late night conversations

  Good afternoon, lovelies. The holiday season is upon us. Can you believe it's almost December already? Time flies by so quickly. I've been busy making holiday gifts for my family and friends. I think I'm making the largest amount of presents this year than I have in the past years. I think it's a blessing. It means that there are more people that I treasure in my life now than I've ever had.

Here's my pile of things. Some tiles are already wrapped... Some will be mailed to friends and family living overseas. Some will be given in person. :) There's so much love and joy that I want to spread.

  Here are two of the tiles that I've completed. The Zendala is meant to be a Christmas tree ornament and has the birthday gemstones of the person I'm gifting the tile to (they're sardonyx gems). The other is for a child. I've left the top left area empty because I'm going to be teaching her how to draw my version of Diva Dance- Rock and Roll. It's the simplified version. And if you've not watched my video tutorial on how to draw it, you can watch it via this link. I promise it'd be worth your time. ;)

  Here's my entry for this week's Diva Challenge. It's fragments of Ving. I really like Ving and how versatile it is. The curved version of it reminded me of paper aeroplanes, so I turned them into one. :) The other tile was for an It's A String Thing, featuring Sea Wave. But I haven't finished shading it. I swear, I've been taking part in weekly challenges. It's just that I never get around to completing them.... They're all either half-done, or not shaded. Urgh.

  Lastly, here's a page from my new typography sketchbook. I'm already on my third one. The flip-through video of my second typography sketchbook should be up soon. And I also am going to edit the video for my old sketchbook.

  Thank you so much for dropping by to see what I've been up to in the past week. I hope you have a safe and lovely holiday this season. And until next week... Keep tangling!

Step-outs to Diva Dance Simplified

    I teach the Zentangle method to a lot of children, and earlier during June this year, I tried teaching Diva Dance- Rock and Roll in my classes. Most kids got it, some didn't; and I don't really like it when students don't "get" certain patterns that I teach as I think of it in the sense that there has to be a better/easier way for me to teach the pattern. ... And I found a way! I'm so excited to teach you how to draw my version of Diva Dance- Rock and Roll. I'm sure it'd be a great substitute if you're teaching it as a first tangle to someone who has never tried Zentangle art before, or to children and other non-children (or children at hearts. haha) who struggle with the original tangle.

  The difficulty that the children I taught had with the pattern was deciding where and when they should add the "bumps". Some added too few and then it didn't look like the example that I had demonstrated for them. This made them frustrated. Others were so focused on the bumps that their aura didn't keep close to the bumps and they ended drawing something that resembled Printemps. I hope this video will also help.

  And here's a page in my sketchbook where I drew it as a border. I'm going to be drawing a Zendala next to it, leaving a white border between the two parts.