This week's focus is on Organic, by Sayantika Ray. This was actually the very first tangle I ever tried, when I discovered Zentangle back in August. Can't believe that was only four months ago! I've never used this tangle on a tile before, so was keen to have a go. It makes a lovely border, and I wanted to keep the organic theme with Poke leaf and Toodles. I've seen the starry sky done before, in a similar style, but hope this is more homage than copy!
In the Zentangle YouTube demo this was two 3Z triangular tiles stuck together, but I just drew a star outline on a piece of paper before starting the Auraknot. Then it was a straight copy of the demo - Pokeleaf first, then Scena filling in the background. Finished off with gold gelly roll on the Auraknot border, and some shading.
Took a while to get round to doing day 1! This has four variations on original tangles, demonstrated by the Zentangle guys.
A cute little crown on a Bijou-sized tile (2" square). Add a ribbon and it can be attached to things like bottles 😀
This was demonstrated in the Zentangle video on the larger black Apprentice tiles, with Paradox as the reticula, or framework, and Striping filling the triangular sections of Paradox. I stuck with the regular black tiles, and used Paradox but filled it with Tripoli (with a bit more Paradox in the centre). Finished off with a touch of white charcoal shading.
This was a slightly more involved creation, and I chose to pretty much copy the version in the video by Rick and Maria. It starts off with a white tile, with poke root emerging from the corners, clasped by gold bands. Tripoli then fits in 'underneath', in the centre circle. A hole is then cut in a black tile, and flux decorates the outside, in white gel pen, with a circle of gold orbs around the centre. To finish, cuts are made along the edges of the gold bands, and the black tile folded so it can be inserted into the white tile.
This year's '12 Days of Zentangle' sees Rick and Maria taking a trip down the memory lane of Zentangle. I don't think I'll have time to follow along every day, but I couldn't resist having a go at new tangle Rumpus. This also uses the 'enthatching' shading technique described by Maria, to give texture and shine to the 'petals'.
Mine is on a standard square tile, rather than the Zendala used in the video from Rick and Maria. White tile with black and brown micron, with red prismacolour pencils to fill.
This week's 'purely zentangle' focus is Sea Wave, by Ginny Lu. I couldn't resist pairing it with Indyrellas, which look like little fish, and Diva Dance and Msst to finish. It's probably a bit more ZIA than pure Zentangle, but never mind!
This week's 'One' focus is on the tangle Hypnotic. I've seen so many fantastic examples and tangelations on the Facebook page I really wanted to try a tangelation of my own. I didn't think I'd seen any versions with Tripoli, so gave it a go. Paradox fitted nicely in the corners, and I squeezed another Hypnotic in the middle of these. Finished it off with a tangelation of Printemps with Hypnotic too. Here it is in progress - basic pattern finished, then with some extra shading in pen, then with the graphite shading.
I'm starting to work my way through another birthday present, the 'one zentangle a day' book. The book is structured as one lesson a day, for four weeks, with daily tangles to practice, followed by a tile using the tangles learnt so far. I'm not quite managing one a day, but it's good getting back to basics, just concentrating on the patterns and the process, rather than trying to plan too much. Here are some from the first week.
Discovered the other day that the moonlight gelly roll pens fluorescent under UV light! After purchasing a new UV torch I did a fairly quick tile to try it out. They definitely glow nicely under UV, but it's really hard to photograph! Not sure if the problem is the camera on the phone not coping with the strange light, or if there's too much white light mixed in with the UV, causing too much reflection on the black tile. It's an interesting effect, anyway - will try out some different photographic techniques.
First photo below is in normal light, second is in UV.
