How to draw UNI

Uni is a simple and very pretty tangle pattern to get you going for your Monday from West Virginia tangler Beth Snoderly.

Beth has shared several great tangles with us over the past couple of years and you can locate them by clicking on her tag, beths, in the TANGLES BY ARTIST section in the left sidebar. Also, tags for tangles are always located in the “Date Bar” at the bottom of their page just above the “Leave a reply” box for comments, as shown in this screen capture:

At the bottom of any pattern page you can click these live links and you will be taken to a page listing all the tangles on TanglePatterns.com sharing that particular tag.

Now getting back to Uni. It is similar in concept to earlier tangles like Worms, and later Mr. E. It’s got a lovely organic feel to it and it grows just however you feel like making it. It also reminds me of designs in the very colorful and intricate paperweights and beads of Italian millefiore glass.

For my example I’ve turned Uni around — no right side up in Zentangle® . I also added the “vein” stroke Beth shows in the variation at the top left of her Zentangle example below and I added a tad of shading.

Uni starts out as a bunch of parenthesis strung together with a bunch of closing parenthesis strung together making a string of oblong shapes. Then over top of each parenthesis another is added but further out so it grows as you go.

After each round add teardrop shapes on both sides of the parenthesis. I usually add a row to the top and bottom (or both sides depending on how you draw it) then add the teardrops. Then add as many rows as your space allows. Finishing with a teardrop where the parenthesis meet and a rounder teardrop shape inside of the original oblong shapes.

I like to use shading with Uni to really make it pop. Depending on how wide you make your rows you can get different effects. I like to try and make each parenthesis in each row different widths that way it really gets an organic feel to it.  If you use just one row (top and bottom) Uni makes a pretty border.

I named it Uni because it reminded me of the sea urchin we found at the beach a few years ago. Uni can be used as a border or as a fill. It just depends on how many rows of parenthesis shapes you add to it.

Beth illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Uni below and she’s also sent along two ZIA’s demonstrating ways you can play with Uni, including her fluorescent-colored meeting Post-It® versions: “I have been tangling at work and have used post it notes to suffice while in meetings. Somehow sneaking my journal pages in a meeting isn’t as easy as the much smaller post it notes.”

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may use this image for your personal non-commercial reference only. Republishing or redistributing pattern deconstructions in any form is prohibited under law without express permission of the copyright owner.

Beth’s first example of Uni.

Beth’s second example features her own Blink tangle, and a little of the official Nzeppel.

Beth’s third example of Uni.

Check out the tag beths for more of Beth’s patterns on TanglePatterns.com.

Related Links

1. Looking for tangles by Artist or Type? For details visit the ABOUT > HOW TO FIND TANGLES BY ARTIST OR TYPE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
2. What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
3. Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
4. How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
5. Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
6. "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Thus patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
   • Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
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