince meets a fox, and they discuss what it means to establish ties with someone.

The tangle's name is a combination of the Latin words "aurum" to mean "gold" and "vox" to mean "voice". The name conjurs to my mind, images of a beautiful fox howling at the moon - its voice haunting yet beautiful at the same time.

You can draw Aurivox as a single tangle:

In this large A2-sized piece, I hid two Aurivox amongst the other tangles: 

This piece was also A2-sized and is titled, “Chapter 2: Emergence”.  

It explores the transition from order to spontaneity, from the internal to the external, from the known to the imagined. The tunnel which is intricately rendered in Zentangle patterns, represents a space of quiet introspection and structure. As the viewer moves toward the exit, they are greeted by a burst of lush greenery. This acts as a metaphor for creative release, organic growth, and the beauty that lies beyond.

Aurivox is, again, hidden amongst the other tangles.

You can also draw Aurivox as a ribbon tangle:

Playing around with the size of your Aurivox's features will change the expression of your fox. I think this tangle would be great for tiny tanglers (children), and people who like a bit of whimsy in their work.

If you use Aurivox in your works, tag me on Instagram ( @havepen_willdraw ). I'd love to see what you create!

Captivating Catalyz

"Catalyz" is a tangle that is structured and orderly, while also being a bit geometric.

The word "catalyst" refers to an event or person that causes great change. As is common with lots of Zentangle® patterns, I added a "z" at the end to make it more easily searchable, and to tie it back to its tangle roots. Here's how to draw it:

Do you have that one friend that has the amazing ability to explain complex ideas in really simple terms, while not making you feel stupid? That friend who allows you to understand yourself better through open conversations - about everything and nothing at all.

There is structure to these conversations, but these conversations also grow and take on a life of their own, too. Meandering thoughts that may or may not lead to conclusions. 

For me, Catalyz carries those associations.

In my Word of the Year tile, Catalyz was featured in a very minimalist manner on the top left corner.

"The older I get, the more I find that you can only live with those who free you, who love you with an affection that is as light to bear as it is strong to feel.

Today's life is too hard, too bitter, too anemic, for us to undergo new bondages, from whom we love [...]. This is how I am your friend, I love your happiness, your freedom, your adventure in one word, and I would like to be for you the companion we are sure of, always.”
- Albert Camus

The tangle can be used as a ribbon tangle, and embellished in a variety of ways. And I can't wait to see what jazzed up versions of it you come up with!

If you use Catalyz in your works, tag me on Instagram ( @havepen_willdraw ). I'd love to see what you create using it as your catalyst tangle!

Insightful Intwine

We're at the second quarter of 2024 already. How quickly time flies.

This year, my chosen Word of the Year was "Beginnings". I wanted 2024 to be a year of new art projects, new adventures, and new connections. I spent the first two months recharging and focusing my energies on how I wanted my future to look like. 

I think, when you have unfocused energies, you attract people into your life whose energies don't align with yours. So it is a good exercise to take some time to sit with yourself and ask what is it, really, that you want.

It is at this time, too, that I was reminded that healing is not a linear journey. You think that you have gotten over something, but then the wound reopens. I have learnt that, that is okay.

Feelings demand to be felt. A friend told me that, she imagines her feelings to be ships entering and leaving the harbour... And all you're tasked to do is to acknowledge the ships - be it small ones that are paddle boats, or huge ones that are mega cruise ships... You thank them for visiting your harbour, and then wave goodbye to them.

With that, I would love to share with you a new tangle, that celebrates the new connections I've made. This is "Intwine"-

Here are some tiles I made featuring Intwine:

This tile also features my other tangles, Feist and Mirai. Check them out by clicking the links, if you'd like.

Lastly, I leave you with this lovely quote:

"The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love - whether we call it friendship or family or romance - is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light. Gentlework. Steadfast work. Lifesaving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our own view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another."

If you use Intwine in your works, tag me on Instagram ( @havepen_willdraw ). I'd love to see what you create.

Mindfully Mirai

Isn't it scary how every single time we open our hearts to love, that there is a possibility of getting hurt. And yet, the lure is immense... 

