Danielle Calabro

Day 10 of #inktober2016 Zentangle, I never heard of this until about 2 years ago, had no clue what it was but I loved it.  Of course I wanted to find out more so I looked it up and found that it was created as a form of therapy. You are not to use an eraser, at first I thought, that is absolutely crazy, I have to have my eraser, what if I mess up? but what this teaches you is, don't throw out something you are working on just because the line goes in the wrong spot, work with it and make it work for you.  Happy Inking my Friends

My art has changed over that year since I have started. I started with acrylics and have moved to smaller more detailed art. I still like playing around with the acrylics but I am still trying to find myself as an artist. I love doodling, I love watercolors and I love mixing them. I also love working with my Copic markers. I purchased a new compass last week and I wanted to put it to the test. I am not sure if any of you remember from an earlier post I had started a page with just the rectangle and had a bunch of white left. I decided to add to the page and this is what I came up with. I used Copic and Micron multiliner pens and filled the tangles in with Copic Sketch markers. I am not sure if this type of doodling will get me anywhere but it is defiantly a way to keep my creative mind flowing.  What do you do to keep your creative mind flowing?

I know I said I was done doing trees for a while but I picked up this really cool handmade watercolor journal from hand-book journal Co from Hobby Lobby. The pages  have deckled edges, Love it! I wanted something to go across the first two pages and what better then a big tangled tree. As you can tell by this painting I really like Blue and green together and I added a touch of yellow. I also wanted to test some new white pens, which I have been on the hunt for forever and after a very intense search for the perfect white pen I stumbled across a few reviews on Uni-ball Singo Broad. I had never seen these in the store here so I ordered them off Amazon and I can say I absolutely love these. They have a nice thick line and have a great opaque white pigment. I didn't have a problem with them pulling up the black gouache, only one minor  problem, I went though the whole pen with this one tree. I also picked up the Uni-ball Angelic, it is great for the thinner lines but it doe...

We are have now made it to negotiations with the bank for our new house, hopefully they do not come back with a ridiculous counter offer. Then it is one to running the numbers then inspection. If everything good good then hopefully we will be moving in a couple of months. Then my poor children will get pulled out of school to start a new one, wish this would have been finished before school started but I have lost hope with that. So I have been a little stressed and have hit an artist block again, painting is being forces so it is time to step back. Instead of forcing an idea I have turned to my trusty sketch book and doodling. My way of keeping my creativity flowing, when I can't focus. I do plan on starting the next painting I am going to use for a Christmas card, that should be one of the next couple of post so look for it, think Carrot and coal.

In my attempt to stay focused on creating artwork I did a full page Zentangle™.  I started with this one, of course this left the entire bottom of the page white  and I couldn't have that so...... I got my ruler and draw out a couple of lines and just let it flow. It was a nice  break. These were colored with Copic Sketch markers, love these markers and even though I have around 30 or 40 of them, there are plenty of colors I wish I would have had. 

I have finished my final Zentree, as I have mentioned before I have decided to have prints made of my ZenTree Collection. There will be 4 of each for know. The first three I should have in a couple of weeks. They will be on cold press watercolor paper and printed with archival inks. I have made sure I have picked a high qualityArt printshop, I also did a walk through and I was very impressed. Needless to say I am very excited and proud of myself making this step. I know it will be an investment well made. My Etsy shop will be going through a name change and facelift over the next few days also. Watercolor, gouache and pen I let my daughter pick the colors for this one and in observation of the 4th of July she picked Red, White and Blue.  So it is on tho the next project, I have decided I am actually going to follow through with something I keep saying I am going to do. I will be creating my own Christmas cards this year. I know its a little early but I have had a habit...

I wanted to try the wave again, I wasn't satisfied with the first one I did.  I used watercolor, gouache and table salt, I made the tree a little bigger and added more palms. I defiantly like this one more then the first attempt.  *IMPORTANT NEWS*  I have decided to make prints of my ZenTrees. I will actually be going down to the print shop today. These will be high quality prints of my original artwork. For though of you interested they will be available in my Etsy store in about 2 weeks and will be reasonably priced. I am so excited to be taking the next step. Honestly I can't wait to see what they look like once completed. I know this is an investment but I know it will be a good investment. So be on the lookout I will be letting everyone know when they are out. 

