Nature in Zentangles

Last day of the summerholidays today so time to publish all my Zentangles I made this summer. After a walk, bicycle tour, visit to the zoo or Planckendael etc. Nature is often my inspiration source then for a new tile.

So here we go !

Two mountain walk in Westouter (tweebergenwandeling)

(Creation date: 22/7/2014)

Flower fields

(Creation date: 14/7/2014)

Antwerp zoo aquarium:

(19/06/2014)

Pinguïns Planckendael:

(27/5/2014)

Hekken en huizen heffen:

(22/5/2014)

De schorre Boom:

(09/05/2014)

A wave on the quay of Antwerp

Last thirsday we visited Antwerp, it was a sunny day after a period with a lot of rain in August.  We did some shopping in the morning, and instead of going to the museum in the afternoon as planned we wanted to stay outside because we wanted to stay in the sun and did a touristic walk.  We went to the quaye of Antwerp to walk along the Schelde and visited the Zuiderterras and Noorderterras at the quayes.  On top of the hangars I saw a beautiful wave pattern to make a zentangle with it.

Quays of Antwerp:
(creation date: 29/08/2014)

Wave pattern:

Foto of the hangars on the quay:

Mooka I

As all tanglers, I came by the pattern Mooka.  Such a beautifull pattern ! And many examples on the internet to get inspiration to make a nice zentangle tile of it.  So of course I tried to create the pattern myself using the video of Maria Thomas & Rick Roberts, and after a few trials I saw it was not such a difficult pattern.

I share my different tiles with you, and when you scroll up from the buttom you see quit and evolution in it!

Most beautiful one untill now:
(creation date: 6/6/2014)

Second one
(creation date: 28/5/2014)

My first one
(creation date: 2/5/2014)

Coming World Remember Me

We passed our family summer holidays in Heuvelland (Belgium), and made several trips from there.  We went to Watou one day, where the artistsfestival each year takes place.  One of the projects on the festival made a very deep impression on me, namely the Coming World Remember Me Land Art installation van Koen Vanmechelen.  It's a project that consists of the making of 600000 of little clay statues - little man  - in the period 2014-2018, as to rememer and give a name to all the dead soldiers in Belgium of World War I.  Every statue receives a dog tag for identification. Everyone can make a statue on one of the mobile workshops, and so become a godmother/godfather of a comingworldrememerme statue. And of course our children did create a clay statue on the mobile workshop in Watou.

A few days later, we saw the same project again in Ypres.  I tried to draw the statues from different views, you can see them below.

Beneath the comingwordrememberme statues, I used also the poppy in my card because we saw it everywhere in Ypres and it is also a sign connected to WWI.  And in the cafe where we had our daily coffee in Kemmel (Heulvelland), I collected the chocolate wrappers with a poppy on it so... inspiration enough for a new card.

The result is not a real zentangle, but a nice memory of our holiday.  I made one in red and in black.  Personally I like the one in red the most.

And out of my scetchbook:

Sunfloweryellow

Another holliday card I made for my oldest doughter.  Two years ago she got her scouts totem, and she is very proud with Hathi (elephant) as totem.  During the scouts camp in august, I got an sms of her, telling me that they played a game to give eachother a colour name for each totem.  "I am sunfloweryellow Hathi now", she texted me.  I found it so beautiful, and it stayed in my mind ...

Next day, I wanted to make a zentangle wiht a sunfloweryellow Hathi in it, this is what is became:
(creation date 8/8/2014)

I gave the card on visitors day at the camp place to my daughter and she was very pleased with it !

Like it also if you want.

Butterfly surprise

It's time to add some holiday-zentangles to my blog.  I made some pretty ones, and I want to share them with you.
The first one I made in summer holiday is one for my youngest daughter.  I found my inspiration for the zentangle on the road to her sports camp some time ago in De Nekker.  We go always on bicycle and pass through Toysstreet, which is next to the Toysmuseum of Mechelen.  On het wall are different  nice children drawings, and there was one drawing that got my attention.  I made a picture of it, and later on made a zentangle of it.

Nicest thing about this zentangle: I put the card in the luguage of my youngest as a surprise she should find on her ropeskipping camp. A few days later we received a letter of her, with the card also back with the letter.  And she wrote: 'I like your card very much mummy, so I sent it back to you because I don't want to lose is here'.  So nice, and also a surprise to me.

Here is my zentangle
(creation date 30/6/2014)

And the original drawing on the wall in Toysstreet:

observation walk

Some time ago, I started to do what I call an 'observation walk'.  I walk around slowly and look and observe usual things that I can use for my zentangles  (mindfullness principle, you know !) .  For example the route I take from home to the station at morning of even better evening (less hurry), little walk in the parc at noon sometimes etc.  It can also be a new walk, to give me some new inspiration.  I try to do at least one observation walk every week.  I put the scetches in my scetch book, or take a picture of my observations and put them in my zentangle inspirations album.

Today I created a banner for my blog. It is made out of one of those pictures in my inspiration album.  It are some curtains I saw at a house in our street.  I never paid attention to it before although we pass the house nearly every day.

Here you see the picture I took, to make the strings on my zentangle.

And here the completed zentangle I made of it, which I now use as a banner for my blog. Drawing the strings was not that easy, but it was worth the effort.  The result looks very nice.
(creation date 18/8/2014)

Pur Natur and a balcony

As I mentionned in my first item, with zentangle I started to look again to the world.  And of a sudden, I saw patterns and strings to fill everywhere.  Doors, floors, tissues, flowers, trees, paper etc.

This pattern I found on a pot of jam at breakfeast time.  Very nice pattern, and I tried to make a tangle of it.  I call it Pur Natur, as indicated on the jam.

And I used it in a mini-tangle.  I have to explore it later on in some other tangles.
(creation date 25/4/2014)

Later on that week we made a walk in the city, and set down on the market place in Mechelen to eat our ice cream.  Time to look around and observe...  I saw a beautiful balcony in forgings on one of the old houses on the market place.  I made a scetch of it there, and once at home I immediately made a realy beautiful zentangle of it.  Okay, this was what I would do in my free time !

The house with the balcony

And here my zentangle created out of it.  In dutch I call it 'smeedwerk' (forgings)
(creation date 30/04/2014)

A flower

After my first zentangle, I visited my friend a few days later to have a look at her creations.  Very beautiful zentangles she had already made.  As she has had an artistic education, she gave me some tips and trics for drawing and composition.  I often start with a flower, she said, and make a composition around it.

So I also tryed to start my next zentangle with a flower.  It's a simple one, but still I like the result. And I learned some other beautiful patterns I found on tanglepatterns.com and some zentangle books.  My favorites are in the tangle you see here: Cadans, Jawz (very nice tangle !), Keeko, Sanibelle, Tortuca, Reticalated and Flutter.

(creation date 23/4/2014)

Make a star(t) with Zentangle

A friend was telling me she was going to create some zentangles that evening.  Never heard of it. You should look it up on the internet, she said.  It's really fun. And I did !  A new world opened for me and I could LOOK again to the world !

A Zentangle... One stroke at a time... No knowledge required... I decided to go for it. And after a few trials, this was my first zentangle made in april 2014, based on the video of the auraknot of Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts.

I decided to take an artist name, Alei.ke or simply Alei to sign my work. And only today I decided to create a blog to share my zentangles and inspiration.

Look to it regulary and ... enjoy it !