Birthday Month

  August happens to be "the birthday month" in our family. My mother, mother-in-law, and I are all August babies. Singapore, the country we live in, also celebrates its birthday on the 9th of August.

  Side note: Because it's Singapore's birthday this month, the theme for week one and two of August's 7F5R Challenge is red and white. Create a tile using the colours red and white and post it in the group. We'd love to see what you create.

  Do you like birthdays? Do you celebrate your own birthday?
  I enjoy birthdays, but I prefer to spend them with family and close friends, a quiet dinner, and perhaps a yummy chocolate cake.

  I asked the same question to my students at Toa Payoh Central Community Club and some of them said they were like me, while some of them said they'd rather not think about their birthdays at all. hahaha

  Yesterday was the last day of July's classes. Here's what my students created:

  And this was what one student created in her sketchbook as homework. My students continue to amaze me, again and again.

  As for me, I've been busy, too!

  Here's the tile from Debbie that I showed you in my previous post. The gemstones on the tile are real ones.

  Whereas these gemstones are drawn. I just wanted to draw a bunch of gemstones without tangling, so this is what I came up with. I might one day add tangles to the tile.... but you know how sometimes things turn out so well that you don't want to draw more, for fear that you might ruin what nice things you've already drawn? hahaha. Yes, I feel that way for this tile.

  Here's a Zendala, also with gemstones. I have no idea why the photo is not centred. 

  Lastly, this was what I drew for this week's Tea & Tangle. The featured tangle was "Klomp".

  During this session, Debbie and I talked about pushing past your creative comfort zone and trying new things. It's good to have tangles that you like and go to often, but it's also important to try new tangles- especially ones that you normally don't draw. (For me, that's grid-based tangles.)

  What's a tangle you've recently learnt that you'd like for me to try? Let me know in the comments section.

  That's all I have for you right now. In my next post, I'll show you a bunch of Travelling Tangles Project tiles that I've completed.

  I'll see you again soon. Until then, keep tangling!

connections

  We've done up the signs on the front of our studio's doors!

  Debbie's friend, Ruth, sent some flowers as congratulations. So sweet of her. :>

  Two weeks ago, we used Flux as the Tea & Tangle: Tangle of the Day. Here's my tile. I'm developing a class based on it.

  Then, the following week, Debbie released her new tangle "InaFlux" during Tea & Tangle. Although, at that point in time, it didn't have a name and I referred to it as "the Flux flower thingie". hahaha

  If you'd like to learn how to draw the tangle, you can find it towards the end of this post.

  My favourite way of using InaFlux is by having single stalks bloom into a bouquet of Inafluxes. I drew it on this Travelling Tangles Project tile.

  This tile was from  Lynda Scott Abbot. The background colour is a paprika tint, which is so clever and fun. I wanted to let the colours show through. I added InaFlux, and completed the border. Then added some background shading with a brown watercolour. Shading for InaFlux was done using coloured pencil. White highlights were added using Uni-ball’s Signo Broad pen.

  I just received this photo from a workshop I taught in June at Fuji Xerox Towers. I'm not too difficult to spot- front row, wearing a flower crown, and wearing an apron.

  I think it's with these group pictures where I really take a moment to think about the amount of students that I've taught... It's been three good years, and counting. Of me sharing the Zentangle method with others. Of me teaching classes and workshops. The many little connections I made along the way... Hopefully planting the seeds of inspiration and creativity, and the idea that "you can do whatever you set your heart to".

  From large workshops like the one you see above...

  ... to smaller ones, where it's more cozy like the one below.

  I'm always so grateful to be given the opportunity to share my passion for Zentangle art with others.

  Here's one more photo, this time from a private class that I taught in a student's home. She and her friends get together about once every two/three months for a dinner-Zentangle session. It lots of fun and we even have dessert after class.

  Another student that I teach at Toa Payoh Central Community Club sent me this photo of something she created in her sketchbook. She has been taking my weekly classes for almost a whole year now, and it shows. I'm so SO proud of her.

  Lastly, a little something fun to end this post....

  Here's a tile I created in my square sketchbook for 7F5R's bi-monthly challenge on Facebook. This was for June's Week 1 and 2, where we had to use a diamond string. I really liked this tile. Might use it for a class...

  And that's all I have for you. I'll see you again real soon. Until then, keep tangling!

a bouquet of Mookas

  For this term of my weekly classes, I've been teaching my students how to draw Mooka. So I think that explains why it's popping up so often in my personal art works... I've been having great fun teaching this month's classes, and I can't wait to convert those classes into online classes.

  This was what a student did in her sketchbook as homework:

Very lovely.

