Say it Forward Friday- and the winner is!

One of my very favorite blog buddies and commenters.
Jessica at Art Smarts4Kids
is an awesome writer, teacher, and though she may not agree,
I think a pretty good artist as well!

She helped me title this Tangle.

The title is....

Knossos Eclipse

and her reasoning was this...

The image reminds me of a medieval castle. Medieval castles often had labyrinths. Though not a medieval labyrinth, the labyrinth at Knossos immediately springs to mind when I think about labyrinths. I don't know if you're familiar with the myth, but it says that people were often sacrificed to the Minotaur that was kept in the Knossos Labyrinth. It was so complex that no one could escape. But one man, with the help of his love, found a way. Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped by following a string that he had unwound behind him as he entered the labyrinth. The bold lines of the tangle make me think of the walls of the labyrinth and the thinner lines that fill in the spaces remind me of the string.

Finally, one of the first things I notice when I look at the picture is the circle in the upper right corner. It makes me think of a lunar eclipse.

Thus, Knossos Eclipse.

And what does she win Bob?

A tangle tree 1 Mug- already on its way!

Can you guess which art lesson inspired "Knossos Eclipse"?

Hint- Check yesterday's post!

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You Know it's Spring When the Zinias Zoom and...

oil pastel and watercolor resist

the art teachers start pulling out lessons
on Georgia O'Keefe's flowers.

Yes, spring has sprung where I live and the rainbow
in my backyard is blooming again! In art class last week and the week before we focused on Georgia O'Keefe.
She has a very interesting biography and you can read more about that here,
but for now I have two projects for your consideration
and a little surprise at the end!

Project # 1 Oil pastel and watercolor resist

Materials needed:
black oil pastel
water color paint
brushes
watercolor paper
masking tape
a flower of your choosing

(before you begin, use masking tape to attach your paper to a board. Go all the way around all four edges, the end result will look like a crisply edged print!)

1. Start by looking at your flower, really looking at it! Look inside as far as you can, notice the parts and their shapes.

2. Sketch out what you see. Remember O'Keefe's flowers were done in a tightly cropped and very "zoomed" in composition. Use oil pastel instead of pencil and try to capture what you are seeing without worrying about mistakes. The point of this is not total drawing accuracy, but connecting with what you see through drawing.

3. Once your sketch is done, decide what colors you are going to use- they do not have to be the same as the original flower. Paint right over the pastel which will resist the watercolor.

4. Once the painting is dry, remove the tape and enjoy!

Project # 2-(intended for older or more advanced students)
pencil floral element composition

Materials needed
Pencil
drawing paper(3 sheets each)
flower or picture of a flower of your choice

1. Sketch the flower as accurately as you can. Really look at the shapes of the petals and the details of the leaves- are the veins prominent? Are the edges straight or serrated?



2. Once your drawing is done, look at that shapes again. Try to pull out at least ten elements of shape or pattern and draw them on another piece of paper.


3. Using these elements, create a new design or pattern. It shouldn't really look like a flower, just a composition made up of floral elements.


4. Once your the basics of your design are in, then shade. Really try to create an array of pencil tones and shades that go from very light to very dark. The more shades you have in a drawing then the more interesting it will be!

Have fun!

Now for the surprise...

It is Thursday Theory of Titles after all. I know I missed last week, but here is my offering for you this week. See if you recognize the influence. Also there is a working title hidden in the drawing.(you can click to make it bigger) Either tell me what, where, and how many times you see that title, or create a new title and leave it in the comments to enter my giveaway! The giveaway runs until April 15th- a little tax relief for you.
The winner will receive a mug with their favorite tangle design on it.

Read more...

Here is my first offering for you.



Let me know what you think the title should be.





You will have all week to leave me a comment

as I will be moving this post to the sidebar when I post a new lesson.



I will pick the winner from the best title received all month. The winner will receive a mug with their choice of tangle design.

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Addiction, Justification, Validation and a Giveaway Announcement!

My good friend Jessica at ArtSmarts for kids just sent me this link. More validation for my addiction.
You enabler, you. Thank you Jessica, good stuff to know when my pastor sees me doodling in church!


On another note, I am announcing my first giveaway!!!

