CZT Tangle Session

In June, as many of you may know, I went to Rhode Island to the CZT training with Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of Zentangle. It was an experience that I will always treasure. On day one, class one, I sat down in an empty seat at one of the long tables set up for us to hear and watch the talks. I introduced myself to the person on my right and the person on my left. Amazingly enough, out of the 110 attendees at our training, both of these people lived within 50 miles of me in California. 

This serendipitous experience gave me the idea of having a Certified Zentangle Teacher's get together at my house. Yesterday, it happened. We ended up with five CZT's at my house yesterday morning for a few hours. 

 

Each of us shared our Zentangles and other artwork that we had brought with us. There was much beautiful art to see. CZT's tend to be talented, interesting people! Then we tangled together, with each person having brought a favorite tangle pattern to share. You can see here one of the tiles we did, with some of the variations as each individual interpreted the patterns in their own way. The big triangle in the center, do you know the name of that tangle? We just called it the L-tangle because you draw L-shapes over and over. If you know its name, please leave a comment! I offered my favorite tangle 'Dillo, and you can see the armadillos marching around on one side. Finally we learned Cirque, on the other side. It has  cool basket-y shapes with flux-type leaves. Really easy as pie to draw once you see the step-outs. I enjoyed the effortless of it. This confirmed the Zentangle motto, Anything is possible, one stroke at a time! And I always love learning new tangles I had never seen before, especially from a person rather than from a webpage or a book.

I had a really great time with this wonderful group. Each of the people had a unique perspective and much to offer the others. We discussed meeting once a month and rotating through each other's homes. Sounds like it will happen! 

I love the Zentangle community, not only this new local group but world-wide. This was an added gift. I thought I had discovered a wonderful new art form, meditative, a straight shot into the zone. Little did I realize that I had also discovered a community that has values I wholeheartedly subscribe to. Above all, encouragement. Appreciation for whatever you have done that touches the others. Taking the time to find the gem and focusing on what is working. 

When I go online, I discover so many interesting, talented, creative people who just revel in sharing with one another. Even if I can't read the language of their websites, I can appreciate the Zentangles they post. The Zentangle community's spirit is completely supportive, never critical or harsh. It's a heartfelt group. Many people share their work and many others comment freely. I can always feel that supportive feeling when I engage with this group. And I know that believing in each other helps us all to flower and grow.

If you want to get connected to this wonderful group, please see my blog post on Online Resources.

Online Zentangle Resources

This is a list of resources that work for me. I know there is lots more out there, and I am always discovering new things. So be sure to look around!

www.Zentangle.com 
This is the website of the Zentangle originators, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. Lots of useful stuff

www.TanglePatterns.com
This website lists all the tangle patterns in alphabetical order. You can click on a letter of the alphabet at the top and look up any tangle. The tangle link will take you to all the info about the tangle, who invented it and what they were thinking about, and most importantly, the step by step instructions for how to draw it. The website also has a random tangle generator on the left so you can let fortune decide which tangle pattern to use next.

enthusiasticArtist.blogspot.com
Margaret Bremner, CZT,  is a very creative artist with all kinds of interesting ideas that you can experience in her Zentangles. She constantly amazes me.

iAmTheDivaCZT.blogspot.com
I often enter the weekly Zentangle Challenge, now going on for over 300 weeks. There is no winner, and there is no criticism. Only lots of sharing and praise for one another, in keeping with the wonderful Zentangle community's philosophy of support for one another. I too believe that emphasizing an artist's strengths will help them to grow and flower, much more successfully than harsh words, no matter how "true."

Ellen Wolters on YouTube
Watch as Ellen draws Zentangles for you a d makes them absolutely crystal clear. She is a marvel of skill and I love the music she uses. I have had to play it on my Kindle and Shazam it on my phone so I can download it and just listen while I tangle. Here's an example of Ellen demonstrating a tangle pattern you know, Crescent Moon. Just watching her draw teaches me so much. If you Google "How to Draw Tangle Pattern Whatever" Ellen's YouTube's will often come up.

The Zentangle App (Mosaic)
Download Rick and Maria's great App. The do frequent videos showing all kinds of interesting things about Zentangle. Available for all Mac Platforms and Android phones, but not Android tablets, darn.

One Zentangle A Day by Beckah Rahula
This is how I first learned basic Zentangle. It is a 6 week course in a book with step outs for lots of tangles and many ideas to try out for yourself. Get it on Amazon here.

Cheryl Wilson, CZT
Cheryl is my Zentangle teacher. She helped me to slow down and really appreciate and above all enjoy the Zentangle process. Cheryl's blog has lots of great Zentangles. She has a very steady and beautiful line quality when she draws, and she is always putting things together in creative, unexpected and fun ways. Cheryl is a painter and her oil paintings can be seen here.

