New pens! And Guest Diva Challenge #329!

Testing out more new pens😀!

I took advantage of the National Day promotions that tonnes of local shops have been having to get my hands on more materials to play with!

This Bijou sized tile was done with a Cool Grey Copic Multiliner (there was15% off Copic Multiliners and Copic Multiliner Sets😆)

I've always been interested in finding out what happens when you tangle in grey! Couldn't really decide if I liked the "all grey" effect so I tried it in Renaissance style as well with a black Uni Pin Fine Line (another new procurement - a local stationary store was having 15% store wide😂) on coloured Strathmore paper that I cut to the size of a Bijou tile. 

I quite like the way the Renaissance tile looks with grey 💕 - it feels like a lovely cool lazy weekend to me. I wish Sakura made grey Microns... However they don't and at this juncture, for greys I may be limited to  Copic Multiliners which irritatingly are not available singularly (locally at least) 😕 but are sold in packs of 4 pens in varying sizes [but it appears that Jetpens does sell them individually, for those who may be interested😋].

And of course I didn't stop there with my new grey Copics because along came the Guest Diva Challenge #329 - Fragment D1. This week's challenge was a doozy 😵. I've never seen the Fragment D1 before and worse! No matter how much I googled, I couldn't find any instructions😱! So I winged it🐥.

I drew all kinds of configurations using the trusty Sakura Micron, and "embellished" with my new Copic grey multiliners (in both cool and warm grey - yes they only have 2 shades of grey - not 50 😀) as well as a Sakura Micron 005. I did a lot of fine lines but I don't think the grey lines seem to scan / photograph well 😕.

I swear I spotted a wolf / cooyote 🐺 and a racoon. Can you? [hint: see left bottom corner sections - you might need to squint a little😆] 

sandswirl.'nzeppel.marasu.drawings.andate.c-six.knightsbridge/yincut.printemps.tipple.paizel 

I think of all the tiles I'm sharing in this post, this is my favourite😍. I did this in my new Staedler Pigment Liner which thus far is the most comparable to the traditional Sakura Micron💖. The pen and the ink was smooth and it didn't leave indentations in the paper like the Copic Multiliner💗. It is however slightly more expensive than the Sakura Micron, though not prohibitively/inhibitively so.  I need to do more testing with this pen!

I also tried the Uni Pin Fine Line that I used in the Marasu Bijou tile on a full sized tile.

'nzeppel.facets.florz.dragonair.peanuckle.tipple.leaflet.printemps.paizel.well

Tried a few new tangles together with the new pen - Dragonair, Leaflet and Well. I picked up the first 2 tangles from the Great Zentangle Book which I bought after reading this review from Sandra Strait. 

I quite liked the book as each tangle was clearly credited and explained in the usually step by step format with some examples of step outs and tangleations but somehow I was expecting a little bit more (not quite sure why or what though...) One thing that got to me somehow though was the the step by step steps were not necessarily in the same orientation, which confused me somewhat (me with my little pea brain)😧. 

The last tangle I picked up from the Tangle Deck my Lynn Mead. At this juncture I really must say... I love my Tangle Deck Family💖💖. I was a birthday gift and it has to be the best Zentangle resource I own and was definitely the highlight of my birthday this year. Convenient, beautiful cards with clear instructions. If there is a Tangle Deck 3 I would definitely brave the unfavourable currency exchange rates and incredibly expensive postage to get at it!😍 

*ahem* back to the pen... The Uni Pin Fine Line's nib somehow felt "directional"😩. I had a few experiences where the pen hesitates and produces an uneven dotted line when I changed directions. It is a little bit scratchy and leaves indentations in the paper (though this could again be because the pen is new). A cheaper alternative to Sakura Microns though in this instance, I think I'd rather stick with the Micron. 

Last and definitely not least, this was my submission for the IAST Challenge #207 - a monotangle in Cross-Ur-Heart. I used a black Copic Multiliner (to see if it was still scratchy - it was but to a lesser extent so it may be a new pen thing...) with some coloured Sakura Microns and Gelly Rolls for pizzazz... This is the first time I tried this tangle and I don't think I did too bad a job. Not quite sure how to incorporate it into a tile but I guess if I love it enough I will find a way!