Zentangles

    For the past few years I've been doing more designing of patterns than artwork.  It channels my creativity in more practical ways and is very satisfying.  However I do like to draw, but have been so dissatisfied with my drawings of late I just about stopped.  I mostly did illustration, realism and scientific illustration as I never understood abstract drawing.

During this time I've looked at many 'how to' books but they are all for beginners and seemed too basic for what was needed which was refresher stuff.  Then about a month ago I happened upon Zentangles.

• (BTW apple and google are not playing nice with each other.  I am writing this blog thru FireFox as somehow, with the last few Safari/OS 10.x updates, the URL link function no longer works on blogspot for me. AAMOF other tools sometimes don't work either.)

I researched it well and decided to download the One Zentangle a Day book onto my Kindle app on my iPad.  It was/is exactly what I have been wanting.  One exercise a day is all that is required, maybe taking a half hour, meditative, non representational yet eductational in terms of light, dark and shading.  I already have all the pens and pencils so it was a relatively easy thing to start doing.
Making the time for myself each morning is the hard part.

The student is slowly worked through exercises and then combination drawings as we go along.  It's meant to be a 6 week course, but since I am sometimes only doing one exercise a day and not the entire chapter my progress is slower.  Actually, I like the fact that it will take more time.

We practice shapes individually.

 

 

  

Then put them together as directed.

Here's a more recent mix.  Again part of the plan.  It's all about texture, light, dark, shading and deliberate shapes making the whole look 3 dimensional but not of anything truly real.

And this morning I made my very first, on my own, Zentangle,

 using only tangles I have so far learned.  

A sheepy! 

Although I will admit that I started out thinking it might be a bunny but went with the flow.