How to draw SHIRL

Ohio tangler Joan Stark is on a roll creating new tangles.

Just a few weeks ago {although it feels like an age now, right? – a lot has happened!} we explored Joan’s 2 Diamonds + a Rice.

Her latest, Shirl, is so-named “after Shirley Temple and my mother,” Joan writes.

As an aside, Shirl is also a masculine name — my sweetie Robert’s late and much-loved uncle was named Shirl. As yesterday was Robert’s birthday, I shall think of this tangle as a tribute to this sweet and very funny gentleman Shirl Farmer of the village of Barwell in Leicestershire, UK. Here’s to all the Shirl’s and Shirley’s everywhere!

Joan continues,

Shirl is similar to Coil and Shirley but very different.

I think you’ll find it easy when you realize it’s only 3 shapes (S’s, insides, and hatching).

The shapes are attached to each other at their points to adjoining mid-sections. This part is important so you can get the insides to look right.

I find creating them in one continuous movement to be very zen. However if people are still working on trying to draw the shape, it can accomplished with 2 flat reverse “S”s touching at each end.

It can be a border, a ribbon, or just Hollibaugh a handful of them (like on my step-out).

I’ve also been told that it looks like there are pearls between the shapes — that can be. I didn’t intend for it. LOL

As Joan demonstrates, Shirl can either be constructed with a continuous stroke or by creating back-to-back S shapes, or reverse S shapes depending on which way you want them to face. I used shading in place of Step 5’s hatching, just a personal preference but anything goes! 🙂 There are many ways you can embellish or decorate the insides too but the basic Shirl looks very cool as is.

Joan illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Shirl-the-tangle below including her “Hollibaugh-ed” example that “kinda looks like a telephone cord — I’m showing my age here!“:

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 republished. Thank you for respecting these rights. For more information, click on the image for the article “Copyrights and your blog.” “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” ~ Albus Dumbledore

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 joans for more of Joan’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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Laughter is the Best Medicine

Courtesy of my UK brother-in-law …

SHARE! SHARE! SHARE! for all of us in the community who don’t do social media (there are many, including me) if you’ve seen something funny that “takes the mickey” out of our current sticky situation and you’d like to give a smile to your Zentangle friends, email the image (with credits if at all possible) to me (linda@tanglepatterns.com) using the subject line “Laughter is the best medicine” and I’ll select the best ones to add to the upcoming posts for a while. Let’s see what you’ve got!

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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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Share your tangle on TanglePatterns

Everyone is invited to share patterns on TanglePatterns.com, you do NOT need to be a CZT. In order for patterns to be considered for publication they must be submitted to me by email. In other words you have to let me know about them.

For a submission to qualify as a tangle it must be a genuine pattern (“a repeated decorative design”) and not “a thing to draw”.

From The Book of Zentangle:

“Keep it Non-representational. Zentangle artwork is intended to be non-representational. Zentangle’s elemental strokes are also non-representational.

We don’t teach complex elements such as hearts, stars or flowers. Tangles are also non-representational.”

Remember that tangles never start with pencil planning.

"A tangle has no pre-planning with pencil guidelines, grids or dots, no erased lines."

If you need a refresher on what makes a tangle, read the A PATTERN IS NOT ALWAYS A TANGLE page on the ZENTANGLES menu bar at the top of any page.

For details on how to submit your pattern for consideration visit the SUBMIT YOUR PATTERN page on the top menu bar of any page on the site. On that menu you will find these two pages:

1. 1. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns, and
   2. Why hasn't my pattern been published?

The first page includes instructions on how to prepare and send your JPGs. (Please save me time and do not send PDFs). It also includes a link to this PDF submission form.

When your examples include additional tangles from the site, please list them in your email. (This saves me time and my memory some wear and tear.)

If your pattern is posted on your blog, attach your steps and tile JPGs to your email and be sure your email includes the direct URL so I can link to it.

And remember, to quote Zentangle's co-founders Rick and Maria: tangles should be "magical, simple and easy to create", non-objective patterns of repetitive strokes that are easy to teach and offer a high degree of success to tanglers of all ages.

"Keep the tangles as little like 'drawing something' as possible."

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