Pleasantly Surprised

Last Friday I worked up a step out based on an antique frame - click here to read that post.  

Today, I hoped to do the same with this picture for inspiration -

For whatever reason, my usual process did not co-operate.  Try as I may, it was just not my day to come up with a pleasing variation of this.  I sketched and sketched some more - added shading and still nothing I fashioned seemed to work.

Hoping there was some salvaging of my session, I cleared my desk of everything but a tile and a Micron.  What followed was a nice learning experience for me.

I began with an oval in the center of my tile.  With the photograph in mind but not within sight, I drew a reasonable likeness of the frame.  From there I added a background of Printemps.

That left an oval shaped center area.  At first I thought to do something bold like Knightsbrigde with a curvy line grid but my mind was on our newly named granddaughter and  so I filled the space with her initials.
I shaded and blended and here is the result -

This morning my initial intentions were to formulate a step out but I was pleasantly sidetracked.

A very gentle reminder that in Zentangle® the idea is not to have a preconceived notion of what you want your work to look like when it is finished.  You learn to 'go with the flow'.

After shelving my frustration, I did just that and very surprisingly ended up with a ZIA piece for my soon-to- be-born granddaughter - an unexpected treat!