Featuring Artoo and Boo-Kee. With Diva Dance in the background.
A tile for fun. Background done with Derwent Inktense on Canson paper. (view my review of Canson papers/sketchbooks here.)
And some tiles done during classes:
Creative tile featuring "W2".
And here's one featuring Bales, Cadent, and Fassett.
Travelling Tangles is a collaborative project that aims to show how the Zentangle® method can bring people from around the world closer to one another. The idea is that you will draw on an original Zentangle tile but only finish the drawing half-way. Then you will send it off to another person for him/her to complete it. In exchange, they too will half finish a tile and send it to you for you to complete. Both you and the other person will then each have a tile to keep.
If that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, join the Travelling Tangles' Facebook group via this link. Here's a tile that I'm sending to Staub Korn:
Lastly, my mum and I decided we need uniforms for when we hold our Zentangle classes. So we bought matching coloured aprons, and she hand-sewed the Zentangle® logo onto them.
Progress picture... I'll post an update once they come out of the laundry.
I didn't get time to post my submission for Joey's Challenge last week! Congratulations, Joey, on 100 wonderful weekly Zentangle challenges. ^-^ Here's my tile with the "100" string:
Derwent Inktense on Canson paper. It was a very *very* loose interpretation of the "100" string.
Onwards to other tiles!
Fassett and Bales done during a class.
Flux flower with Diva Dance. I really liked this tile.
Notice a trend? Hovering tangles with another tangle for the background. Simple but very effective. Here's Hamadox and Mumsy. Looking at it on screen, I would've probably added more weight to the outlines of all the Hamadoxes.
On Monday, my mother and I visited the Alive Museum. It is an optical illusion wonderland located within Suntec Tower 4 on the third storey, right above Toys 'r' us. It opens from 10am to 10pm, and is very accessible via Promenade MRT. You just need to take Exit C to enter Suntec City, and you'll be able to find it easily. Admission for adults (children 13 years old and above) is $25, while a ticket for a child (3 to 12 years of age) is $20.
I won't show all the exhibits, because otherwise it'd spoil the fun for you if you decide to go. As we went to visit it on a weekday, there weren't many people there so we could take the time to visit each exhibit area and take as many pictures as we wanted. The staffs within the museum were very friendly and we were asked thrice whether we would like help to have our picture taken together. ^-^
When we first entered, we were greeted by a creepy Van Gogh, whose eyes followed us across the room...
Splendid start to our visit! We also got to be mermaids, and then we met a dragon.
There was this fully mirrored room that had a sign outside that told ladies that were wearing skirts to be careful of accidentally flashing their butts to others. I didn't quite believe the sign as I had seen mirrored floors before, and as there were very few people in the museum, I could try to sway my skirt about to see whether what the sign said was true. .... It was. >///< So be careful if you decide to wear a skirt or dress to the Alive Museum!
There was jive music playing in the room, with colourful flashing lights.
And it was fun to take mirror selfies whilst in the room.
You were supposed to lean forward with the help of this red handle thingy, but I couldn't do it. So I got creative!
You can't see the red handle cause my body is blocking it, but you can see the shoe prints on the floor where people are actually meant to stand.
*frowns*
What are you staring at?
Baby Van Gogh and I had a drawing competition. (He won.)
There actually was a baby Picasso on the wall, but like I said; be creative with the exhibits!
Then there was this awesome floor illusion:
Not to worry if you have vertigo (just like my mother does), though. The alley past this leads to a dead-end, and you have to go past a door to continue through the museum. (My mother was extremely relieved that she didn't have to brave walking across the scary glass floor. hahaha)
I wasn't actually supposed to sit here to take a picture. The exhibit was on the opposite side of the room, but I'm not going to spoil it for you.
This one was one of my favourite exhibits. Tumbelina~
This one gave me very "The Little Prince" vibes, for some reason.
Here's a picture of my mum petting a giraffe.
