Tangle Patterns publishes my tangle, PODZ

I'm honored once again that Linda Farmer has published a tangle of mine on her website, Tangle Patterns. 

Here's the link to PODZ. Give it a try and see how many tangleations (variations) you can come up with. Here are some I thought of:

Zentangle as a practice

When I first took up Zentangle(R) in early 2013, I dawdled in it. I'd do a few tiles, then set everything aside for days or weeks, and then come back to it. After taking the Zentangle teacher training and also reading Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, it became clear to me that in order to develop my Zentangle skills and to be able to answer my students' questions about Zentangle that I needed to make it a practice.

By a practice I mean an activity that I delve into deeply, that I do daily. I would like to have a specific time set aside each day for this practice, but, even though I'm retired, I admit that I haven't yet created that specific practice time.

The other thing I learned from Twyla Tharp's book is that all the geniuses of their particular art studied other geniuses. Mozart studied the work of the other composers that preceded him. Twyla Tharp studied the work of other masters of the dance such as George Balanchine. 

So I have taken on my own in-depth study of the work of the Zentangle founders, Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, deconstructing their Zentangles where tangles merge into one another or wrap around each other or where there seem to be no strings. They have many years of experience in Zentangle and I'm a relative beginner but I think there are ways that my Zentangle art can benefit from this study.

Using a notebook

I have a pad of mixed media paper that I use as my Zentangle(R) ideas and practice notebook. My preferred version is the Strathmore(R) Mixed Media wire bound version in 5.5 x 8.5 in. page size. (No, I don't get any compensation from Strathmore for mentioning this.) Mixed media paper takes the ink quite well, although the feel of the pen on the paper does not at all resemble the feel of the pen on Zentangle tiles. The mixed media paper also allows me to work in sepia with a watercolor pencil and dissolve the watercolor for darker shading without warping the paper.

I often use this notebook to practice a tangle that seems very difficult to do--like Quandary was--until I feel that I understand it well enough to draw it on a tile. 

When Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas introduce a new tangle or technique in their Zentangle newsletter or blog, I practice it in my notebook to get my own feel for how to draw it.

And I used this notebook when I was working my way through the exercises in the One Zentangle a Day book by Beckah Krahula.

When I feel comfortable with the tangle or technique, I get out my official Zentangle tiles and make a Zentangle. As I mentioned in an earlier post (Official Zentangle supplies), the Fabriano Tiepolo paper combined with the Sakura Pigma Micron pen brings--for me--a meditative aspect to Zentangle and the practice I did in my notebook flows out from my pen onto the tile.