How to draw JESTERZ

Greetings all and a hearty welcome to 2015! I’ve already got a lot of great new tangles lined up for you, so let’s get going …

We start the year and our week off with Jesterz, a fun new tangle from Toledo, Ohio. More accurately from Julia Ross of Toledo, Ohio, and Jesterz is Julia’s first tangle pattern on the site.

Toledo, we learn from Wikipedia, “is known as the Glass City because of its long history of innovation in all aspects of the glass industry: windows, bottles, windshields, construction materials, and glass art, of which the Toledo Museum of Art has a large collection. Several large glass companies have their origins here. Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning, Libbey Glass, Pilkington North America (formerly Libbey Owens Ford), and Therma-Tru have long been a staple of Toledo’s economy. Other off-shoots and spinoffs of these companies also continue to play important roles in Toledo’s economy.”

Julia writes,

“I’ve been rather obsessed with ‘tangling’ for about 6 months now. It is very relaxing and helpful in being able to draw a straight line as well as other symbols and shapes very precisely.”

There are many, many (many!) tangles whose lineage starts with the Zentangle®-original tangle Cadent. And Jesterz is also one of those.

If you aren’t yet familiar with Cadent, be sure to visit its page where you’ll find links to several other Cadent-based tangles on the site and to a fantastic tutorial from Canadian CZT Margaret Bremner, “Cadent and then some”. You’ll also learn the playful way that Rick and Maria came up with its name.

Like Cadent, Jesterz uses the “I learned it from” Zentangle technique of “take off and land“. This is where you retrace a small part of a shape and the stroke takes off from there and lands on another shape.

You can see this in Step 2 of Julia’s instructions below where you retrace a small part of the central orb and “land” on the outlying dots/orbs. This take-off-and land technique helps give the desired curve to the stroke as a continuation of the original orb shape. For it to work well, be sure to take your time and place your pen nib directly on the original line before you “take off”.

Remember to turn your tile so your hand is in the most comfortable position for drawing each deliberate stroke.

In my example of Jesterz I played with a small variation. I like how this tangle has a playful look to it and you can chain them in all directions and vary the sizes, or simply use a row of them as a border.

Julia illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Jesterz below and in her monotangle she includes several simple ways to vary it including thick and thin versions and some suggested “fills”. In two of her Jesterz motifs Julia uses a bit of the official tangle Knightsbridge to give the Harlequin-like look to Jesterz. Enjoy!

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. For more information, click on the image for a discussion entitled “Artists for Respect” by several prominent artists.

Check out the tag juliar for more of Julia’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
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11. If you have questions about the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site for COMPLETE details!

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