How to draw AMPHORA

Earlier this year Hungarian tangler Lily Moon shared this String with the Zentangle® community and today she’s back with a lovely tangle, Amphora. This is Lily’s first tangle pattern on the site.

Aptly named, Amphora: “a tall ancient Greek or Roman jar with two handles and a narrow neck … The Latin word derived from the Greek amphoreus, a shortened form of amphiphoreus, a compound word combining amphi- (“on both sides”, “twain”) plus phoreus (“carrier”), from pherein (“to carry”), referring to the vessel’s two carrying handles on opposite sides.”  Clever and creative tangle name.

Lily tells us a little about herself,

I met Zentangle® on the web – completely accidentally.

I really like to draw and Zentangle became my real passion. Unfortunately my son has autism and he requires a lot of relaxation and quiet. – So when he relaxes, I do tangling.

Zentangle has changed my life. I’m more relaxed and balanced, and I’ve got lots of sense of achievement.

Although technically Lily shows three-steps-in-one as her Step 1 for drawing Amphora, it’s easy to decipher.

Amphora begins with a dot grid, which I then connected up with the vertical line strokes, and then enlarged the dots into tiny diamond shapes using the vertical line to align their tops and bottoms.

Next Lily’s Step 2, adding the wavy lines becomes easy with the diamonds as guides, and then (Step 3) the final decorative touch of curlicues finishes it off nicely. Lily shows a couple of different variations with her instructions, I simply added a bit of graphite fill smoothed out with my trusty tortillion. I love doing that part!

Lily illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Amphora here on her blog (click on the steps image for a larger size). Lily also features Amphora in a beautiful Zentangle with some other familiar tangles. While you’re there be sure to admire her blog header showcasing more of her lovely Zentangle art.

Update September 2019: There appears to be a technical issue with Lily’s blog so until it gets resolved here are Lily’s steps for your convenience. Kindly do not pin or post elsewhere.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining what copyright means in plain English. “Always let your conscience be your guide.” ~ Jiminy Cricket

Check out the tag lilym for more of Lily’s tangles 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 ?
   • Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
7. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
8. For lots of great FREE tutorials on TanglePatterns, click on the TUTORIALS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page.
9. Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
10. Never miss a tangle! FREE eMAIL NEWSLETTER - visit the SUBSCRIBE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site and sign up to get notices delivered free to your inbox.

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