Depression, Anxiety and Zentangle

Hey there tangling friends!

It is Mental Health Awareness Week this week and I wanted to share a bit of my story with you. I've suffered with depression, anxiety and post natal depression for the best part of 20 years and I'm currently struggling with crippling anxiety. It keeps me awake. It makes me exhausted. It keeps me stuck at home. It robs me of joy, friendships, being able to do activities with my children, being able to go to church...the list is endless. 

The stigma attached to mental health issues seems to be lifting a little, but it's still really scary to put this out there - to tell the world how I feel (although, depression takes away the ability to feel anything.) You might remember my word for this year is Courage, so this is my bit of bravery which will hopefully encourage others to open up about their own mental health. 

There is hope and there is help. I have had happy times in the last 20 years, times when I wasn't on medication, so I know I can be well again. I have to remember that This Too Shall Pass. 

I have found Zentangle profoundly important over the last few years - I find peace in the pen strokes and comfort in the shading. My worries and fears cannot find head space whilst I'm in the Zen of drawing. 

The first drawing is one that I've done today and the others are old ones - all with quotes that really resonate with me. 

N

 

This website has so much useful and helpful information - Blurt

The Samaritans are always available in a crisis - Samaritans Contact Info

Here's the link to the official Zentangle page - Zentangle Method

New Pattern - Spokies

Hey there tangling friends.

I have been drawing this pattern for a long time now. There are some pictures below of old drawings with Spokies in them. The tutorial is here too! I hope you enjoy drawing it and can't wait to see what you do with it.

Distress Inks Mandala

Hey there tangling friends!

I was feeling a little adventurous and decided to try a mandala on Distress Inks. Using the Bristol Vellum 9x12" 100lb paper again I marked out the circles for the mandala design. I wanted to depict the sun in the sky and, using Salty Ocean, applied the ink directly to the paper by rubbing the pad around the outside of my circle.  I then used a wet paintbrush to spread the ink around to create 'clouds' - this is so easy as the Inks react so much with water.

Then, using Scattered Straw, I rubbed the pad around - making it darker in the middle with more ink. I then spritzed it with water and used the paintbrush again the make the colour really fade out to where it meets the blue sky. I spritzed the whole lot again to get more of the water reaction effect and added some salt for good measure!

And then started drawing my mandala.

Distress Inks #2

Hey there tangling friends!

Slightly different style here...Distress Inks, Markers and Oxide Ink, plus some splashes of gold acrylic paint. With a quote for Holy Week from Matthew. 

Link to previous Distress Inks post here.

Link to my turquoise gem tutorial ebook here.

Distress Ink Exploration

Hey there tangling friends!

I want to share with you what I've been up to recently. I was looking for ways to colour the paper that I use for drawing. I've tried watercolours, but they didn't do what I wanted them to and I didn't want to spend more on better paints if they still wouldn't work for me. So I searched Pinterest, Instagram and Google to see what other people use and discovered Distress Inks by Tim Holtz. I bought a set of four mini pads in my most favourite colours and set about learning what to do with them. There are loads of YouTube tutorials. My first tile just has me using the sponges to lay the ink down and I didn't use water. I went on to ink several different papers and used water and salt on some of them. The salt gives a very mottled effect to the dried finish. 

Here's my first attempts... 

This is the finished tile, with progress shots below.

I have simply blended the ink around the edges. 

I was rather pleased with the way it turned out. I learnt that the Distressed tile makes the fineliners pen bleed, so I needed to use the thinnest one I had - a 0.05 Staedtler fineliner. Using colour pencils is also a bit different - it feels like there are already several layers of pencil there, so I couldn't add a lot more.

My workspace with the supplies I used, including cake decorating stencils.

(See below for the list of supplies)
















And then I was so excited when I discovered my local art supply shop, Coleman's, was holding a workshop on the new Distress Oxide Ink pads. They hold loads of workshops and classes, this one was a Make and Take workshop. My daughter and I had great fun making a card, gift box and tag. The Oxide Inks react to water more than the regular ones and dry with a slight shimmer in the middle of the drops. I cannot wait to buy the blue and purple colours when they finally arrive at Coleman's! 

< This is what we made. Unfortunately, the Oxide effect doesn't show up well in the photo.








I had to make do with the normal Distress Inks and the Marker I bought for this afternoon's inky fun! I found an old spray bottle to use for spraying water on the tiles. I also dug out my cake decorating stencils I have to play with too. We bought a few stamps to try out too. I used the special Distress Ink paper and also some Strathmore grey paper tiles.







There was lots of sponging, dabbing, spraying, stamping, flicking, blowing and dripping. And then...waiting...hate that bit! 






























Eventually everything was dry and I chose a grey tile that I'd inked with purple and green, to which I'd added a bit of stencilling. I used my Staedtler Triplus fineliners in green and purple to add patterns, plus my usual Unipin black pen. I then used Derwent Coloursoft pencils in green and purple for shading and the gem, adding highlights with a white pencil. Finally I used a little graphite and added some bright highlights with my Gelly Roll. I am so happy with this tile, there were definitely things to do differently next time and things to not do again, but I have thoroughly enjoyed Distressed Saturday and I'm fully Zenned up!

 The linework is finished, onto highlighting, colouring and shading.

 White pencil highlights added.

Colouring and shading.

The finished tiled.
















Supplies...
Distress Ink Mini Pads in spun sugar, wilted violet, evergreen bough, scattered straw, salty ocean and shaded lilac.
Distress Ink Marker in tumbled glass
Distress Watercolour Cardstock
Strathmore Grey tile
Staedtler Triplus Fineliners 
Staedtler Unipin fineliner
Derwent Coloursoft pencils 
Derwent graphite

Eni Oken has written a free guide to preparing Distress tiles - find it here.

Find my tutorial on turquoise gems here.

If you're in Central England, find information about Coleman's here.