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 is another fragment experimentation. This time, I used Fragment A13 from the Zentangle Primer. This fragment is similar to the tangle Intersection by Suzanne McNeill. However, when you put them together, next to each other, they create an interesting, interlocking, triangular pattern. I chose to alter that with the shading by trisecting each one, creating a diamond pattern. Again, it’s amazing what optical illusions you can create with simple patterns and shading!
This wonderful tile was created by my daughter. She is my student and protégé! She is such an amazing artist and she loves to be my class tester. It never ceases to amaze me what she will do and whether she will change something because she likes her way better. I’m so proud of her and so happy we will both become CZTs at the same seminar! She saw my similar tile and asked me to teach her how to do it.
This ValenTangle 2018 tile was created using Spoken as the basis, as we were instructed for Day 1. Hearts were added to the top and bottom of each arm and then the centers filled with Betweed and Tipple. I wanted something textural, yet simple for the background, so I used grey marker to fill it with tiny Printemps. Over all, I love the way this came out. I didn’t have a particularly clear concept in my head when I started, so I just went where the artistic muse took me, and it worked out.
The idea for this tile comes from ValenTangle 2018 by Marguerite Samama CZT. I chose to work on Day 6. We are to do a variation of the F11 fragment, with a heart in the center instead of a circle, on a black tile. I chose to make mine on a 3Z shaped tile. There is also a Facebook group for Valentangle which you can find here . This is the second year for this two-week project, which runs from the beginning of February through Valentine’s Day.
This is my own design, done in the Tints on Tan style. I wanted to finish out the week of beach-themed tiles with something original! After looking at pictures of sea horses, I realized their bodies are basically made up of a bumpy grid. Once I got that, the rest was easy! I didn’t add any wave foam or sand dots because this one is actually meant to be under water.
This is the final, official tile for the Tints on Tan, beach series. These tiles, combining colored pencil and tangling have been so much fun to do. Technically, these would be considered ZIAs (Zentangle Inspired Art) rather than standard Zentangles. However, if you like this type of thing, they can be just as “zen” and relaxing to do. I particularly like the subject matter because the ocean reminds of of summer and vacations, happy times and warm weather.
This is the third tile in the Tints on Tan series. I think this one is my favorite. I love the color combination and Printemps is one of my favorite tangles. Zentangle drawn on Kraft Stonehenge paper from Legion, using a white gel pen and a brown, Micron pen. Color is from colored pencils. Tangles: Printemps
This is my second tile in the Tints on Tan series. I liked doing the starfish. It wasn’t too compilcated, and this time, I planned better and the water is going over the the ends of the arms! Zentangle drawn on Kraft Stonehenge paper from Legion, using a black and brown, Micron pens. Color is from colored pencils. Tangles: Flux Printemps Tipple
Tints on Tan is a set of classes created by CZTs Marty Deckle and Jenny Peruzzi. It was first presented at CanTangle in July of 2015. Recently, the kit has become available on Etsy, and there is now a Facebook group for this style of tangling. I decided to do each shape from the beach set on it’s own tile, along with the full grouping. This is my first tile, the sea shell.
This is my version of the bonus tile from the Delft Delights series. This was an interesting challenge in that I wanted each section to be the same as its partners. I like the way it came out, and the coloring. I think it’s time to experiment with some other tangles to see what else can be accomplished using this technique! Zentangle drawn on an Official Zentangle tile using blue marking pens.
I decided to try the Delft Delights techniques on a 3Z-sized tile, thinking it would look a bit like a pottery shard. I also did a bit of research into patterns used on Delftware, so that I could find tangles that corresponded. The ones shown here I actually found on examples on the internet! Zentangle drawn on 3Z-sized Strathmore Vellum Bristol using blue Zig and Staedtler markers. Shading done with colored pencils.
This is my first tile from the Delft Delights kit. I purchased my kit from AcadiaLaserCreations on Etsy. It was designed by Marguerite Samama , a CZT® from the Netherlands. In addition to the instructions, the kit includes two Zendala-sized and one standard-sized Official Zentangle tiles. It does not include any pens or pencils, but a list is provided. I did not have the exact products listed, so I found the closest things I had in my supplies and used those.
This is actually the second-to-last of the Project Pack 1 series, but I saved it to do last. Unlike the other projects in this series, this one is done on a tan tile. In the video Maria shows us her daughter’s beautiful photograph of pumpkin seeds that have arranged themselves into a spiral. It was the inspiration for this exercise, where we are using Pokeleaf, drawn in a spiral pattern.
For my final Crazy Huggins sampler, I cut a large, apprentice-sized tile from a new paper I got recently. I filled the tile with Crazy Huggins shapes, then filled each element with another tangle. Somewhere along the line, the design developed a mind of its own, and decided not to be symmetrical anymore. But, honestly, I think that just made it “interesting!” This tile took quite a while to complete.
Testing 1-2-3. I wanted a relatively simple project because I’m still shuffling stuff from the old studio to the new one. I used a small, bijou cut from some black paper. Working on black is my specific project for this month. I chose Toodles because it’s a nice, graceful tangle that I like to draw. It also provided me with some larger areas to fill with color. I wanted to experiment with colored pencils on black.
Well. This duotangle is comprised of fractalized Well with Munchin added as an accent inside the sections. This concept was presented recently in the Kitchen Table Tangles in the Zentangle Mosaic app. I really liked the concept and decided to make my own with the tiny twist of some slight color changes and coloring in the circles to make Zen Gems. It was easy to do, and very relaxing.
Frost. It has already snowed in Montana. It won’t be that long before it snows in other states. This made me think about it being the time of year when various parts of the country wake up to frost on the leaves and flower petals. These two tangles, Arukas and Nekton, when combined like this remind me of the patterns of frost that are seen on an early morning fall walk.
Classic. When I was drawing this Zentangle, I realized that it was becoming just way too complicated and busy. Even while I was shading it with the brown pencil, I knew I would have to do something to bring back some high contrast, or it would just be a really muddy tile. At first I was thinking I could add gold, metallic ink. But that really wouldn’t pop enough here.