Back to classic style! Random string with random tangles!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Claws Crazy Nzeppel Flux Nexton Pods Pokeleaf Poke Root Sez Shard
River of berries.
Adding a bit of graphite, using a simple pencil and a tortillon, transforms tangles on a tile into a small piece of art and fills it with life. Don’t fear the pencil!
Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Fife Flukes Poke Root
Tradition.
We all enjoy learning new things, pushing boundaries and growing in our art. But we shouldn’t forget where we came from in the process.
To keep with the original tradition of Zentangle, I have used the die and legend that came with my new Zentangle Kit to select the tangles that I used for this tile. I chose them one at a time, filling in a section before rolling for the next. I went around clockwise, starting with Bales. I think it’s fascinating how everything fits together and looks good without having to think much or labor over what to use where. That is what makes this type of tangling a very meditative experience.
Beauty.
Even the smallest detail was graced with beauty. She was amazed at the lovely, ripe berries tucked, so carefully, within the perfect folds of the napkin at breakfast.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.
Tangles: Bursti Crazy 'Nzeppel Phicops Poke-Root W-2
Hints of spring.
The patio by the pond was clear of snow. The air was brisk, but the sun shone brightly. She donned the fur-lined cape and boots and headed out to see the frozen lily pads as they thawed. The new buds among the fallen pods added their bright green hue to the rusty brown landscape.
This is my first “standard” Zentangle of the year. I set up with a border and string, then I select the tangles at random. I never know what I will get. It’s always fun to make them fit together and see what I end up with. When the tile is done, I sit and look at it surprised at the end results. There is often a story that emerges, as if reading a book in my mind, with the tile as an illustration.
This tile is from Project Pack 2, The Twelve Days of Zentangle. On day two, we are using two Zentangle tiles.
The first tile, which is black, has a hole cut in the center. Then tangling is done around the empty space. I added red metallic gel pen dots around the center frame and I used a grey metallic gel pen to fill in the spaces in the Flux. Metallic ink just doesn’t show up very well in photographs, unfortunately!
From the Zentangle Primer: Lesson 3, page 55, Exercise #9. We are instructed to let our tangles extend beyond the border.
In my tile, above, I decided to extend Braze all the way to the very edge of the tile. It looks as if it was dropped onto the drawing. I made the border very definite by turning it into a tangled frame all around the center of the tile. Florz made a nice, simple background that didn’t distract from the tangles sitting on top of it!
Halloween.
All the goodies were ready, filling the bowl, nestled into the spider’s web. She waited on a bench by the door with the bowl in her lap. Would they come, dressed in outlandish garb? Or would they dance in the light of the fire and simply ignore her?
This is a very simple tile, with only three tangles. But by overlapping and allowing various parts to grow outside of boundaries, the tangles take on a life of their own.
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
I heart.
The string for this tile started out as a heart. I then modified it a bit to fit in all of the random tangles for the day.
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Afterglow Bamboo Bubbles Cadent Drupe Flux Poke-Root Quabog
Silliness.
Every once in a while, I think my brain falls into some kind of alternate reality of silliness. I wasn‘t sure how I was going to tie all the different random tangles into the string I chose. So I just started drawing with the Btl-Joos… and things kind of evolved from there. The end result was weird but fun!
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.
A party on a tile.
Beads, flowers, bold costumes and wild music. To me, this tile feels like a party!
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen.
Tangles: Chillon Cyme Ixorus Poke-Root Raddox Rain Scoodle Warble
Spiders.
Everytime I see this, I think there is a spider lurking about, waiting for her eggs to hatch.
Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: Aah Afterglow Black Box Black-eyed Peas Centipede Hibred Huggins Munchin Poke-Root
Speed.
Every so often, I like to challenge myself when I tangle. For this tile, I challenged myself to speed up from my regular slow-and-deliberate style. This mostly worked well, except for coloring the Knightsbridge. That was just slow so I wouldn‘t go outside the lines.
I also experimented with adding a bit of white highlights. I‘m not sure how I feel about them yet.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Zig Millennium pen.
Hide-n-seek.
So, I drew the Marbaix tangle from the random jar two days in a row! I also got another “new” tangle: B‘Dylan, which I like a lot. This time, I hid part of the Marbaix medallion under another section, and I think it works better here. It adds contrast, but doesn‘t entirely take over the tile.
Zentangle drawn on official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.
Tangles: B‘Dylan Blankett Dex Juke Marbaix Poke-Root Verdigogh Waves
Triangular.
I usually don‘t use straight lines to draw the string on my tile. Here, I decided to use straight lines to make triangular areas on my tile as the basic divisions.
I also had a hard time making up my mind, which was the visual “top” of the tile when I was finished, which is why Msst is moving in an uncommon direction.
Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.
Zentangle drawing done with Micron pen on Strathmore Vellum Bristol .
Tangles: Btl Joos Ennies Fescu Keeko Msst Poke-Root Queen‘s Crown
Supermoon.
Tonight‘s full moon will be the closest to earth since 1948. Take some time and go out an actually look at it in person. Think about how vast and amazing the universe is.
I decided to draw this to experiment with some new tools for drawing on black backgrounds. I‘ve had this card stock for years. I bought a ream of it over 20 years ago, and at this point, I have no idea which company it came from. It has a nice, woven texture that I really like, and pens and pencils draw on it very nicely.
Sometimes, I want to tangle with only “official” tangle patterns.
It was almost midnight. I had been asleep for a couple of hours, but then I woke up and realized I wasn‘t going to go back to sleep any time soon. So I got up and went in the studio to draw for a while.
I used my handy, dandy list of official tangles and a random number generator to pick all of the patterns to fill my tile. But, I had already drawn the string, and wanted a medallion-style design for the two loops. None of the patterns I had already seemed to work well, so I started going through my step-out cards and came to Bursti! Perfect.