Lesson 2.
This is the tile I drew from the instructions in the second chapter in the Zentangle Primer. I‘m not sure that I like Bales, but I tried a different way of shading it on this tile. I‘m also trying to draw my tangles larger, so it felt different to draw the grid this large.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Bales Jetties Shattuck
Back to the future.
Last Friday, a book I ordered recently arrived. It is the Zentangle Primer. Vol 1, by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. This book represents the beginning instructions for the Zentangle method.
I have never taken a class from a CZT, (Certified Zentangle Teacher,) so I was really looking forward to reading this book. I‘ve wanted it for some time, but the price is pretty steep. I have to say, so far, I am not disappointed. Even though it covers things that I already know, the book is still quite useful and informative.
No boundaries.
I decided to do this tile without my usual border or string. Instead, I simply started drawing the Ynix in one corner and progressed from there. Sometimes, you just have to go for it, without imposing limitations on yourself!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Bucky OOF Quandry Shattuck Ynix
Know when to stop.
I actually had more random tangles that I could have added to this tile. But I decided to stop, and leave a lot of white space. I think it balanced the Mumsy well.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Birds on a Wire Fescu Floom Footprints Mumsy Snare Stoic
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle Tile using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Printemps Nzeppel Chillon Munchin Evoke Echoism
We are all made of star stuff.
We are often psychologically influenced by our environment. But our interpretation of those influences varies from person to person. When I was tangling this, I was listening to “Hidden in Snow” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I didn‘t know the name of the song at the time, and to me, it sounded more like traveling through the stars.
This tile is also unusual for me because it contains only three tangles, one of which was used as the string for the design.
Woosh!
That‘s what comes to mind when I look at this Zentangle. It‘s a simple string and a reasonable amount of tangles, but the movement is strong because of the pointed area and strong Strircles tangle.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen.
Tangles: Huggins Nekton Neuron Schway Strircles Twisted Ribbons Warmth
It‘s complicated.
Sometimes, I draw complicated strings. Sometimes, the random draw of tangles produces a lot of complicated tangles. Both happened here, which resulted in a rather odd zentangle!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Avreal Cadent Chads Flutter Marasu Pearlz Pop-Cloud Quandu
This page took more time that I thought it would.
To begin with, the page started with just the strips glued around the edge. I hadn‘t even decided what I wanted to put on the page.
I knew I wanted to do a hippy, flower child type doll somewhere in this journal. Then I remember that I had templates for a B.E.D. (Big Eyed Doll) and I thought that would work, so I cut out the parts for the doll‘s body.
Bridging the gap.
Sometimes, having a design that goes from edge to edge helps the eye travel through the image. Here it works and although it is bold, it doesn‘t overwhelm the design.
I messed up while drawing Pinwheels so I am calling this a variation of Pinwheels because it’s still interesting.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black Micron pen.
Tangles: Emingle Flukes Fracas Meer Pinwheels Warble Y-Knot
Avocado.
I don‘t remember what I was thinking when I tangled this tile. I know that what is on here is a result of randomly selecting tangles, so I‘m going to call the upper center Lava Juice, and I‘m guessing it started with that, and then just did it‘s own thing. Sometimes, a drawing takes on a bizarre life of it‘s own.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Squid inked.
The Squid tangle is the central motif in this tile, but some of the other tangles hold their own because of their light/dark balance.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Bales Cubine Fescu Indy-Rella Squid Static Stoic Vermal
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using brown, black and sepia Micron pens. Polychromos colored pencils were used for shading.
Tangles: Ambler Intersection Ixorus Knase Lobella Onamato Sand Swirl Snugz Tink
Simple.
I wanted just a simple string for this tile so I could concentrate on the tangles. However, two of the patterns were medallions, but they turned out not to be a problem. I just added one to the central area, and repeated the other three time. It works!
Zentangle drawn on Strahtmore Vellum Bristol using a black Micron pen.
Tangles: Aquafleur Dex Kathy‘s Dilemma Jonqal Rixty Stoic
This page was an ever-changing experiment. You can see where I left off a few years ago.
It all started with the bunny paper doll. I wanted to experiment with a doll that faced sideways, and with one that wasn‘t a human figure. So I cut the bunny out of an old wallpaper scrap. Then I thought it would look good with a jacket. But after that, I set it aside a bit because I wasn‘t sure where to go with it.
Sometimes I think of arranging tangles on the tile kind of like flower arranging. I didn‘t really draw a string on the tile for this, instead, I had the concept of mixing the Thanksgiving and B‘Dylan together in a bouquet. But then I had to do something with the other random tangles, so this is the end result.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen.
Odd frequencies.
To me, this tile looked like a radio tower sending out programs across the countryside. It wasn‘t intentional, it just ended up like this.
Eke is shown with variations in this Zentangle.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Bales Dex Eke Hibred Lightning Bolt
I think I‘ll stay away from black tiles.
Every so often, I think I can do something cool with a black tile. And every so often, I‘m disappointed. I know that I can do better work than this. It just didn‘t real work on any level.
Zentangle drawn on black card stock using Sakura gel pen.
Tangles: Bricks Fengle Jetties Knopen Munchin Pepper Ennies
Everything is new.
Every tangle on this tile is new for me, the first time I‘ve drawn it. I started out with a vague concept of doing a Steampunk-themed tile, but then just kinda did random new tangles. Parts of it I like, and parts I don‘t.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Berry Tops Cat-Kin Scena Snugz Triangear Tropicana
Canal paper
I have a pad of this paper that I purchased while visiting Santa Fe a couple of years ago. I liked the neutral tones and thought it would be fun to draw on. It turns out that the texture is a bit rough for tangling, although I made it work. I‘m not sure I like it for shading, or pencil drawing, though. I had a lot of trouble with that part.