ZenSnacks: Fragments V2 W7 X6 X7
When I don’t have a lot of time, or my attention span is having issues, but I still want to tangle, I turn to Bijou tiles. These small, two-inch square tiles allow me to complete something in a much shorter period of time. I refer to these as “ZenSnacks”.
I frequently use Bijou tiles to tangle a small amount of a particular tangle, along with it’s name, that I keep in an index I can browse through to look for a particular tangle I can’t remember the name of.
The inspiration for this tile came from Pere Cobo CZT . He is an amazing tangler and human being. He uses Zentangle to help homeless children at the Dar Chabab day center in Catalunya, Spain.
He has a very special style, part outer space, part interdimensional universes and part video game graphics. He has created many tangles that he uses when tangling and many interesting tangelations of common tangles.
He recently posted a tile he created that was really interesting and encouraged others on the Mosaic app to give it a try.
I was thinking about creating a Monotangle of some kind for every tangle that I know. I think they would be a good reference for teaching. So I selected a tangle at random, which turned out to be Puf and started on my tile.
This is the result.
During the time I was tangling, I had numerous interruptions, not the least of which was having dental surgery to remove a molar!
Chosen tangles, no string.
This tile is influenced by the Nightmare Before Christmas.
Last month, I did the InktoberTangles challenge. That didn’t give me the opportunity to create a fun, Halloween-style tile. So, I decided to do it now.
I love creepy-cute and Halloween. I’ve created art journals on this theme, and I’ve done a few tiles in the past, which you can see here . If you look through the Zentangle Gallery on this site, you can probably find more that fit this theme.
No string, Random Tangles, and Printemps.
This tile was driven by the first tangle in the random selection which was Yin-Yang Leaf. I immediately decided to make several quite large in a cluster at the bottom, right of the tile.
The second tangle selected for me was Purlbox. I was happy about that one because I thought the dark areas of the tangle would hold up well with the dark areas on the leaves.
Trikl is a very new tangle from Zentangle. A step-out from them has not been released yet, but the tangle was taught at the latest CZT seminar. If you check your favorite video platform, you can probably find an instructional video to follow along with.
This is a curvy, botanical-ish tangle that can while and wend around your tile, depending on what size you choose to make it. It is even possible to make a radial version with multiple “arms”.
Inktober Tangles - Day 31 - Idoz by Zentangle
Idoz is a botanical, leaf or blossom shaped tangle. It is unique in that the center is a grouping of overlapped petal shapes, instead of having a clear, defined center point.
The “petals” can be plain or decorated. I’ve often seen it as if they were actually seed pods, with an opening in the center showing the orbs of the seeds.
Inktober Tangles - Day 30 - Bownus by Angie Gittles CZT
Bownus is a lovely, curvy tangle that results in a realistic bow design. While the end result looks complex, it is actually really easy to draw.
I chose to “wrap” my tile as if it was a gift, placing a double bow off-center towards the lower right quadrant. I kept the decorations simple and elegant, allowing the actual shape of the bow stand out.
Inktober Tangles - Day 29 - Poke Heart by Henriëtte Robben CZT
Poke Heart is a lovely, flowing botannical tangle that can be used as a fill, ribbon, border, or vine. It offers lots of tangling possibilities.
I chose to create some growing plants of Poke Hearts. As I looked at my tile, I felt like my leaves looked a lot like wings, so I gave flight to 3 interations, just for fun!
Inktober Tangles - Day 28 - Quandry by Zentangle
Quandry is a tangle that has been around for a long time. It uses small rice shapes arranged in adjacent triangles to make up larger, hexigonal shapes.
This tangle looks deciptively simple, but it actually works well for meditation because of the concentration required to keep things lined up! But don’t worry, if it gets wonky, it’s charming!
I kept my design very simple. I didn’t fill the tile completely, but I used an irregular shape to keep it interesting.
Inktober Tangles - Day 27 - Yeed by Midori Furuhashi CZT
Yeed is a lovely geometric tangle with a curved, rice shape in the center of each section. It can be used as a border or a medallion. Variation can be added by adding other tangles in the sections.
