On Sunday, April 8, 2018, the home of Certified Zentangle Teacher, Cris Strovilas Letourneau, burned to the ground. Not only did Chris lose her home and everything in it. Her husband also perished. Chris has been a major contributor to the Zentangle community. She is the autor of Made in the Shade, a Zentangle Workbook, and coauthor of Pattern Play: a Zentangle Creativity Boost (Volume 1), both of which are available from Amazon.

I look at this tile and I see many things. From a layer of stones arranged as the floor of a patio to stretched out Cat’s Cradles or perhaps a section of lace. Maybe I’m looking at some sort of atomic level structure under the microscope. Who knows what it is? Crazy N’Zepple works as a fill for sections in a design or as a full design in it’s own right.

Jumble. Others always wondered at how so much cargo could come out of such a tiny ship. They just didn’t understand. She’d captured so many universes in her travels. And now she could store infinite amounts in each one. All she had to do is make sure they traveled together! It has always fascinated me how shading opens up, raises, or pushes back sections of tangles on a tile.

This Zentangle is brought to you today by Thomàs Pádro. He has named this one Pickpocket. I’ve actually done a slight variation here. Instead of straight lines, I’ve chosen to curve mine a bit. I think it softens the design, making it a little less rigid and a little more feminine. I also chose to make it appear as if two different kind of materials were woven together by adding the grey auras to every other section instead of all of them.

Squashed together. This is a tangle that, until yesterday, I really didn’t like very much. When I pulled it from the tangle jar, I just kind of plopped it into my tile as a type of medallion, because I really didn’t know what to do with it. Then I watched this video from Helen Williams. Her blog is A Little Lime, and has lots of interesting tangle related information!

Armed. As she looked into the tank, she could see that these creatures had some kind of appendages that sort of sproinged out of their bodies. They ranged in all sizes from teeny tiny to so large she couldn’t even see the body in the murk. It looked as if the smaller ones became entwined in the larger as they grew. But wouldn’t these prisoners become a burden over time?

Aquarium. Even though there was little free liquid on this planet, it was the home to the Celestial Aquarium. Her crew had just brought in a new specimen for display. As they completed the delivery, she decided to take advantage of the situation and walked off to see all the creatures from this part of the cosmos for herself. Some were so odd, she didn’t even recognize them as life forms.

Miss Bunny. I’m sure you know that even though I do a lot of tangling, I also do other kinds of art. For examples of another kind, you can look at the Art Journal Pages gallery. One of my favorite things to do is cut up printed or painted (or stamped!) paper into shapes and make pictures out of it. So I decided to indulge in a couple of my loves to creat and easter card!

Paths. She walked through the garden, following the path to gate. Nothing was in bloom yet, although she could see the buds just starting in some places. Some of the bushes were pruned into interesting shapes, mirroring the owners logos. The larger plantings were still wild and unkempt, not yet ready for the party. I always find it amusing when a tangle that I use a lot comes out of the jar.

Tradition. We all enjoy learning new things, pushing boundaries and growing in our art. But we shouldn’t forget where we came from in the process. To keep with the original tradition of Zentangle, I have used the die and legend that came with my new Zentangle Kit to select the tangles that I used for this tile. I chose them one at a time, filling in a section before rolling for the next.

Cargo. The hold was full. There were so many interesting, unique things she was bringing back from all the planetary markets. Her favorite, though was the star-egg. They told her when it hatched, a new universe would be born! It would be such an exciting thing to see. She was planning on putting on an exhibition and charging people to view it. Some times, the craziest combination of tangles comes out of the tangle jar.

I love creating Zentangles that offer optical illusions. This tile, for example is actually just Cadent with a square in the middle of it. But after the echo lines are drawn around the inside of each, you can’t tell where one begins and the other ends! And those simple white squares are magically lifted right up towards you in the design. Shading just further enhances the effect. This concept came from a video recently added to the Zentangle Mosaic app.

Bones. Their culture was built on the bones of their ancestors. The believed these relics spoke to them, leading them towards the future without forgetting their past. This is another tile celebrating and exploring fragments. This is B2 from the Zentangle Primer. I ended up not putting the second set of lines inside each shape and just let the color define the areas. I chose to stop because it looked so much like a grid of bones.

Folds. They were all folded to catch the rays of the overhead light. The sole purpose was to attract the customers, drawing them in with bright colors and patterns. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Arukas Black Box Drack Kuke Rain

I’m still working my way through the various fragments in the Zentangle Primer. For this exercise, I chose K14. This is another very geometric fragment, and it is like Emingle, except triangular. I actually drew it twice in each triangle, once in blue-black and then again in blue. By shading it with blue pencil it was possible to create another star-like pattern. I find these very relaxing to do.