Zendala

I'm intrigued by mandalas, which are generally various geometric designs, usually in concentric configurations. In Hinduism and Buddhism, these diagrams represent the universe and are used in sacred rites and instruments of meditation. Mandalas are also found in nature in flowers and plants, like sunflowers, agaves, and tree rings; in sea shells, like nautilus and urchins; in clouds, like hurricanes; and various other natural phenomena.

Since Zentangles are created with repetitive patterns in a fun, relaxing, focused way, they fit well with mandalas as instruments of meditation. Zentangles made into circular designs are called Zendalas. These are my recent creations.

Zendala 1. 6"x 6" mixed-media paper with pencil and Sakura micron pen.
This was inspired by the Zendala Dare weekly challenge. I don't recall
which  number this was from. I used Rick's Paradox to create a spiral
design in the center. The outside was created with copada and mooka tangles. 

Nautilus. 6"x 6" mixed-media paper with pencil and Sakura micron pen.
Nautilus have always intrigued me. It amazes me how these
alien-appearing cephalopods can swim and have lived in our
oceans for millions of years.  After creating the shell pattern, I added
bubbles to remind me of the ocean it lives in.

Shell. 6"x 6" mixed-media paper with pencil and Sakura micron pen.
After drawing the nautilus, I wanted to do another shell pattern. This
is a common scallop shell I remember picking up on the Atlantic
Ocean and Gulf of Mexico beaches on various vacations as a child
and an adult. I tried to use tangles that could be used as borders and
decreased in size as I drew them from the outer shell to the center bottom
of the shell. I separated the sections with pearlz. 

Glamour Girls

I bought Traci Bautista's book Doodles Unleashed: Mixed-Media Techniques for Doodling, Mark Making, and Lettering. What a fun book!!! Traci demonstrates various pens, pencils, markers, stencils, inks, paints, and stamps to make marks and shows how doodling can be a creative form of expression.. I loved her Glamour Girl doodles. I enjoy creating portraits in colored pencil and oils. Combining doodling with portraits seems a natural step.  It was a very freeing process to let go of creating a portrait of a particular person, being able to exaggerate features, like the eye, and creating fun doodles for the hair or to embellish the hair.

Glamour Girl. 1 6"x6" on mixed-media paper with Sakura micon pen.
This was so much fun to draw. I used Traci's
 basic Glamour Girl design with flowers and paisleys
 to create and embellish her locks of hair. 

Glamour Girl 1 in Color. 8 1/2" x 11" on mixed media paper.
I decided to add color to Glamour Girl 1 using
Derwent colored pencils and Gel Pens for details.

Glamour Girl 2. 6"x6" on mixed media paper with Sakura micron pen.

Quilts and Tote Bags for Prickly Piecers Quilt Guild

I belong to the Prickly Piecers Quilt Guild, a chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild. I helped deliver 24 charity quilts made for children in the hospital to Cardon's Children's Hospital along with fellow member, Cathy Means. We have fun making these quilts for the children using novelty fabric, holiday fabric, and just other bright colored fabrics. Hopefully, these will help comfort the children and their parents.

The old entrance to the children's hospital has cows at the entrance.
Can you tell I went to the wrong entrance to start off?

Talking with staff from Cardon's Children's Hospital. The quilts are sitting on the counter.

Cathy and Lynnita on the left with quilts for the children. The staff
members on the right with more quilts for the children.

Prickly Piecer members also sewed tote bags for the Chandler Police Department's Victim Services. Katie Cain was very appreciate of the 2 dozen tote bags we donated to them.

Katie Cain and Lynnita with the tote bags for Victim Services.

Zentangles

Thought I'd share a few of the Zentangle masterpieces that I've done.

I was trying to create a twisted design that went over top a feather design.
It didn't quite turn out as I had hoped, but it still has an interesting effect.
Tangles used: feather, chain link, palm leaf, Rick's paradox to name a few.

I like the string for this one. The loop by itself at the top gives adds
an interesting effect. A few of the tangles include fescu, deco border, n'zeppel,
and a couple feather variations.

I drew the string for this one with my eyes closed. Rain, Rick's Paradox,
poke leaf, and a ribbon were some of the tangles used. 

Grandson

I'm learning how to use my tablet's apps to play with photos. I used the app, Pixlr Express to edit the first photograph of my grandson. I focused on his face, blurring the background by a percentage. Then I used an antique scratching filter to age the photograph and finally added a white ripped paper frame.

My Grandson at 10 months old.

