How to draw STEPS

Steps from Aussie artist Helen Williams is really more of a technique than a tangle pattern, and it’s a fun one to play with.

Helen has several very popular tangles on the site including my favorite Brax, no wait a minute. Leaflet. No wait, ah, Scrolled Feather. Oh heck, I like them all.

As I’ve written before Helen doesn’t “do” Zentangle per se, her art is usually on a much bigger scale and she uses different tools too, for example her shading is usually done with markers. “I use Letraset Tria markers and Pro Markers for colouring.” Thus Zentangle-inspired. And always lovely and totally creative nonetheless.

Steps is so named because it reminded Helen of a spiral staircase. It seems ING-inspired to me and much like Vicki Bassett’s Biscus and Showgirl, Steps has different results depending on whether you use straight lines or curved ones.

The straight line version is similar in technique to Betsy Wilson’s Maryhill with its 7-shaped strokes all meeting at the same point. The curved variation reminds me of Simone Bischoff’s “snail” line lesson (see Lesson 4). There, my brain has been purged of Steps‘ relationships. (Whew, that’s a relief.)

Helen’s step-by-step instructions for drawing Steps are here on her blog. She follows up with several tips and a few ideas for more ways to use her tangle here.

Update 09/04/2015: Helen has added a video, you can also find it here on her blog.

Check out the tag helenw for more of Helen’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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Tangle or Zentangle?

Often Zentangle newbies describe their drawings containing several patterns as "a tangle". Or conversely, refer to a tangle as "a Zentangle". Not so.

A tangle is one (1) single pattern. And there are guidelines about what qualifies as a tangle. For details visit ZENTANGLES > A PATTERN IS NOT ALWAYS A TANGLE on the top menu bar of any page.

A Zentangle is the finished art on a tile containing one or more tangles. A Zentangle containing just one tangle is called a monotangle.

And while we're on the subject of using this wonderful art form's terminology correctly, as for "Zentangling" or "Zentangled" the terms to use are tangling or tangled. 🙂

As described on zentangle.com, "In its verb form 'tangle' means to draw a tangle. You tangle a tangle, and in that process create Zentangle art."

Learn more by visiting the ZENTANGLES > ZENTANGLE TERMINOLOGY page on the top menu bar of any page.

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