“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 12
Often there are secondary exercises in the chapters in this book. For Day 12, the secondary exercise is all about using Tangleations to change the value of a given tangle.
In this chapter, the author directs us to practice different versions of Bales, Beelight and Chillon and then to tangle on a “cream colored Artist’s Trading Card” using what we have discovered.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 12 - Tangle Values
If you squint at your tile, you will notice that some tangles appear lighter and some darker. The levels from light to dark are referred to as the “value” of the tangle.
In the tile above, the lightest value section is the one with Chillon. The darkest value would be the one with Printemps. The other sections fall in between at various levels.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 11 - Auras and Rounding
Rounding is done by adding ink in nooks, crannies and angles to smooth them out. You can see this on the tile above by looking where the Hollibaugh lines cross each other. The corners inside the resulting shapes have been rounded with the same dark blue ink used to draw the lines, creating bubble-like shapes inbetween the straight lines.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 10 - Lessons From A Landscape
Three new tangles are introduced in this lesson: Echoism, Finery and Flukes. I did not use Finery for this tile.
When you look out across a pastoral scene, you may notice how distance makes objects lighter and the edges of things become a bit fuzzier. You can apply this idea to your tangling to add depth and draw the eye in.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 9 - Black Tiles
Today’s lesson was all about drawing on black tiles. There were no new tangles introduced.
Drawing on black isn’t any more difficult than drawing on white. However, you do have to think a bit differently. You are adding the lightest value to the tile with your lines. However, you are still adding shading and highlights to the same places as on a regular black on white Zentangle.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 8 - Creating Dimension
Two new tangles are introduced in this lesson, Purk and Vega.
This lesson is all about how shading creates shape and volume. Darker shading pushes that area away from the viewer. Lighter colors and white highlights bring the area closer to the eye.
The ribbon appears rounded and shiny because of the darker areas along both edges and the highlight suggests a shiny surface such as satin. There is more darkness where it is squished and going into the loop at the top of the pendant.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 7 - Tangleations
Today’s lesson was all about tangleations. When you start with a basic tangle as a beginning and vary it beyond the standard design, it is called a Tangleation. The assignment was to use tangles that were already introduced and draw them in new and different ways.
It was suggested to draw on an ATC. I chose to cut one out of paper I already had which I find works well for tangling.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 6
The new tangles introduced for this day are Amaze, Flux and Mooka.
I used Amaze at the top of the tile to fill the space above the focal point design. The random lines create texture and darkness without overwhelming the rest of the tile.
The traditional Mooka shapes work well as a fan-like foundation from which the Flux can emerge.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula - Day 5
The two new tangles for this day are Isochor and Printemps. Beckah chose them because they are perfect candidates for adding “sparkle”, a tangle enhancer. If you look at my tile above, you will see little white spots on two of the tangles where the lines are incomplete. They create the impression of a small highlight.
Another small change in the practice for this day is the use of an Artist’s Trading Card for the tile. At one time, Zentangle sold these, precut from the same paper as the standard white tiles. I’m sad that they are no longer available. I used one from my dwindling last pack for this exercise.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula, Day 4.
For this day, the new tangles are Jonqual, Nipa and Shattuck. The focus is on angular vs circular patterns. As an interesting shading exercise, the circles in Nipa could be shaded as an orb…or a hole!
I kept the string very simple, drawing a square at and angle in the center of the tile.
I drew the lines within Shattuck and Tipple so that they weren’t perfectly straight or even to add more interest. Because both Shattuck and Nippa are mostly lots of lines, I placed them so that the directions were a contrast to each other.
“One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula, Day 3.
The focus of this chapter is creating depth by overlapping designs.
Above, you can see how the Poke Root stems and fruit weave in front of or behind the ribbons of the Hollibaugh tangle. At the top, the third tangle, Festune is drawn “behind” these ribbons. In Zentangle, the term “drawing behind” is used to describe this technique.
Although this tile is simple, you have to really think about what you are doing. Sections have to be drawn in the proper order to achieve the layering effect.
This is the tile that I’ve created for Day Two from the book “One Zentangle A Day” by Beckah Krahula.
I had a choice of using the three new tangles, Fescu, Knightsbridge and Nekton and whatever tangles from the first day that I wished. Since my string had six spaces, I chose to use all of the tangles from both days.
I didn’t necessarily use the same style for the tangles, choosing, for example, to do a different tanglation of Crescent Moon.
I was looking through my library of Zentangle books, and I came across Beckah Krahula’s “One Zentangle A Day”. I haven’t looked at this book in a very long time, so I pulled it out and began reading. I like her writing style and appreciate how well she covers various topics.
The tile above is the “Day 1 Exercise”. This chapter is all about getting acquainted with your tools. She introduces three beginner tangles: Crescent Moon, Static and Tipple.
Today’s ‘Nzepple is nestled into the shapes of a spoken-style Crazy Huggins!
This was lots of fun to draw and went quickly. Coloring and highlightng each bubble took a bit of time, but the results were worth the effort.
The graphite shading was done after the ‘Nzepple bubbles were completed and was easy to do.
I love the way this came out!
Zentangle drawn on a tan Zentangle tile using black and brown Micron pens. Shading done with pastel pencil and graphite pencil. Highlights created with white chalk pencil.
Random string with random tangles.
While I enjoyed drawing this tile, I think the overall compositione is chaos vs. organization. If it wasn’t for the lower left corner, the other tangles would kind of be floating in space!
But tangling always serves a purpose, even if it’s just practice and meditation.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Highlights created with white chalk pencil.
Project Pack 22 - Day 4 - Radiant Spiral
This pre-strung Phi tile had a design with radiating lines, rather than lines following the spiral design. This allows for creating a spiral with a completely different aspect than the previous ones!
In this video , Molly and Martha demonstrate how to create a design that has lots of different places to add colored dots that accent and enhance a simple basic design.
I have a Bijou Index. It is in a large ring binder, filled with clear pages that have pockets that can hold a Bijou tile.
The pages are in sections, with each section covering a specific topic. The sections include one that has a bijou-sized tile for each tangle that I know, one for strings, with each string on it’s own bijou. One section is devoted to color combinations and another is for techniques.
Ribbon tangles! And ‘Nzeppel as a ribbon, continuing an ongoing theme.
This style of tangle can be used as a frame or border. They can appear between other tangles to separate them from each other, or used as an accent to fill in behind focal points.
Sometimes, you might see them in the bands of Hollibaugh.
There are Ribbon tangles that everyone is familiar with, like Archer, Worms or Dragonair. You can also use a single row of a grid tangle. Or you can choose your own adventure, adding a botanical or other style of tangle and placing it in a ribbon, as I did with Pokeroot and ‘Nzeppel here!
Project Pack 22 - Day 3 - Phi Spiral
In this video , Julie demonstrates how to use Hollibaugh to create a Reticula along a spiral shape, which she then fills with ‘Nzeppel bubbles.
The remaining spiral shapes are filled with a traditional Marasu rendition which povides a old contrast to the Hollibaugh-‘Nzeppel design.
This was not a difficult lesson to follow along with. It was fun and relaxing to do.
I am still having fun with variations of ‘Nzeppel, crazy or not!
Since I was given the tangle Drawings in my random selection, I decided to make it the large focal point of my tile today.
Then I used Crazy ‘Nzeppel as my background fill. I used a lighter color, gray Micron pen to draw it, so it would recede more into the background. I also wanted an opportuntity to use a specific style of shading for it. I think this style emphasizes the “bubble” more and the background less.