How to draw BLINKT

Happy Friday, y’all.

Before we get started with today’s fun tangle I’d like to warmly welcome new tanglers who have discovered Zentangle® and TanglePatterns.com in recent days and weeks. We are delighted to have you aboard and look forward to your participation in the comments.

If you are totally new to this wonderful art form, there are many resources available on the site. You will eventually discover these by exploring the tabs on the menu bar at the top of every page, and also the various categories included in the pink alphabetic tangle menu bar, like STRINGS and TUTORIALS for example.

I especially encourage you to visit the STORIES tab. There you will find inspirational stories written by tanglers in our Zentangle community describing how Zentangle has changed their lives. (BTW, I look forward to more contributions to these Stories as we all deal with Covid-19. The “how to submit” details are included on each of story page.)

Usually we get a new influx of tanglers at the beginning of each year when Christmas gifts of Zentangle products and books lead people to TanglePatterns.com. So as is my tradition, at that time I share a post called Tangles for Beginners. Here is a link to this past January 2020’s edition, you might find that a helpful starting point.

So again, my warmest welcome and big cyber hugs to you, and let’s get on with today’s tangle!

This is a fun one I rediscovered while reviewing my archives recently, Blinkt is from German CZT Jennifer Hohensteiner.

Blinkt is Jennifer’s seventh tangle on the site, all of them good ones although I have to say Exis and Tootle are personal favorites.

Jennifer explains how this versatile tangle “appeared”:

One morning I was still lying in bed in the dark room when my dear son came in and threw on the overhead light. I closed my eyes…and saw a very cool pattern on the back of my eyelids.

(You know you’ve got the Zentangle bug in a bad way when you start deconstructing patterns on the backs of your eyelids…what’s next, floaters? Hmmm…)

Anyway, this developed from that, although the original was much wilder – and in fact the little sticks glowed (don’t know how to deconstruct that!)… and that’s why I called it “Blinkt”.

The regularity of this pattern is its irregularity. The angular lines in step 1 should not (necessarily) echo each other. The Little sticks in step 2 should be at haphazard angles to each other.

And I personally also like to fill in the spaces randomly – with solid black, or lines, or just thicken a few of the lines.

This is one of those tangles you don’t have to think about and with its random nature it comes out different every single time you tangle it. Changing the scale and/or adding ZIA color would also make for some interesting variations. I really like the clean graphic quality of the graphite and ink version myself.

On flickr, look for this arrow in the lower right corner of your screen to download the steps.

Jennifer illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Blinkt here on her flickr account. Blinkt has many opportunities for variation and makes a very nice ribbon-style tangle too.

UPDATE: Some people are having problems accessing flickr so Jennifer has generously given me permission to add her steps image here for your convenience.

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 thanks helps motivate them to continue to share!

Check out the tag jenniferh for more of Jennifer’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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Laughter is the Best Medicine

Wasn’t this the 2020 truth?!

I couldn’t resist this one too, another contribution from Joan Stark:

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Enjoy the weekend my friends … and remember to keep all the front line folks like delivery services and supermarkets, and especially the first responders and health care workers, in your prayers. Come to think of it, I guess we really need prayers for everyone! Be safe … tangle on.

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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