With the continuing heartache caused by Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas plus Typhoon Mangkhut, an even stronger storm in the Philippines and China, I needed a super, SUPER easy Monday tangle.
CZT Angie Gittles’s Lex tangle fits the requirement absolutely perfectly.
Lex is Angie’s third tangle on the site, she’s previously shared her Deeday and Flog tangles with us.
There are some tanglers who dismiss or avoid grid tangles and I think that’s a real shame. They’re missing out on the zenful comfort of the methodical construction of this type of tangle.
It matters not that your grid lines are straight because they disappear into the pattern. And as I’ve often noted, deliberately (or not) making wonky lines can add unusual interest to a tangle. Grid-based tangles fill up a tile so easily too. They shouldn’t be overlooked.
As Rick and Maria note in The Book of Zentangle,
“If a tangle feels awkward, stay with it and watch what happens.
Many tanglers assume they won’t enjoy a particular tangle, but after playing with it, it becomes their favorite.“
Lex is a very easy grid-based tangle that takes variations in shading wonderfully as Angie demonstrates in her Zentangle® tile. I also see fun possibilities for embellishment, especially with and around those little orb “stoppers” of Step 5. And what about some colorful ZIA opportunities? Sakura’s lovely, glittery Stardust Gelly Roll pens come to mind …
Angie illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Lex in a simple duotangle with the Zentangle-original tangle Onamato:
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. For more information, click on the image for a discussion entitled “Artists for Respect” by several prominent artists. “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” ~ C.S. Lewis
As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your comment helps motivate them to continue to share!
Check out the tag angieg for more of Angie’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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- "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.
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September 17, 2018 | 
More like this: 
I, too, really needed an easy and straight grid-based tangle, after Florence’s appearance here in NC. All of my tangles last week reflected her spinning, “take-off-and-land” look. Thanks for a nice and easy straight tangle.
A perfect little pattern. Easy and fun to do. I can see it already on Christmas cards…lots of possibilities, thanks Angie and as always, Linda.
uncomplicated but nice tangle!
Reminds me of the jacks I played with so many year ago
What fun and so easy too.
I liked this tangle. When i added the shading, it took it up a notch. Thank you for sharing!