2015 comes to a close

  Christmas came and went. The days seem to have breezed by. Joni and I made tiles with little Christmas trees on them for the holiday. I drew the trees in pencil, then gave one of the tiles to Joni to fill in, whilst I filled my own one. In case you haven't see them, here they are:

Here's mine.

And here's Joni's one.

Small update with what I've been up to lately:

I asked my mum what she wanted for Christmas and she said "a money tree".
So I made one for her. The Singapore $50 and $1000 bills are blue and purple coloured respectively. I asked my mum to ask the tree for money; and then to open the little flap on the tree's trunk. Behind the flap was a $50 bill for her to keep. She thought it to be a lovely present. ^-^

A new piece for "Blossoms".
Skull with a dragonfly and a chrysanthemum.

   I taught "Yuma" last week. It's such a pretty pattern, and it comes out differently every time you draw it. Here's Mihika focusing on her tile:

And this week, I did a hummingbird tile with her because the 5th of January is World Bird Day.
The pink is hers; the green is mine. She's just twelve years old, might I add. Such lovely work.

Lastly, a custom drawing for a friend.
He's Christian and I asked what his favourite quote from the bible was, and what colours he like. I then made this drawing accordingly.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

  I also started on a new project which I've currently titled "3.142". (Said as "three point one four two", after pi- π .)

Here's one finished one.

And here are five of its other friends that are currently in the works.

I've also taken the time to get back to drawing on actual tiles.
Some Zendalas I taught this week... And a tile for "It's a String Thing". I'll be posting the finished pieces right after I've completed them.

  I'm so glad you've stuck around and watched the progress of Everything Is Art. This year, we had our first exhibition (Building Bridges). Joni and I made such progress with our artistic abilities. We joined new art groups, started on new projects, and are planning on our next exhibition already... It has truly been a wonderful year for us.

  In 2016, I'll like to focus on doing more commercial works- like selling prints, iPhone covers, and T-shirts... I'll like to make more videos. I'll like to have my second exhibition; and maybe a third one, too. I'll like to teach the Zentangle method to more students. I'll like to make more friends (artists and non-artists alike). I'll like to do even more projects. I've said this plenty of times, but it's worth saying again: I'm so blessed to be doing what I love every day. I hope 2016 will be our best year yet.

Here's a wefie of Joni and I, with me holding a drawing we made together that says "Happy New Year". I'll be posting a clear, close up photo of it along with a time-lapse video of me doing the type. Until then... Keep tangling~

This is the how-many-th jewel that I've drawn..?

  You're here for the tutorial, eh? It's quite simple, really. Watch the video then read the steps to follow along what I'm doing.

1. Very lightly outline the shape of the jewel with a pencil; not forgetting to add a border for it.
2. I'm adding the darkest tone to the left side of the jewel; which is different from what I usually do. But I'm a rebel like that.
3. Now for the mid tone. You'll notice that I'm following the shape of the jewel- which is a sort of bean shape. It's at this point that I have a slight regret for choosing green as the colour of the jewel. (Is it a jewel, or a shiny bean?) ... But onwards we must go.
4. Lighter tone... And then the lightest tone (which is a sort of grass green). Looks good.
5. Now we add black. Just to the very edge of the dark side of the jewel.
6. And now we saturate the colours, moving from the darkest colour to the lightest colour.
7. Now for the highlight. I'm using a white Uni-ball Signo Broad pen. Adding white to here, here, and just a little tiny bit there and there.
8. Shall I lighten things up a little? ... Yea. I'll try. Using a white coloured pencil, I'm lightening the jewel just a tiny bit. 
9. Looks good?  ... Looks good. Now all we need is to go crazy with the Zentangle around it. However, I messed up that part. You don't need to see my shame, so there's no video of that.

  Hope this tutorial was fun. I should make more of these light-hearted tutorials in the future. I'm going to start adding voice-overs to some of my videos. And I have a super long tips and tricks video in the pipeline so look out for that. ^-^

  If you'll like to read a more serious tutorial, read this blog post: (click me)

  Keep tangling~

Secret Santa isn't so secret, after all.

  I go for Zumba classes every Tuesdays and Saturdays. We call ourselves "Zumbabes". And about a week ago, we had a Christmas celebration dinner. During which, we decided to have a Secret Santa. Basically, you'll put all the names of everyone involved into a little container. Then everyone will pick one name. You then have to give a gift to the person whose name you got. I decided to make a custom Zentangle art for the person who I acted as Secret Santa for. Here's what I made for her:

If you haven't seen the time lapse of me making this drawing, here it is:

  Have a great Christmas, everyone.  :)

the river flows in you

  Woohoo! Part two of what I've done in the past week.

  Aside: The title of this post is related to a drawing I'll be showing later. And it's also the title to this really beautiful song... (link right here.) You might want to click on the link to listen to the song while you're reading this post. ^-^

  Jewels; jems; gems... Whatever you want to call them...

