Zentangle Happenings

In addition to my November challenge tiles, I've been doing other Zentangle practices.

I had an influx of followers on my FB page, Yankee Tangler, and so drew up this little primer quickly to help them jump right in.

I made this after finishing Eni Oken's Tangled Letters; it follows the same process even though it's a peace sign.  I added the pencil Sandswirl in the background for added texture.

I made this after my uncle died, as my family drew together to celebrate his life.

And this was for my mother-in-law on the day of her recent eye surgery.

This is a tile that I'd started weeks ago and with which I was displeased.  But I saved it to try again.  No mistakes!

I bought some new gray brush pens, Sakura Koi.  I'm trying them instead of graphite; they give me more control.

Here's the completed tile, with a rainbow from my prism cast upon it.

And finally, I had another henna party, this time at a friend's house in honor of another friend who has breast cancer.  We adapted the Indian art form usually practiced by women for weddings to honor our friend and surround her with supportive female friends at this time of challenge and difficulty.  

Here's my hand, which I did (freehand):

And the hands of the women at the party:

Top of the Class

Two recent injuries--a bum knee and, subsequently, a low back spasm--have me doing more from the great comfort of my bed.  I joined Eni Oken's Art Club and have been working my way through several of her classes.  I really liked the classes on tangling letters and words, which can be combined with the shading little details information.  I can't wait to see how these new techniques affect my practice. If you are looking for an easy and relatively affordable way to expand your Zentangle practice, especially if there isn't a CZT nearby, I highly recommend her videos and ebooks.

Here are some pages from my sketchbook as I worked through the lessons.

Shading Tiny Details

Fractalized Tangles

Tangled Words

Tangled Initials

Radial Zendalas

Experiments

It's been a time of exploration and experimentation--of growth--in my Zentangle practice.  I've been trying new techniques, revisiting old ones, taking online workshops, and reading ebooks.  An exciting time for me!

Delft Delights
Marguerite Samana CZT originated the Zentangle style that draws inspiration from Delft tiles.  Her Delft Delights workshop is available on her etsy site and walks learners through using various blue pens and pencils to create a few specific projects.  I borrowed the general idea and experimented with my tiles.  I don't often use color but, as an art historian, I appreciate the style of these tiles.

Radial Blossoms
I really like Eni Oken's various videos and ebooks and have taken a few of them, including "Radial Blossoms."  This course draws upon Oken's Zentangle taxonomy, which includes categories like filler, grid, vine, and blossom.  Radial blossoms utilize different tangles to create centralized, relatively symmetrical tiles--vine-, feather-, and flower-like tangles are the arms while grid and filler tangles occupy the space between them.

My favorite, with mooka and tri-bee

Several together, many based on Eni Oken's video.

More Zendalas/Radials/Petals
I must be having a Zendala/radial symmetry/petals/blossoms thing, because I've been playing a lot with swirling forms with a central point.

Twisted Rope
This technique or tangle of twisted lines come from Eni Oken CZT.  The resulting ribbon looks complicated but is relatively easy to learn as long as you stay focused.  I imagine you could make any letter of the alphabet with it.

"Tranzending"
Tranzending is the new technique from Zentangle HQ, which overlays one tangle on top of the other. The secret is in the highlighting, which I'm still practicing.

Here I added shattuck on top of printemps and pokeleaf.

Nipa on top of a betweed-like star, with drops added after.

Dewdrops
Dewdrops are an original Zentangle "Tanglenhancer" that I'd never practiced.  For the best droplets, you have to know you're going to include them and put down the orb first.  I experimented with adding them towards the end, a la "Tranzending," but can't get the highlighting to my liking (see above.)

Droplet orbs were included in the string.  They are similar to Zen Gems.

Dewdrops gone wrong become gold orbs.

One String, Many Tiles
And then, continuing my radial obessesion and also inspired by the pattern on a neighbor's outdoor table, I have recently created several tiles using the same string (though I just put the string down in pen, not pencil.)  Yep, kinda like a Zendala.  The result is very Zendala-like and quite versatile.  I don't think I've finished with the string yet.  Especially because I've decided to lighten my shading somewhat, which you can see in the suite of tiles I did.

"Spoken"
A tangle that radiates from a central point, this is like a bicycle wheel.  Since I'm still having a radial/Zendala thing going on, I enjoyed playing with spoken.

Minis

My inspiration for these greeting-card tiles with tiny tangles comes from Beth Malley CZT, who has done numerous little cakes herself.  Her work is so fine and light and I tried to capture that here.

Hope

The idea of hope has been on my mind a lot lately.  Numerous people in my immediate and extended circles are in need of hope--friends with cancer, friends whose loved ones have cancer, friends who have suffered major losses, and all my hospice patients.  Hope is one of those concepts which has grown more important to me with time.  It's not just big hopes--hopes for cures, hope for miracles--but smaller ones, like hope for a good day or relief or patience. 

Happy tangling!

Rounding the Bend

As an art historian, I spent a lot of time studying and contemplating the concept of style, particularly comparing "isms" and learning the hallmarks of an artist's own hand and how it changed.  You know, Impressionism vs. Post-Impressionism, early Monet vs. late Monet.

I hadn't given much thought to Zentangle styles until recently--some CZTs prefer a lot of three dimensionality, some like a lot of shading, some are very precise, while some are more organic.  What did I like?  I like organic tangles more than precise, grid-like ones.  I don't like too much shading and only some 3-D (I don't need them to look "real.")  So where does that leave me?

After watching a recent Kitchen Table Tangles video from Maria and Rick, Zentangle founders--and I highly recommend it--I started giving more thought to my style.  I liked Maria's broken, imprecise lines (and how she creates little decorative "dingbatz.") She utilizes rounding, which is one of the official Zentangle "Tanglenhancers." See above, even in the thumbnail, where she rounds (darkens) the corners of the rectangular dingbatz and the corners of the mooka tangle? I like the effect.

I started paying more attention to my lines and came across Eni Oken's tutorial on line weight and rounding.  She's an artist and CZT with an array of useful and beautiful ebooks and video tutorials on shading, Zen Gems, and other technqiues.  I won't rehash the video here--you can purchase her tutorial for a small fee--but I really liked her discussions of adding substance to lines and forms.

Here are some of my efforts (with mediocre photos taken inside on a rainy day):

And to make it really clearly, a single progression from beginning to end.  I still need to work on my technique (some of the rounding and thickening is a little too jagged), but it's an intriguing exercise.

Plain tangles

Wtih rounding and weighted lines a la Eni Oken

Finished tile with shading

Something about this change of style seems to add weightiness to my tiles, literally and figuratively.  The tiles seem more "serious," not quite as whimsical.  Perhaps a little dark.  I'm going to try to balance it a little bit.  But I do like the possibilities.