How to draw FEELING KNOTTY

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Today we’re adding Canadian CZT Cherryl Moote’s Feeling Knotty, a tangle inspired by Celtic knot-work. This is Cherryl’s first tangle on the site.

And as it’s St. Patrick’s Day, I morphed one of her variations into a shamrock-like version!

Cherryl is located in Toronto, Ontario, and according to her CZT profile and her blog:

“Cherryl Moote is an artist actively pursuing interests in bookbinding, calligraphy, Zentangle®, paper crafts, beading and fibre arts. She has written a number of instructional books about bookbinding, paper crafting and creativity.

Cherryl teaches for guilds, stores and interest groups and she has been an instructor and lecture presentor at the international calligraphy conventions many times since 2001.”

Cherryl writes,

“Long before Zentangle, way back in the early 80s, one of the ways I relaxed was to draw Celtic knots. … They’ve become second nature to me but I know they aren’t for many of you. So, as we head into the ‘Irish’ month I want to share a knotting process that really simplifies the process. “

Celtic knot-work is usually a gray/grey area when it comes to whether a pattern qualifies as a tangle, and generally they don’t. Usually they are a complex series of steps (not “magical, simple and easy to create“) and often begin with a pencil structure, which as we well know is not Zentangle®. As I’ve noted in the past, “Celtic knots are not usually tangles because they are too complex to ‘be drawn as a tangle’, often requiring planning, penciled guidelines and erasures.”

When Cherryl posted her pattern I really wasn’t sure about it but I enjoyed her videos and she made them appear simple enough. Having practiced a bit, I’ve decided to go with it. But it will take a good while before they become second nature to me.

About St. Patrick’s Day and the shamrock:

Saint Patrick’s Day is observed on 17 March, the supposed date of his death.

Legend credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God. … The shamrock has since become a central symbol for St Patrick’s Day. ~ Wikipedia

[[Am I the only one who’s creeped out when people refer to St. Patrick as St. Paddy? It feels so disrespectful to me. (St. Auggy? Pope Pauly? Pope Johnny?  ^shiver^ ) Just wondering.]]

Cherryl illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Feeling Knotty, and two pretty variations she calls Simply Knotty and Extra Knotty here on her blog where she includes an excellent video for each one and lovely examples on Zentangle tiles as well as the steps for you to download.

More tangles celebrating the “Luck o’ the Irish” can be found on the site here: Sh’rock (technicality: four-leaf clover, not a shamrock) by CZT Diane Lachance, Sláinte by Kate McIlreavy, Lukiline by CZT Mary Masi, and Lucky by CZT Adele Bruno.

As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please do leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours.

Check out the tag cherrylm for more of Cherryl’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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