How to draw KEYSTONE

Keystone is from CZT Dennie York and it’s her first tangle pattern on the site.

Located just north of Albuquerque in Placitas, New Mexico, Dennie offers Zentangle® classes in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Santa Fe.

“I live outside of Albuquerque, NM with my husband and 2 dog-boys. I have a background in computers: programming and sales, but in 1995 I put that aside (except for trying to keep my hand in with websites and blogs!), and became immersed in woodworking with a scrollsaw. That has kept my attention almost exclusively until a good friend introduced me to Zentangle®. I haven’t been able to stop since and just had to go to the CZT training in August 2012 to absorb as much as possible. It was a wonderful few days, especially because my sister was there, too.”

In architecture, “A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight.” Wikipedia

Dennie writes that her Keystone is “a pretty easy one, but seems to me that it lends itself to many variations. … I found the basic pattern on a bedspread at a friend’s house. There were many patterns in rows on this throw, but this one called out to be ‘deconstructed’.”

Dennie’s version of Keystone is a ribbon (or border) tangle and in her first example she uses it as a lovely frame around the tile which includes the Zentangle-originals ‘Nzeppel and Knightsbridge, and she added shading to give Keystone a 3D contour. For my example I used one of her variations and placed several rows of Keystone back-to-back to create an all-over design as Dennie has done in her third tile.

Dennie illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Keystone here on her blog. As you will see when you click on Dennie’s steps image to get the larger version to download, she includes several ways to vary her tangle. Update August 2022: Dennie’s blog is misbehaving so until she gets the link fixed, here for your convenience are her steps.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or rsepublished. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) 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 denniey for more of Dennie’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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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!
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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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