Another app for photographs that I really like is Paper Camera. It has several different "filters" that can be used to take a photograph or to edit a photograph. They are:

• Comic Boom (a painterly effect), 
• Sketch Up (a pencil sketch), 
• Acquarello (a watercolor effect), 
• Old Printer (a dot matrix), 
• Neon Cola (neon colors on black), 
• Contours (charcoal sketch), 
• Bleaching (washed out color),  
• Gotham Noir (a black/white photograph), 
• Half Ton (dotted mid-tones), 
• Granny's Paper (sepia effect), 
• Pastel Perfect (pastel effect), 
• Andy Pop (an array  reminiscent of Andy Warhol's paintings), and
• Haystacks (another painterly effect). 

The second photograph is my son and grandson in front of our house. My grandson looked like a little man in his hat.I used the Comic Boom filter. I was surprised when so many friends and family asked me if I had painted this picture. 

Son and Grandson (16 months old)

Vina de Lestonnac Retreat Center

Fountain on grounds at Vina de Lestonnac

I'm attending a workshop this weekend with Patt Blair at the Vina de Lestonnac retreat center in the heart of southern California Temecula wine country. It's a beautiful center - so peaceful!! Vina de Lestonnac is a convent for retired nuns (and a couple priests) of the Sisters of the Company of Mary. The Company of Mary was established in 1606 in France by Jeanne de Lestonnac. You can read more about it at www.vinalestonnac.com. The retreat center helps to raise money for the convent. The rooms are quiet and the meals are good. (Although, others that have attended Patt's retreats previously, call them our "forced feedings!")

At the top of the hill below the dining hall,
overlooking the grounds and the dormitory buildings
at Vina de Lestonnac.

Tsukineko Inks (www.tsukineko.com)

The classroom is very large and a great place to learn all about whole-cloth painting with Tsukineko inks. I've never used them before, so this has been a new experience for me. The other members of the class are from all walks of life - doctors, TV director, long-arm quilters, just to name a few. They are open, sharing, and terrific artists! It's a very inspiring class!

Other attendees of Patt Blair's fun retreat.
Finding inspiration and much laughter from a You-tube video.

This adult jackrabbit sat
quietly feeding, until several people
 walked by on their way to Mass.

I had to take some time to walk the grounds and enjoy the wildlife. Jackrabbits abound - from tiny babies to the adults. They must be somewhat use to people, as they just come out and feed in the open and don't run unless you try to approach them. Ground squirrels are watchful in the distance. They have a burrow in the field next door where they quickly fled when a hawk flew overhead. Lizards and snails are everywhere. One lizard, bobbing his head at me, was telling me I was in his territory. The snails must find the beautiful roses all over the grounds a delightful feeding ground. They greet us everyone morning on our way to breakfast and the classroom.

The baby jackrabbit was skittish and shy. I
barely got the photo before it hopped
off  into the bushes to hide from me.

The lizard was sunning on top of wall, until
I disturbed him. Then he started bobbing his head,
telling me I was too close and in his territory. 

The roses on the grounds were just beautiful. They had many bushes from one end of the grounds to the other in a variety of colors - red, pink, white, blue, lavender - to name a few. I caught the dew drops still on these pink roses early Sunday morning. Although bushes, included a type of fairy duster. It had bright red dusters growing in the center of a cluster of 4 white petals. (However, you can't see the white petals in this photo.) It was hard to get close enough to get a good close-up of the blossoms.

Roses still with dew drops Sunday morning at Vina de Lestonnac.

Fairy Duster plant.

Painted Dragon for Patt Blair's Retreat

Rita went with me to Alphagraphics to enlarge my dragon head, after finally deciding where to actually crop it. The first enlargement was about 250%, which made it about 24" x 36". This looks good, but maybe not as large as what I want it to be. So enlarged it again at 400% to about 30" x 40".  We hung both up in the shop. The larger one definitely has more impact, so that is the size I'm going with! Thanks, Rita, for all your help!!

I also had them make me 2 original size drawings, so I could work on colors. I transferred the drawing onto 14" x 17" watercolor paper. I wanted to paint it with watercolors, but couldn't find my larger set, just my travel set of half pans. So I decided to just use acrylic paints. After all, this painting is just a guideline for painting my quilt! This is my finished result.

Dragon (drawn and painted by Lynnita Knoch)

I happy with it for the most part. The colors aren't quite true to what I painted. The blue scales are more turquoise in color. The yellow/green is more of a brighter lime green. The red is more orange/red.  

I think I'll make some changes to the actually painting. The red/orange scales will be changed to purple. Then the scales will be more analogous in color, instead of the lime green/red-orange fighting with each other because they are complimentary colors.  I don't like the yellow I used for the triangular spikes on the head at all and I'm not happy with the light blue background. I was thinking of sky when I chose the light blue. Will see what suggestions Patt has once I get to the retreat, as I'm running out of time to prepare. I still need to pack. I also need to help TR pack for his fishing trip, so no more time to paint. 

I'm so excited about this retreat!! I'm can't wait to get started on this dragon!! What fun it will be!!