Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. I thought I’d share another tile from the Sunday Afternoon Yintangles Group I’m a member of. On Sunday 19 June, 2022, Ildica Boyd CZT lead our little group in creating some Zentangle Gems. Let’s have a deeper look at it.
We began with a dew drop
Ildica began by running us through the basics of a dew drop using a graphite pencil. I made a mistake here by running ahead and outlined the string that was housing the dew drop. I think the full affect was dimmed as a result of this.
Then it was all about colour!
Ildica went on to run us through a foundational understanding of colour using a colour wheel. Our Zentangle Gems would use a light, medium and dark tone of one colour, as well as either;
- a complimentary colour (it’s opposite on the colour wheel); or
- analogous colours (it’s adjacent colours on the colour wheel).
I wanted to work in browns, so I chose my light, medium and dark tones, as well as a complimentary colour in a dark blue.
Using different mediums
A Zentangle Gem with coloured pencil
The first medium Ildica demonstrated was using coloured pencils. I used Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils here. My previous coloured pencil work with Zentangle Gems was always over a base applied with grey markers. Going in straight from scratch using the coloured pencils to achieve depth was new to me. I really enjoyed this component of the class.
A Zentangle Gem with watercolour
Next Ildica demonstrated creating Zentangle Gems with watercolour. I have seen this done once before but I have never attempted it. I was surprised at how beautiful the colour blended using watercolour as the medium. This is something I will definitely be exploring further.
A Zentangle Gem with Pastel Chalk Pencils
Never had I ever considered pastels as a medium for Zentangle Gems. I was amazed at this! The colour wasn’t as intense as the coloured pencils or watercolour, but it was so perfectly blended and so easy to blend! I was completely astounded! Thank you so much Ildica for demonstrating this to us.
Lastly we looked at Zentangle Gems that were faceted
I will begin by stating that I have purchased other faceted gem tutorials in the past. I found them difficult to follow. Ildica on the other hand, has found a way to break down and teach these faceted gems in a way that is super easy to understand.
If you would like to learn, Ildica has an ebook available to purchase from her website. I highly recommend purchasing it.
I continued working in browns and added three faceted gems to the tile I was working on. These are something I will definitely be revisiting.
What does it mean in terms of my artistic work as a whole?
If you’ve been following along either on Facebook or Instagram lately, you’d know I’ve been trying to learn new things.
The other thing I’ve been doing is focusing deeply on previously understood techniques. I have been deep diving on aura’s and rounding lately, so adding Zentangle Gems to the mix felt good.
I love the limitless possibilities of Zentangle. Being able to explore techniques I have previously learned at a much deeper level has started to yield such beautiful returns. I am getting so much satisfaction from this! It’s something I think we should all be doing every now and again.
What can you go back and refocus on?
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Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!
Bless you my friend
Chrissie xx
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