I chose to place it as a border all around the edge of the tile, and surrounding a central medallion.
Inktober Tangles - Day 26 - Owlpeek by Susan Yeo CZT
Owlpeek is an interesting tangle that, depending on how you look at it, looks a bit like a stylized owl.
Susan has a couple of examples on her Instagram account of using this tangle as a string! So, I chose to do that here. So although the tangle itself is not use as a design element… it is the entire string. One iteration is drawn to fill the tile, and then the spaces are filled in with other tangles. Keep in mind that this tangle can be flipped upside down, and it will still look the same.
Inktober Tangles - Day 25 - Ing by Zentangle
Ing is a geometric tangle that is very easy to draw. It looks a bit like a folded paper drinking straw cover or a little like a lightning bolt.
I’ve used it in it’s plain, undecorated form many times. But here, I’ve added three decorated companions to the plain version.
This tangle works well as a dividing line between other patterns on a tile. It can also be “bent” around to create either a rectangular or circular border. You could do several iterations all radiating from a center point to create a medallion.
Inktober Tangles - Day 23 - Letterish by Jody Genovese CZT
Letterish was originally designed to look like letters… almost. However, it has also been adapted to actually BE letters, but in an interesting, 60’s vibe way!
Being an old hippie, I couldn’t resist creating my own take on this. Some icons are actually letters, some are icons.
Can you figure out what it says? If your not sure, log into the Mosaic app and look for this tile.
Inktober Tangles - Day 23 - Qurtuba by Avida Rico Mon CZT
Qurtuba is an interesting swirling tangle that can be used as a border or individual elements. It takes a bit of practice, but it is actually easier than it looks.
I chose to draw it as a ribbon, diagonally across the center of my tile. I added two elements to the opposite corners.
After looking at it for a bit, I decided I needed something in the background, but I didn’t want that tangle to overwhelm the main theme, so I chose Crazy ‘Nzeppel and I used a light grey pen.
Inktober Tangles - Day 22 - Shattuck by Zentangle
I love Shattuck! It can be drawn “curved” or “straight” as you can see in these examples . There are many examples because I’ve used it quite a bit over the years! I think that the curved version is the most common.
You can also create decorative version by adding perfs, dots or orbs to lined areas and I sure you can think of even more ways to put your own spin on this tangle.
Inktober Tangles - Day 21 - Butria by Ute Andresen CZT
Butria is a relatively simple, beautiful tangle that produces a winged butterfly shape.
This tangle is not difficult to draw and provides lots of space for adding enhancements. You can even fill the wing shapes with other tangles if you wish.
This tangle can be used as a central motif, individual free-floating designs or even to fill corners of frame or tile.
Inktober Tangles - Day 20 - Kangular by Tomàs Padrós CZT
Kangular is a geometric tangle that can be used as a border or medallion. I can also see it in a grid, although I have not explored that here.
I began this tile by drawing the medallions. It was fun figuring out variations on the theme.
Then I thought I would put a border at the top and bottom of the tile. At that point, I think my brain went out to lunch without me. I started having problems drawing my lines evenly spaced, and then had issues making them straight. Things just didn’t line up.
Inktober Tangles - Day 19 - Mrth by Zentangle
For this version of Mrth, I’ve used the Pangea Reticula, which is based on an irregular shape with rounded corners. If you are familiar with drawing Tripoli, where you aura a side of the previous triangle, this reticula is similar. After placing the first shape, you aura part of it while creating the next shape.
While this reticula is what I see most often, when Mrth is drawn, it doesn’t have to be. You could just as readily use a circle, square or triangle. I’ve seen all of those used.
Inktober Tangles - Day 18 - Middleton by Yu Ru Chen
Middleton is a very geometric tangle that is created in a square frame.
I chose to make this as a grid tangle, rotating the square in different directions to create a symetrical pattern.
To start, I drew a 4x4 grid string with my pencil. I find dividing the tile into four sections pretty easy, since you can start in the center of an edge, and then divide up each side.