Inside. She had passed through, to the other side of the barrier, beyond the stars. She could still see it in the distance. Now, she was confronted with the inner realms. She could see the stations, clustered together, ahead. Perhaps the structures connecting them also lead to others. I decided to try my hand at creating a “regular” Zentangle, but using a black tile and white ink. This went through various stages of working and not working and then back to working again!
I chose a fairly simple tangle, Chard, for this tile so that I could do some experimentation. I’m at the point, working with black tiles, where I want to start adding a little bit of color. It’s kind of tricky because I want the color to show up, and not be muted. So for this tile, I’ve added a bit of white, first, and then put the color over it.
This monotangle Zendala is from Project Pack 1. In the video , Molly tells us that the pre-strung zendala in each pack was chosen at random, so there were several different designs. I didn’t have a pre-strung tile, so I copied the string from the tile at the beginning of the video. This is the second Zendala tile that I’ve drawn on. For this one, the bigger size didn’t bother me.
This duotangle, done on a larger, apprentice-sized tile is from the 12 Days of Zentangle, Project Pack 2. For this tile, Martha instructs us in the video to draw a larger version of Paradox, which we are using as a reticula, and then filling it with Marasu fragments. I found this very easy and relaxing to do, and I really enjoyed adding the shading and highlights. I think I’m starting to have fun doing black tiles!
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.
If you saw my New Year's post , then you know that I have challenged myself to work on black tiles more frequently this year. I want to develop techniques and find the materials that work for me. For that reason, for every challenge or lesson from Eni or any other artist, I am making a black tile for the theme as well as a normal one. To that end, this is my black tile from Eni’s Zentangle Basics lesson.
Here is Irradial done on a black tile, with a bit of fractalization. Again, I wanted to keep the string simple so that I could just enjoy drawing the tangle. I also wanted to experiment with using Copic markers to shade around each section. It didn’t quite get as dark as I wanted, so then I added black charcoal pencil around the borders and at the center line for each section.
This is my first, official, 3Z (triangular shaped) Zentangle. These tiles are 3-1/2 inches on a side. That makes the overall drawing area smaller than a standard tile. I did this following the video here , for Project Pack 1. I’m beginning to warm up to these black tiles. I found doing this one fun! Part of it is the design. It was easy, calming, and I really love the results!
When you are learning to tangle, Crescent Moon is one of the first that you learn. It teaches the concept of creating an “aura” near something that has already been drawn. Auras are frequently used to build repeating designs or to add emphasis or separation. This Zentangle is from Project Pack 1. Zentangle drawn on a black, Official Zentangle tile using three different sizes of white, Sakura gel pens. Highlighting done with white charcoal pencil.