Monday is a somewhat auspicious day for me as I am turning 35. Thirty had it's own sort of trauma but 35 is like getting to the top of the hill and getting a real good view of the steep slope down the other side and realizing the speed at which you are approaching it! There are lots of things I love about this age though and in honor of that (and the fact that I share this special day with Dr. Suess and Jon Bon Jovi- my 7 year old thinks that is so cool) I am going to give something away! In fact 35 is just so nerve racking, I will give two things away...

Eve's Redemption Giveaway
Giveaway #1

Set of 20 "Eve" notecards and envelopes.



Rules: Really simple. Guess the bible verse symbolism of the butterfly pattern in the lower left of the art piece and guess the right number I am thinking of between one and one hundred. To enter, leave a comment under this post with the previous info, a valid email address and Giveaway #1 in the body of the comment.


Custom Art Lesson and Unit Study Giveaway
Giveaway #2

I will custom design a step by step drawing lesson and unit study to complement your current lesson plan or an idea you want to try.

Rules: To enter, leave a comment explaining the theme of your lesson plan or curriculum and Giveaway #2 in the body of the comment.


Contest is open until Friday March 6th and winners will be announced on Saturday March 7th. (Just in time to honor my hubbie's birthday as well!)

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New Artwork- For Sale

"Eve"


"Valentangle"


If you are interested in purchasing any of my original artwork seen on this blog, please let me know via email or comment.

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Spelling Tangle

Looking for ways to make tangle doodles more practical in your home school day?
Try tangle spelling words.
Start with block or bubble letters and then fill them up with lots of patterns. The patterns could be based on repeating the letters of the word to make a design or simply as a design itself. They will be staring and studying the spelling of the word in a visual mode regardless and unfortunately so much of our spelling in English is really based on visual memory.
My second grader missed paint on his spelling test this week. I told him we would start doing this with his spelling words next week. When I thought a little more about it, doing this with all ten words might be a little much. We only do school four days a week so he would need to average 2.5 words a day. So I told him, maybe we'd start with a pretest and then only have him tangle the words he misses on the pretest. No need in having him practice ad nauseum what he already knows.
His response to this was, "Well, I 'll just have to get them all wrong then."
Addiction does run in the family...

I suppose you could do with this math families as well. Start with a block or bubble number and make drawing patterns of the equations or use the numbers themselves to make patterns in the open space.

See addiction seeks justification...


Just in case you are wondering what a tangle doodle is, let me explain...


For more on this subject please see my other posts about Tangles...

Spreading the disease: how to find tangle pattern inspiration

Art as Worship- Tangle Style

Tangle your way out of the doldrums.

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Tango Tangle Kitty

I am actually getting ready to do an art lesson on Laurel Burch tomorrow based on this project I found over at Art Projects for Kids. I couldn't resist a tangle op however and this was the result.
Just in case you're wondering I do actually do other things during the day other than tangles...

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New Tangle

I promise I'll post something different soon. In fact I just tried to upload kids artwork but the uploader kept changing the picture orientation so I'll try uploading again later. For now enjoy the tangle.

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Tangle Sampler

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Spreading the disease...

Have I infected you with the tangle virus yet? If not this may be just the germ it takes. If yes, and you have either tapped out your pattern imagination or are just dying for more, then check out this video.



WARNING: MAY CAUSE INTENSE MIND BOGGLE AT REALIZING ALL THE PATTERNS THERE ARE SURROUNDING YOU!!!!

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Love Tangles, Floral Fibonacci, and Academic Applications

First I must apologize to mathematicians who clicked here because of the title. I really don't know a Fibonacci from a flower except to know that it is a series of special numbers with a special significance and it alliterates well with the word flowers because it starts with "F'.
We have been doodling away at our house and I'd like to share with you some of our results.
The first is a card for valentine's day. This actually came about by accident and is really kind of a recycled piece. The hearts here were study experiments I was doing for my upcoming class project this week. To learn more about that you can click here.
The instructions called for rubber cement which is a glue and for reasons I can't get into here, that supply was a no-no, so I was toying with other possibilities. Just to let you know, the rubber cement really works the best, though I did not get a chance to try watercolor masking. I loved these hearts though and wanted to repurpose them, so what better than to collage and tangle!

The inside poem I wrote for this says:
In color or in black and white
My love for you will never change
Though we may grey
My love for you will never fade away
Happy Valentine's Day.

Cheesy, but it works.

