Pepper and Flux

This is a combination of three tangles. Pepper, flux, and tipple. I really love flux. That is the one that looks like leaves. It is very much in my style of drawing with the flowing lines. Pepper is a little harder. It is is hard to get it perfect with all those small lines making up the pod area. Below I have created a pattern from it in three different colorways.

Today we are getting our new furnace installed. Ouch! Nothing like and unexpected huge expense to make ones day! But what can you do?

Enjoy your week!

Bunzo Redux

I am really becoming quite enamored with this tangle called Bunzo. I can see designing an entire collection around this tangle. It is quite simple to draw and there are many ways of varying the tangle to make each one unique. I added some color and created a pattern with this one which you can see below.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I am hoping for warmer weather next week. Everything is a go for the closing in April on the new place in Tucson. I will show you pictures soon.

Bunzo!

Yes, you read that right. In Zentangle-speak, this is called a bunzo tangle! It is the most relaxing tangle I have found yet. I liked it so much that of course I had to try and make a pattern with it......So here they are in various colorways:

Zen and the Art of Tangling

Since returning from Tucson at the beginning of the month I have been having a hard time focusing on my artwork. As I may have mentioned we did purchase a condo out there and now we are dealing with the endless paperwork of buying a home. And it is endless. The last time we bought a place was back in 1997 before the big "housing crash". Due to all the financial shenanigans that went on during the mid 2000's the banks are hyper vigilant and the requirements are vast for obtaining a mortgage. So we endure but it is hard to concentrate on much of anything.

Plus the weather here in Boston has been ridiculously cold, windy and snowy. The first day of spring was spent indoors doing some Zentangling while it snowed out. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a form of drawing with no particular intention. The idea is to draw/make marks in a mindful manner and breathe and relax. In other words it is a meditative form of drawing. I have found it to be very helpful this week in keeping me engaged with my sketchbook as well as keeping my stress levels down through this home buying process.

I have always needed to draw on paper first before painting, before digitizing my work etc. The sketchbook is my best friend but sometimes I ignore it to my artistic peril!

Here are a couple more tangles:

Have a good week. Hopefully we will hear from the bank soon! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

More Typography

One of the things I used to love to do as a graphic designer was to put together books of fonts for the design department. I always had these going as a side project when things were a bit slow. Of course the books were strictly black and white and just Upper case, Lower case, numerals and some glyphs if they were available.

Now that I am no longer working I have time to really play with the typefaces. So I have decided to create a book compiled of all the fonts on my computer. This could take a while since I have many, many typefaces. I have the entire Adobe library from the days when you could actually buy them on a disc for a few hundred dollars! I have Fontek,  ITC,  Image Club and lord knows what else. This could keep me busy for a while in between downsizing for the move to Arizona.

The plan is to leave at the end of this year when my husband retires. I hope I can be patient enough to wait!

Decorated Letters

In my career as a graphic designer, I always loved working with typefaces. I am not much for hand made lettering. I love it when other people do it well but I have no patience for my own handwriting. It never looks right. But I do love decorating actual typefaces as well as using them in pattern making.

Post Vacation Work

 
I did a bit of sketching during my first week out in Tucson. Now I am sorting through the sketches and creating some artwork with them. It was a whirlwind trip and we ended up house hunting while we were there. It looks like we may have bought a condo but of course the bank always has the final word so now we wait and see if they will finance it.

When we arrived home we arrived to a broken furnace so we are in the midst of replacing that as well! It is turning out to be an expensive vacation and post vacation. But we had a wonderful time out there. We both love the desert so much. It is funny because when I see the Sonoran desert I don't see brown. I see so much color everywhere. the color of the light during sunset on the mountains, the green of the cactus and the palo verde trees. Some friends ask me what there is to like about brown. I just say it isn't that brown and leave it at that. Most people have preconceived notions of what the desert looks like and no matter what you say, that is what they think. Who am I to argue?

We are both looking forward to being able to go there whenever we want. And perhaps living there permanently when my husband retires. It is something for just us. We really need it.

Here are a couple of other color ways for the above design:

Have a good week!