We make plans - and yet life has a way of happening. "Mirai" means "future" in Japanese. With it, I think of my hopes for the future. I might not know how things would go, but I am hopeful for things working out in the best way possible.

Here's how to draw "Mirai":

And here are some tiles I made featuring the tangle:

"I think about how one day, they won't be here anymore. So I am trying my best in this lifetime and theirs, to love them as hard as I can."

This tile also features my other tangles, Intwine and Feist.

I hope the future brings you much joy and wonderful adventures!

If you use Mirai in your works, tag me on Instagram ( @havepen_willdraw ). I'd love to see what you create.

Floral Feist

Everything has its season — that's what I've been told. 

Sometimes, you might wish with all of your heart for something to happen, but you might not be ready for it, or there might be something even better waiting for you in the future. Have you experienced that in your life?

When I think of Feist, I think of softness, or a flower blooming - reaching out towards the sunlight. It represents slow growth - one that is done at your own pace and is sustainable in the long-term. It begins with a sparkle, and then it blossoms.

I hope you'll like using this sweet tangle in your own work, as much as I've enjoyed using it in mine, recently.

Here are the step-outs to my newest tangle, "Feist":

"Beautiful one, you hold my heart.
This heart that sometimes blindly seeks suffering -
But I don't fault my stupid heart,
Because I know that suffering sometimes
can feel religious if you do it right."

This was a tile tinted using gorgeous hand-make watercolours from Wild Dot SG ( @wildd.sg ). Their paints are made from pigments sourced in Singapore! Who knew soil could be so colourful. ✨

Check out some of my other tangles via this link.

And if you use Feist in your works, tag me on Instagram ( @havepen_willdraw ). I'd love to see what you create.

Fanciful Fragment S9

I was invited to be a speaker at Samsung’s Alt+Tab event where I and four other fantastic speakers shared how we've turned our passion into our profession. I spoke about how I stumbled into my career as a Certified Zentangle Teacher, and it was great fun hearing from the other speakers: Moushumi (a colour consultant), Eugene (an esports shout-caster), Chef Al (a private dining chef) and Dr Angeline (a vet who practices both Western and traditional Chinese TCM).

Here's a digital illustration I created as publicity material for the event:

To commemorate this wonderful opportunity, I deconstructed a new tangle that I'm calling "Fragment S9" because the Alt+Tab event was also the official launch for Samsung's Tab S9.

 Here are the basic step-outs to it:

However, you can also draw it in other ways:

If you scroll back up to look at my Alt+Tab illustration at the start of this post, you can spot four other ways to use the tangle, too.

I was looking at the previous illustration I had drawn on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 tablet and wondering why it felt so different from my traditionally done work… And I came to the conclusion that the reason was that when I work on paper, I would have to take a photo of it, in order to show it to you; whereas digital art has a more flat, almost perfect look to it.

I had this sudden thought of taking a photo of a blank tile, and then using that photo as a base for a digital drawing.

There’s been talk in some of the Zentangle groups I’m a part of - about whether digital art goes against the spirit of the Zentangle method… I pointed out to them that for some people with eyesight problems, digital medium might be the only way they’re able to create art as they aren’t able to work on a small scale. Someone else then mentioned that you could use rulers and mirroring tools with digital mediums; but you can use a physical ruler and carbon paper with traditional mediums, too.

With the above illustration, I played around with making my digital brushes and pens look more textured. Eventually, I found a rhythm and also streamlined my work flow. I’m proud of what I created. For me, this illustration toes the line between traditional and digital creation… They’re both valid forms of art. The spirit of the Zentangle method is to find calm in the process of drawing repeated, structured patterns. How you do it doesn’t really matter - pen and paper, sand and a stick by the beach, the S Pen and a tablet… What matters is that you take the time to create something to nourish your soul. Fragment S9 is featured on the lower middle portion of the above illustration. I'll be playing around with this traditional x digital technique again soon. I hope you got something out of this blog post. :) If you use the tangle S9, please tag me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/havepen_willdraw/ Until next time... Keep tangling! - Stephanie J., CZT 21 Singapore

All of Derwent’s White Pencils

  Debbie often pulls out bits and bobs from her cupboard at the studio… Little trinkets… Inks.. Pens… Coloured markers… It keeps things interesting and keeps the ideas flowing for us at the studio.