This next doodle happened as an accident as well. One of my students saw a design I had in my portfolio that I had done close to 20 years ago(ssh, don't tell anyone I'm that old!). It was a type of Spirograph I had done with a protractor. Yes I had a Spirograph set as a child and I loved them! I digress. So anyway, I showed this student how I had done it with our current classroom protractor. This little tool just so happens to have an angle measuring arm attached which created a semi-circle right in the center. Once I saw the design I immediately saw the floral possibilities!
This was done on watercolor paper with ink and water based markers from Stampin' Up.
I channeled the impressionists and did not use any black for shading but instead used complimentary colors to create shading. I am pretty pleased with the results. (if you really knew how easy it was you would not be all that impressed though!:) )




These final pieces belong to my boys. The story behind this is pretty awesome. My oldest son tends to be a bit Eeyore at times, and since he's been battling a little cold, it's been worse. Not to mention he has been worried about his dad and disrupted by all the chaos it has caused in terms of scheduling. My kids are happily rooted in their routines and get very vexed when their patterns are messed with!
So this young man woke up in a very funky state of mind(not talking James Brown here!) So I thought, just maybe...
I gave each of the boys a small piece of cardstock- 1/4 of and 81/2 X 11 sheet, a fine sharpie, and an ultra fine sharpie. They drew a circle with a template and were given 10 minutes to fill in the circle with designs and patterns. They have been watching me do this since Saturday so they knew what to do. I put on Christian music and let them go. Not on only did Eeyore become more like Pooh by the end, he asked to do more! It was as though the doodling was some sort of mental detoxification.
You might try it sometime and see how it goes. We are planning to devote a few minutes to these each school day as a mental wake up exercise. If you do try this, just use music that doesn't have any interruptions in it. We started with radio music, but the talking in between songs was very distracting so I just switched over to our collection on itunes. Here are their results.

These four pieces are by my ten year old Taylor. They are very interesting to look at. To me they look like microscopic images of some kind.





This last one is by my seven year old, Ryan. He absolutely adores color, so he colored his.

Can you see the little blue man in the center being pulled or reaching for something and a little ghostly face in the lower left?

Just thought of something... these might be really fun to play I Spy With, or create your own I Spy Tangle Book with!

If anyone is interested in a tutorial for any of these, please let me know, but for know we will let the finished projects stand on their own.

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Doin' the tangle tango and delightfully doodling...

I spend quite a bit of time on the internet searching for art project ideas and inspiration(in my class, when one child accuses another of copying, I simply let that child know that the accused did not copy, they were simply inspired). Art blogs and websites inspire me! When it comes to artwork, unless you are a master forger, your artwork will always be your own.
All that to introduce you to my latest inspiration...
I have always been in love with patterns, whether visual, musical, mathematical, historical or literal. Over the past few years my own personal artwork has patterns incorporated in it and I am always drawn to the works or projects of others with all those wonderful patterns! Since I was a little girl I would doodle. It was a great way to pass time and always relaxed me even while keeping me alert. Nowadays you will often find me working on some drawing or other while in church. I love my pastor's sermons, but sitting for 45 minutes can make anyone a little drowsy. So imagine my surprise, when I found out that this doodling had a name, or else that some smart people decided to give it one, brand it and start a whole company and perhaps even am artistic movement based on it. The company is called Zentagle. It has apparently been around for a few years already, but I am just learning about it, and becoming a little addicted. I finished five this weekend alone and every time I close my eyes all I see are patterns that I want to incorporate into more drawings!
Of course you must understand that I do not subscribe to the eastern religion philosophy being promoted by the Zentangle company or even the by the names connotations. I do not "meditate" as they would call it, though I do worship, pray, and meditate upon the scriptures of the bible, so in the spirit of Colossians 3:23 which says..
"Whatever you do, work at it with all you heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."
So why can't doodling become an act of nonverbal worship? In my book it is. Literally. I made myself a little book to tangle doodle in and I titled it "Art as Worship."


A varation of the zentangle is called a zendala which is a cross between a mandala and a zentangle. Mandala's have their own spiritual significance (which again I do not subscribe to) but the visual appeal is unmistakable and the use of symbolism can create a piece of artwork that is truly a tribute to my creator.

Here are the results of some of my doodling...

This first one is the fruition of five hours in the Emergency Room with my husband, who tore his meniscus and part of his ACL yesterday. All good thoughts and prayers are appreciated. I will expound on the circumstances related to that on my other blog, Drawing Life Lines later.

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