365: Day 20: Get your Zentangle on!

Have you ever heard of Zentangles? Neither have I, until today. This is why I love the web, so much to discover. What a perfect project for a snow/sleet/freezing day in New England that kept me entertained for a couple of hours. It is also a good antidote for all the data verification I have been doing.

Cloth Paper Scissors is a great artistic mixed media magazine and I got a fab Zentangles tutorial off their website. If you want to give this ago, I highly recommend downloading 4 page .pdf file. I have done lots of doodling in the past, but what may look like doodling at first glance is really challenging.

There are all kinds of zentangles to learn like the tink, cadent, keeko, pearlz and over 100 more. If you really hunger for more then you must visit the motherland: the Zentangle website of course. Their newsletters often feature a specific zentangle to master and the gallery shows some amazing work.

Materials are minimal: paper, pencil, good eraser, and a couple of markers in various widths (although one will do). I started off as recommended with a 4"x 4" square and tried out a few patterns. Intimated at first, I quickly added a few more squares to expirement in. After that I just couldn't help myself. As you can see by the two page spread, I started to add in my own designs and just went wild with the pen. Although I had announced I was done, I kept going for another hour. It really is a zen experience.

By the way, the stains on the page are bleed throughs from yesterday's collage with watercolor crayons. I didn't notice them until I posted the pictures. Give it a go, it's very relaxing. And yeah for me! My post actually occurred on the same day as my art.