Inaugural POST by Deb McCormick

Good Morning on the First Monday in the lovely month of May.   This is Deb McCormick from Ohio with my very first Blog post for AlteredPages.  I am excited and hopeful you like what I have to show. 

Who likes to "tangle?  That would be Zentangle... an art that has been around for about 10 years now.  The formal originators of this art are Rick a former monk, and his partner Maria.  Rick hired Maria to create art for him.   While she was absorbed in a project, he asked her what she was doing and she explained that she was lost in her designs.  He told her she was meditating.... and from there we have Zentangle(R).   While Rick and Maria trademarked the name Zentangle with specific designs being created all the time and they provide classes and materials for this art, some people call it doodling and create their own art style.

There are thousands of patterns called "tangles" you can choose which ones you want to use.  The best thing about Zentangle is that there are no mistakes!  That makes it easy to begin, knowing you can't make a mistake.

Zentangle is done on a white 3.5" square tile.  Although the lesson we are going to learn today is tangling on a water color washed piece.   Here are some pictures of what we have so far.

I chose to use Gelatos as they are so easy to work with and can be purchased on the AlteredPages website.    I gave my paper a quick spray of water to prep it for the use of the gelatos.

Next I took my water barrel paint brush and transferred the color of the gelato to the brush.

This  give  you control when blending the Gelatos on paper.

From here you dab the Gelatos on the paper in any color combo you choose and you determine how light or dark you want your background to be.

At this point I wanted a more blended look so I look a large paint brush with water on it and blended the colors together and it lightened the background wash.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

This form of art will be fantastic on our May projects with 'Artists on the Block' using Eileen Hull Artist Trading Blocks.

For free tangle patterns check out Tanglepatterns.com. they have a plethora of tangles to choose.

A pen is used to create the actual tangle, Micron Pen works beautifully.   

I will admit that my first tangle attempt was less that beautiful, but my second and third kept getting better.  And now I feel I am successful in my designs.  My next post will go into more of the process of the doodling itself.  I love color and really  wanted to share that with you.  

Enjoy, I hope I put a level of interest in your mind.  Stay tuned I'll be back on the 19th of May with more info.  THANKS for commenting!

Deb

See the fine products at AlteredPages!

Gelatos
Water Brushes in various sizes
Micron pens in various sizes