Here's an example:
This is almost my first attempt. I'm wondering if I really need to write a long article when there are so many good blogs and so much information on the internet already.
One thing that immediately struck me is that one of the major rules of Zentangle is that although the little pictures are really supposed to be abstract, they very often aren't. Heart and flower shapes are very popular, but basically anything goes to fill a space decoratively.
And there we have it again (see previous articles). What is abstract art? At the latest when you draw or paint a symbol, line, sphere or other visible object, you have actually left the realm of the absolutely abstract! The music we perform, what we paint, write and do in art is the expression of abstract thought and ideas, conscious or subconscious. So the leaf and basket weave patterns, dots, flowers, spheres etc., while themselves being realistic, go together to express whatever abstraction the zentangler (doodler) intends to portray, the operative word being INTENTION. Zentangles are not just happy accidents! Zentangle artists plan and plot, and keep to rules. They often draw socalled strings to start them off and there are lots of "official" strings and tangles (with names!).
Here's one - let's call it "embryo" because I'm just starting out - that I drew and then tangled:
You can see, even from the poor quality photos, that I have not adhered strictly to my first notion. In Zentangle, the results are really improvisations on themes, jazzed up line drawings.
Another rule of zentangle is that they can be looked at from any angle. This is also ignored a lot of the time. The drawing produced is not then officially a zentangle!
So the above zentangle is genuine. Here it is again. Almost an optical illusion!
Here are some useful and fairly representative websites with Zentangle involvement. The links point at the page I happened to be on when I made the bookmark.
YouTube has some nice instructional videos, but they can also be traced by googling to the artist's blog or website. There is already a large community in the USA, but Zentangle has not reached Germany yet. I showed the book I bought: Zentangle Untangled, which is quite good to start out with, at my art suppliers and the assistant wants to pass the idea on to his superiors.
P:S. Since this entry, I realize that the format is no longer strictly adhered to!
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