A Tangled Feather

Every morning I practice my Zentangle skills while I have my morning coffee.  Here is today's offering.

I hope you enjoy it, I did.  Hugs ~ Renee

National Dog Day

I love animals but my husband is so allergic the only pets in this house are the ones I've drawn.  Since August 26th was National Dog Day I felt it was appropriate to share my friend Ella Wilson's dog Maggie with everyone.  Ella commissioned me to do a ZIA version of her sweet Cairn Terrier and here is the finished picture.

I took photos of the process if you'd like to see it.  I started with a piece of watercolor paper to which I had applied a thin coating of gesso.  The reason I apply the gesso is so I can apply color to the drawing or Ella can apply color later.  I feel like the gesso gives me more control over how much of the color I leave on the page.  Ella is a mixed media artist in her own right and may want to add different elements to the drawing later, I will leave that up to her.

After the gesso was dry I traced a copy of her dog from a photo that she had emailed me.  Just the outline of her dog, I can try to get the look in her eyes from that photo also.  Once the outline is there I section off areas of the dog with light pencil marks and each area receives a different tangle until it looks complete.

Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to share my process with you!  Have a great week ~ hugs~ Renee

New issue of Craft Stamper magazine is now available

 I just received my complimentary issue of Craft Stamper magazine in the mail.  I'm amazed and grateful to have one of my cards published, it is my first time in this magazine.

Here is my card reflecting the colors in a four color challenge, they have challenges often, you can go to this link if you're interested in participating with a chance of being published.

I used Finnabair's stamp and several different stencils to get this result, all the instructions can be found in the latest issue of CS.

Thanks for sharing my joy!  Hugs ~ Renee

New winner chosen

Hi everyone!  I heard from one of the Coloring Studio book winners (Jodie) within the notification time frame but not the second one so I had to choose a replacement winner.

New winner chosen is:  Ella!

Please email me your address so I can send it off to Stampington, they will mail your copy directly from their offices.

Here's an update on my tangled cat, I added some stenciling to the mix.

Have a great weekend!  Hugs ~ Renee

2 Winners announced for the Coloring Studio Workbook Vol 2!

Congrats to the two winners of the Coloring Studio Workbook Vol 2....drum roll please.

1.  Jodie

2. Sande

Please email your mailing addresses to:  renee.zarate2015@gmail.com  Your copies will be mailed directly from Stampington.

Congratulations to you both!  Thanks to everyone for entering.

Lately I've been doing a little coloring on my own using the Zentangle Cat design to play around with.  I'd love to hear what you think of this one.  I call it "The Cat and the Moon".  I painted the background with Black Chalkboard paint and Dyan Reaveley's Acrylic paints by Ranger. The eyes are colored in with blue Copics.

It is still a work in progress but it does demonstrate how fun it can be to design your own coloring book pages.

Thanks again for stopping by!  Hugs  ~ Renee

National Coloring Book Day! And a Give-Away!!

In honor of National Coloring Book Day I have a give-away of TWO copies of The Coloring Studio coloring book Vol. 2.  All you need to do to win is be a follower of my blog, a resident of the U.S. (sorry but Stampington is shipping only to the U.S. for this give-away) and leave a comment on this blog post.  Two winners will be chosen one week from today, August 9th, and I will announce the winners around noon of that day.  If you win you will have 48 hours to contact me with your mailing address or I'll be forced to choose another name.  The coloring books will be mailed directly from Stampington.

I do have an article in this copy.

I hope you'll enter to win, it is a lovely book with lots of beautiful pages to color.  Hugs ~ Renee