How do you practice drawing orbs? By drawing orbs!
I actually found it very relaxing to draw lots and lots of circles. I tried various methods, both drawing all the way around in one fluid motion and drawing a “C” shape for one side and then the other.
I learned that some sizes I can do very nicely, and some are harder to do. It’s important to turn the tile so that you can see what your doing. It made a big difference!
This deceptively simple tile was so meditative because I took my time with the linework.
A great trick to use, to get the spacing even is to “divide and conquer.” What I mean by that is to begin by dividing the space in half, vertically. Then divide each half in half again. Repeat until you are happy with the divisions.
Then divide the horizontal spaces. In the case of this tangle, they are equal to the width of the vertical divisions, making a square. Or there about.
Although this is a really simple tangle, you can enjoy the zen flow of shading. There can be so much depth, depending on what you choose to do!
Zentangle drawn on Stonehenge white using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite and colored pencil.
Tangles: Hollibaugh
Back to basics! I have never done a monotangle of Crescent Moon. I decided to tackle it yesterday on a 3Z-type tile, just to see what would happen.
Here’s the result!
Zentangle drawn on Stonehenge white using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite and colored pencil. Highlights created with a white, charcoal pencil.
Tangles: Crescent Moon
I wanted to try this medallion-style tangle on a 3Z tile for a while now. I like the way it turned out, even though shading was a bit of a challenge. I ended up using some black colored pencil in the background areas to increase the contrast. I think that created a a very interesting look.
For even more contrast, I added a bit of white, charcoal pencil to create some highlights.
Into the center. The weaving falls into dynamic patterns. Forming. Collapsing.
Which way will she take the ship.
Unknown.
This tile was created by following instructions in Eni Oken’s Crazy Gold Auraknot lesson. You can find it and many more fabulous lessons by joining her Art Club !
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Crazy Auraknot Perfs
Adaptation.
I recently had someone tell me that they never use Cadent when they are tangling. They don’t like it because they can’t get all the shapes to be “even”.
One of the the things that is great about tangling is that you can adapt whatever tangle you choose to work with your own style and ability!
So, today’s tile is a monotangle of Cadent… drawn in the “crazy” style. Meaning, there is no grid. I just drew the circles wherever I wanted and then connected them together with an “S” stroke!
This tile was created from Eni Oken’s newest Art Club video, Feziii Tangle .
Feziii, created by Eni, is a different type of tangle because it is procedural, following specific rules. This is an interesting concept for how to draw a tangle. It was a lot of fun!
Shading Feziii requires some serious thinking because, when it’s used as a fill, there are multiple levels overlapping each other. Fortunately, the video gives you great instructions for handling this kind of tangle.
What are these creatures we found hiding under the leaves? Each one is different, bearing fragmented patterns creating their own interpretation? It is our third day along this path. We’ve grown bolder, looking here and there and finding new things or changing the old.
Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Articulated Molygon
Now, it’s a stroll along the path. This tile is simply Purk. It’s like finding a familiar stone along the way. Comfortable. Fun!
Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle Bijou tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Purk
When you use a grid-type tangle, you don’t have to do it in a perfect grid shape! Here, I wanted to see what it would look like to use Bales, but make a fairly wonky grid, possibly with some perspective to it. So I made part of the lines curved, and varied the distance between the lines, just to see what it would look like.
This type of exercise is good to do every so often. It gives you a lot of good meditation because you don’t have to think that much about the tangle itself… it’s the same throughout the tile. It also illustrates what happens with variations of size and angle of a basic grid tangle. And the end result is an interesting tile!
We are made of stars.
This tile is actually from 2010. It is the first time I drew the tangle Afterglow. I liked the idea of not anchoring just a single iteration and instead, creating many, growing out of and around each other. At the time, I had no idea how to shade it, so I just didn’t.
I am thinking about repeating this tile, but with all the experience I have now added to the design.
Starting here.
When I first starting tangling, I didn’t have too many problems with patterns that had straight lines. But circles were really difficult for me. It is difficult, almost impossible for me to write in cursive, and I suppose there are similar difficulties with drawing circles in many ways.
So, I figured I would start out really big. My thinking was I could do these, starting from the center, and carefully go round and round, rotating my paper, and it should work.
In the beginning.
When I first learned about Zentangle, there were about 100 “official” tangles. There are 164 now, and a few are added every year. To learn the tangles and practice them, I used to draw monotangles in my sketchbook. This one, of BB, is from before I started putting dates on them, so the most recent it could possibly be is early 2010. I’m posting it today, even though this is actually really old, because it was brought to my attention that there was no example of BB on my website!
I am still working on my project from this week. I’m sure most of you have figured out what I’m making, but just in case you haven’t, today I’m posting something totally different.
This monotangle of Sand Swirl was fun to do. Sometimes it’s very calming to just draw auras!
I will be showing you my project towards the end of next week (I hope,) and you’ll finally get to see all the tiles put together, so stay tuned!
Amanda asked me, the other day about Indy-Rella. I told her I hadn’t used it very much because I always end up drawing it so tiny. She did it on a white tile, using black ink, making the elements rather large, which inspired me to try this. I started with the white pen. But I still didn’t get mine as larger as hers. So I thought it might be fun to add different color inks that would make it look like they were fading out on the tile.
I look at this tile and I see many things. From a layer of stones arranged as the floor of a patio to stretched out Cat’s Cradles or perhaps a section of lace. Maybe I’m looking at some sort of atomic level structure under the microscope. Who knows what it is?
Crazy N’Zepple works as a fill for sections in a design or as a full design in it’s own right. It’s easy to do and the end results are always surprising. I love to use it as a warmup when I’m not sure what I want to do. Give it a try, and let it surprise you, too!
This Zentangle is brought to you today by Thomàs Pádro . He has named this one Pickpocket. I’ve actually done a slight variation here. Instead of straight lines, I’ve chosen to curve mine a bit. I think it softens the design, making it a little less rigid and a little more feminine. I also chose to make it appear as if two different kind of materials were woven together by adding the grey auras to every other section instead of all of them.
Squashed together.
This is a tangle that, until yesterday, I really didn’t like very much. When I pulled it from the tangle jar, I just kind of plopped it into my tile as a type of medallion, because I really didn’t know what to do with it. Then I watched this video from Helen Williams. Her blog is A Little Lime, and has lots of interesting tangle related information! .
Her method is so much more fun and makes a much more interesting finished image. Here, the gourds are used as more of an organic fill, rather than a center piece. The concept could also be incorporated into a standard Zentangle with other tangles mixed in. I’ll have to give that a try in the future!
Bones.
Their culture was built on the bones of their ancestors. The believed these relics spoke to them, leading them towards the future without forgetting their past.
This is another tile celebrating and exploring fragments. This is B2 from the Zentangle Primer. I ended up not putting the second set of lines inside each shape and just let the color define the areas. I chose to stop because it looked so much like a grid of bones. I just wanted to let it be.