One Zentangle a Day

and unappealing. It is the contrast of white, black, and gray that creates form and draws the viewer’s eye into the piece of art.
    Note the use of shading in this Zentangle tile creates more interest for the viewer. By developing the shading, we were able to add dimension, weight, and form.

DAY 4 ORB OR HOLE, ONLY THE SHADING WILL TELL
    MATERIALS
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Micron 01 pen
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pencil
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sketchbook
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tile

Daily Tangles
    TRY THESE THREE TANGLES: Shattuck, Nipa, and Jonqual. Nipa is the first pattern we are learning in which you can treat the circle as a hole or an orb. Shattuck and Jonqual are angular patterns. For best results, focus on keeping the spacing even between the strokes on each of these patterns. Remember to turn your tile as you change angles while drawing patterns such as Shattuck so you can create your strokes more accurately and comfortably. Practice each of these patterns in your sketchbook until they feel familiar.
    Review the eleven-step process for creating a Zentangle and use the steps to create a Zentangle tile that uses Shattuck, Nipa, and Jonqual.

    The tangles on this Zentangle have continued outside the string and stopped at the border.
    By picking a light source, shading becomes natural and there is no need for decisions.
    EVEN THOUGH OUR ZENTANGLES are abstract pieces of art, shading is still a very important part of the art piece. Shading draws us in. It helps move the eye through the piece. Shading makes the dips, curves, edges, and angles in our artwork believable. It can be used to add atmosphere, weight, and tonal contrast, and it can make an unrecognizable world seem familiar and inviting. While shading, pick an area to use as the light source. If the light is coming from the upper-left area, the shadows will fall toward the lower-right sections of the patterns. If the light source is coming from the lower-left area, the shadow is cast toward the upper-right sections.
    Create a sample tile on a clean page in your sketchbook using any three or four tangles. Select a direction for the light source for each sample and shade accordingly.

DAY 5 ADDING A SPARKLE
    MATERIALS
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Micron 01 pen
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pencil
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sketchbook
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tile
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blank ATC
    A SPARKLE IS A GREAT description of a highlight and is another Tanglenhancer. A sparkle is created when you leave a deliberate gap in a stroke while creating a tangle. As you are drawing out a tangle stroke, pause and lift your pen, leaving a slight gap in the stroke before placing the tip back on the paper and finishing the stroke. Creating highlights in a drawing in this manner is reminiscent of the highlights found in old ink drawings and engravings. Sparkles add light to your tangles, a small flicker to capture the eye and entice the viewer. Isochor and Printemps are two tangles that traditionally contain highlights. You can use a highlight in any tangle you choose, not just those traditionally containing them. Where the highlight is placed will affect where the shading is placed.

Daily Tangles
    Try these two tangles. Printemps is a closed coil. Slow down when drawing this pattern so you can keep the area between the lines of the coil even, gradually tapering the space down to close the coil. While filling an area of a string with Printemps, the sparkle should always appear in the same place on each coil, and not every coil has or should have a sparkle. Just like the shadows, the highlight can be overused and the contrast lost. A pattern drawn in the round, such as Printemps, has the shadow placed on the side of the coil without the sparkle. Drawn images are ink and graphite on flat paper, but adding highlights and shadows to the images gives the appearance of dimension and form. Isochor uses lines to bring volume to an area. Altering the direction of the lines in areas falling behind an area that also uses Isochor helps the eye take in all the line movement and creates depth.
    Practice each of these patterns in your sketchbook until they feel familiar.
    Treat a sparkle as a small light source. There should be no shadow inside the sparkle and a small area around it.
    SPARKLES ARE USED to add appeal to a repeating pattern. They bring interest to a tangle that could become monotonous, especially in an area that uses a one-stroke pattern repetitively over a large area. Go back to the previously learned patterns in your sketchbook. Study the diagrams and imagine where in each pattern you see a place a sparkle could go. In your sketchbook, create a