All day today I have been waiting for the power to go off again. Last night, we lost power for roughly four hours–third power loss of two or more hours in one day. Candle light does not make for good drawing or reading from a physical book. I got caught up on fun reading on my Kindle and iPad, however. It could have been worse. My devices could have needed charging…

Today, after posting my experiences with Day 28 in One Zentangle a Day, I decided to read ahead on the next 14 book days. Only 4 new Zentangle patterns are introduced during the two-week span (that’s book weeks), one of which is unofficial. Mostly, Week 5 talks a great deal about stylistic adaptations to Zentangling, while Week 6 discusses how to adapt tangling to various media, including porcelain bowls, acrylic jewelry, glass holiday ornaments, frames, book covers, fabric, and on and on. It also discusses the use of the patterns with calligraphy to embellish a letter or word. Week 6 is an excellent resource for the hobbyist, but professional artists and designers can take some of the ideas as jumping off points for their own creativity.

The week on styles is devoted not only to personal style and the incorporation of tangles into traditional art and design forms, but also develops the idea of modifying tangles for realistic drawings. I mentioned in one of my previous posts that working with this book has helped me draw things I couldn’t “get” previously, and Day 29 sort of addresses this by taking an official Zentangle pattern, Verdigogh, and making it into a feather and a pine bough with a little modification to the motif. The author encourages the examination of other presented patterns for elements that can be used in drawing non-Zentangle works. 

Week 5 also spends a great deal of time (three days) on Zendalas. Taking into consideration the remarks of Day 29, the clear indication is that mandalas using your own imagination can be created in your own stylistic interpretations that go beyond Zentangles. When I thumbed through adult coloring books in hobby shops this past winter, it was pretty clear that mandalas are very popular for adults who want to color as their relaxation technique. Books-ful of mandala-based pictures of flowers, underwater scenes, almost anything you can think of, were represented in one page after another. Perhaps that is why the author spends three days on the subject.

Week 5–Day 30, specifically–answers a question I had posed two Zentangle days ago. That is, is it OK to start with a string in a specific shape? And the answer is an apparent “Yes!” The author presents various “strings” of purses, shoes, and other outlines that can be filled in with tangle patterns. There is no end to the possibilities. 

For me, it is time to set aside Zentangles and start incorporating the techniques and patterns I have learned into my own artistic endeavors for a while. I also want the opportunity to continue using the patterns I learned and others I will pick up from other sources in a more meditative mode–one that allows me to choose all my patterns and use my own inspiration to practice the meditative part of Zentangling. 

So I leave the topic of Zentangles with a tangle I created using only the three official and one unofficial motif introduced in the remainder of the book. I chose to do it in black and white, although it might actually be nice as a color-enhanced piece as well. The patterns used are Zander (the bundles of string or yarn or grain), Warmth (the weave pattern similar to Keeko but with two sizes of pen nib), Bronx Cherry (the raspberry-looking motif), and the unofficial pattern Stickers. 

Until my next post, Happy Tangling!

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#educ_dr