Note: Some of the inks used did not scan well. There are silver and copper dots which here, appear to be orange and white. There are a lot of differences in composition when you work on a rectangular piece, as compared to a square. However, this one works on either. The only difference is that I like it better with a horizontal emphasis. On the square version, I liked it better with a vertical emphasis.
This is my first Zentangle created on a new grey Zentangle tile. This new color was just released by the company this week. The color is a soft, light grey, that looks good with the entire range of Zentangle tools. I love having a grey tile because it allows me to add both shading and highlights for a full range of values. Right now, you can get the tiles in various sizes from your local CZT.
Last Monday, I wrote a post about my New Zentangle Voyagers class. This is a set of 3 classes that I am teaching at cARTel Studio. The same students are in each class. This week, the students learned about drawing on black tiles. They did a monotangle on a black Bijou tile. The second project was this Crazy Huggins, with tangles in each hug-shape. The third project was a 3-dimensional stand they can use to display a tile on their desk at work or home.
Crazy Huggins is a tangle that I often turn to when I’m not sure what to do. It’s fun to draw, has a wonderful, meditative rhythm and allows for all different kinds of variation. I recently did a version of regular Huggins on a black tile, with no extra embellishment that you can compare to this one by clicking on the link. If you want to see even more examples, going all the way back to 2017, click here .
This tile is the result of an ongoing challenge (#TangleTagCZT30) on the Zentangle Mosaic app . Each person is to create a tile using all of the tangles that came from previous CZTs in the chain, and add one more of their own choosing. There were seven people in the chain when I was tagged. I’ve added the eighth tangle, Zailz. I found this interesting, and very challenging. This was a lot of different tangles to try and fit on a single Zentangle and still have anything that wasn’t total chaos!
Velvet Elvis. This odd-shaped tile is totally experimental. A couple of months ago, my older daughter came for a visit. One of the things we did while she was here involved using Oxide Distress Ink on scraps of black card stock. Besides just having fun, we were trying to see if the inks would work on black, since they contain white pigment under the dye ink. I had a couple dozen scraps of 4" x 3" paper, and we inked most of them.
Interwoven. Everything in their lives was interwoven. No single thing could exist without the other. Each element fed the whole. Crazy Huggins is a wonderful example of single elements combining to make a complete design. In this version, I used a fair amount of shading to add additional dimension to each decorated section. I also used a heavier line weight around the outside to define each section and a finer width pen for the decorative elements.
For my final Crazy Huggins sampler, I cut a large, apprentice-sized tile from a new paper I got recently. I filled the tile with Crazy Huggins shapes, then filled each element with another tangle. Somewhere along the line, the design developed a mind of its own, and decided not to be symmetrical anymore. But, honestly, I think that just made it “interesting!” This tile took quite a while to complete.
The concept for this tile is from the Zentangle Project Pack 1 series. This time we’re drawing on an Apprentice tile. Since I don’t have any, I cut an appropriately sized tile from black paper. In this video , Molly takes us through the steps of creating a large version of Crazy Huggins and then filling each element with another tangle. The fills alternate between Crazy ‘Nzeppel and Shattuck, depending on the direction of the Huggins element.
Ships. As she looked back at the gate, she saw the others had followed her into this new dimension. She wasn’t sure if they were friends or enemies, but it didn’t matter at this point. They were all here, now, and there was no going back. I decided to try a couple more radial blossoms and continue the story from the first one, here . I also used reticula patterns in-between the arms of the lower, Ix blossom.
All wrapped around. I love Crazy Huggins. It can go every which way or be tamed with symmetry. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using brown Pigma Micron pen. Coloring done with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Polychromos colored pencils. Highlights and other markings done with various gel pens. Tangles: Crazy Huggins
Meandering. Several of the tangles in this tile decided to meander around and about on thier own, creating some interesting interactions! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Berries & Leaves Bumper Crazy Huggins Jay Six Pais