Yes, I did another one, I love doing these trees. When something is not coming to mind they are my perfect fix. I went on a website last week and saw what one of them would look like on a pillow, phone case and iPad case, even a t-shirt and it looked good, I have also thought about turning some of these into journal covers, again I am not sure where to start. I would like to take this a little further but I am confused about the whole copyright and licensing part of all of this. I think it is time to sit down and do a little more research and reading. If there is anyone out there that can help point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. I feel I have finally found my niche, I love to tangle and I have fallen for watercolors and gouache, the are unpredictable, that is what I love the most about them. As I am typing out this post I am thinking of my next project. The thing with tangling is it is a process, it is time consuming. I can sit down and start work...

It was a very crazy weekend and week, Fathers day Sunday, my Huddy's birthday on Monday along with my kids Karate test, which I might add they did awesome. I also had to fix my computer, I wasn't paying attention to my son while he was trying to download a computer game and I got attacked by a crap load of malware, took me about a week and luckily only a $10.00 app to clean it out, so I was not able to dedicate myself completely with this one. I have still been experimenting with watercolors, I had fun with this one. I had left over paint left on my pallet so I added a bunch of water to my paper and to the paint. Then I just added paint and got the crazy effects by sprinkled it with rubbing alcohol. Once my paint was dry I outlined where the colors meet and made my tangle string. I am not crazy about this one but it was great practice. I would like to invite those of you that visit my blog to leave a comment, what you like or didn't like, an idea or two, new techniqu...

I really enjoyed creating the Zentangle™ inspired tree a couple of weeks ago so I decided to do another. This painting was created with watercolor, gouache, GellyRoll Pens and sharpie in a few areas. I am going to focus on the background for a little bit. I tried a couple of techniques I have read about and loved the way it came out. I stared with 140lb watercolor paper, I taped it down (which I believe they also call it stretching) so the paper would not buckle. I did things a little different this time, I did not draw outlines of what I was planing, I went straight to the backgound. I spread a layer of clean water across the paper, chose the colors I wanted to use and randomly painted the colors on the wet paper (wet-on-wet technique). Here is where it got interesting and fun, I took regular table salt and rubbing alcohol to the wet paint. The rubbing alcohol repealed the water and the salt absorbed the water, leaving what you see above, a pretty cool background. ...

I have been working more in watercolors lately and I am finding I am really starting to like them a lot more. I always thought watercolors were tougher to work with, with a little more practice I can see using them more and more. This little painting was done with mostly watercolor, I had to do the clouds in white gouache and of course the waves have tangles on them so I went over them with pen. I will be honest with you, there are a couple of things that I do not like about this painting. My birds ended up getting fatter when I tried to paint them and the tree looks to small to me or maybe it just needs more palms. I absolutely love the waves though, I had fun creating all the tangles on them and like the way they came out. Get involved, let me know what you think. I would love to get others opinions good or bad.

Well it took me a little over a week and half but I have finally finished it. I wanted to put my tablet to good use for what I originally wanted it for, sketching. I was at a stand still, I have this huge piece of watercolor paper that I want to use for a large Zentangle™ project and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I grabbed my tablet and just let it flow. I wanted to test out patterns and that is what I did.  I will admit, I think I would like this even more if I had added color. I am not advertising for Samsung, but I will say the Samsung Note Pro 12 is a great tablet. If you can not afford or just do not want to spend over a $1000 for an actual artist tablet (I am not talking about the once you use with your computer) then this is the next best thing in my eyes. I love traditional art, nothing is compares to it. There is so much in a piece of art that was created with a paint brush, pen, ink, etc. But the sad thing is a lot of things go digital. How long will...

I decided to give a full page Zentangle™ a try this weekend. This time I did it with no planning what so ever, no string line, I just let it flow. There are some parts of this page I really wish I had not added but then there are also a lot that I really do like. I think for my next one I will try to do a little more planning. I used my Micron and Copic pens to draw out everything, with a few I did use pencil first. Once I knew the ink was dry I added a little color with watercolors. I am still a little rusty with the watercolors but I wanted to add a little shading. After a little more practice should be no problem. These are a couple of close-ups of the page I really liked the way the two larger flowers came out and the look of the simpler tangles. I took a chance on a couple of more complicated tangles and think I could probably benefit from practicing them. All in all, I am happy with the way this came out, especially since it took a total of about 5-6 hours to comp...

In my attempt to find my niche I have used many, many different mediums. I have used acrylic paint, oil paint, water color, gouache, markers and pens. I know I am not finished finding my own way but I think I am getting a better idea of what I enjoy most. I love to paint and I love to draw so I have started to mix them. In this piece, my Zentangl™ Tree, I did the background in watercolors, the sketch in archival ink pens, the tree with black gouache and the tangle with a white gelly roll pen.  Here is a close up: This change in my creative focus has helped me in more ways then one. First, it is so easy to just grab my sketchbook and my pencils and start working on an idea. Second, it has simplified my life a little, I can take it anywhere with me, go to a cookout, take the kids to the park or outside to play, I just shove everything I need in my bag and I am all set. Can't do that with a canvas and paint, but like I said I still love to paint just on a s...

