One Zentangle a Day

they can have quite the opposite effect. Taghpodz has a middle tonal range, so it works well for shifting between heavy and lighter tonal patterns. The vertical lines can change to diagonal, horizontal, or crosshatched.

    Create today’s Zentangle tile using perfs on the patterns of your choice. Take your time to draw the perfs. Keep their size and shape uniform. Try them in both black and white and with a Tangleation of your own.
    The large, flower-shaped Tangleation Angie created out of Dyon was created by rounding the edges on each of its segments, giving them more of a flower petal look. Circle and line patterns were used to fill in the bands on each section. Notice how Angie used the line patterns on the background behind Poke Root and on the bands of the striping pattern. The rule of threes, using anything three times, is useful for getting a composition to work.

Gouache
    Gouache is a paint that is colored, pearlescent, or metallic. Depending on the manufacturer and color, the paint can range from semiopaque to opaque. Used like watercolor, this medium adds a little more weight and texture than watercolor.
    Angie started this ZIA exercise by using watercolor or gouache on a piece of hot-pressed watercolor paper. Use low-tack tape to tape down the edges of your paper to prevent it from warping. Choose a watercolor or gouache palette. Instead of drawing your string, you are going to lay down the string using areas of color. Rinse your brush completely clean between colors. Let the paint dry completely before continuing. Remove the tape and use a Micron pen to draw the tangles onto each of the sections of watercolor. To add shading, use the pen and apply stippling. Stippling is created by adding small dots at various distances apart, depending on the amount of darkness desired. A lot of dots close together will create a dark area; a few with a slight space between each will fool the eye into thinking there is shading in that area. Last, add gouache for highlights.
    This piece contains gouache and ink alone. Angie began this piece with a pencil string and penciled in some of the basic elements of each tangle. The gouache was applied using a midtoned yellow-gold and allowed to dry. The darker value gold was added later. Once the gouache was completely dry, a Pigma pen, size 05, was used to define the patterns and rounding was used to darken the crevices.

    The colors, black ink shadows, and gouache highlights all work well in the piece to keep the eye moving and the viewer’s interest piqued.

DAY 26 MARKERS AND COLORED PENCILS
    MATERIALS
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Micron 01 pen
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2B pencil
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sketchbook
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white tile
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tile from watercolor paper
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colored pencils
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Copic markers

Daily Tangles
    Try these two patterns. Today’s official pattern began as a Tangleation of Poke Root. Poke Leaf works great as a filler and will come easy because it only requires changing the last step of the pattern Poke Root. I created the pattern Growth while I was on vacation in San Francisco. It is patterned after a design of a stylized tree carved in the tiles of the entry to a restaurant in Chinatown. I have spread the pattern apart in the first four tiles, but it should be drawn closer together as seen in the last tile.

    Practice these patterns in your sketchbook until they feel familiar. Create your daily Zentangle tile using these patterns and Tangleations that you have created or learned.
    It is always an option to leave an area of the string as a negative space by leaving it blank.

Copic Markers and Colored Pencils
    Copic markers contain transparent alcohol ink. They are similar to watercolors, but dry quickly. Test to see whether these markers bleed on the paper you will be using for this exercise. If they do, select a colored pencil the same color as the marker. With the colored pencil, outline the area before filling in with the marker. Today’s technique uses these markers to lay down color washes. Use the marker’s brush tip to color areas of the tangled string, preserving any highlights you want to keep by leaving the marker out of those areas. Take care when applying the color to work quickly and only let the tip of the marker come into contact with wet ink. Going over an area that is already dry will create a dark spot in that area. Because the ink is transparent, the first layer shows through the second layer, making it darker in color. After the first wash is down, use the same marker to color over any areas that