Your peacock feather cheat sheet

I have always wanted to Doodle bird feathers, in particular the Peacock Feather. Today, thanks to Adron Dozat, I was able to produce this Zentangle Inspired Artwork below.

I am so pleased with how my first attempt has turned out, made much easier with Adron's cheat sheet.

If you want to give something like this a go for yourself, I suggest you visit his blog Drawing Lessons For The Young Artist, and download this cheat sheet, which he currently has filed under his Bird category.

As light as a feather

This is my first ever tangle feather. I loved learning how to draw this free hand. I've always been too scared to give this a go but I am so happy with how my first attempt has turned out.

Like anything in life, there is always room for improvement but the whole idea of Zentangle is not to aim for perfection but to just take it one pen stoke at a time, forget the outside world and just be in the moment.

If you wish to give this a go for yourself, head on over to watch Tali Shemes demonstrate how at Zentangle feather design

Beware the limitations of goals

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There seems to be this common belief that unless you have a goal in place, you'll never know where you are going. This seems commonsensical but if you stop and think for a minute, having a goal in mind can sometimes be limiting.

Conduct this simple experiment

Take some paper and black pen and draw a line of any style (straight, curved or wobbly) in any direction, then feel free to change directions and style randomly and lift the pen on and off the page whenever you feel like it. Feel free to just let your mind wander. 

After 5 minutes you'll have a "Doodle" of some description, whether it be as simple as the one above or maybe it will resemble something more tangible like the image shown below. The point is not what it turns out to be, it's that you had no idea of what it would look like to start out with.

So what's my point?

I think we can get so caught up with thinking that things have to be a certain way and with this mindset in place, we set goals and work towards achieving them at all cost. However, sometimes I think we forget to stop and reassess our goals and question what it is we are actually trying to achieve.

If you are anything like me, sometimes things don't always go to plan for whatever reason and with that firm idea of what that end goal should look like, we can often get trapped trying to stay on that path we initially set for ourselves. We end up doing the same thing over and over, with little or no result. We start to become confused, indecisive and blinded to alternatives. We begin to enter this state of entrapment and wind up punishing ourselves for continually failing.

I use the doodling example above to demonstrate that sometimes you need to let go of predetermined ideas about how the end result will look and just go with the flow. You may set out to become a famous artist who will draw the next Mona Lisa but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. 

I'm not advocating that you should not set goals for yourself. I've certainly posted before about the importance of goal setting and celebrating our achievements and this most certainly has it's time and place. However now and then, I think we need to let our minds wander and allow them to go to unexpected places, explore new and unexplored territory, be open to possibility and learn surprising new things to be passionate about.

"The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviours and expecting a different outcome."  ~ Albert Einstein

My suggestion is not to throw in the towel and forget about having aspirations, in fact my philosophy here is quite the opposite. My point here is that we should be weary of becoming fixated and instead become more adaptable to change and allow the freedom to appreciate all that life has to offer with the goal of becoming a more authentic version of ones self.

Perhaps no goal is a goal in itself.......

Confidence is silent, insecurities are loud

Everyone is always saying BE MORE CONFIDENT and that DOUBT KILLS more dreams than failure ever will. I know that having confidence is important but I am also guilty of being filled with too much self-doubt.

So how do you gain self-confidence? 

How do you tell yourself that YOU CAN and how do you make yourself appear confident on the outside when deep inside you don't feel it?

I have done some research and have come up with the following list of ten ways to start building self-confidence. If you are full of self doubt, perhaps you could give these tips a try as well.

Oft expectation fails and most oft there, where most it promises

Or in plain English, expectation is the root of all suffering. This is certainly one of the biggest lessons I have learned from the University of Life.

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there
Where most it promises; and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits"

~ All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare) 

Helena and the widow in Tyrone
All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare)

God Save The Queen

For a bit of fun this long weekend I'd like to set a challenge for my ZenDoodle Art followers. In the spirit of the Monarch I'd like my followers to include this tangle in their artwork.

If you have a tangle you'd like to submit to show off your inclusion of this tangle, you can add it here by placing your name and URL to the image in the comments section of this blog. I will collate them all during the week and create another post with all of your images displayed. I will also be advertising this post on the Zendoodle Art Facebook Page.

Crown Tangle Tutorial 1

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance

“The life of which meaning one never ponders is not worth living.” ~ Socrates

Athenian philosopher Plato conveyed and expanded on the ideas of Socrates

In a modern world where we are flat out, running our busy lives, always "switched on" and overloaded with information, it is not uncommon for us to stop questioning what is going on around us, we can unintentionally forget to pay attention to the detail.

When was the last time you stopped for a moment and took a deep breathe and reflected on what it is you do and why you do it?

Unbalanced but organized

I have a passion for all things organised and I have been accused of being pedantic (obsessive even) and one of the most organised people to know. However despite the faith (or not) that others have in me, there are times in my life when I feel completely out of control . So needless to say, I consider myself well-presented with the intention to stay organised but probably not 100% productive (or balanced).

There I said it, I’m UNBALANCED … Argh!

This now leads me to the reason for this post. LIFE BALANCE! I'm sure you've all thought about it. If you are like me you've probably skimmed and scanned (sometimes read); a lot of articles, musings and rants, ideas, viewed lists and found practical solutions on websites and blogs. I have and so I know I'm not the only person who often feels their life can be cluttered and chaotic at times or just simply UNBALANCED!