Friday, January 15, 2016

Do You Zentangle??

I love Zentangle - every time I see it somewhere I am totally enthralled with the 3D look you can achieve with lines, shapes, and a 01 Micron black pen!   Up until recently - I had only tried it once - back in 2010 I did one for a challenge on Splitcoaststampers seen here.

Fast forward to January 2016 when the Wanderlust classes started (see my side bar for link) - and before the actual classes started - they posted a wonderful video by Beckah Krahula called Zentangle 101.  

Each design shape is called a 'tangle' and Beckah showed us several that I have used on my Zentangles.  Tipple - the circles on the bottom area, Hallibaugh - the stick shapes above the Tipple, A Maze Meandering Line on the left above the Hallibaugh, Printemps Closed Coil to the right of the maze, Knights Bridge that looks like a checkerboard and Flux Tangle that looks like a leaf stem.  I filled the area in between the tangles either with solid black or with tiny circles.  
I made this first one during my lunch hour at work - and I can't tell you how excited I was when I was done -  it has so much dimension IRL - the photo flattens it a bit in comparison -  I hope you can feel the 3D of it a little bit.
There are hundreds of Tangles - but since I'm a newbie - I just used the ones Beckah taught us!  Here are two more that I made last night sitting in front of TV.  You start by drawing the outside shape with a pencil.  Then you just start filling in the space.  I don't really have a plan when I start, I just start drawing Tangles!
 For my third Zentangle - I drew a square frame to start.  When you have filled your shape with Tangles you then shade the designs with a pencil and blend the pencil lines with a paper blending stub. 
I'm going to layer these to black cardstock - and will look for some pretty frames to put them in.
 Happy weekend everyone!  It's a long one for me - we have Martin Luther King day off on Monday!
Supplies:  
3 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of a Fabriano paper  (you can use any kind of paper you want - some are just better to draw on - so try out what you have. The official Zentangle paper is Tiepolo by Fabriano a 240 lb printing paper ,  I had some Fabriano blank notecards in my stash - so I cut that to size and used that)
01 Black Micron Pen
Pencil
paper Blending Stub

7 comments:

Mona Pendleton said...

Fantastic zentangles Julia! You did an amazing job! This is one art form I haven't tackled as of yet! Thanks for the inspiration!

Loll said...

So very cool! I haven't tried this myself, but it looks like fun and it would be very peaceful filling in all the areas. Great job and I hope you'll post a picture once you have them framed. xx

Vicki Dutcher said...

Yet ANOTHER ABC you rock at. This are fabulous - that 3rd one definitely has definition!! I have tried this......... I'll stick with my CAS cards ;)

Words and Pictures said...

I always enjoy it when I see it - and these are fabulous examples - but no, I've never Zentangled, unless you count the doodling I used to do during Economics lessons nearly 30 years ago - filling whole pages with endless tree rings inside variously shaped loops and bubbles, and then colouring in alternate rings... we didn't call it Zentangling then, that's all!
Alison xx

Redanne said...

Wow Julia, you really are a natural at Zentangle! All three pieces are fantastic - how clever are you! Like Alison, I just love it when I see it but apart from the odd doodle I have not tried it seriously. I must go and watch the video now! I really hope you have a great long weekend! Hugs, Anne xx

Mary Marsh said...

these are all so impressive Julia-they definitely should be framed

Deb said...

Wonderful Julia! I've never done a 'formal' zentangle using their proscribed forms, just doodles for fun :O) Deb xo