Speed. Every so often, I like to challenge myself when I tangle. For this tile, I challenged myself to speed up from my regular slow-and-deliberate style. This mostly worked well, except for coloring the Knightsbridge. That was just slow so I wouldn‘t go outside the lines. I also experimented with adding a bit of white highlights. I‘m not sure how I feel about them yet. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Zig Millennium pen.

Drive by. I think the Wheelz are out for a spin in the countryside. They‘ve driven by apartments, farms, a mountain and a river! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Apollonian Waves Bales Emingle Flutter Footprints Jalousie Kitl Wheelz

Bamboo! This tile includes the first tangle I designed: Bamboo. While it‘s not an “official” tangle, it‘s still one of my favorites. It works as a filler or a border. You could even use it as a tangelation with Hollibaugh! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Bamboo Chartz Chillon Echoism Flutter Pie Hollibaugh Nebel Spinners Vega

Tentacles. What interesting creature is lurking behind the bushes in the garden? Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Bubble Love Fescu Flora Lollywimple Plum Leaf

Zen Gem: Rutilated Quartz. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Coloring done with mixed brand gel pens and colored pencils. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Chicken Wire

Winter is coming… Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Coloring done with Zig Real Brush, Crayola and Distress markers. Sakura Soufflé pen, Slicci metallic pen, Atyou Spica pens and glitter glue used for accents. Tangles: Aah Flake

Steam time. I decided to go in a bit of a steampunk direction with this monotangle. I like copper and green together and I‘ve been wanting to do more Zen Gems, so this tile made my artistic soul very happy. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Coloring done with mixed brand colored pencils, Crayon and Distress markers. Shading done with graphite pencil. Tangles: Waybop

How do you grow? I feel like my tangling shovel dug a slice from the garden. Here, I can see the plants reaching for the sun, the soil, seeds and roots! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Fescu Keeko Quabog Quipple Sedgling Umble

Pop! Whenever I see Widgets, the tangle in the center here, I‘m reminded of bubbles popping! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Diva Dance Echoism Quare Screen Swag W-2 Widgets Worms

Love is in the garden. Look at the giant heart-shaped flower that appeared in the garden! The love-bugs are so excited! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Vellum Bristol using a black, Micron pen. Coloring was done with Tombow, Zig, Crayola and Distress markers. Accents were done with Distress and Stablo markers. Tangles:Flee, Mooka, Pais

The process. One of the things about tangling is that it is a meditative process. I focus on each line I draw, and often don‘t have a clear picture of where the over-all design is going. This is particularly true when I select tangles at random, as I did here. Sometimes the over-all design works, and sometimes it doesn‘t. But there are days when the process is what is most important.

Neuron was recently featured as the challenge tangle on a couple of Facebook groups. I didn‘t do this right away, because I wanted to think about how to use the tangle as a string, as I did here. I also wanted to experiment with a few red accents, and I thought the triangles that appear in this design were perfect. I felt the center needed something contrasting, so I chose Nzeppel.

Busy. This tile is from a time when I used complicated strings and lots of tangles. But I think there are some interesting things here, that I‘ve further developed. For example, allowing one tangle to flow behind another. I also followed the string from the Cubine into the Striping. Now days, those concepts are used often when Zentangling, and are specifically taught in classes, tutorials and books! Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.

Release. We cast the net into the sea, tying it down with ribbons to the world above. The new spores floated away to start their transformation. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Florz Quib Rixty

Making brown pop. I‘ve tried tangling on various colored papers over the years, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn‘t. I cut a bunch of tiles from a pad of Saint-Armand Canal paper. They are various earthy, neutral colors. But the problem with the paper is that it is both very rough and very absorbant, so it‘s difficult to work with for Zentangles. But, every so often, I get brave and try it again.