Pea-nuckle Challenge #325

This week's iAmTheDivaCZT challenge was again from Guest Diva Jessica Davies. She asked that we try out the tangle peanuckle from Molly Holllibaugh. I enjoyed drawing the S-curves and the curvy basket weave and thought it paired well with Zander mostly because both of them have lots of little lines that seemed to resonate across the string with each other. I always love Zander because it looks like what I imagine sheaves of wheat to look like, not that this city girl has ever even seen a sheave of wheat, but I love the idea.

I have been working through Eni Oken's Drawing Smooth Gemstones and tried putting two red gems into my tangle. Actually they went in first and I tangled around them. I am just a beginner with this, but it is fun. Eni really teaches how to use colored pencils, also new to me. I think my gemstones are pac man cousins, but i will keep trying!

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Heart Tangle - Challenge #324

This week's challenge #324 on www.iAmTheDivaCZT.com was presented by guest Jessica Davies. She asked us to draw a heart. For me this is an expression of my gratitude and appreciation to the worldwide Zentangle community. I could not ask for a more positive, creative, supportive and intelligent group of people with whom to share the process of creating artwork and just having fun! Thank you!

Lately I have been using www.tanglePatterns.com to generate random tangles. Today I searched for tangles by type, selecting "hearts," of which there are a whopping 34 to choose from. I chose Lesley Goldberg's Hearts-a-Flutter. I love tangle patterns that are full of curves and auras on top of auras of curves! So i really liked  this new tangle. For the outer reaches, I just went with my Mac 'N Cheese tangles Joki and a little army of 'Dillo armadillos marching around the edges. They seemed to work really well with the heart pattern.

I love how the heart is in Sienna ink and the other tangles are in black. I would very much like you to be impressed with my artistic choice here, but the truth is that I accidentally picked up the Sienna pen (once again) and started drawing before I realized it! Aren't accidents great?! At the CZT training last month, I bought a t-shirt that says "No Mistakes" and has a big Bronx Cheer Raspberry on it. That's my philosophy of life too.

I almost needed that raspberry coverup when my Sakura pen exploded at the very end while I was signing my chop MHF. I This was a first for me, but where there is ink, there are ink blots, so I am not surprised. I was grateful that it waited for me to complete the Zentangle before it decided to do that.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I welcome your comments! Thank you also for following through  this record of my stream of consciousness while tangling. Please visit again!

CZT training #28

Getting on the plane to Providence in a few hours, cannot wait!

BEad Inspired - Challenge #319

This week's challenge was very heart-felt. We were told about a program that helps kids who have ongoing, chronic illness. This program lets these kids get different colored beads for each medical visit or procedure they undergo. Gradually they collect a longer and longer string of beads that tells their story. "I saw the doctor and I got a shot and then I  had to stay in the hospital and the respiratory therapist came to see me every day..." Each of those is a bead. Se we were asked to BEad Imspired. 

I went hunting around Tangle Patters and rediscovered MaryHill from Betsy Wilson, CZT. This was one of her variations where MaryHill is ruffled up into a big blossom and decorated with beads. I added Beadline for more decoration and more beads. Thank you Betsy for these ideas, I loved your Zentangle so much i wanted to draw it.

Last week I did the challenge and posted it here but somehow it never posted on IamTheDivaCZT.com. If you have time to take a look, click on "Dyptich - Challenge #318" on the right, of maybe just scroll down.

I am getting very excited. I leave for CZT training #28 in just 10 days. Let me know if any of you are also going.

Dyptich - Challenge 318

This week's challenge was to tangle a dyptich by folding a tile in half and tangling two mirror images. I used the simple tangles florz, flux, and shattuck on the two halves, then created a buckle or connector to bridge the piece, using the tangle pattern Huggins. I was recently reading in the Zentangle Primer that this tangle was named for the Huggins family (in-laws to Rick and Maria, I believe) because the Hugginses taught Rick and Maria the pattern as "something they used to draw when they were kids." 

That made me remember drawing 3-D stars and 3-Pronged Blivits. Not to to mention creating cootie catchers out of paper and Jacob's ladders out of string and eucalyptus trees out of newspaper and crowns made of white clover flowers where you thread each stem into the next one. So much fun to wear your crown once it was done. A diadem. Kids make great stuff.

Huggins can look really metallic somehow! Reminds me of the Vikings, (full disclosure, a series I am currently a bit hooked on). I decorated the connector with Mooka, which takes on an engraved feeling when set over the Huggins buckle. Vikings, Kids, French Poster Art, Mad Magazine. Every Zentangle is a journey of connections through time and art.