  Here are my tiles for this week's Zentangle challenges. Joey asked us to use Relly-Telly-One. The Diva asked us to use Shattuck and Tripoli. I kept things really simple this week, letting shading take centre-stage.

   Some Travelling Tangles Project tiles:

with Beth Detzler

With a six-year-old kiddo by the name of "Jazz White".
I coloured the tile rainbow colours, cause' every kid loves a rainbow.

  A Cubine tile from Michele Werner...

Before

After

  Lastly, a tile that was created as a thank you present for someone.   :)

  The background was done using Peerless watercolours. The gold accent was done using Finetec paints. Featuring a bouquet of Mookas, Printemps, and Diva Dance Waltz. I'm so pleased with how this tile turned out.

  Thanks for popping by. I'll see you next week. :)

InktoberTangles 2017 Prompts

  Inktober is almost upon us. This will be my second year doing Inktober. Last year, I followed the official prompts but it was a bit difficult because the official prompts were created more for illustrators and artists... So this year, I created a list of my own, featuring tangles as prompts. With this we start on a new hashtag... #InktoberTangles

  And I thought to share my list with you, in case you'd wanted to do the challenge, too. Here's the original poster/flyer for the challenge:

  And if you're on Instagram and would like to share it there, here's a square version of the poster/flyer:

  If you're more of a Facebook sort of person, here's a shareable Facebook post so that you can share the challenge with your family and friends. I hope you'll have fun with the challenge and that there'll be many people who'll join in the fun.

  Do you think it's a good list? I tried to have a mix of official tangles and some tangles that I liked and used often. I will be using the official prompts to practice my calligraphy, and these prompts for my Zentangle art.

  Will you be participating in Inktober this year? Let me know in the comments section! :)

really rad sketchbook page

  Here is my tile for Joey's challenge featuring Ginili. I actually posted a short video of me drawing Ginili in my sketchbook earlier in the week.

  And from that video, I completed the page using some fun tangles for the Diva challenge, which was to use cozy tangles.

  In other news, I completed this tile for the Travelling Tangles Project. The tile was from Joey (of Joey's challenge). Here's her start:

 Here's my finish:

  And lastly, I thought you'd like to see this super cool sketchbook page done by one of Teacher Joni's students. The student's name is "Daphne". Superb work, don't you think?

it has been a challenging week

   My submission for last week's Diva Challenge: Crux. Such a pretty tangle.

Here's the tile without black filling in or shading.

And here it is after.
I made videos on how to draw Cadent. You can find them on my How to Draw (this tangle) series.

  And here's my tile for this week's challenge:

Drupe and Poke Root.

  My submission for this week's Joey challenge:

I don't know if this is still considered to be Knightsbridge when the grid is that random...
But there *is* a "XII" string as its foundation.

My tile for IAST #143:

Sand Swirl, N'zeppel, Tipple, and a small area of Swarm.

  And here's one last tile from Travelling Tangles. A collaboration done between me and Chris Titus.

Want to take part in a global Zentangle collaborative project?
Join us over at Travelling Tangles' Facebook group.

  Thanks for viewing my tiles. I appreciate all the comments you leave on my blog. :) Till' next week... Keep tangling!

is there such a thing as too much creativity

  Happy New Year to everyone! We've been busy here at Everything Is Art. Planning new classes... Trying new tangles and strings... Doing more Zentangle inspired works... Is there such a thing as too much creativity? I just have so many ideas floating in my head. Not that I'm complaining! I'm really happy about it. And I'm also really excited to show you some of the tiles that the people at Everything Is Art have done over the past week or so.

  I did some full pages in my sketchbook:

This one was done with a Sakura Souffle pen.
You can read a review of it by clicking here.

And this is an almost-completed page. I want to add shading to this piece after.

  Onwards!

  Here's my tile for It's a String Thing #125:

I wanted the "Tipple" to sort of fall in a weighted fashion. You're meant to tilt the tile a little.

Joni's tile for the challenge.
I like the belt thing she did with "Sprocket".

  Here's a sneak preview to a new time lapse drawing I'll be doing:

The time lapse will be of the Zentangle patterns around the jewel. I'm planning to do a tutorial of how to draw jewels with black coloured pencil as shadow soon.

  And here's some coloured Zendalas I did:

This one didn't use many recognisable Zentangle patterns.

This one used African Artist, Pinepple, and Crescent Moon.

  I also taught Zendala classes last week. The students did great. Here's one by Muniza:

Last but not least, here's a tile Joni and I did for Diva's weekly challenge.
"Lauraknot" and Diva Dance.
I did the Auraknot; Joni did the Diva Dance and shading.

  I did too many tiles, so I'll be posting the remainder of them later on in the week. (Update: that post is up already. You can view it by clicking this link.) Until then... Keep tangling! ^-^