A Trip to Clear My Mind

  I was away in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the 23rd to the 26th of August. Which meant that I spent my birthday there. I think this is the first time in my life spending my birthday away from home. I did spend it with my mother, my husband, and my daughter, though. So it was a very lovely cake day.

  During my trip, I took the time to relax and chill. Which, to someone with general anxiety and the tendency to overthink things, was really a change of pace.

  I didn't know how much art I'd create over the four days I was on holiday. But I brought along a stack of tiles and a small A5-sized sketchbook, plus my small pencil case of drawing materials that included a variety of Micron pens, a pencil, and a watercolour brush so that I could use my pocket watercolour palette, if I wanted to.

  What did I learn?

  That I'm overly ambitious and that one sketchbook with my pens and a pencil is more than enough. hahaha

  The art that you'll see in the following pictures were created during my trip, but the colours were added when I got back to Singapore.

  At some point, I switched over to a red Micron pen so that I could create something for the 7F5R Challenge. And I've been quite happily drawing Dingbatz with that red pen even after I returned from my trip. I don't know what is it about the tiny Dingbatz and the red ink that I find so charming... Perhaps it's that they remind me of a Chinese seal (chop)?

  You can see some parts are incomplete.

  Especially this one... I have no idea where I'm going with it.... Maybe I'll just have Diva Dance Waltz all over it...

  In the car ride to the airport, I did this impressionistic painting of the sunset that I saw. It was the only time I used my watercolours during the trip.

  The day after I landed back in Singapore, I joined Debbie for her Tea & Tangle session. The Tangle of the Day was "W2".

  I also continued creating more Dingbatz in red ink.

  And here's the last page that I've worked on... It's the start of a Paradox.

  There are about seven more pages to this sketchbook, but the sketchbook is already looking very banged up. It's most likely because I kept folding the sketchbook over itself that caused the paper to start falling away from the staples... Gotta' remember to not do that the next time I buy this sketchbook.

  It has been good to me, though, and I would definitely recommend this brand. It is an ENV Paper Company Sketch Book. It has 20 acid-free pages and is 150gsm. I bought mine at the Art Friend in Plaza Singapura.

  That's all I have for you this time. Until my next post... Keep tangling!

Inktober Tangles 2019 Official List

  Hello world! As we approach October, I have come up with a list for the annual Inktober challenge. Inktober is an online event where artists all over the world challenge themselves by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month. I adapted the idea to fit with Zentangle art by making each day's prompts be a tangle.

  If you'd like to participate, draw a tile a day using the day's listed tangle, and hashtag your art work using #InktoberTangles2019 so that other people can find out what you create each day. You can post your art on your blog or on your Instagram. By popular request, I have created a Facebook group where you can post what you create during Inktober. The link to that group is here: bit.ly/InktoberTanglesFacebook

  If you'd like your art to be featured in my newsletter, use the hashtag #7F5R for me to find you - this is optional.

  If you cannot commit to the entire month, you can opt to draw however many tiles you can manage, or you can also combine the prompts of a couple of days into one tile. If you miss a day, don't feel discouraged! Just continue from where you left, or do that day's prompt. The challenge is meant to get you to draw more, not to have you be overwhelmed, so just do what you can and have fun.   For easy reference, I have linked each tangle with their step-outs. So you can just click on them to find out how to draw them.

  Without further ado, here are the prompts for Inktober Tangles 2019:

1. Printemps
2. TunnelVizion
3. Toodles
4. Zonked
5. Jalousie
6. Flukes
7. Huggins
8. Bales
9. Lola
10. Cubine
11. InaFlux
12. Floo
13. Yin-Cut
14. Arukas
15. Maryhill
16. Trentwith
17. Dreamdex
18. Sindoo
19. Diva Dance (if you struggle with this tangle, you might want to try my simplified version)
20. Antidots
21. Batumber
22. Abundies
23. Pixioze
24. Baton
25. Tripoli (and you can see variations of it here)
26. Ratoon
27. Crescent Moon
28. Well, Well, Who
29. Kuke
30. Nik
31. Florz

Here's the list if you'd like to print it out:

And here's one for if you want to post it on Instagram:

  I hope you find something new from this list, and that you have great fun with these prompts.  If you have any questions, leave a comment below. You can also reach me at stephanie@everythingis-art.com and you can tag me on Instagram at "havepen_willdraw". I love seeing everyone's art works.

A Bouquet of Swaps

  Before anything else.... Here's my entry for the ZIA Swap #58 - "Everlasting Eternity".

  If you'd like to learn to draw Eternity, it can be found here.

  And as promised, here are the Travelling Tangles Project tiles that I've recently completed...

  First off, this was a lovely tile from Nicki Lehmann. She did Paradox, and I followed. Colours were added using watercolours, then shading was done using coloured pencils.

  This was a renaissance tile from Beth Bentz. I actually made a time-lapse video of this tile. You can watch the video here.

  Last but not least, this is a tile from Kimmy. She started off with Ixorus and Purk, so I thought to complete the tile using only official Zentangle patterns. I re-outlined her Purk using a Uni-Ball Signo Broad white to make it more opaque... Then added Hollibaugh, Betweed, Cadent, Meer, and Printemps. A few Cabbits might have snuck their way into the tile, too. ;)

  Shading outside of the gemstone was done using a blue coloured pencil to make the gem seem like it was glowing... While the rest of the shading on the tangles was done using a 2B pencil.

  Thanks for dropping by. :) I hope I've inspired you with my art, and I hope to see you again soon.

  Until next time, keep tangling!

Birthday Month

  August happens to be "the birthday month" in our family. My mother, mother-in-law, and I are all August babies. Singapore, the country we live in, also celebrates its birthday on the 9th of August.

  Side note: Because it's Singapore's birthday this month, the theme for week one and two of August's 7F5R Challenge is red and white. Create a tile using the colours red and white and post it in the group. We'd love to see what you create.

  Do you like birthdays? Do you celebrate your own birthday?
  I enjoy birthdays, but I prefer to spend them with family and close friends, a quiet dinner, and perhaps a yummy chocolate cake.

  I asked the same question to my students at Toa Payoh Central Community Club and some of them said they were like me, while some of them said they'd rather not think about their birthdays at all. hahaha

  Yesterday was the last day of July's classes. Here's what my students created:

  And this was what one student created in her sketchbook as homework. My students continue to amaze me, again and again.

  As for me, I've been busy, too!

  Here's the tile from Debbie that I showed you in my previous post. The gemstones on the tile are real ones.

  Whereas these gemstones are drawn. I just wanted to draw a bunch of gemstones without tangling, so this is what I came up with. I might one day add tangles to the tile.... but you know how sometimes things turn out so well that you don't want to draw more, for fear that you might ruin what nice things you've already drawn? hahaha. Yes, I feel that way for this tile.

  Here's a Zendala, also with gemstones. I have no idea why the photo is not centred. 

  Lastly, this was what I drew for this week's Tea & Tangle. The featured tangle was "Klomp".

  During this session, Debbie and I talked about pushing past your creative comfort zone and trying new things. It's good to have tangles that you like and go to often, but it's also important to try new tangles- especially ones that you normally don't draw. (For me, that's grid-based tangles.)

  What's a tangle you've recently learnt that you'd like for me to try? Let me know in the comments section.

  That's all I have for you right now. In my next post, I'll show you a bunch of Travelling Tangles Project tiles that I've completed.

  I'll see you again soon. Until then, keep tangling!