Zentangles

Tags

Art, Books, Creating Equals Playing, daily drawing exercises, Inspiration

Today’s post comes from Joanne Fink. I know a few of you who have subscribed to this blog have an interest in Zentangles. Yesterday, I received information about this book by Joanne Fink, featuring her drawing and patterning techniques.

The following letter is from Joanne Fink. She gave me permission to post this:

“Dear Friends & Family,

Three years ago, I began a new stage of my creative journey when I was introduced to the wonderful world of Zentangle®. I enjoyed ‘tangling’ for a couple of weeks, then returned to my calligraphic roots and started incorporating patterns into my letterforms and designs. Since I was inspired by Zentangle, I called my new style “Zenspirations™”, and began teaching others how to enhance their work with simple patterns. I had never worked with a mono-line pen before, but quickly became so enamored with all of Sakura’s wonderful pens that I became a ‘Sakura Fanatic’, and filmed a series of videos showing how I use their tools to create my Zenspirations art. You can find them on Sakura’s website, or by clicking on the links below.

In addition to the videos, I’ve designed and licensed lots of Zenspirations products for the craft market, and Inspired Journey items for the stationery and gift market. My new book, Zenspirations Letters & Patterning, was introduced by Design Originals at the Craft & Hobby Show in July. My publisher is offering a “Friends & Family” 20% discount to anyone who wants to order the book between now and January 2, 2012. Just click this link:

BUY NOW    and put in the promo code “zensp” at checkout.

And for those of you who are looking for last minute holiday gifts, please check out my new magnetic jewelry design inserts for Magnabilities at http://www.magnabilities.com/store/design-inserts-licensed-c-3_1213_1109.html. The Christmas designs (see samples below) are available now, and my monogram inserts will be available soon.

Thanks for helping me get the word out about the book, jewelry and videos… I really appreciate it.

Happy Holidays!

Joanne”

ZENSPIRATIONS™ VIDEO LINKS:

 

1.       Zenspirations Patterning Techniques with Joanne Fink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhXb6my65fw&hd=1

2.       Zenspirations Shape & Edge Patterning with Joanne Fink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cuekq4lFUo&hd=1

3.       Zenspirations Patterned Monograms with Joanne Fink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC-JULE4T8A&hd=1

4.       Zenspirations Borders & Frames with Joanne Fink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZJ9SpSukeQ&hd=1

5.       Sakura Fanatic with Joanne Fink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBlVBnVHHuE&hd=1

6.       Zenspirations Koi Watercolor Painting with Samantha Trattner (Joanne’s daughter)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KczCST5FGnw&hd=1

Hope you enjoy the videos… you can see other great videos on Sakura’s website: www.sakuraofamerica.com.

________________

Gingerbread Men Ornament

Tags

Christmas Ornament, Gingerbread men

I made a gingerbread men ornament video for my youtube channel. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Here’s the link to the video for anyone who wants the details.

 

 

Taking Care of Things Neglected

Tags

Art, blog, Cereal Box Art, Journal

I finally have a little breathing room in my work schedule to take care of some things that have gone neglected.

A while back, I held a 150 Subscriber giveaway on the blog. The winner was Laurie, Blackbeary Forest. My intention was to work on the project a little every day and post my progress until completion. However, I lost my grip on that project until today.

I used the time that I normally spend creating my daily doodle to make some progress on the giveaway project. I frequently experiment with unusual techniques for my Youtube channel. This one involved attaching a cake decorating tip to a tube of acrylic paint as a way of creating dimension on the canvas. I don’t plan to make a video out of this one, because I ran into some problems. The main problem was that the tip I used was the smallest one available, and it required a lot of strength to force the paint through the tip. I wouldn’t use this tip again myself. I also found the tape wasn’t quite adequate in securing the tip, and the paint starting leaking. It worked well as far as advancing the giveaway canvas project, though. You lose some, you win some!

An Apple a Day

Tags

Art, Daily doodle, Giveaway

Yesterday’s post led to today’s doodle.

I have made just a little progress today on the 150 subscriber giveaway. I painted the Cheerios box panel with white gesso over the black. I discovered that even though Liquitex is more expensive, I prefer Liquitex brand gesso to the Dick Blick brand, because one coat of Liquitex is more opaque than this.

I used a trowel to texture the sides of the Wheat Thins canvas with Acrylic Molding Paste. The purpose of this step is to hide the seams in the top and bottom of the box.

Both of these steps require drying time, so that’s the most I could do this morning.

Souffle Pens

Tags

Art

Just a short post today. I picked up this ten pack of Souffle pens at Michael’s yesterday for $22.99. I hope I get the chance to try them out tomorrow. They’re dimensional, and I’ve been experimenting with lots of ways of adding dimension to my designs.

I finally have my guest galleries up and running on my website. You can find the link to my website in the sidebar. I hope you check them out.