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.
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!
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.
Golden ropes.
“I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance.”
– Arthur Rimbaud
I had this idea to do ropes with loops at the top of the tile. It‘s simple, but it turned out to be slightly more complicated than I thought it would be.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite and colored pencil.
Tangles can be used in various ways from filling a background to creating a focal point. Here, I wanted to use Onamato in a circular focal point so that it looked like a Southwestern beaded ornament. The ribbon behind it is the more “normal” way to use this tangle.
I tried to make the “beads” look like a version of turquoise with fool‘s gold inclusions and polished carnelian with a few gold beads in between.
All wrapped around.
I love Crazy Huggins. It can go every which way or be tamed with symmetry.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using brown Pigma Micron pen. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Polychromos colored pencils. Highlights and other markings done with various gel pens.
Tangles: Crazy Huggins
Inside.
It was interesting and fun to draw more Hollibaugh inside the original version. I like the way it ended up looking a bit like stained glass or wood carvings.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Hollibaugh
Sizzle.
It‘s hot here. The other day, the outside temperature on my car dashboard was 108˚. And it‘s not even summer yet! I think that‘s part of what influenced the coloring on this monotangle.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using Copic Multiliners and Sharpie no-bleed art pens. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Polychromos colored pencils. Highlights and other markings done with various gel pens.
Tangles: Opus
Study in Blue.
Dansk is a simple tangle, yet it can be quite effective. Here, I decided to use it as a central motif and as an edge structure.
Note: This design isn‘t completely an original idea on my part. I copied a similar design by Michele Beauchamp, which you can see Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using Zig Memory Writers. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Polychromos colored pencils.
Ticklish.
Every time I see this tangle, I think about how ticklish it would be if it was a real feather! This is one of my favorites to draw, with all the curves and swirls.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using Zig Memory Writers. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Poloychromos colored pencils.
Tangles: Scrolled Feather
Knot work.
I love this beautiful tangle because it reminds me so much of decorative Asian knot work. This tangle can be done large, as it is here, or several smaller ones can be added “on top” of other tangles.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a Zig Memory Writer. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Poloychromos colored pencils.
Tangles: Mak-Rah-Mee
Jetties is a wonderful tangle that can be used as a fill, a focal point, or scattered into the nooks and crannies of a tile. Here, I‘ve made them all different sizes and given the impression of them falling into a pile.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Coloring done with distress inks, distress markers and colored pencil.
Tangles: Jetties
Organic.
Icanthis is a very organic tangle that can meander over a large area. It works well as a central focal element, but, when drawn smaller, can be used to fill in areas behind other tangles.
The tile coloring was created with Distress inks and more color was added with Distress markers.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using Olive Copic Multiliners. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Poloychromos colored pencils.
Reef, created by Judy Lehman, is a simple but fun tangle. The tops of the shapes provide a nice distribution of dark areas across the tile and help to balance the large white areas. I chose to further embellish each shape, but the tangle is equally effective just plain.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen.
Tangles: Reef
Earth Day.
Saturday, April 22, is Earth Day. I drew this Zentangle years ago, but every time I see it, it reminds me of the earth and nature.
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Nzeppel Pokeleaf
You can find the instructional video for Zingo here . Indy and Mazzy, show you how they draw this tangle. I decided that the design could handle some delicate coloration, so I chose to draw it with several different-but-neutral Copic mulitliner pens. I did nestle on a bed of Spirals, which technically would be a second tangle, but the point of this tile was to draw Zingo in all of it‘s glory.
Arches.
Umble is almost like a rounded Hollibaugh, with the arches over and under each other. I chose to make them appear as if the ones in front were growing out of the cardstock. This give them much more depth. Because of the black card stock, there is no “shading” to speak of. Rather, I added highlights instead.
Zentangle drawn on black, textured cardstock using a white, Pilot, Juice up, 04 pen. Highlights done with white charcoal pencil.
Antique.
I‘ve had this cardstock for a while, and really wanted to try tangling on it. When I tried it with the Micron pen, though, it didn‘t work out. The ink bled into the paper. So I went through my stash and came up with these very fine gel pens made by Pentel.The Slicci pens come in basic colors and also some very nice metallics. I often see them at Hobby Lobby.
Where will we go?
Echo Lines is a technique developed by CZT Eni Oken . While it‘s a simple concept, it creates very complex, flowing, dimensional shapes. This is my first attempt.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Zenstones created with colored pencil, highlights with Sharpie Poster Paint marker.
Tangles: Echo Lines
Steam time.
I decided to go in a bit of a steampunk direction with this monotangle. I like copper and green together and I‘ve been wanting to do more Zen Gems, so this tile made my artistic soul very happy.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Coloring done with mixed brand colored pencils, Crayon and Distress markers. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Waybop