Watercolor Pencil and Ink Well, here is another Zentangle™ I did, what should have only taken me a couple of days to finish took me about a week. Here is what I have learned with this little piece of art. I decided to use watercolor colored pencil to add color, which by the way is not the norm for a Zentangle™, from what I have read anyways. I drew out the basic area that I wanted to tangle then used the watercolor pencils to color the area in then used water to turn it in to the watercolor. I used regular watercolor paint for the larger background color. Which I think I may upgrade to the tube watercolors, using the smaller pallet watercolors can be a bit time consuming. So here is the problem I found when using watercolor pencils with your regular multiliner pens. Apparently the watercolor pencils still keep that waxy film even when it is diluted with the water.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the pencils and I think they will be great with other projects but not so much wit...

Zentangle™ Blooms Gouache and ink So What is Zentangle™? Zentangle™ is an art form that requires a pencil, pen and paper (no eraser). A focus on creating basic repeating patterns. There is no expectation and no mistakes, you let your imagination flow. You can find a lot of information online about Zentangle ™, there are a lot of resources available for someone that would like to learn.  I came across Zentagle™ about 8 months ago, I saw a book at one of the art stores I frequent and decided to give it a try. I can honestly say that I do really enjoy it, it can be very relaxing and gets you out of the creative block that you may be having. I have also found a lot of patterns on Pintrest. Just be careful that you don't mistake a doodle for a Zentangle™, Zentangle are structured patterns.  I do not follow all the rules to Zentangling, I do use an eraser some times, of course my design will sometimes change once I apply the ink. I did things a little different on t...

As I said before I really like to Zentangle®, it is definitely a good outlet. It really does helps with freeing your mind. Now, I will be very honest with you, I do not follow the directions of Zentangle®, I do use an eraser and sometimes I will fix my mistakes. This is just my way, if I do not like the way something looks I will fix it.  I started this about a week ago, I worked on it between work, play and sleep. I am still working on drawing faces, I can see myself getting better and I see were I could improve, but I was pretty darn impressed with myself on this face.  I also wanted to play with some new pens I just purchased (white Gelly roll pens).  I drew out the face and the Zentangle® hair then painted the background with jet black gouache. I then set out with a ruler and white gelly roll pen and this is what I came up with. It looks a little yellow because I had to use a camera instead of my scanner to get it on my computer.  I have finall...

Still feeling like crap today, actually took the day off from work because I have lost my voice, I am on the phone all day so it made no since to go in anyways.  This is an update from the last post I did, I have finally finished my little Zentangle® art.  It only took me about 3 days because I was sick but I am trying to make sure I make time everyday to create, even if it is as small as finishing a small painting. I have learned over the course of a year (when I first started to get back into art) that I can not get any better with out the practice and that is the one thing I have not been giving myself time for.  I am still having some difficulties with the blending, of course I don't think this was the right piece of art to test it on, the areas were to small. Well I hope you all enjoy. 

As I have said before when I have painters block I will doodle, sketch or Zeltangle®. Well I have had painters block for a few days because I have been under the weather, of course that doesn't mean I haven't try to throw some paint on canvas, just means I don't like whats on that canvas...:) So between the coughing, sneezing and everything else that goes with a nasty Florida Cold I have been working on this: As you can see it is unfinished, I am using gouache to put color in it. I love Zentangle® it is a great outlet when painting isn't going my way. I would really love to incorporate it in an actual drawing of a landscape or something along that lines.  At the moment the only thing that is finished is the orange going around the outside. I am hopping a feel a little better today to at least get half of it painted. I can't wait to update this when it is finished.  Tell me what you think? 

It is a known fact that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." So what qualifies as art and who has the right to determine what is art and what is not? I have seen plenty of paintings that I thought, "wow" my daughter could do that, but does that mean it is not art? absolutely not, it means I have a different opinion. More power to the artist that can put a few paint strokes on a canvas, call it art and sell it.  I have seen even more paintings and art and thought, "wow, that is beautiful or interesting." That is what art is to me, something that will catch my eye, make me look at it and even question what is going on.  One of my all time favorite artists is, Salvador Dali , his art has always intrigued me. It's odd and makes you look at it, makes you search the painting for the meaning or the story behind it. To me, he is a great artist, I have even subjected my family to the "Salvador Dali Museum" in St. Petersburg, FL t...