Diva 212, ABC, SQ1 - Working Hard?

For the past few weeks, I have been working really hard on my Tangling.  I've done multiple challenges, put a lot of thought and planning into each design - light/dark balance, composition and flow, Zendala complexities, practicing dewdrops (coolest thing ever!) and more.

As I went back through my old tiles, I expected to see quite a dramatic improvement over the past couple years.  As it happens, though, the very first tiles were indeed kind of clunky and lacking in sophistication.  But after a few months, I saw some things that surprised me.  I was tangling on my own after having taken one little intro workshop.  I followed tanglepatterns.com for new patterns and just went with it.  I didn't try to imitate anyone else, didn't agonize over rules or standards, didn't judge.  I just tangled, and by gosh, I did some pretty awesome tiles just by letting them flow.

Now, I feel like I must be overthinking all of this.  I look at the blank tile with a bit of dread - akin to stagefright.  My grandmother used to comment about singers - "She used to sing so beautifully until she took singing lessons!"  I recently started some very rudimentary yoga workouts.  One of the best things the instructor has said is "Less determination and more observation."  I know most people doing yoga can do more than I can.  So what?  I can do more now than I did six weeks ago.  Six weeks from now, I'll be doing still more.  It will happen without pushing myself.  Yoga has no "no pain, no gain" philosophy.  You just "do".  I think that's how I should approach Zentangle, too.

So this week, I just took a step back and did tiles however I felt like it.  The Diva challenge was to use Fanz.  I did them plain and simple in a big fat section of the tile and then added two other patterns  I like.  Here it is for better or worse.  Like the overtrained singer, it may take a while to get the easy flow back.

The Square One: Purely Zentangle page has exploded into about ten separate focus pages now.  I'm overwhelmed!  Really!  It's fun to see everyone's beautiful work, but I certainly can't keep up with each one of them.  I did a tile here for the basic page with the original rules.  In this case, the focus was Man-O-Man.  I have tried this one before, but it doesn't seem to blend well with other tangles in general.  I like it, though.  Here, I thought I would do a few rounds on the tile with different embellishments, etc.  But when I finished the first one, my pen took off on its own (as it should) and this is what I got.  I'm happy with this!

There was another challenge out there for patterns starting with A, B, and C.  I'm so hinky right now, I don't even know whose challenge this was, so sorry, I won't be linking up with the website.  I fell in love instantly with the new 'Brella pattern, and added Allium and Cabana.  I felt like adding red, so I did.  No masterpiece, but I loved doing this tile.

Thank you for visiting my page and for all your comments.  I treasure them all!

Namaste