Sue Palmer of Westerly RI, recently emailed “Do you have any ideas or examples of a twisted ribbon – one that would gradually show the other side of a ribbon – especially if it was looped?”. I asked Sandra Strait if she had time to respond to Sue’s request and she replied with this great tutorial illustrating not one but two techniques.
Drawing a Ribbon – Technique 1
Drawing a ribbon is a bit of a parlor trick, actually. You squiggle a few lines and, like magic, you have this elegant swirling thing on your paper. Like most magic, it isn’t difficult once you discover the trick.
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Step 1 – While drawing your ribbons be sure to think ‘S’, not ‘Z’ or ‘O’. You want nice rounded curves, not corners or circles. |
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Step 2 – Draw a second ‘S’ line, following the original curves as closely as possible. You’ll determine the thickness of your ribbon by the distance between the two lines. Try to keep the distance even for the entire length of the ribbon, but you don’t have to be exact. You can skip this step if you use two pens or pencils together (see Margaret Bremner’s write-up) to draw your ribbon outline. If you did use two pens or pencils to draw your outline, use only one for the rest of this how-to. |
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Step 3 – Connect your ends. Giving them a little curve adds elegance. Ribbons are flimsy so a little ‘m’ shape at the top of your curves is okay, but if they are too noticeable, you might want to connect them. |
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Step 4 – And finally, add some shading on the inside of each curve. |
Drawing a Ribbon – Technique 2
The second technique I’m showing here isn’t very different from the first, and it can look clunky on a very loosely curled ribbon. But it’s great if you want a ribbon that doubles back on itself.
I don’t recommend using two pens or pencils for this method.
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Step 1 – Start out as before, with ‘S’ like curves. Make your curves pointier where the ribbon will loop behind. |
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Step 2 – Draw the ends and sides of each curve. |
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Step 3 – Then draw the bottom line of the ribbon. |
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Step 4 – And, finally, add shading. For this to work successfully, you should have shading in two values, to help the eye distinguish how the ribbon curls. |
Check out Sue Jacobs beautiful tangle “Coil”. The first three steps show you how you can draw a very tightly coiled and straight ribbon.
Have a different way to draw ribbons? I’d love to hear from you!
The “S” sense of Ribbons by Sandra Strait. Copyright the artist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission.
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February 14, 2011 | 
More like this: 
Thank you Linda for posting this! I hope everyone finds it helpful.
Sandra – Thanks so much for solving my “tangled” dilemma. Now maybe I can attempt a bow… Thanks again to you and Linda!
thanks to Linda and then Sandra for this tutorial for ribbons; it’s very helpful and I’ll see what I can do with it this week.
Thanks This one is a beauty. Have always wanted to learn how to draw the second one! Cheers
Brilliant!
thanks for the really helpful post!
This is fantastic, Sandra & Linda! Thank you so much for posting these great step-by-steps. (I had a lot of requests after my ‘ribbony’ class, and hadn’t gotten around to drawing anything up… so I’ll be sending folk this way.) Wonderful ribbon, Sandra. 🙂
Sandra – Thank you so much for referring to my coil pattern. I’m honored to be in such illustrious company!
Thanks so much to Sandra & Linda. I’ve always found ribbons a challenge, this makes it look easy! I’m looking forward to trying these.
I love this and how pretty the ribbons look when they are all done. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Sandra, Thank you for a comprehensive demonstration of a twisted ribbon..you have done me a great service and solved a big problem for me..I am certain there are many others whom you have helped….
P.S. I’m from Westerly, R.I. also–just like Sue Palmer!
I was able to see the instructions for the ribbon tangle & am grateful for that, but most of the different tangles are not allowing me any instructions! I’m new to this & looking forward getting into it.
Hi Judy, welcome to Zentangle® and TanglePatterns. Many of the tangles are linked to the artist’s blog for their instructions and if you read each post you will find the link.
Holy cow, I love it
you have the best patterns ever i love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (;
I knew there was a tutorial on ribbons. All I needed to do is look for it and there it is. Just what I want to do for a special ZIA I’m going to do for a Christmas gift.
Thank you sooooooo much for all these incredible tutorials. I’ll be checking back to them often. 😀
I love ribbons too. Clear and inspiring!!
Thanks a ton. Came here after getting to this challenge on ”drawabox” and being very confused because he just skips steps you include here. Its an annoying feeling to know I’m doing something wrong but not know what and you removed that feeling.
Hi HW, however you arrived here, Welcome! Delighted you found Sandra’s tutorial helpful.
great tutorial!
thank you