The word Zentangle meant nothing to me until a few weeks ago. While visiting my MIL on Thanksgiving (she hosted and cooked a fabulous meal), she shared this new-to-me art form she’s playing around with. I was intrigued. That night I was Zentangling in my dreams. In spite of the fact that the next morning was Black Friday, I knew a search for Zentangling materials was necessary. I found pens and some decent paper at my local art store, got 20% off, and two free t-shirts to boot... I was excited. I’d never participated in Black Friday before.
So what is Zentangling you ask? It’s often referred to as yoga for your brain. It’s a meditation achieved by drawing complicated looking patterns one line at a time. Simple patterns are combined in an unplanned way that grows and changes as you draw. With your mind engaged in drawing, your body can relax. Anxiety and stress melt away. Zentangle, the noun, was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. You can read more and order materials at their website here.
To begin Zentangling, you won’t need much.
Here are the few items I purchased:
Pigma Micron Archival Ink Pens in various sizes: 2-01, 1-03, 1-05 (black)
Prismacolor Brush Tip Marker: size B (black)
Pencils (I had a case full of graphite pencils, but any pencils will do)
Strathmore small sketch pads (fine tooth surface)
Strathmore Bristol (smooth surface)
These materials got my daughter and I started, but pro tanglers recommend working on paper tiles made of 100% cotton, a heavy-weight fine artist’s paper with a beautiful vellum surface finish. My local art store didn’t carry these, so I compromised. The deckled-edge tiles are tempting me now though, and I’ll be ordering some as soon as possible. You can order Zentangle tiles here.
If you do a Google search for Zentangle or Tangling you’ll hit on a multitude of information, how-to’s, patterns, books, etc.
Happy tangling!
4 comments:
This looks like a fun and artful way to relax- and much easier to do in public than yoga ;) Thanks for sharing this, I'll have to pick up some paper on my adventures out today... love those Pigma pens!
Hi! I discovered Zentangle late last year, too. I'm totally in love with it! There is no one in the Portland area certified to teach it so I've just been learning via books and websites but I am registered to attend the teaching certification seminar in RI in June so that I can become a Certified Zentangle Teacher here and hold classes and workshops. I can't wait!!!
This looks like fun freeform doodling. I'm wondering if you could do this on an iPad with a drawing app like Paper 53? It would be a fun way to survive boring office meetings.
Oh my that looks interesting. I'll check out your links!
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