Of hearts and moods

Diva’s Zentangle Challenge #8: Draw a heart and also use two of the previous challenges.

My heart was not in this.

I’ve been moody and broody all week. Since I entered the challenge world three in, I decided to do the two I hadn’t done: “draw a double string” and “simplicity.” I knew the string I wanted to draw; well, I had the idea. It did not come out at all the way I wanted it to:

It was sloppy, indistinguishable, messy. So, I thought, what can I do with this? This is why this exercise is called “challenge.”

Simplicity. Simple lines filling a shape.The big heart was easy. The smaller ones were more challenging. And then what to do with that big open space? I love the contrast of black and white, so I wanted that. What was simple? Circles. (And thus a third previous challenge of “orbs” became integrated.) Then I went on to create the contrast space.

I colored. And I colored. And I colored more. Then I touched up a circle and colored more. Then my pen slipped, so I had to touch up another circle by coloring more. Then my perfectionist side kicked in, and I colored more. …You can see where this is leading… Simplicity was tossed out the window. And I really didn’t like the creation. I was tempted to stop and call my work Unfinished Challenge #8.

Then I stopped to look at it. (Breathe.) It had promise. Maybe. I could see potential, so I let my perfectionist side rule my pen. I concentrated. I held my breath to steady my hand. (Anti-breathe.) This whole process took a couple of hours throughout this afternoon to finish. In the end:

I rather like it. No shading. Just as it. It was nothing like I expected, yet everything I had imagined it could be.