Another Tiny Sketchbook

  In case you've missed it, here's a flip-through of my new tiny sketchbook.

  It's made up of Fabriano paper that I cut down to size and then stitched together by hand... Then I did a watercolour wash on each of the pages. Then it sat in my art pouch for a good long while until I decided one day to complete it. I went through all the pages in two days. It was a good exercise.

  Here's the cover:

  Maybe next time I'll film the drawing process. ;)

What I've been up to lately....

  This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures, and honestly... this kind of blog posts are my favourite. hehe

  My Certified Zentangle Teacher friend, Debbie New, taught a closed-door class on Whatz-Itz. It's a technique that she came up with that teaches students how to layer tangles in an easy-to-understand manner. The participants who attended this class were all either CZTs, or were going to get certified next year. (My mum attended, too. Hi, mum!) The class mosaic was amazing. Mine is the one with the most amount of tangles on it, cause I like to draw so big. hahaha. My mum's one is the one with the curvy Diva Dance.

  And then I got home and completed my tile... Very pleased with how it turned out.

  Debbie also got me to join a Whatsapp group hosted by Alicia Rey, a CZT based in Spain. She hosts a weekly challenge called "retomindandtangle", and I've taken part in it for the past few weeks...

  Here's #136, which also is a Travelling Tangles tile with Debbie New. She started the Cabbit and Flux, plus the Borbz. I did the rest plus the shading. Still not sure whether I like this tile. Sometimes I think it’s great, other times I think it’s meh.... Ever had a tile like that? I like that I used blue for some of the shading, though. Gives it a nice contrast against all that pink.

  This was for challenge #138. The string was the challenge. The tile's colours were done by Debbie and I wanted them to shine through, so that’s why I stuck with something simple. Just Flux.

  Debbie asked why I always use Flux... I think it’s my “comfort tangle”... The tangle I go to when I want to draw something but don’t want to think too much. Do you have a comfort tangle?

  And then this was this week's challenge... #139... Featuring the tangle "Palrevo". I had this idea pop into my head about cutting out the areas that would have been filled in, and using my surroundings as the "colour" for those areas... Here's how that idea turned out:

  Quite cool, if I say so myself.

  And then I did some tiles just for fun. A tiny Bijou with pretty colours... With Flux drawn in a slightly different way...

  And a tile I did to test this black paper, and try out Debbie's Whatz-Itz method again, I added the gold on a whim. I just wanted to do one aura, but then it was so fun that I kept going until I filled the entire tile. The gold is Kuretake's Gansai Tambi gold paints.

  Every once in a while, I draw something realistic just to benchmark how much my art has improved. I find it interesting that creating Zentangle art has an effect on my general art skills.... Because you wouldn't think doing abstract, non-representational art would make your realistic skills improve... but it does!

  Here's a study of Gustav Klimt's "Judith II (Salome)". I know it's not an exact replica, but that wasn't the point of this exercise... I wanted to capture the energy in the piece. I used a ballpoint pen to do the base drawing (no erasers! no try-agains!) and then used Caran D'ache's Neocolor II for the colours. I then burnished the colours using a large tortillon so that the white of the paper wouldn't show through so much.

  It was really fun to do. I might do it again soon. :)

  Then last week, I had brunch with two of Alex's cousin- Isabelle and Rafael. They're my daughter's godparents, and are lovely people all around. We ate at Wild Blooms. The food was great. Very hipster cafe. Here's a pretty selfie I took while there... The windows were tinted blue and pink, which made for very interesting shadows.

  And then after that, Rafael went off to donate blood (he's a saint). While Isabelle and I went back to my place to have an Introduction to Zentangle class. Here's what she and I created:

  So that's been my past two weeks... Next week is going to be a little more quiet for me, before we actually enter Christmas week. I hope you're having a wonderful start to your weekend, and maybe you'll create something lovely this week.

My Christmas/New Years Cards For 2018

  I'm Eurasian- half French, half Singaporean Chinese... And let's just say my family is really mixed. My mother is Chinese with Christian leanings. My godmother is a black women whom is Jewish. One of my favourite uncle is African Muslim. I married into a Catholic family. And both of my best friends are Christian. I also have another uncle and a dear friend whom are both atheist.. So the holiday season is a little crazy for me... Some people get Christmas cards. The rest get New Years cards because they don't celebrate Christmas.

  But I love making hand-made cards. It's time-consuming but it's a labour of love. I also think in this electronic era, where people often opt to send text messages to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy New Year", a hand-made card is all the more treasured.

  So here are all the cards I made this year for the important people in my life. I thought you might be inspired by them, somehow.

  What I'm showing you are tiles that I then slipped into plain square cards, and then I wrote messages inside the cards. So, for example... This is the tile I created....



  And then on a plain dark blue card, I drew Flux using a white pen, then used a penknife to cut slits along the Flux... Then I slipped the tile into those slits.


  And then I stuck a white tile on the inside of the card, so that I could pen down a message. :)


  Here are the rest of the tiles I created:

  The backgrounds were created using my faux watercolour technique with Tombow's dual brush markers. Here's a link to a video tutorial on how to create your own faux watercolour background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GSeyh3CBeQ

  If you'd like to learn how to draw gemstones, I also have a playlist of tutorials right here.

  The gold paint is Kuretake's Gansai Tambi paints. Shading was added using Derwent's Coloursoft coloured pencils. And the white highlights were added using a Uni-ball Signo Broad pen.

  I hope you're having a great December... I know the end of the year can be a little crazy for some of us, but I also think it's great to remember that the holidays are about spending time with the people you love... making goals for the upcoming year... and being grateful for the wonderful memories you've made in the past year.

  May 2019 be your best year yet.

Much Love,
Stephanie