Art Journal - Something about Morocco

A tajine is a type of ceramic or clay pot/ cookware used in North Africa. I was first introduced to it by a Moroccan restaurant right here in Doha. The tajine is used to slow cook the food inside the vessel.

A tajine is a rich stew of meat or chicken or fish which includes vegetables or fruit.

 

 The challenge was to use the colors peacock blue, paprika and sand. Not sure if I achieved the colors with my mixes but it turned out okay.

One day I hope to cook using a real tajine. I should buy one first shouldn't I?

Diva's Challenge #111 - MOOKA

This week's challenge from the Diva was to use MOOKA as our subject.

I never tried Mooka before as I always thought it was out of my league. To put it plainly I avoided it.
After I tried several samples and looked at the video, I felt foolish; it was so easy. Today I sat in the doctors waiting room for over an hour, and filled a whole notebook page with MOOKA. The time seemed to go by very quickly.

I find shading is tricky, and that's something I will have to work on and get comfortable with.

 In all it was a great challenge, and certainly a tangle I will have to try again.

Zendala Dare #50

Nothing interesting happening in my neck of the woods of late. It rained, that made news. Woohoooo!

I'm early with this weeks Zendala Dare  - #50. Wooohooo!

Simple, straight forward and to the point. I agreed with Erin that the middle bits didn't need filling in.

Have a great week!!!

Diva's Challenge #110 - Out Of The Box

For the Diva's challenge this week we had to do something out of the box. Do something different from what we are accustomed to.

I have always wanted to try using a white pen on black paper but felt intimidated. But I didn't think about it and just did it. Instead of using black paper, I used other colors.

I have to say, one thing led to another and within an hour I ended up with these 3. For once I chose not to be perfect and not care about how clean the lines were. I'm a perfectionist like that unfortunately.

 This is the Chicken Wire tangle. Check out the shadows in the background. Materials used are a sharpie white pen and white prisma color.

 I just learned how to do this new zentangle Flwr Box - by Kathy Barringer. Also included is the Zinger

Here is the Flwr Box again. Accompanied by the Anti-dots.

Have a great weekend friends.

Zendala Dare #49 - Sleepless

It's been difficult to fall asleep these days nights. A few hours here and there seem to be sufficient. Well not really. A few hours per day or night are not enough.  Below is the result of a sleepless night.

For once I was able to use multiple zentangles in a single piece and this one I found to just flow.

As I tangled away, these little Neanderthal owl-like things emerged.

"Hmmm where did you guys come from"?

"Your dreams" that strange one in the middle answered

"My dreams? But I have not had enough sleep to have a decent dream"

Neanderthal owl-like thing just drifts away.

Clearly not sleeping makes you here and see things.

The Zentangles I used are angel-fish, keenees, and hibred.

The Diva's Challange #109

Another challenge from the Diva. I have not posted one of these for a long time. They have been stuck in my book waiting for a chance to get out.
This challenge was inspired by a photo taken in Italy. Read the story of the inspiration here.

I call this Portal.

and the zentangle used is up and across

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tree Frog Mandala

 The weekend is almost here. Really looking forward to it. No reason in particular, but I just am. Weekends allow me to shut down and shut the world out.



Here is another Totem animal manadala from Guada and Jay.

Done with Brushable markers and prisma colors.

Zendala Dare #48 - Spicey Lemon Zest

Very rarely do I look at one of Erin's templates and think that "this one is a piece of cake". Even if I do when I am about to put pen to paper, I will most likely draw a blank and not know how or where to draw the first line. That's what I like about these challenges. They test you, they allow you to make choices that you have to stick with and they make you become better.

This challenge really tested me. It made me think about why I do these Zendalas. The more I contemplated what patterns to use to complete the challenge, the more I just wanted to quit the whole thing. I took on these dares because I wanted my imagination to be challenged; to expand. But no such thing on this day. Everything went blank. I tried several patterns, and combinations, and nothing worked. I wanted to take the print-out and hide it and pretend that I forgot about the new dare for this week. Then I thought that if I do not do it I would feel like a looser and a quitter.

So i forced myself to sit down in front of the template yesterday morning to just get it done, whether I liked the outcome or not. Specific zentangles escaped me despite me going through my samples numerous times. I think I managed to get a type of the hypnotic tangle in there, then after that I just did my own thing, then one thing led to another and this is what emerged

                                       Spicy Lemon Zest

Thank you Erin for your time and dedication to these Zendala Dares.

Zendala Dare #47 - Loosing It

I think I am finally over the jet lag. Our family spent an awesome 2 weeks in Barbados with family, and it has taken us almost that amount of time to readjust to the time difference. Time travel from West to East is much more difficult to adjust to than going from East to West. At certain times of the day sleep will hold on to you and not let go until you have given in.

I've missed a couple of weeks of the diva's challenges  but here goes with dare #47. The challenge was to remove a part of the mandala.

I removed the very top piece and the ovals within. OOOpppppssss. I forgot to scan the original template. You can see it here.

But here is my question. Mandalas are supposed to be circles. Would this still be classed as a mandala/zendala even though it is not closed or a full circle?

I've been working on some art journal pages and what fun I've been having. Once I have figured out how to make my bits of technology communicate with each other, I will share them here.