Elemental. This is the first Zendala I have ever drawn. A Zendala is a mandala created using tangles. I have never done one before because I was so worried about it being perfect. However, after watching Eni’s Radial Zendala video, I understand that it was OK to create something that was “perfectly imperfect”. I was still very nervous about tackling this, but I had a concept in mind of creating a Zendala that would represent the basic elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water.

Calm. Where I live, we have monsoon rains in the Summer. Generally, what that means is that, when it rains, it rains hard! There’s lots of wind before and during the storm and also lots of lightning. And it can be almost impossible to sleep. This simple, all-over pattern of Pea-nuckle was created during a real humdinger of a storm late at night! We got over an inch of rain in about an hour.

Lines. I find it interesting how much texture and shape a repetitive group of lines can create! The Zentangle uses three tangles that use lines in various ways. No, it is not your imagination. You really are seeing a small bit of blue and red here. I used a bit of colored, pastel pencil along with the graphite shading in Isochor (red) and Olb (blue). I just wanted to experiment to see what would happend if I tried it.

Ribbons. I have a new go-to tangle that I love: Pea-nuckle. Here, I’ve used it to make sets of curled ribbons. Originally, I didn’t much care for this particular tangle. I often threw it back in the jar when it came up randomly. Not any more, though. I watched Eni Oken’s Art Club video for a different way of drawing this tangle. And now, I love it! I’m also in love with this gray-toned paper!

Night-blooming. To me, this looks like it could be the blossom of some kind of night-blooming cactus! It was kind of wild and crazy before I added the shading and the gold accents. The metallic shimmer added a lot of sophistication. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Chainlea Cobbles Festune Pais

Bridges. While this Zentangle only has three tangles, it becomes more complex by the overlapping of the various components. It’s as if the Quandu are either bridges or barriers to the Waves. Or, perhaps the Waves choose to go over and under? Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Printemps Quandu Waves

Pods. These look like some kind of alien pods. I’m not sure if they are alive or not! Rundel is an interesting tangle. It’s self-contained, shaped a bit like Purk, and doesn’t look all that good when you first draw it. As you can see above, with some additional decoration and shading, it really looks much more interesting. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.

Cornered. She opened the door. “It looks like there is some kind of strange plant growing out of the corner of a psychedelic room here. Perhaps that is a portal on the far wall? See how everything seems to be leaning toward it? We will have to explore. Everyone stay in comm range.” She stepped out onto the floor and instantly disappeared. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen.

There be dragons! This tile is directly inspired by Eni Oken’s Tangled Dragons blogpost. I’ve been wanting to give it a go for quite a while, but just haven’t had time until yesterday. It was a little tricky figuring out how to do the overlapping loops, but I think it worked out well, over all! I think I want to try one with some color next time. Maybe I will try some distress inks with it!

Afterwards. The party is over. They have all gone home. I think I’ll clean up the mess in the morning. To me, this tile looks like party favors or decorations left on the floor when the celebration is long over. The Cruffles look a bit like carpeting and Florz actually looks like tile. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil.

I wear glasses all the time. I put them on when I get up in the morning and I take them off at night, when I go to bed. Recently, however, I’ve realized that my eyes are getting “older” and aren’t working quite as well as I would like. Because of this, I decided to get some specialized eyewear for specific tasks. The first new pair I got was special glasses for working on my computer.

Sticks. Do you know what a Talking Stick is? It comes to us from the Native American Traditions. It was a decorated stick that was used during group council meetings. Whomever was holding the stick had the floor, and was the speaker. They were the only person allowed to talk and could continue until they relinquished control of the stick. As I was drawing these bars decorated with Scute, they kept reminding me of talking sticks!

Rising. She looked into the converter and saw the fuel spheres rising in the waves of super-heated air. She knew she would need all the power possible to make it to the nearest star system before the others caught up with her. There is at least two tangles with the name of Gust that I know of. The one used here is not the Official Zentangle version, but rather the one designed by Sandy Steen Bartholomew.

Spiral. I tried to create a string that would give the feeling of spiraling around. It ended up looking like those Purks are on a wild ride. Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle Tile using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Arrowheads Dex Feathers Paradox Poke-Root Purk Queen's Crown

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.