And one last one:
My mum and I had lots of fun taking pictures and thinking up of creative ways to pose with the exhibits. I'm sure the Alive Museum would be great fun for the entire family. The museum does not have many activities. It is mostly just a way for you to have a fun day out and have unique photos to take home. So make sure to go as a couple, or a trio or more in order to be able to have more photo opportunities.
Joni says: Most of the posts on here are written by Stephanie Jennifer. But for a change, here are some of the works I've done over the past week... Starting off with some Zengems:
Playing around with Printemps.
And here's Sharla-Rella.
If you haven't already heard, Stephanie started a new project called "Travelling Tangles". Travelling Tangles is a collaborative project that aims to show how the Zentangle® method can bring people from around the world closer to one another. The idea is that you will draw on an original Zentangle tile but only finish the drawing half-way. Then you will send it off to another person for him/her to complete it. In exchange, they too will half finish a tile and send it to you for you to complete. Both you and the other person will then each have a tile to keep.
If you'd like to be a part of the project, you can join the Facebook group for it here: https://goo.gl/FW1OiX
Stephanie and I have been busy with Zentangle® classes, but have still managed to find time to create tiles to send to others. Here is the first batch of tiles that I sent out:
Stephanie also posted a video of her showing off two Zentangle cards that she made. The idea was thought up by Grace Mendez.
Here are some pictures of each layer of the cards:
She didn't show this part of one of the cards in the video, but the two sides of the flaps actually converged in the back of the card. I thought it was very creative!
If you don't know yet; I recently went to Art Friend (it's an art shop in Singapore) and they were having a promotional sale on all Canson products. So I bought lots of things and made a review about what Canson papers and sketchbooks are available. There's even a giveaway at the end of the post. You can find it via this link.
I also finished working on one of my typography books and have already started on the second one. Such fun! Here are a few pictures from the first:
And if you missed it, here's the flip-through video of the whole sketchbook. (it even has a little speed-drawing in the middle. hehehe)
I also did a Zentangle drawing with really inexpensive pens by Uni-ball. I've done it till' this part:
Still need to finish with shading and adding of Zengems.
And I also have a speed-video of me creating it right here:
Onwards!
Here's an ATC I made for a swap. Pardon the poor lighting. It was at night and I wanted to pack it into an envelope so that I wouldn't forget to mail it the next day.
And some other Zentangle tiles:
Hamadox and Sand Swirl, plus Printemps on the black flourish.
Again, Hamadox. This time with some Sharla Rella.
This week of Diva's Challenge was to do a tile inspired by a tile you did a long time ago. So here's a thing I did in February of 2014:
I used to draw tangles exclusively in sketchbooks. So this was the closest I got to a square format.
And here's the tile reimagined:
Done on Canson paper with Derwent Inktense laid on it. Shading was done with a black Coloursoft. A sort of "Hypnotic" on the left, "Facets" remained the same, "Sharla Rella" looks much more mature, circle changed into a wave of "Reticulated", and a pretty "Yuma" on the lower right. I'm very proud of my progress. ^-^
I'm also very excited to announce the start of a new project I'm working on.... The "Travelling Tangles" project. It is a collaborative project between Zentangle artists from all around the world. The idea is that you will draw on an original Zentangle tile but only finish the drawing half-way. Then you will send it off to another CZT for him/her to complete it. In exchange, they too will half finish a tile and send it to you for you to complete. Both of you will then each have a tile to keep. I first posted the idea of the Certified Zentangle Teachers Facebook page and it received really positive feedback. Many of the Certified Zentangle Teachers have begun swapping. The project is open to any and everyone, though.
I've started with eight swaps so as to not overwhelm myself, and here they are:
It felt weird to not complete the tile and to not add shading. hahaha
When I first came up with the idea, my vision for it was to show others how the Zentangle® method has reached people from all around the world; and also to show that the Zentangle method goes across all race, religion, and creed to bring people closer to one another. It also felt like the next logical step with Zentangle- that people would begin collaborating with other artists to complete a tile. I'd been doing collaborations with my mother, Joni Toh, already and every tile we did together was always fun.