  A while back, she took out these wooden cabochons that we then glued to blank tiles. I tried to make mine into a cartouches.

  And here’s a postcard-sized tile that I did just for fun. Gemstones are a great way to jazz up your art.

  A gemstone also sneaked into one of the tiles I did during Tea & Tangle session. Debbie was very ambitious- we had three “tangle of the day”. They were “Trinity”, “Ratoon”, and “Drawings”. Here are the tiles I created. (The tinting of the tiles was done in advance.)

  We've been adding small canvases to the studio recently. Debbie painted some of them, and we found an accidental art on her plastic palette after. 

Pretty!

  Inspired by Debbie’s post on which white shading tool is best for black paper, I decided to make my own discoveries on which Derwent pencil was best for black paper.

  I had six contenders…. The Tinted Charcoal, Coloursoft coloured pencil, Graphitint, Inktense, Lightfast coloured pencil, and Pastel pencil. Of the six options, the Graphitint and Inktense are water-soluble.

  I tested them without smudging, with smudging, and with water added (when applicable).

This was a black card from a scrapbook that Debbie bought from Daiso.

  The results were that the Pastel pencil produced the brightest white, but it also created the most amount of fallout. The Lightfast coloured pencil laid down really smoothly- kind of like butter. I like the Inktense when wet, but it’s difficult to control the consistency of coverage once you add water…

  The Graphitint is lovely, without creating nearly as much dust as the Pastel pencil. So it has become my tool to use for black tiles.

  Debbie gave me tiles from Alicia G. Rey, Zen Pig, and Strathmore to try, too. My tests on those tiles produced similar results to the one on the Daiso card.

Alicia G.Rey's tile.

Zen Pig

Strathmore

If you live in Singapore (or are visiting) you can buy Derwent products from Art Friend.

It’s fun playing around with new materials and figuring out what works best for you. What new and interesting art materials have you played with recently? Let me know in the comments.

A Trip to Clear My Mind

  I was away in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the 23rd to the 26th of August. Which meant that I spent my birthday there. I think this is the first time in my life spending my birthday away from home. I did spend it with my mother, my husband, and my daughter, though. So it was a very lovely cake day.

  During my trip, I took the time to relax and chill. Which, to someone with general anxiety and the tendency to overthink things, was really a change of pace.

  I didn't know how much art I'd create over the four days I was on holiday. But I brought along a stack of tiles and a small A5-sized sketchbook, plus my small pencil case of drawing materials that included a variety of Micron pens, a pencil, and a watercolour brush so that I could use my pocket watercolour palette, if I wanted to.

  What did I learn?

  That I'm overly ambitious and that one sketchbook with my pens and a pencil is more than enough. hahaha

  The art that you'll see in the following pictures were created during my trip, but the colours were added when I got back to Singapore.

  At some point, I switched over to a red Micron pen so that I could create something for the 7F5R Challenge. And I've been quite happily drawing Dingbatz with that red pen even after I returned from my trip. I don't know what is it about the tiny Dingbatz and the red ink that I find so charming... Perhaps it's that they remind me of a Chinese seal (chop)?

  You can see some parts are incomplete.

  Especially this one... I have no idea where I'm going with it.... Maybe I'll just have Diva Dance Waltz all over it...

  In the car ride to the airport, I did this impressionistic painting of the sunset that I saw. It was the only time I used my watercolours during the trip.

  The day after I landed back in Singapore, I joined Debbie for her Tea & Tangle session. The Tangle of the Day was "W2".

  I also continued creating more Dingbatz in red ink.

  And here's the last page that I've worked on... It's the start of a Paradox.

  There are about seven more pages to this sketchbook, but the sketchbook is already looking very banged up. It's most likely because I kept folding the sketchbook over itself that caused the paper to start falling away from the staples... Gotta' remember to not do that the next time I buy this sketchbook.

  It has been good to me, though, and I would definitely recommend this brand. It is an ENV Paper Company Sketch Book. It has 20 acid-free pages and is 150gsm. I bought mine at the Art Friend in Plaza Singapura.

  That's all I have for you this time. Until my next post... Keep tangling!