Tangled Butterfly

I saw these colored zentangle pens online and had to buy them. What's better than a black/white tangle? A colored one. :) These just open up so many doors of inspiration.

Butterflies are just beautiful tiny pieces of art in nature.

I tried to keep the tangles more on the geometric side while adding more detail to the zentangle. Here is a close up of the butterfly. Doesn't it look pretty? :) 

I also did another abstract one with just the black pen. This one is more about just letting your mind direct the pen, the way it wants to. 

Turtle Love

My love for sea turtles began on a Snuba expedition in Maui. They were my favorite part of the day. They were just so peaceful... so zen like! They made the big scary ocean seem calmer. Fortunately our Snuba instructor managed to capture a good photograph of a sea turtle and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to paint it. So, after a few months of procrastinating I got right on it.

This time I decided to take pictures along the way. I don't know about you, but I always enjoy seeing step by step progress of art being created.

I started with a 6x8 canvas and painted my background and got a rough sketch of the turtle on it.

 Then I painted in the turtle with the basic colors with lots of details to be still added. This is usually the most intimidating stage for me. All the work ahead is exciting and scary at the same time. :)

 I then added more detail to the shell and the face. Also added more color to the body. Slowly getting there...

This is my favorite stage in the painting... painting the eyes. As soon as the eyes are painted in, the painting almost comes to life!

Then whats left were the flippers and final touches. I re painted the background to make it more polished and added some small fish around the turtle to give it a sense of depth and size.

Voila! And of course I had to sign it. :) 

Sea Turtle - Acrylic on 6x8 Canvas

P.S : If anyone would like to own this piece of art, contact me.