I think it'd also be really interesting because when you start a tile, you mostly have an idea of how you're going to finish it. However, when you have to finish someone else's tile, you might have to think differently, and how you'd finish a tile would probably not be how another person finishes the tile. It's going to be lots of fun- that, I know for sure. And if you'd like to be a part of this project, here is the Facebook group that I opened for it. Travelling Tangles.
I hope you'll join it and be a part of this new adventure, and I can't wait to see what everyone will create. ^-^
Art Friend has been stocking Canson Arches paper for some time now, but recently, I found out that they're currently having a promotion on A LOT of their Canson products and I had to restrain myself from buying too many things.... #artistproblems I thought it'd be nice if you had a place to see all the different varieties of papers that Art Friend has, and also to show you what their current promotion is about.
I apologise in advance to all the international readers who get art materials envy from this post. However, there will be a giveaway at the end of this post. :)
Hand lettering done on the back of a Canson Arches Esquisse paper.
Here are the Canson papers Art Friend stocks. I hope the pictures will give you an idea on the texture of the papers...
Canson Arches Huile Oil Paper Pad. 300gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 12 sheets. $24.50/pad
Canson Arches Aquarelle Cold Pressed Watercolour Pad. 300gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 20 sheets. $44.90/pad. They also sell a hot pressed version of this paper. The Aquarelle range of papers are all wonderful.
Canson Arches Dessin Drawing Pad. 200gsm. 23cm x 31cm. 16 sheets. Comes in extra white or cream. $21.40/pad.
This one had different textures to each side of the paper. It kind of reminded me about Fabriano's Goffrata sketchbook from its Bouquet of Notebooks series. (What are that? I have a post where I show you the Bouquet Notebooks. It's towards the end of this post.)
Front
And back of paper. I used the little ridges as gauges for my hand lettering picture at the top of this post. Not my wisest idea as I did have trouble keeping my lines straight. But hey, not all of our ideas work out, eh?
And the "heart the art" promotion Art Friend is currently holding looks like this:
"Friend Friend got lobang one" *dies laughing*
In case you can't read the promo card in the picture properly, it says... If you're an Art Friend member, you can get 40% discount on Canson products in the promo...
See all the yellow tabs? 40% discount if you have membership. That's about $3 to $10 for each sketchbook in the Canson range.
$2... Now with 40% discount.
There are five colours in the Canson Notes- light blue, orange, royal purple, magenta pink, and grass green. But I only saw the pink and green on shelves. *sad face* I'd have liked a purple one.
*strong urge to grab five of each sketchbook*
Art Friend is selling A4-sized 100 percent cotton paper in packs of five for 50% discount with every purchase of qualifying products....
They also had the paper in "Cream" colour.
The ones with the blue and yellow covers are (in order from left to right): Prominent Grain 160gsm, Cold Pressed 300gsm, Fine Grain 250gsm, and Hot Pressed 185gsm.
It's anywhere from $1.50 to $4 for each pack of five sheets.
Here's what I did with my Fine Grain paper. Done with Uni-ball Signo pens- nothing fancy.
The white circles spaces for me to add jewels to it.
Art Friend is also selling certain papers in bulks- great deal for art students. So many choices.
All paper packs under $10! A staff at the store saw me standing here contemplating which pack I should buy and said to me, "Just buy lah. Buy all, also can. Once these stock run out, we won't sell in bulk anymore." ... I proceeded to put two stacks into my shopping basket.
Art Friend... why you do this to me? My wallet was crying after. (But such good deals. Cannot pass up on them, am I right? The struggle is real...)
As a side note, I was at the Plaza Singapura branch and they had these cute little monkeys in the glass display area in celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year.
Paper mache oranges! Ahhh~ So cute.
And love letters! (For those of you who don't know, love letters are this thin wafer that is usually rolled into skinny cylindrical shapes. Westerners call them "biscuit rolls", if I'm not mistaken...?)
