Zentangles

We recently went on a cruise and I didn't want to bring my laptop or Kindle. I didn't want to bring a novel either. I wanted to do something creative beyond photography. I belong to a Facebook group where one of the ladies had been talking about doing Zentangles. I looked into Zentangles and discovered they are an artform made up of shapes that don't mean anything.  It's small (an official Zentangle tile is 3 and 1/2 inches square.) It's done with charcoal pencils and very thin pens.  I had bought one book on Zentangles ONE ZENTANGLE A DAY A 6-week course in creative drawing for relaxation, inspirations and fun by Beckah Krahula. I had also bought, from Zentangle.com, a Zentangle Kit. I decided this cruise would be an ideal time to work on this new project as we were going to have 3 and 1/2 days at Sea and only 3 days in ports where I'd be busy during the day. I took the book and supplies to work with.  During the eleven days we were gone, I created fourteen Zentangles.

Zentangle 0001 2013-03-02

I only used six patterns in this first tile.

Zentangle 0002 2013-03-03

Here I used eight different patterns.

Zentangle 0003 2013-03-04

This tile has ten different patterns, one repeated three times (the poke root (looks like an apple)) and three repeated twice (the curved lines that have broken areas (sparkles) in them, the zig-zag fill and the fescu (looks like bean sprouts.)) The pattern Hollibaugh (criss-crossed boards against black background) areone of my favorite patterns.  It's easy to get a lot of depth using it.

Zentangle 0004 2013-03-05

Only nine patterns were used here. Fescu is repeated in twelve locations.

Zentangle 0005 2013-03-06

This is one of my favorites.