Z is for Zentangle

I’m sitting here with a small glass of Baileys celebrating the fact that this is Z and I made it to the end of the challenge, didn’t falter once and have done it! Of course, I’m saying this before finishing this last crucial post, but hey, no foul in extending the celebration time.

So, Z is for Zentangle.

Zentangle is a tradename for meditative doodling. Grab a piece of paper, a pen and just draw. It has become a well defined artform with accredited Zentangle teachers, books, websites and groups of people focussed on this fun and relaxing art.

Me, I can’t do it.

Not in the general sense. I have tried many times to just doodle, but every time I end up creating a more traditional piece of artwork with an aim and direction that blooms from my attempted aimlessness. I can’t seem to relax enough to just draw randomly.

But I have created a few pieces of art that I’m quite happy with through these attempts. At the top of the list is my wind scultped trees series starting with ‘Wind’ which was the true zentangle that started it all.

After a few more trees, I drew ‘Determined’.

Which was no longer really a zentangle at all, but the point is, the initial sitting down and doodling of ‘Wind’ generated a series of artworks (there are a couple of others and I definitely want to explore these more) that I otherwise would never have considered. Perhaps like writing, the best way to create art is to just do it – sit down and start anything and the inspiration will follow.

Another bit of zentangling I did involved some acrylic experiments I had been playing around with. This was very early on when I knew nothing about the paints I was playing with, especially the fact that I was throwing around expensive Golden paints that I had received for my birthday without realising exactly how much they cost 😀

Anyway, I scanned in those experiments and then printed them out to doodle on.

The green zentangle above is one of my favourites, I think it worked really well. The fact the original now has my eldest daughter’s scribble on it is a shame, but I have the scan, so it lives on (yes, there have been a couple of artworks lost to children ::sigh:: ).

I also did Tangles, but that one didn’t work as well. I have since tried to do more, but have failed miserably. Do you ever find that if you manage to do something good the first time, that you put expectations on yourself the next time and that can stifle your creativity? My mind is a maze of motivational obstacles at times.

As you can see the above examples look nothing like a traditional zentangle. But then all doodles are different.

One example of pure doodling I can show is an Eye Doodle I did when I got my new Brushes app for my new iPad. I wanted to work out how it worked and what it could do, so I doodled. This video was supposed to be uploaded for D is for Digital Art, but I stuffed up and forgot to collect it from my friend who had been kind enough to render it on her Mac for me. Many thanks to S for all her help with this video (I don’t own a Mac and the program to convert the video to a general video filetype that can be uploaded to YouTube is Mac specific – she was kind enough to do it for me, I owe her chocolate 😀 ).

So Z is for Zentangle and here I sign off for the Blogging from A to Z challenge totally stunned that I actually managed to do it. I had some serious doubts leading up to it, but I’ve been surprised as to how easy it has been. I’ve enjoyed it so much I haven’t had to push myself much at all. Many thanks to all the fellow A to Z peeps who dropped by to have a gander and say hello. I’ve met a bunch of new people and found a bunch of new blogs to play with. Thanks so much for joining in and congratulations to all of you who are joining me at the finish line.

I did it!! ::dances around the room::

Best wishes,
Liz

See all my Blogging A to Z posts here!