Chinese New Year happened on the 8th of February this year. It is the year of the Fire Monkey now. Here at Everything Is Art, we gave out candy, chocolate, and new year goodies to our students. ^-^ Perhaps I should also do a Chinese New Year craft next year... Hmmm...
Anyways. Back at home, I did a watercolour project with the papers. I used my Derwent Inktense blocks, and as always, the colours were really vivid and beautiful.
The top ones are Prominent Grain papers, and even though the cover didn't say that they were meant for watercolours, they took water really well.
The small paper on the bottom was a leftover Huile Oil paper that I still had. I think the colours were a little more streaky on this paper than on the other papers, but I'm not complaining since it was originally meant for oils. It was just a little fun experiment.
In this picture, the top row are the Aquarelle Cold Pressed paper.
And the bottom one is the Aquarelle Rough.
I didn't stretch any of the papers because I just wanted to lay colours on them so that I could then cut them up into smaller tiles to draw Zentangle on. I'm thinking of doing art swaps with them.
Look at all the pretty tiles that I now have.
Here's one Artist Trading Card that I created with the papers.
Close up of the Huile Oil paper. I cut it down to about postcard size.
I think the granulation and streaks actually add character to the paper.
Onwards to the sketchbooks... From what I understand, the papers within all the sketchbooks are the same, all 96gsm Crob'Art paper. It's just the binding and size that makes them different. They're more suitable for sketching, and ink, with maybe some light watercolour washes.
The "Inspiration" line has stitching on it. Each come in a bundle of two books, and you have four colours to choose from- navy blue (really pretty, and I seldom see that colour, so I bought two sets. I know... I have self control issues...), earth brown, deep purple, and your regular jet black.
The sketchbook reminds me a lot of the EcoQua by Fabriano (that one is stapled not stitched, though).
The "180°" line, of course, has the ability to open flat. The spine is a cloth finish to enable that. And yes; tried and tested- it really does open flat.
It has a magnetic clasp to hold it close, and has a faux leather sort of finish. I got one to use after I finish my tiga sketchbook.
The "Universal" sketchbook is your Moleskin alternative- with its sturdy finish and elastic band closing. They're really beautiful sketchbooks and a much *much* cheaper alternative to Moleskins.
It's all in the small details... Embossed Canson logo on the back.
You can also see the textured finish of the sketchbook better in this picture.
Little pocket at the back to keep your loose bits of papers, sticky notes, tiles... whatever floats your boat.
It was one of my New Years resolution to get better at hand lettering. I'm currently using one of my many Canson Inspiration sketchbooks as a place to practice. Just know that the paper takes ink very well. However, the paper is thin, so I can only use one side of the pages. I'm not complaining, though, as there is no bleed-through even when I'm very heavy-handed. If you'd like to see a video of what I've done on my Canson sketchbook, click this link.
And that's about all I have for you. I hope you had fun seeing the Canson range from Art Friend, and the little projects I did with the new materials I got. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments section below. And to all my readers based in Singapore, I'm so sorry if you decide to make a trip to Art Friend... I will not be held liable for any overspending on Canson products whilst there.... You have been warned. :P
I bought so many things at Art Friend, so I'd like to share some of those goodies with you, too! It has also been too long since I did a giveaway... One lucky reader will win a set of A5-sized Canson Inspiration sketchbooks.
Here are the rules:
If you've been a long-time reader, you should know that this isn't the first giveaway I'm hosting... Like my previous giveaway, this one will be opened worldwide. So matter where you live, you're eligible to join. I'll cover the postage fee so you don't have to worry about that.
The giveaway starts on 15th February 2016, 08:59, Singapore time, and ends on the 14th March 2016, 09:00, Singapore time.
Please provide an e-mail that I can contact you with if you win the giveaway. The winner will be drawn randomly and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends.
If you have any additional questions, feel free to send me an email- stephanie@everythingis-art.com
Other than that, you can join via the widget below. Anddd~ Good luck!
