My Zentangle Story: A Visual Journey

This past week has brought us record high temperatures for our area.  Truly, I'm not sure if I can ever remember days so hot!  (North)western Pennsylvania is typically known for its rather mild summers.  But there was nothing mild about our triple digit highs and oppressive humidity the past few days.  You can imagine my sheer joy to walk outside this morning to feel the low 60s breeze blowing across my face.  The chickens are happier, my angora rabbits are more than thrilled, even the corn seems to be thanking mother nature as they gently blow in the wind.  This post is not however about surviving the weather, but about the creative journey which has led me to the discovery of: ZenTangle!

I have always been a doodler.  I have more sketchbooks than I can count.  And I have always been drawn to sketching in a repetitive sequence.  Repeating patterns over and over, until I've decorated the entire page.

I don't think there is even a notebook you could pull off my shelves that hasn't been doodled in.  That's just what I do.  I doodled in class, during seminars, even throughout church services.  It wasn't that I didn't pay attention, but it helped me to keep my hands and right-brain busy so that I could actually pay attention (even if it looked like I wasn't).  I could never just sit still.  Doodling allowed me to do that.

My doodling has evolved over the years, as I've tried to find what works best for keeping my mind occupied.  I played around with portraits for awhile, but never felt very good at them.  They took too much thought and attention to detail.  I wanted to just be able to let my mind wander free, with my hand being the instrument that translated.

I love to draw nature!  Insects, mushrooms, trees.....

More insects.....

And more mushrooms!  They are just so much fun to draw!

Then about six years ago I discovered henna!  I can't even remember how, but I was drawn to all the amazing repetitive patterns.  I began to fill my sketchbooks with them.

The pattern for this hand can be found here.  How much fun it was (and still is!) to sketch inside those hands!  I even did some actual henna on skin, though I think I found greater enjoyment out of just doodling them on paper.

A few months ago I was searching YouTube for who knows what (maybe knitting or fiber dyeing tutorials), when up pops a video for a Zentangle Mooka.  I'm always looking for new patterns to draw.  And I was fascinated!  So I drew my very first Zentangle.

It wasn't great (in my opinion) but it was my very first.  I'm not sure why I didn't continue zendoodling then; perhaps life just got busy.  But a couple weekends ago I decided to use a few dollars of my allowance to buy the latest Mary Jane's Farm magazine.  And one of the articles was all on Zentangle.  I was re-enchanted.  Initially I was just doodling in my regular sketchbook.  Filling up page after page...

After page. 

Eventually I realized that I really needed a different kind of sketchbook with thicker paper (these pages were curling).  So I found a couple coupons for Michaels and bought myself a new book and some more pens.  I had used up the ink in three pens at this point.

ANYONE CAN ZENTANGLE!

I really mean this.  I shared my tangles with my sister, who in turn drew some of her own.  They were fabulous!  The true test of this "anyone can tangle" theory was conducted on my mom.  My parents came down this weekend.  The weather (as I mentioned above) was ridiculously hot and humid.  There were no campfires, cookouts, or sitting outside enjoying nature.  You could hardly breathe.  So I decided to teach them to zentangle.  My mom, who truly is a creative soul (though she would tell you she wasn't), often looks at what I'm doing and says, "That would stress me out too much!"  Yet she has always admired my sketches.  When I showed her my zentangles AND told her that she could do it too, she didn't believe me.  So I sat down with her and my dad, gave them both a piece of paper and pen, and began showing them step by step how to create each pattern.

And low and behold they did it!  Right before their eyes transpired these beautiful creations.  They were hooked.  Later that evening, they each purchased their own sketchbook, we spent our free moments this weekend doodling.  Mom even said she found it "relaxing"!  Hooray!  

There are a number of excellent resources available out there for those of you interested in learning to zentangle.  Two of my favorites are the actual Zentangle.com website and TanglePatterns.com.  There are also a number of YouTube videos - just search for Zentangle.  So to leave you, here are a few of the tangles from my new sketchbook.

And that's my journey so far!  I imagine from here it will evolve as all things do.  But this is where I am, happily doodling, enjoying the creative process.