My attempt on inktober 2017

Hello there!

I tried to do inktober this year for the first time. I knew that I couldn't do a drawing each day because of work and daily struggles but I planned to do 31 drawings in october (so on some days more then one to catch up).

My first thought was to do an animal drawing each day following the official prompt list. But two days before october I changed my mind because I tried to sketch a hand in my sketchbook and failed miserably. My new topic for inktober was "born": I would draw hands everyday without prompt list but with references!

I bound a little sketchbook with 32 pages so I could draw only on one side of the paper because I wanted to use Copic Markers in greytones to shade the drawings and I knew they would bleed through. I used a bit heavier (laser)printer paper and normal linen-thread to bind the book. But the cover is wrapped with black embossed paper. Its 14 x 14 cm small and I loved to do it and the paper worked great with my markers I think.

There are some hands I like more then others, but overall I think I improved a lot. But I have to admit that I failed my aim ._. I did only 22 drawings that month. But maybe I will fill the sketchbook later on.

(Please be kind, this my first try to film something ever! I dont have a tripod and only used my phone but I thought a flip through would be much easier then to scann everything and much more interesting then posting the same pictures as on instagram)

My stepout collection

Huhu there :D

I started a new zentangle - stepout collection for me.
Some time ago I started something like this again. I found a blogpost about collecting zentangles on index cards and tried that too. But I rushed and wanted to do as many stepouts in a short time that I could do and I didn't liked the result, so I never used that box. I didn't liked the texture of that index cards either.

So I started it over. Same size but vertical not horizontal and with
more care for every card. I bought a small ring binder with punched pockets in dinA6 to put the cards in. And now I'm drawing one or two of these cards when I would like to do/draw something but dont have much time or don't know what to draw or if I'm to tensed to draw something because I'm afraid to do it wrong.
With these stepouts I cant do anithing wrong so its a good starting point for me to get a bit more loose.

Some of the stepouts I vary a bit because I cant follow the original versions that easy. One of these is the pattern "Tipz" by Faith Cohen.

Im still alive

Hey guys, 

I'm still alive and draw and paint in my spare time but wasn't in the mood to write much about it :( I'm so sorry! I have these moods sometimes so I thought I would start an instagram account to battle this. There I can post my pictures without big editing to fit my layout here and without "big words".

So if you are interested in my pictures please follow me there :D 

http://www.instagram.com/windspiel.art

 But I plan to do more postings here too! I have so much to show and some things to tell. There are some projects I started, some about zentangle, some more art related in general.

So please stay tuned for more posts! I would love to do them weekly on sundays!

And because a blogpost without pictures is boring I would like to show a 12 x 12 cm tile I did as a birthdaycard. I did it with ink and colored pencils on paper. The patterns are called Birchy, Mooka, Flux and Tipple.

New name, new domain and new art!

Hey :D

yes I'm alive and still drawing. I had a frantically busy time with moving to my firts own apartment. 
There was really much to do. New wallpapers, new colors, a new carpet in one room, remove the old kitchen, get a new one and so on. 
But now I arrived and I'm in the mood to draw again. Ok... there are some (more) boxes left I have to clear, but the important things are working (internet and my art supplies *lol*). 

The next new thing is my new domain. I thaught about a short domain for this blog for a while, but couldn't find any I liked. Then a friend told me about the new top-level-domain ".art". So I wanted one with that ending. First I thought about changing my name from Windspiel to something not so complicated for not german speaking people. But the name I would liked to have would cost me 500€ for one year... and thats way to much for me to afford. So its windspiel.art. And I wont change it again!

And in the header I promised new art. And I have new art. I have not drawn that much but I made a postcard I plan to print in a small Edition (I thought 100 will be enough, maybe thats not that small for an art edition, but I think for postcards it is!). 
So this picture is 15,4 cm x 11,1 cm in size and drawn on Fabriano Tiepolo Paper.
I can't say how long I worked on this because I drew it on various evenings sometimes only 30 minutes a day, sometimes one or two hours.
I like the result very much and started a second card already.

"Schicksalsfaden" - "Thread of Fate"

Simple schoolgrade watercolor

aren't as bad as I thought.

