Tangled up in Tangles

I came across an incredible art form that greatly reminded me of how I've always drawn. It's called Zentangle®. Now obviously it's not the same thing. I'd draw repeatable pattern filled images, or just make a circle divided into sections and fill it with patterns. It's similar, no doubt. However, I never used strings and always called it doodling. I've heard people say that doodling is a mindless art form. Something you do while your mind is occupied with something else. With all due respect, I have to say that it's never been that way with me. My drawing/doodling has always been zen for me, which is why I felt that Zentangle would be a perfect fit.

I discovered that what I've always done could be considered Zentangle Inspired Art. Although when I was doing it, I had no idea about this art form. I'd just go where the passion took me, and oftentimes that meant being inspired by random patterns.

The Zentangle Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. It is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc.
Learn more at zentangle.com.

So, I've been perusing the internet for tangle patterns and have found a plethora of them. Between Pinterest and Flickr alone, there are hundreds; possibly thousands. Then of course the official tangles from zentangle.com, and the amazing collection at tanglepatterns.com. *Thank you Linda for compiling such a phenomenal database of tangle patterns. Needless to say, I'm up to my ears in tangle patterns and still haven't collected all of them. It's a never-ending quest to gather them all. But worth it of course.

I've even been inspired to create my own tangles. Not sure if they've been done already, or if they'd be accepted at tanglepatterns.com. So at this point, I've made no effort to share them, yet.

However, I will share some recent ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) I've worked on. Just a simple circle, sectioned off and filled with tangles. Organic, nature inspired tangles and doodles growing up from the edges of the circle. Then I proceeded to use colored pencils for a little something extra. Overall, I like how it turned out. My camera phone doesn't do it much justice, but I don't have a scanner, so this is as good as it's going to get.


Tangles used are: Henna Drum, Zinger, Ciceron, Printemps, Slalom, Drupe, Copada, Deelish, Lacy, Barberpole, Yew-dee, Ixorus, Beeline, Spokes/Shons, Crescent Moon, Fescu, D-vine, Atorm, Opus, Tipple, Pokeleaf, Scrawlz, Bronx Cheer, P-wizzles, Muscari, Euca, Fafolia, Fifolia, Antidots, and I can't remember the names of any others (if I missed any).

I'm sure they're somewhere, if I come across them I'll post the names here. If anyone knows what they're called , please let me know. Thanks.

Until next time, tangle away.