X-rays, a Zentangle® Book, & Mermaid Progress

Soooo... My last post I mentioned my foot surgery. One down, one to go. Well... This week I rescheduled an appointment I had with an orthopedic doctor that I had cancelled while dealing with scheduling the first foot surgery. The appointment was to have my hands checked out, specifically the pain I've been experiencing in the thumb area. (I was hoping the pain would go away while I was resting with foot surgery recovery. It didn't.) Basically... it looks like more surgeries are in my future... I have bone on bone in my thumb joint, both hands. Here's the lovely X-Rays. You can see there is no space at the bottom of the third bone... Ouch!

The doctor gave me some braces to wear on my hands during the day to try to help with the pain. We will have to wait to do anything further until I've recovered from the current and upcoming foot surgery. I. Am. A. MESS! I told my husband that it may be time to trade me in for a newer model... I think my warranty has expired. I'm just going to take it all a day at a time. I know it will all be fine.

 I received some very exciting mail yesterday! I received this beautiful book...

...from Beate Winkler. She's a Certified Zentangle Teacher in Germany who has published many wonderful Zentangle® books. I am so pleased and honored that she invited me to submit some art for this book! I am overjoyed to have my art included with so many amazing and talented artists. Several of my pieces are in the book. Here's a little preview of the elegant layout inside...

"Das Grosse Zentangle Kreativbuch" is currently being translated into English, and should be available possibly later this year on Amazon. The projects in the book are beautiful and inspiring. The book is wonderful in every possible way! It is well laid out and pleasing to page through. It includes step outs to tangle patterns as well as lots of lovely Zentangle Inspired Art projects. (Thank you again, Beate, for including my art.)

I introduced my latest project, the little mermaid in my last post. Since that post I have been working on additional face layers and details. (Click here to view more details about the course. It started early July but you can still sign up and not lose a step. You can download all course materials to work at your own pace. It is a WONDERFUL course!) 

I had to get back to my mermaid today (no matter how my hands are feeling)! I was so excited! I was selecting lots of papers to start collaging... I looked for papers that would tell her story... her longing for the items of the earth world. I printed out part of the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson so that I could incorporate that also. I have bits of paper with birds, roses, shiny things, etc and then I found some paper with butterflies that almost reminded me of scales!!! I'll use some twinkling H2O watercolors to pick up and enhance the change of colors and luminescence of the paper. This paper is perfect for my little mermaid's TAIL! I also LOVE that the butterflies represent her transformation and longing to be free. I've place the pieces to see how it would look... I LOVE IT! I'll save them to add later after I do some of the other layers of painting. 

Then I began playing with the page of the fairy tale that I had printed out... I chose pieces I wanted to include and immediately thought it would be wonderful to have her story be part of her and lifting her towards the surface... bubbles also float her story towards the surface... This is the start of that process. (I was very particular about the words/phrases that were selected. You can see the part where she is told that she can go to the surface at 15, her handsome boy statue, a kiss each other, little mermaid, sisters, youngest one, the sea, flowers, and never having seen a bird...)

I then started adding some sparkles to her hair with some shiny paper that I had with birds and flowers printed in foil. More earthly things for her in the sea. I placed more scraps. I saw some numbered paper... YAY! It had a '15.' Perfect number for my "horse," as this is the age she is able to travel to the surface. So here she is at this point. 

Now it's time to glue down my pieces and begin adding some color! It felt so good to work on her for a couple of hours today. I'll rest my hands a bit, take some more tylenol, and get out the gel medium! 

As always... I so appreciate those who stop by to visit and am always grateful for any comments. Have a wonderful, art filled day!