The World is my Flower

I am not into Scrap-booking,  but a friend of mine showed me some Tim Holtz stamps to use on my Gelli plate, and I totally fell in love with them.

http://www.franticstamper.com/Stampers-Anonymous-Tim-Holtz--Cling-Rubber-Stamp-Set--Classics-17_p_105320.html

I wanted to incorporate these stamps with the use of a Zentangle  pattern.

I started off with a circle and the Butterfly stamp, then added the Official pattern Bales in the back round. I used the Prisma pencil on the outside of the circle and the butterfly

Shade from the outside of the circle inwards, and outwards from the butterfly line

I used a Tortillion ( rolled paper ) and a shading stump (pressed paper )

With a 6 B pencil make the little corners on the pattern darker. Shade softly from the graphite line to the middle, be careful not to make it too grey.

                                    To prevent smudging cover an area with a piece of paper to put your 
                                                        hand on while shading other parts

Shading finished with  6 B in corners

With 6B darken the outside of the wings and shade away from the body

I used a dark blue wax based colour pencil - Tombow- to outline the inside of the wings

Then added a green on top of the blue

I alternated between dark blue, light blue and green on the edges of the wings. Pressing hard on the line and lifting pressure as I moved towards the centre of the wing. Next to the body on one side I used an almost black pencil to show some contrast. Afterwards the colours were blended with a colourless blending pencil.

Valentines day

The first blog post in almost 2 years.
The past 2 years I think I suffered from social anxiety because of a few reasons.
To put yourself or your art on the net or FB, can be a daunting and frightening experience.  You open yourself to rejection, criticism and eventually heartbreak. And then you hide.

I asked my students what they would like to do for Valentines day and they said we want to give something to ourselves.This had me thinking about  filling your cup before it can spill over to the saucer - your family and friends -.

One word, as a new years resolution,  have been mentioned on blog's over the net.
The word Courage immediately came to mind

So this is my gift to myself:
Courage to let the wings of my life take flight.

Courage to come out of hiding Courage to say what I think
Courage to post my work
Courage to be me
Courage to take the first step on so many levels.

Look for your word, your inspiration in the whispers of your heart.

I hope you have a word to that will inspire your year, day for day and in the Method of Zentangle, 

" One stroke at a time "

All the best

Marizaan van Beek