How to draw MOLYGON and ARTICULATED MOLYGON

Molygon is the latest tangle from Maria Thomas at Zentangle® HQ all the way up there in Whitinsville, MA. Molygon becomes #152 on my list of “official tangles”, aka Zentangle-originals.

For me it’s always exciting to get a new tangle from Zentangle, you know they’re going to be “different” in a creative and unusual way.

Maria writes,

As I was working on refining this new tangle, I looked up the definition of a polygon, ‘a plane figure with at least 3 (straight) sides and angles, usually more than 4.’

I immediately got very excited that I had invented the first ever 2-sided polygon. Of course, you must ignore the part about the straight lines and angles!

How did this tangle get its name? Ah, there’s a cute story about that too but you’ll have to read about it in the newsletter.

I was prepping dinner of an evening shortly after Molygon was introduced to the CZT community a few weeks ago and look what I spied. Out came the camera and I took this photo of Mother Nature’s version of Molygon. 🙂

Maria writes,

“Molygon offers a new kind of grid, a shape to fill with the beautiful and simple, or the complex and wild . . . tipple, knightsbridge, stripings, perfs, crescent moon, or anything your hearts desire.”

Molygon is easy and interesting to draw but even with Maria’s advice in my head, I couldn’t make up my mind how I wanted to fill it for my example. After drawing many iterations of the new tangle filled with all kinds of simple or wild things, some with pointy ends and some with rounded ends, I eventually decided I liked this “molygon grid” as my blank slate. Then I sat with it for a bit as I contemplated the possibilities. Eventually I went with one of Maria’s examples, how could I not? (But isn’t it cool all on its own?)

Maria illustrates the steps for drawing Molygon here in the latest newsletter. The newsletter has examples of wonderful ways Rick, Maria and Molly have played with this tangle. Lots of inspiration for you there.

Enjoy!

Update December 19, 2017 – Project Pack #02. As part of the Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2017 Edition, in this Day 9 video (12:14) Maria splices together a tan and a black Bijou tile then mirrors her tangling on either side, featuring the tangle Molygon.

UPDATE December 6, 2018 – Project Pack #04. As part of the Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2018 Edition series, in this Day 4 video starting at 01:18 Maria demonstrates how to tangle Molygon.

Exploring Articulated Molygon

Update: October 29, 2018 – As part of their Kitchen Table Tangles series, Rick and Maria publish videos available on the paid version of the Mosaic App and this one appeared there in March. Today they publicly released this KTT Video called Articulated Molygon. To view the list of all the KTT videos, visit the ZENTANGLES > ZENTANGLE KTT VIDEOS page on the top menu bar.

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UPDATE September 27, 2020 – Project Pack #11. As part of the Fee-PHI-Fo-Fun! project pack, Maria tangles Molygon on her Phi tile.

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UPDATE August 19, 2024 – Project Pack #24. As part of the Crescent Moon and Aura project pack, Rick tangles Molygon, Crescent Moon and Flux in this video:

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For a complete list of Zentangle’s Project Packs click the PROJECT PACKS link in the pink alphabetic tangle menu bar.

Check out the tag zentangle for more Zentangle®-original 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.
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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