Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Zentangle

I first tried to Zentangle a year ago, but recently I’ve renewed my interest and have some reasonable results.

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Zentangle is the copywritten name of a system of doodling where you use repeating forms. Their official website is

http://www.zentangle.com/

and they offer classes and sell kits but you can “zentangle” with any kind of pen or pencil and paper. I started with pencils and ball point pens on scrap white paper, but I’ve progressed to using a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen (black – S) and drawing on a Strathmore Sketch Pad. The pad is spiral bound (8.5” x 5.5") so it’s handy to move around with me, I keep it by my computer to sketch while I waiting for a page to load, or to quickly record ideas that I see when browsing blogs. Pigma pens (Sakura Pigma Micron) are also used by many tanglers. I now have 4 different pen tip sizes for different line sizes.

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There is a wealth of information and examples on the internet. Just Google the word “Zentangle” and you will be offered many places to explore, examples, lessons, you-tube videos, Flickr groups, and of course blogs, several of which I have subscribed to for inspiration.

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http://zentangle.blogspot.com/ is published by the creators of the Zentangle system. Of course they are selling their kits and classes, but they also freely share a lot of designs.

There is a strong correlations between free motion quilting designs and zentangle designs, so of course a lot of quilters are attracted to Zentangling. That’s how I stumbled upon Jane Monk’s studio, the first post I read showed a Journal cover she had machine quilted in a Zentangle type design. Her blog is a constant inspiration to me for creating new designs.

A few other places to get you started:

Life Imitates Doodles where the author not only shares her own patterns, but includes links to many other great designs.

How to Zentangle

Beez in the Belfry

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