Zentangle® and ZIA (Zentangle® Inspired Art)

Zentangle® “An easy to learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns…one stroke at a time”

What is Zentangle®? In the words of Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, founders of Zentangle®, it is: “An easy to learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns…one stroke at a time”. With Zentangle®’s method almost everybody can create gorgeous pieces and you don’’t need to know how to draw! Some people refer to this technique also as doodling, scribbling or tangling. Almost everyone has done some doodling sometime (when you are on the phone? When you were in class at school? )…

Creating lines, circles, and all sorts of doodles is relaxing, easy and fun and it is for all ages and skills. Creating tangles and ZIA (Zentangle® Inspired Art) is fascinating for many reasons. It has no “rules” and that means you don’t make mistakes. You actually don’t need to plan ahead; just let your mind and creativity flow. No need to have an eraser or be concerned about making perfect lines, or circles or shapes. Creating Zentangle® inspired projects help you: relieve stress, increase focus, relax, be more creative, increase attention, improve eye and hand coordination and ultimately have a great sense of proud and accomplishment when you see the beautiful results of your work. So, even when you may begin thinking: “ I cant’ draw” or “I’m not an artist”, let the soothing process and the tangles surprise you and see the amazing images you can easily create.

Tools:

• Sakura Pigma Micron® pens. Size 01 and 08. Black color.
• Paper stump #2
• Pencil

Paper:

Traditional Zentangle® uses 3 ½” acid-free, 100% cotton, heavy-weight fine artists’ archival print-making paper called “tiles”.

They can be put together to make bigger pieces. You can use these tiles or experiment with other types and sizes of paper (artist paper, vellum paper, copy paper, hand made paper….)

16 paper square tiles (3 ½” each) put together

Wood:

If you decide to do your ZIA projects on wood you need to sand the surface until it is smooth. Apply 2 layers of white acrylic paint and sand it again until there is no texture on the wood (and therefore the Micron pen can run smoothly). Once you have finished you project you may want to apply a spear sealer or Ice resin to protect it. Some wooden items you can do your tangles on are: trays, boxes, crosses and frames.

Other surfaces:

You can practically do your doodles and tangles anywhere: fabrics, canvas, gourds, vellum paper, plastic and cardboard are just a few things you can experiment with. Create bookmarks, t-shirts, lamps, vases, frames…. the possibilities are endless …

Books and Magazines:

There are several publications about Zentangle® and ZIA (Zentangle® Inspired Art).

We offer :
Zentangle® Basics, Zentangle® 2, Zentangle® 3,
Zentangle® 6 (use of stencils!), Zentangle® 7, Zentangle® 8 (alphabets) by Design Originals.

“One Zentangle® a Day” by Beckah Krahula.Inspiring and very complete.

Patterns and Ideas:

These may be a good option when you want to have a specific design filled with all sorts of tangles. We help you by giving you the pattern without the tangles for you to fill and the sample filled with some tangles. By all means use any doodling you want: you don’t need to follow our suggestions, they are just to give you an idea. These are a couple of patterns for ideas that we have:

The Zentangle® Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at Zentangle.com