Last time I tried them I was in school class 11, so its was 14 years ago. (Class 12 and 13 I was at an art class and had to use more artistlike watercolor). The watercolors commonly used in german schools are a lot like pan-gouache. They are more or less opaque but not as richly pigmented as true artists gouache. But they aren't that bad.

Why I say this? Because I tried them again yesterday (I finished the painting past midnight, so the date on the pic says today *laugh*).
I wanted to do something in gouache, but I love pans more then tubes, so I thought I would give them a try. I have to practice more, using this colors, because I think I'm to used to my artist grade watercolor. I tend to do lighter washes for lighter colors but I should use white paint to mix it.

I used a box with 12 pans and a tube of white for mixing paler colors to paint this small study. Its based on a photograph taken by "Viacheslav" on pmp-art.com and painted in a selfmade sketchbook. Maybe you like it although its not a zentangle.


Ps.: I'm sorry that I could not post a zentangle tile for last week. I failed my challange because I had a bad cold. I wanted to do the tile on sunday, but I was only awake for 3 hours that day :(

Zentangle with Ballpoint-Pen

This week it was difficult for me to do art. I wasn't inspired. I sat there and looked at the blank paper/tile and there was nothing. And today it was similar. But I wanted to do my weekly tile because I didn't want to fail this "challange" so fast. So I sat down and picked a little challange from the "Shading Zentangle" Facebook-Group: do a Tile in Ballpoint-pen only.

It was recommended to do some organic shapes because it should be easier to shade them with ballpoint-pens. So I chosed a organic shaped string and startet with Abundies. But then the string didn't seem to fit anymore so I ignored it and and drew the little rose-like forms (the tangle is called abeko) and the willow-catkin like stems.

And somehow I like the result a little bit. Its not perfect, but it was finished fast, I used tangles I never used before (Abundies & Abeko) and I did not fail my personal challenge.

And because it is in ballpoint too, I would like to share one of my very first tiles today. Its about four years old (I dont know exactly because its not dated) and I know, I did it with ballpoint pen because I only had some blank index-cards and this ballpoint pen and no fineliners. I had chosen the patterns on that tile because I worked at a fabric store that time and the zangles reminded me to that (knitting-loops, ribbon or lace and some woven fabric)

Paradox Diva-Dance

I had a bit more trouble this week than usual, so it was really difficult for me to settle down and draw a tile. But I said I would do one tile a week... so I had to! And I did it *tschaka*!

Because it was difficult for me I thought I would do one of the many challenges out there. And I tried the Diva Challange #301. But I failed a little bit. The task was really simple: create a duotangle with "Ricks Paradox" and "Diva Dance". And I did this, but it looked unfinished to me. So I thought to add more diva-dance but I thought it would look too busy, so I added Tipple to balance the tile out.

Its not my favourite tile, maybe a second one with the same tangles would be "better" but I'm not in the mood to do another tile now.

Blue lianes in jungle

My tangle of this week is a colorful one. I wanted to create a gift for a longtime doc of me. She will retire soon and I like her much so I plan to gift her something individual. Whats better than a framed picture in colors she like?

I did my drawing on a normal 3,5" self cut tile. I started with watercolor first to create a background. I did moe then one background tile to chose the one I liked best.  Then I started with tangleing and the color was my border and string. I used only two tangles. "Quandu" by Eni Oken and little tangleation of "Beth" by me.

For coloring I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils, the white prismacolor Pencil and white Dr. Ph Martins Pen-White. To chose the right colors to use I made a little colorchart on the same paper I use for my tile, but without watercolor background. Its a wrong cut tile (on one side its a few mm to short) and the paper is to expensive to waste. But for color tests its a good size.

I hope you like my little picture, and I hope my doc will like it too.

Shading Zentangle Group - Focus Tangle

This weeks focus tangle in a facebook-group I participate is "lollywimple". Maybe you remember my last tile with that pattern?
This time I tried something new. I did the lollywimple orbs as frame and linked the free spaces. I don't know if I love this tile, maybe I could enhance it with better shading? But I liked to draw it. And I'm sure I will use that pattern again (and again).

I don't know if there is enough time to do an additional tile, so I call this my finished
"tile of the week".

