June 28 Zentangle 1 class

A small but enthusiastic group of tanglers assembled for Zentangle 1 today at The Urban Art Retreat and Studio. Each came with her own artistic capabilities and put her special "spin" on the tangles. I will never lose the sense of wonder and amazement I feel when I see all the students' tiles arranged together. Same tangles, different interpretations. That's part of the beauty of Zentangle.

When black pens fade

Sooner or later (Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas of Zentangle think it's 32 tiles later) your Sakura pen will start to fade and finally run out of ink. My experience is that by that time the patented tip is also not delivering a steady line. Do you keep on drawing until it really does run out of ink or is there another strategy?

When I notice that the line isn't full of ink or the tip seems to be giving me a blotchy line, I identify it with a piece of black electrical tape near the end opposite the tip. I use these pens, instead of the ones that are working well, to fill in large black areas. Yes, it takes a bit more time to coax the ink out of a fading pen, but at least I'm not prematurely wearing out a new pen.

Zentangle class at OLLI College for Seniors at UNCA, June 2014

Yesterday was the second of two classes in a Zentangle course at the College for Seniors at UNC Asheville. Lots of good questions and some challenging work with triangles. 

I think triangle tangles such as Rick's Paradox in particular are very challenging--especially when there are multiple triangles next to each other--because they can become visually confusing. I also think that we're accustomed to working with squares and circles but not with triangles.

So here's a suggestion for learning Rick's Paradox: on a plain piece of paper, practice doing multiple solo triangles to get the hang of how it works. When you incorporate it into work on a tile, do only one Rick's Paradox tangle. Then try two next to each other. Also look online at sources such as this post (listed as "Paradox") on tanglepatterns.com which has links to posts on the Zentangle.com website to see the marvelous ways that multiples of this tangle can work out.

And keep working with triangles. They might even beat Sudoku for a brain workout!

Here are the two mosaics from this wonderful group of tanglers.

Practicing the familiar

Over time I've been working my way through my CZT resources in order to practice all the tangles, not just the ones I'm familiar with. When I find one that I just can't seem to do "right," I endeavor to practice it repeatedly, perhaps a section of it at a time, until it turns out as close to "the standard" as possible. (In Zentangle(R),  there really is no right way to draw a tangle. Sometimes, "mistakes" lead to new tangles!)

On the other hand, why should I abandon the familiar Crescent moon tangle for a more "difficult" one like Fengle? I've thought of a variety of ways to practice Crescent moon and delve into its potential tangleations (see my Zentangle terminology page):

• Larger moons
• Wavy auras
• Designs within the moons
• More space between the moons with more auras

What does this sort of practice do for me? It dips into my creative well. When I do that, I find that more options appear than I originally envisioned. And I can see how I could apply some of these options to other tangles. 

Try expanding your knowledge of your favorite tangle by drawing your own tangleations of it.

May 31 Zentangle 2 class

A VERY enthusiastic group of Zentangle 1 graduates dived into working with white pencil and ink on black tiles. It takes a certain shift of the brain to move out of our usual black on white world into the white on black world. Everything is new: the paper (not the same manufacturer and type as the white paper), the white Gelly Roll pen, and the white charcoal pencil.

On their first tile, they reviewed the tangles from Zentangle 1.

Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, and Tortuca

All mini masterpieces for sure! Then they tried three new tangles.

Vega, 'Nzeppel, and Printemps

As an added bonus, I gave them another black tile and the step-outs for Lynn Mead's tangle, Fassett (available on Tanglepatterns.com). This tangle is so fun to work with, especially in white on black, because of the many variations Lynn provides and all the variations YOU can think of, also. Give it a try!!