What happened with this jewel was that I accidentally cracked it... But I decided to just roll with it and enhance the cracks with ink.
"How did you crack it, Stephanie? Isn't the jewel drawn onto paper..?"
Yes, but I used a special method to make the jewel extra special. I'll be posting a mini tutorial soon.

  The next drawing is pretty cool (if I do say so myself). It was inspired by the Willamette River Historical Stream Channels in Oregon.

In 1941, the Mississippi River Commission appointed Harold Fisk to undertake a groundbreaking effort to map the entire Lower Mississippi Valley. Three years later he produced a stunning series of 15 maps that combine over 20 different river paths obtained through historical charts and aerial photography.

You can see the original picture (made by cartographer Dan Coe) that inspired the drawing via this direct link: (click me)

Playing around with Cadent and Bunzo. Bundent..? Eh.
And a little Leaflet border at the side.

Have I posted this drawing before? I can't remember.
I think it looks pretty, though. So here it is (again?).
Coloursoft on my tiga sketchbook.

Lastly, a hella rad inked drawing.
I like the sci-fi, oriental look it has going.

  And that's about it for this week. Thanks for looking~

have a blue (and white, and red, and silver) Christmas

  I'm part of this Facebook group that does art swaps frequently. I took part in their Winter Swap 2015 recently. Most artists are from the US of A. I saw that a few people were from Canada. I was the only one from Asia... (Woohoo! Singapore represent!)

  We had to make ATCs using only blue, red, silver, and white. It was a little frustrating to not be able to use black ink... But I managed. They were meant to celebrate Christmas but we have until February to mail them out. Mine probably won't reach anyone in time for Christmas, but I didn't want to send them out during the festive season rush as mail gets lost more frequently around that time of year, and the ATCs will have to travel half way round' the world from Singapore to the United States... Shoutout to Carla Szczuka for being my swap buddy. ^-^

  Without further ado, here are all the Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) I made for the swap.

  I really tried to vary how each ATC looked like. I hope the people in my group will like what they get, and I'm very excited to receive ATCs from them. I've gotten a couple of ATCs in return already. It really brightens my day to receive snail mail. I might just take part in another swap soon.

  Leave me comments on which your favourite is. And if you'd like to do a personal swap with me, I'm always happy to oblige. E-mail me at stephanie@everythingis-art.com for that.

if a tree falls and no one is there to hear it...

  "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

  If an artist creates and no one is there to see it... is she a bad blogger?

  I've missed lots of Zentangle challenges for the past week... I also haven't been posting about what I've created recently. However, I've been creating plenty. Just that I've not gotten around to taking pictures until now. (Oops.)

  Ready for awesome-ness?

  Let's go.

  Sketchbook things:

Originally done for Diva's "African Artist" challenge...

Trying out border patterns.
Featuring "Organic", "Fleavy", and "Bonaro".

"Fleavy" and "Gourdeous".

Half done drawing...

New pattern that I like: "Verve"

  Drawing things:

It's a skull and a dragonfly, and of course some flowers because that's the theme for my next exhibition, "Blossoms".

A custom drawing for a friend with a quote from the Bible. Haven't filled in the background yet. It's going to be in coloured pencils. I'm excited to get it completed.
The yellow drawing at the back is a sneak preview of another drawing for "Blossoms".

  I went to East Coast Park for a walk by the ocean. And I saw these coloured trees:

Really pretty.

  Lastly, some Christmas-y things from the classes I've taught in the past week:

The idea came from Joey's Zentangle challenge.
This one is done by me.

This one is done by a twelve year old girl whose name is "Mihita".

  Interested in learning about the Zentangle method? I teach classes in Singapore. Find out more by clicking right here.

  And that's all you're getting for now. I have other sketchbook drawings to show you cause I've done so much. I've got some artist trading cards for a swap that I've taken part in to show you too. I'll have an update on the drawings I'm working on for "Blossoms". I've got more time lapse videos that I want to film.

  I promise I'll be updating this blog more often.

  I'm still creating things every week. I've just not made the time to update all of you. (Sorryyy~)

  Be back here in two days' time. I'll have new things to show you, then. ^-^

Christmas treasures

  Joni says: I've recently been playing around a lot with jems. I think they're a really good idea for Christmas cards or custom art works. Here's what I've created in the past week.

  Stephanie also created some tutorials showing how you can make these pretty jems too. You can find the tutorials if you click here and also here.

school holidays are great

  In case you missed the post I made on my Facebook fan page... I had a Zentangle introductory class with four wonderful kiddos last Friday. Joni made banana smoothies for all of us, and the class went really well. 

Concentrating on her tile...

  And here are the finished tiles~

  Would you like to learn about the Zentangle method? Find out more via this link. Everything Is Art is also currently offering a December special. Five classes for $170, to be completed within this month. Great for kids who are currently having their school holidays. Contact me, Stephanie, at stephanie@everythingis-art.com.