Under the suns.
All three suns were out in the day. Somehow the river floated in the sky, crossing the mountains in the distance. It was as if it was a bridge across the earth, separating the sky from the fields below.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: 2-N-5 Flux Fracas Meer Pinwheels Scena Shing Spoken Well
Elemental.
This is the first Zendala I have ever drawn. A Zendala is a mandala created using tangles. I have never done one before because I was so worried about it being perfect. However, after watching Eni’s Radial Zendala video , I understand that it was OK to create something that was “perfectly imperfect”.
I was still very nervous about tackling this, but I had a concept in mind of creating a Zendala that would represent the basic elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water. I knew some of the tangles that I wanted to use, but I also allowed the design to evolve and grow on it’s own, too.
Calm.
Where I live, we have monsoon rains in the Summer. Generally, what that means is that, when it rains, it rains hard! There’s lots of wind before and during the storm and also lots of lightning. And it can be almost impossible to sleep.
This simple, all-over pattern of Pea-nuckle was created during a real humdinger of a storm late at night! We got over an inch of rain in about an hour. There were hundreds of lightning bolts and lots of fierce wind. The bedroom was a constant light show and the noise sounded like a jet plane was going to land any minute. It was kind of scary!
Lines.
I find it interesting how much texture and shape a repetitive group of lines can create! The Zentangle uses three tangles that use lines in various ways.
No, it is not your imagination. You really are seeing a small bit of blue and red here. I used a bit of colored, pastel pencil along with the graphite shading in Isochor (red) and Olb (blue). I just wanted to experiment to see what would happend if I tried it.
Ribbons.
I have a new go-to tangle that I love: Pea-nuckle. Here, I’ve used it to make sets of curled ribbons. Originally, I didn’t much care for this particular tangle. I often threw it back in the jar when it came up randomly. Not any more, though. I watched Eni Oken’s Art Club video for a different way of drawing this tangle. And now, I love it!
I’m also in love with this gray-toned paper! This is the first time I’ve used it for a Zentangle. I will be using it more often in the future!
Night-blooming.
To me, this looks like it could be the blossom of some kind of night-blooming cactus! It was kind of wild and crazy before I added the shading and the gold accents. The metallic shimmer added a lot of sophistication.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Chainlea Cobbles Festune Pais
Bridges.
While this Zentangle only has three tangles, it becomes more complex by the overlapping of the various components. It’s as if the Quandu are either bridges or barriers to the Waves. Or, perhaps the Waves choose to go over and under?
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Printemps Quandu Waves
Pods.
These look like some kind of alien pods. I’m not sure if they are alive or not!
Rundel is an interesting tangle. It’s self-contained, shaped a bit like Purk, and doesn’t look all that good when you first draw it. As you can see above, with some additional decoration and shading, it really looks much more interesting.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Cornered.
She opened the door.
“It looks like there is some kind of strange plant growing out of the corner of a psychedelic room here. Perhaps that is a portal on the far wall? See how everything seems to be leaning toward it? We will have to explore. Everyone stay in comm range.”
She stepped out onto the floor and instantly disappeared.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
There be dragons!
This tile is directly inspired by Eni Oken’s Tangled Dragons blogpost . I’ve been wanting to give it a go for quite a while, but just haven’t had time until yesterday. It was a little tricky figuring out how to do the overlapping loops, but I think it worked out well, over all! I think I want to try one with some color next time. Maybe I will try some distress inks with it!
Afterwards.
The party is over. They have all gone home. I think I’ll clean up the mess in the morning.
To me, this tile looks like party favors or decorations left on the floor when the celebration is long over. The Cruffles look a bit like carpeting and Florz actually looks like tile.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Sticks.
Do you know what a Talking Stick is? It comes to us from the Native American Traditions. It was a decorated stick that was used during group council meetings. Whomever was holding the stick had the floor, and was the speaker. They were the only person allowed to talk and could continue until they relinquished control of the stick. As I was drawing these bars decorated with Scute, they kept reminding me of talking sticks!
Rising.
She looked into the converter and saw the fuel spheres rising in the waves of super-heated air. She knew she would need all the power possible to make it to the nearest star system before the others caught up with her.
There is at least two tangles with the name of Gust that I know of. The one used here is not the Official Zentangle version, but rather the one designed by Sandy Steen Bartholomew. I love it because it can illustrate so much movement with just a hook and a wave.
Spiral.
I tried to create a string that would give the feeling of spiraling around. It ended up looking like those Purks are on a wild ride.
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle Tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Arrowheads Dex Feathers Paradox Poke-Root Purk Queen's Crown
Ships.
As she looked back at the gate, she saw the others had followed her into this new dimension. She wasn’t sure if they were friends or enemies, but it didn’t matter at this point. They were all here, now, and there was no going back.
I decided to try a couple more radial blossoms and continue the story from the first one, here . I also used reticula patterns in-between the arms of the lower, Ix blossom. I started with E15 from the Zentangle Primer and just expanded on it.
It’s a string thing.
For this tile, I decided to accent the string with ribbon-type tangles and used the fill areas more for texture than for focus. In addition, I did this tangle for a challenge in the Shading and Exploring Zentangle group on Facebook. The focus of the challenge was on the tangle Flovine, which was created by Lin Chiu. It is the last ribbon tangle on the right side of the tile. I really like the way the dark area of box spirals and the light area of Keko make it stand out!
Grace.
Mooka is a tangle that illustrates gracefulness in a very simple way. Here’s it’s as if they are dancing in coordinated groups with each other. There is even a main couple surrounded by auxiliary dancers and even some further back on the stage. The goal here was to show a few different ways that Mooka could be use to define and fill space on a Zentangle.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Angled.
This tile is all about the angles. The string is made up of straight lines set at various angles. The tangles also provide tension due to the placement against the string and each other. The occasional curves help to balance out the rigidity of the lines by providing some softness.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Deco Border Dyon Jalousie Juke Papyrus Plum Leaf Printemps Scena
Color.
This was the first Zentangle that I ever used color on. I even used my markers to create the shading. I didn’t do another full color Zentangle until this year, because I really didn’t like the way this came out, at the time. It just seemed too alien for a Zentangle. Now, I don’t mind color and actually enjoy it once in a while!
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Coloring done with Tombow markers.
Choices.
She realized, as her ship emerged from the gate that the choice was going to be almost impossible. Hard enough in a single universe, she now had a universe of universes to choose from!
This is the first time that I’ve used Derwent Graphtint pencils on a Zentangle. I like they way they add greyed tones without overwhelming the design.
Unfortunately, the silver of the ship’s structure doesn’t show up well in the image, but it’s really spectacular in person!