Angles. Apparently, I‘m being drawn to angles and straight lines as opposed to curves. It‘s interesting that I tend to fill those angles with softer, rounder patterns fairly often! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Aah Antidots Apollonian Waves Ballot Beedz Bulb Lantern Buttercup Jonqal Nymph

Red. I recently saw a Zentangle tile that someone in a Facebook group had drawn in red. That was the first time that I‘ve seen a completely red tile. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try my own. Shading with regular pencil looks a little strange, so I decided to try a red colored pencil. I chose a color that was a bit darker, and I think it worked very well.

Arches. Umble is almost like a rounded Hollibaugh, with the arches over and under each other. I chose to make them appear as if the ones in front were growing out of the cardstock. This give them much more depth. Because of the black card stock, there is no “shading” to speak of. Rather, I added highlights instead. Zentangle drawn on black, textured cardstock using a white, Pilot, Juice up, 04 pen.

Meditation. I didn‘t want to do anything complicated, or that took a lot of thinking when I created this Zentangle. I just wanted to zone out and draw. The simple patterns are great for meditative tangling. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum tile using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Cadent Insydout Kule Munchin

Divided. The string used for this tile had multiple spaces that allowed for quite a few tangles. I tried to place the random patterns in an interesting way. But looking at it all these years later, it feels like this one needs some stronger contrasts. It‘s a bit too even. Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen. Tangles: Ammon Cogwheel Dex Flukes Huggins Hurry Ibex Sampson Sedgling Swarm

Walking weird. Today‘s tangle is brought to you by the letter “W”, for “weird”. The random tangles for this tile were a really eclectic mixture of wild, crazy, and fun. I actually love Caviar and Nekton. Even though I didn‘t think these would all work together, it turned out OK in the end. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Aah Caviar Coral Lava Juice Molygon Nekton Winkbee

Daily Zen 2017040301

Experimental. This paper is from the same package as the tan I used for yesterday‘s drawing. I like the color, but it turned out to be rather difficult to tangle on. I ended up using metallic and glitter gel pens. Unfortunately, they don‘t show up well on the image here, but it really does look a bit better in person. Zentangle drawn on cocolate cardstock using metallic Pentel Slicci gel pens, Kaiser metallic and glitter gel pens, and Zig Wink of Stella glitter pens.

Antique. I‘ve had this cardstock for a while, and really wanted to try tangling on it. When I tried it with the Micron pen, though, it didn‘t work out. The ink bled into the paper. So I went through my stash and came up with these very fine gel pens made by Pentel.The Slicci pens come in basic colors and also some very nice metallics. I often see them at Hobby Lobby.

Silly. There are days to be serious and days to be silly. I had already drawn a “normal” Zentangle on this day, and felt like doing a second. Apparently, silly comes the second time around! Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Doodle Bugs Scrolled Feather Springkle

Echoes. I think the multiple echoes that tie up this tile are the tangle and the circular repetitions. The shapes of the Marasu and the Cogwheel echo each other. Putting the Fescu on either side of the center creates balance. Finally having the top and bottom Pinwheels echo provide a nice contrast to the more organic designs. Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using a black, Micron pen.

In this final installment of Marker Madness, I want to talk about storing all those markers I talked about. If you remember from the previous articles, almost all pens and markers should be stored horizontally. This is particularly important for double-ended markers to insure a good flow of ink to both nibs. The first option that is sometimes available is to store the markers in the container they came in.

Many. There are a lot of tangles on this tile. That‘s because I used a string that had many “sections”. But I think it still works because I repeated a couple of the designs and also used a central, bold tangle. Those framed and anchored the whole thing. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Afterglow Coil coral Seeds Floating disks Gingham Hurry Mooka Papyrus Sand Swirl

It‘s a star. The string in this tangle started out as a star and then warped into what you see here after the random tangles were chosen. Zentangle drawn on Strathmore Bristol Vellum using a black Micron pen. Tangles: Baton Carrés Circfleur Diva Dance Floo Munchin Nzeppel OOF Pearlz Prestwood Stiritup

Many artists and crafters have not heard of the Too company. It began in 1919 as the Izumiya Art Supply Store in Shibuya, Tokyo. In 1950, they incorporated as the Izumiya Limited Company and in 1965 began exporting art supplies to Europe and the U.S. The Magic Marker Corporation of Japan was established in 1968 as a joint venture with Magic Marker Corporation in the U.S. The COPIC design marker was developed in 1987.

Browns. I wanted to experiment with different tonal values. Since Micron makes two different brown pens, I though combining those with black would be interesting. I shaded this tile with brown colored pencils. Zentangle drawn on Official Zentangle tile using brown, sepia and black Micron pens. Tangles: Centipede Flora Isochor Lacy Locar Purk Ripple Shattuck