The Way of the Zentangle…

Michelle Casey, "Death & the Maiden", Zentangle/Collage, 10 x 14 inches, March 2013

Shaking Things Up Creatively…

Every now and again I like to shake things up creatively. In December I made my first collage zine and this month I decided to follow the way of Zentangle! For the past couple of years, I’ve been itching to get back into drawing but never seem to have the time I’d like to devote to courses so I thought perhaps trying my hand at Zentangles might help motivate my creative flow in that direction. A Zen… what, you may ask?  Developed by Rick Roberts (a meditation practitioner) and Maria Thomas (a lettering artist), Zentangles are a meditative form of art which draws on the practice of creating repetitive patterning. If exercised carefully it can induce the coveted feeling of being “in the zone”… a place where all we artists want to be!

A Meditative Experience…

I was introduced to Zentangles a few years ago by my friend pencil artist Sheila Cain-Sample. Mesmerized by their fine line and intricate detail, I fell in love with them instantly! Sheila mentioned how much fun they were to make so I vowed to look into making one. A year later, drowning in work, I still hadn’t started my research in this area. Then last fall, as a sign from above, one of my journaling students, Sharon Michaelson, mentioned how much she enjoyed making them, and further, what a wonderful meditative experience it was. Hmmm… meditation, I thought, with my crazy busy life – I sure could use some of that! A couple of weeks later I snapped up Suzanne McNeill’s book: Zentangle Basics. This inexpensive, slim text includes gorgeous images and pattern samples as well as easy-to-read instructions … just flipping through its pages inspired and excited me.

The Never-Ending Benefits of Zentangles…

Last weekend, answering the call of a Facebook friend to post some drawing, I put some time aside to put this new form into practice and found myself enjoying the two peaceful hours I spent composing my first Zentangle! From the get go, I found the results amazing and satisfying… so simple to achieve! Sharon was right; taking the time to draw a Zentangle resulted in a calming, centered feeling within me as well. In fact upon further reading, I discovered their many benefits include: improving focus and concentration; expanding intuition; reducing stress, insomnia and even panic attacks; building self-esteem, dealing with anger management and even team building… a simply astounding array of benefits for everyone! Needless to say making a Zentangle is also a great way to ease yourself back into drawing and expanding your sense of creativity. Thinking back to my early days, I often remember doodling patterns as a prelude to warming up to draw.

Zentangling the Hours Away!

For my first Zentangle, I used a 5 inch x 5 inch piece of smooth, white 140lb mixed media paper. Next, I drew dots on the four inside corners of the paper and connected them so they formed a curvy square shape. Then I drew a curvy line in a kind of “S” shape on the inside of the square which created borders within the square shape; then I chose my favourite sample patterns from McNeill’s book to fill in the various quadrants of my Zentangle; I couldn’t help adding my own adjustments to a couple of her pattern samples. Another thing I liked about creating my Zentangle was that it didn’t require too many supplies… simply a 2B pencil, 05 Black Micron pen, a drawing stump for shading and an eraser. I had a hard time figuring out how to pencil in the finishing shading touches on my piece but Googled a site from Squidoo which gave me some good tips. I still feel I could have been a bit bolder in my shading… oh well, something to practice next time! After I finished my piece, I felt like the end was just the beginning! I was all set to make another one this time perhaps incorporating colour or collage! And, indeed I did! Here’s my Zentangle/collage “Death and the Maiden” (see top of page) – I’m so pleased with my first attempts and have since had thought plenty more about how to improve on them.

More Zentangle Ideas…

I also Googled information on other books on the subject; looked for new more intricate patterns to try as well as checked to see what others were doing with the medium. I initially visualized it as a technique that would be great to integrate into journaling and collage; I was hoping to find others doing this, which I did! I also discovered that text/script looks particularly striking when surrounded by its rhythmic lines and further that natural forms look so rich when filled with its patterning (see links below for examples of these).

I highly recommend creating your own Zentangles. If anyone has already tried them out and would like to share their favourite sample with me, I’d love to see it!

Zentangles: Further Reading:
One Zentangle a Day: A 6-Week Course in Creative Drawing …  
Zentangle Untangled: Inspiration and Prompts for Meditative Drawing 

Other Related Links:
Cool Zentangle Patterns
Incorporating Zentangle into Journaling
Incorporating Zentangles into Natural Forms
Incorporate Zentangles into Geometric Forms
Basic Zentangle Supplies