How to draw SPOKES

By Linda Farmer, CZT

Spokes is a tangle pattern from CZT® Caren Mlot and it’s her first on the site. Caren was one of my classmates in the CZT#7 training seminar and she now teaches in the Charleston, South Carolina, area so if you’re from around there check out Caren’s classes.

“I was just fooling around with some patterns when I came up with this, and wasn’t influenced by anything in particular. I decided to name it ‘spokes’ since it reminds me of the spokes on a bike. It has a Bales-like look, but is constructed in a different manner.”

“I first learned about Zentangle about a year and a half ago and immediately was hooked. The fact that I could put pen to paper and create a beautiful drawing was amazing. The fact that it reduces stress and helps me relax was just an added benefit. I have, at various times in my life, designed beaded jewelry and stained glass. The simplicity of Zentangle is quite different than either of those two media. There are minimal supplies needed, so it is very lightweight and portable. It is also very addictive. I find myself seeing tangle patterns in everything I look at, from architecture to fabric to nature.

After retiring from teaching elementary school, I recently relocated to South Carolina. I found that there was only one CZT in my new state, so I decided to do something about this. In October, 2011, I packed my things and traveled to Providence, Rhode Island to be trained by the masters of Zentangle themselves, Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. It was a wonderful experience, and I am proud to say that I am now a Certified Zentangle Teacher. I hope to spread the love of Zentangle to the residents of the greater Charleston area.”

For my example of Spokes I drew the variation shown in Caren’s steps below. Here’s a tip from Caren:

“One piece of advice is when you do the spokes in step 6, start with the lines that go from the center circle straight out perpendicular to the sides, then fill in a couple of lines on each side of that. It makes it easier to have the spokes fairly evenly spread out that way.”

Here are Caren’s steps for drawing Spokes and her sample variation, followed by two beautiful completed Zentangle tiles using the tangle.

Spokes by CZT Caren Mlot And her completed Zentangles …