Zentangle Untangled by Kass Hall Read Free Book Online

beginner’s kit would include:
2–3 graphite pencils (maybe a HB, 2B and 6B to begin with)
2–3 artist pens (Sakura, Copic and Faber-Castell are all in my collection) of different nib sizes (.01 and .05 are a great place to start)
A small set of colored pencils or a small watercolor travel kit
A small glue stick, in case you find something that you need to stick in
A journal! For portability, I’d suggest a 5.5″ × 8″ (14cm × 20cm) Strathmore
Wirebound Visual Journal or a Moleskine Watercolor Journal. If you plan to use watercolors or any wet media, I would ensure the paper is at least 90lb (190gsm), so it doesn’t buckle too much—unless you like that!
    So you’ve got some fun art materials, a journal and twelve tangle patterns (plus any others you can find in books and online). You’re all set to take your Zentangle to a new level!
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Borders
    Borders around pages. Hands up—who has not drawn pictures and borders around pages of notes during college classes or long meetings at work? We’ve all done it, and when we’re working in art journals, Zentangle is a brilliant way to add borders to our pages. There are limitless ways they can be added. The next image,
Party 1
, is an example; I’ve used one of my favorite tangles that lends itself to borders,
Meer
.
    Think about the tangles you know. How can you vary them to create a border? What tangles can be combined to create a border of interest?
    Also think about use of color. How does adding color to your border impact the rest of your piece?
    A tangled border is also a great way to begin your Zentangle tile. Use it as a guide and work your way in.

    PARTY 1
    Sakura Pigma Micron pen, watercolor

    PARTY
    Sakura Pigma Micron pen, watercolor

    RED SPOT
    black Zentangle tile, white gel pen, red Stickles glitter glue

    SURPRISE
    Sakura Pigma Micron pen

Titles and Lettering
    So the other thing I think we all have to own up to (besides drawing borders around those meeting notes) is practicing our fonts and lettering in the margins. I’m not wrong here, am I? I am definitely a type geek, and I love looking at hand-drawn fonts (check out illustrator Mike Perry’s work for some inspiring hand-drawn fonts) and practicing my own.
    Zentangle and fonts are numerous, but I wanted to share a few ideas on these pages. First, my favorite quote from Khalil Gibran with different tangles inside the letters. Then a more traditional approach with gold ink and an old-fashioned font. And a colored pencil interpretation of the Robert Indiana
LOVE
print.
    The link between Zentangle and lettering is strong. Many calligraphers are using Zentangle in their artwork, and Zentangle was devised by the master calligrapher herself, Maria Thomas. Look at image- storing websites like Flickr; some of the work will blow your mind.

    KASS
    Sakura Pigma Micron pen, graphite pencil
    by Sue Clark, CZT

    GOLD K
    Sakura Pigma Micron pen, gold ink

    LOVE
    Sakura Pigma Micron pen, colored pencil

    GIBRAN QUOTE
    patterned paper, acrylic paint, Sakura Pigma Micron pen
Zentangle as a Background
    When it comes to using Zentangle in your art journals, using tangles as backgrounds for your mixed-media is a brilliant and unique look. It is also very adaptable. It might seem like a lot of work to do an entire background in Zentangle, but I’ve shown here three effective ways to do so, each being completely different in the length of time required and complexity.
    The most complex background is that in
Amelia
. The original photo has my baby niece (isn’t she lovely?) laying on a quilted blanket. I decided t to create a background representing the blanket using Zentangle. It took some time to create and then color using watercolor pans. I remember showing this to my sister, and she loved the way I was able to create the background.
    The
Library
background is a large-scale tangle called
Bales
. I didn’t know where this work was headed when I started, but as I colored the background, it reminded me of