Zentangle Untangled

One of my local libraries has an impressive collection of books about drawing Zentangles, and I am working my way through their inspiration this summer.

Most recently, I poured over Kass Hall's Zentangle Untangled to get new ideas for my sketchbook.  I thought I would share some of the designs I learned from her:

She presented some tangles she had created, as well as some tangles from other Certified Zentangle Teachers.  She also had some other random designs and doodles, which she named.  When I imitated them in my sketchbook, I noted the title she gave to her design.

I really like the design above called Twing, but my very favorite here is Huggins, in the lower left corner.

My sketchbook is Strathmore medium surface drawing paper (400 series), and I am using a combination of Micron pens [in all different tip sizes from .2 mm (005) to .45 mm (05)] and a Faber-Castell PITT pen S.

I like all the designs on the page above.  The one called Meer in the upper right corner would made a great border for a journal or diary page.

I usually don't like how loopy designs like "Nouveau" turn out, but in this case, I like the result:

"You Are My Sunshine" is not a tangle, but a doodle, and would look great in my planner on a particularly hot summer day!

"Gizmo" is another example of a drawing that isn't a specific tangle, but uses ideas from other tangles to make a picture.  Mine looks a little different from Kass's, but the idea is there:

Here is another page of designs I made using ideas and inspiration from Kass's book.  This is actually the first page I created:

Some of these, like Diamonte and Haze, would look even better with color, I think.

I didn't think I would like Mysteria very much, but I did like it once I drew it!

In my opinion, my greatest triumph was Honeycomb.  I don't usually use a ruler for Zentangles, though I had it out for the tangles from this book, and it was obviously indispensable for this design.  My daughter looked at it and said, "That doesn't look that hard."  Well, let me tell you...it took one false start, and a TINY Micron pen, but I love how it looks:

Finally, lest you think every page is a winner and that I'm happy with everything that makes it into my sketchbook:

Frippery, Mooka, and the design Kass called "Echoing Munch" came out pretty well, but the middle row was a total fail.  My pen ran out on the design on the left, and I lost interest in finishing it, and I should have used a ruler to try the design on the right.  I'll give it another shot, and maybe glue it over top of this fail!

I am on to the next Zentangle book I borrowed from the library: Let's Tangle! by Kathleen Murray.  It is a great introductory book if you are new to Zentangle; I recommend it highly, and will share some of what I have been learning from it in a future post.