Gloria J Zucaro's "Diamonds are..."

11"H x 14"W Original oil on Canvas

                                                                             SOLD
Another really fun challenge from the Daily Paintworks site.  Carol Marine listed a photo of a young girl with a very busy background.  She said to do what we would with the photo in making our own background.  I don't know why, but I immediately thought of the young girl leaving Tiffany's with her bag filled with and her body covered in diamonds.  Carol's photo is below.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Four Diamonds"

3.5"H x 3.5"W Original ink design on Zentangle Tile

Hand-colored with Sakura Metallic GellyRoll Pens. 

$3.00 includes mailing. Email Me

The is a Diva Challenge and in support  of  The Four Diamonds Fund.  "The Four Diamonds Fund was started by Charles and Irma Millard after their son, Christopher, lost his 3 year battle with cancer in 1972.  Symbolic of the traits Christopher felt were needed to defeat cancer, he wrote a story in which the knight Sir Millard overcomes obstacles to achieve the four diamonds of Courage, Wisdom, Honesty and Strength. "  This quote is from the Diva website.  As I envisioned my diamonds I also thought of hope- the Sunburst in my design,Flowers- growth and renewal,Connectors and Hearts-we are all connected by the ones we love.  Boomerang shapes for Karma we give and receive.

CONNECTOR-Jane Monk, CZT

DL-SUNRAY-Donna Hornsby, CZT

BUTTERCUP-Sandy Bartholomew,CZT

BOOMERANGS-Teresa Clerc, CZT

Gloria J Zucaro's "Lucy's Box of Socks"

5"H x7"W Original Ink Design on Watercolor Cardstock

I spent an enjoyable evening preparing this "Thank You" card for my daughter Lucy and Grandson Alex to thank them for the Christmas gifts they gave me.  One of their gifts to me was a big box of all kinds of socks.  Some were black and some were white.  But there were also Christmas socks, socks with polka dots, socks with hearts, socks with penguins,socks with diamonds,socks with kites,socks with rainbows,socks with cupcakes,socks with polar bears,socks with cherries.  A whole lot of really fun socks!  I had told her I needed socks when she asked what I would like for Christmas...what a great surprise, a great big box of socks! Designs inspired by Zentangles.

This is my entry for Paint Party Friday.  Happy PPF.

Gloria J Zucaro's" Learning Something New"

3 1/2" Square, Ink on Zentangle  paper.

On Friday I was invited to a Christmas luncheon by an artist friend.  She had not only planned for great food and wonderful companionship with other artists, but had a project for us to do.  We sat at her kitchen table with the supplies she had set out for us to introduce us to an art form called Zentangles. We each had one official Zentangle paper square, a pencil, and two pens with different line thicknesses.

First we were to put dots a little inside of each corner, then connect the dots.  I went wrong right away, by making my connection "bumpy" on two of the sides instead of making it look like a "pillow shape".  But she said it is okay, just have fun!  Then we were to put dots on the edges of the pillow in pencil, then connect the dots across the pillow with our fine point pen so as to divide the pillow into sections.  The first section was filled with lines running parallel to our section line.  See my upper left and lower right bumps.  Then in the same section to go across those lines to make diamond shapes.  Then fill in every other line of diamonds with our thicker point pen.  Next we picked another area and made dots in parallel lines as if you were going to play that connect- the-dots game to complete squares.  See my area in the upper middle.  After that we connected our dots with an "S" line, then connected the opposite sides with the same "S", which resulted in a curvy shape.  Some of us then put squares in the middle of our curvy squares.  And we darkened the little circles that had been the substructure for the design.  Next we were to make scallops across one section.  I got that all mixed up!  I was to make the same scallop shape one on top of the other and then darken with the thick point, every other row.  I went around my perimeter by mistake with the scallops, which did not keep their "scallopy" shape.  So when it came time to darken alternating rows, I ran into areas where two white scallops or dark scallops met.  That meant I started randomly darkening areas and so it looks like Indian Corn instead of a reoccurring pattern which I think is one of the main ideas of Zentangle. See two "bumps" top and bottom.

Next section we were to draw a set of parallel lines in a slight curve across that section.  Then continue with sets of lines but never going over that top set.  We continued to fill that section with parallel lines.  Then we filled in the open areas with"bubbles" or small circles.  See lower middle section.  After that everyone else was done but I had areas that were still open, so I just followed the lines of the open areas to make a maze effect. The other artists were adding some pencil to have more values.  So I started to fill in, with pencil, some of my maze lines.  Again I ran into the problem of having a darkened area meet another already darkened area that would lessen the effect of contrast!

This was a lot of fun and took us about an hour to do.  After I got home, I researched Zentangles on Google.  The originators of the craze are Richard Roberts and Maria Thomas.  The website if you want to find out all about it is http://www.zentangle.com   

Since I would like to do more of these and do them properly, I will need to take a lesson from a Certified ZT teacher.  There are two in the area where I live.  Also, there are many patterns which have specific names and their creators name are listed with them.  There are also challenges just like on the Daily Paintworks site.

"Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Our square red logo, "Anything is possible one stroke at a time", "Certified Zentangle Teacher", "CZT", and "Zentomology" are trademarks of Zentangle, Inc.