ATC #206 - Zentangle® #21

I'm enjoying the black paper for Zentangle®. This was made using a Sakura Gelly Roll white pen, and shaded just a little with a white "charcoal" pencil.
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ATC #205 - Warm Seas

More painting experiments. I believe this background card was from a class with Chris Cozen where we were practicing blending. The colors reminded me of a tropical sea. I added the bubbles. This is in the top 10 of my favorite ATCs I've made.
Painted paper, ink, collage.
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ATC #204 - Abstract #2

Here is the other card from the painted paper left over from some experiments.
Painted paper, embellishment.
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ATC #203 - Abstract #1

I made a couple of cards from the remains of some old painted papers from one of Chris Cozen's painting experiments classes. Couldn't bear to cover them with more than the origami mesh.
Painted paper, embellishment.
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ATC #202 - Undersea Post

I have a bunch of these faux postals that are printed on transparent sticker paper. They look very interesting when pasted over colored backgrounds.
Scrapbook paper, faux postal stickers.
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ATC #201 - Lonely Gargoyle

What do gargoyles dream about? Do they miss their buddies? Are they dreaming of days running free, where no one thinks they're ugly?
Painted paper, photo, embellishments.
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ATC #200 - Zentangle® #20

Using white on black paper is very fun. These are some of my favorite patterns. Sakura Gelly Roll is the best pen for the black Zentangle® paper. If you have the good black cardstock that has a nice smooth finish, I highly recommend getting a white Pilot Latte pen. Actually all of the pastel Latte pens show up well on black paper, except that the Zentangle paper is very absorbent, so the white of the Latte pen soaks in and doesn't look as nice.
Gel pen, paper.
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ATC #199 - Zentangle® #19

I'm back doing more Zentangle® again. It's very calming when I'm stressed. Actually it's fun anytime. The middle zig-zag part is a design I put together inspired by some folk art at our local Mingei International Museum of Folk Art, Craft and Design.
Ink, paper.
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ATC #198 - Nasturtiums

A couple weeks ago, we had a sketchcrawl at the lovely home of one of our members. There was a profusion of nasturtiums in parts of the yard, and they were beautiful.
Watercolor.
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ATC #197 - Freesias

I love freesias - they have the best fragrance! This is from the sketchcrawl meeting in March, where we went to Spanish Village in Balboa Park. There were a lot of freesias in the planters.
Watercolor.
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ATC #196 - Datura Flower

Last year I had a picnic out at a local county park in the foothills. There were a bunch of clusters of these datura flowers - this is the one called Jimson weed. The flowers are big, about 5 - 7 inches across, with a hint of purple. This is a watercolor from a photo I took that day.
Watercolor.
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ATC #195 - Dragon Year

This Dragon image is from an old matchbox cover. I meant to post it the first day of the Chinese New Year, since this is the Year of the Dragon. Oops.
Stamped background, matchbox label, embellishments.
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Etegami Card - Cup of Tea

So it's not an ATC, get over it. This is my first real etegami (Japanese: "picture message"), done on a postcard from my Maruman postcard gasen book. Gasen is a special kind of Japanese paper that has some bleed to it. I blogged about Etegami papers here, before I got this gasen book. I think this paper is very good for beginner etegami artists because it is a little easier to control the water than the other kinds of etegami papers. I'm not sure exactly how I learned about etegami, but I think I can blame my friend Rachel, who has also got me hooked on Noodler's fountain pens and inks. The best place to learn about etegami, and see some wonderful pictures, is Dosanko Debbie's blog. She is wonderfully prolific with etegami. Here is a set of etegami that I bought from Debbie. There is also an Etegami Fun Club on Facebook.

Update - I'm not as enamored of this paper for making a more "typical" etegami, as it doesn't have any sideways bleed (nijimi). With a regular brushload of color, it doesn't spread properly the way a good etegami washi paper should. However, it is very nice for my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for Calligraphy, which I used for the drawing here. Also, it did well with my Niji waterbrush, which holds a limited amount of water. This makes it harder to cover a large area, but the color doesn't puddle and cause the paper to pill.

I have a bunch of ATCs that I haven't had a chance to scan and post. Soon...
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