ING meets Orbs-la-Dee

My tangle of the week is a duotangle for the 298th Diva-Challange. Her weekly task was to create a tile with Anneke van Dams tangle "Orbs-la-Dee". Because I like gems and orbs, I liked this pattern on the first sight and I had to try a tile with it. I think it is a perfect background-tangle to add a bit 'drama'.
I have to admit that the string isn't 'mine'. I used tanglepatterns string #237 as guide.

With this tile I had some up and downs. I drew the ING-"towers" first and loved the result and their overlap and wasn't confident orbs-la-dee would look good in combination. But I wanted to do a tile with these orbs so I tried it. (after I did a picture of the ING to being able recreating it, if I did not liked the final tile).
But I think it was a good choice. I like my tile and I hope you too!

I used Staedtler Pigment Liner and a selfcut Tile for this picture.

My new big love

Finetec watercolor swatches page 1

No no, I dont have a new boyfriend. I'm writing about my new metallic watercolors.

Last weekend I ordered a complete set of "Finetec" Watercolors. They arrived on wednesday but today was the time for testing them! On wednesday I only did some swatches of 5 colors because I was really curious, but today I created a chart for all 28 colors in my color-swatch-sketchbook.
(In this sketchbook I have charts of my watercolors and some mixing-swatches)

swatches page 2

There are twenty opaque watercolors and eight translucent/shimmering ones. The opaque ones came with 5 different shades of gold, some reds, a green, some blues and two blacks. The translucent ones are blue-green, green, blue, violet, pink silver, gold and copper.
You can order smaller sets of some colors (6 or 12) for example a Gold set with gold and silver colors, or a pharao set with gold and blue ones. But you can order every single color alone too. They have two sorts of boxes (iron sheet or plastic) in two different sizes (six and twelve pans). And you can order all colors in a bag (what I did).

Its really easy to work with these colors, but you have to wet them with some waterdrops from your brush or with a small spray bottle, to get the pigments more easily onto your brush.

Finetec shimmering watercolor detail

Some of the colores aren't that vivid like I wished but nevertheless beautiful. The opaque blue (called midnight blue), the opaque green (Moss Green) and the opaque violet (Deep Purple) paint like dark grey if you dilute them with too much water. But maybe I did something wrong.

I ordered two boxes (for 12 pans each) to store my pans, because I thought I can keep 4 of the colors stored away... but I like them all so much so I ordered an additional box today to hold the translucent ones. Its a bit sad that there are 28 colors... so four to many for two boxes, but there are eight translucent colors too. So they don't fit in a six-slot box too :( Now I will have three twelve-pan boxes with empty slots. Maybe they will release additional colors in the future and I can fill these slots xD

I sure will use them to add some sparkle to my tiles!
 

New tangle or tangleation?

Hey guys,

some days ago I did another 3z tile. On this tile I drew a pattern I haven't seen anwhere else. I used no stepout or rather 'invented' my own. But I'm not sure if its really new or not. I asked at an facebook-group but the answers I got were confusing. I asked some more questions about this matter but in the end im more confused than before :(

I now asked on an other group, maybe they can help me clarify that "problem".

Never the less, I want to show my new tile, because I like it very much. And I will use this tangle again. Wheter if its my own pattern or a tangleation of shattuck or any other tangle.

PS.: this tile wont count to my weekly tangle. I plan to do at least one more.

New year, new year's resolutions...

... at least one tile a week!

I thaught about my drawing last year. And I wished I had done more. But after work I was tired and said "tomorrow" and next day I was tired too... so it was "tomorrow" again :( I was lazy and hope to change that with this resolution.
One tile a day is too much for me. Sometimes I'm late at home after work and don't have time for a whole tile, so it would be "tomorrow" again. But one tile a week, thats definitly possible!

Yeah, I know, I could regularly participate in challenges like the Diva Challange or It's a string thing, but sometimes I dont like the weekly task and then I would say "maybe next week". With my "One tile a week" its open... I could participate in a challenge, but I don't have too. I can do more than one tile a week, but not less. Thats a possible task for me.


I started this challenge this week, so there is a new tile to show today. I tried 2 new things on this tile. First thing: the tile itself. Its a triangle tile called 3z-tile made off tiepolo paper but selfcut, second thing: the tangle I used. Its called Sea Wave and I love it! Its so organic and wavy. It forgives every mistake!

Material used:
- Fabriano Tiepolo Paper
- Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.1
- Faber Castell 9000 Pencil 3B
- Blending Stump