Welcome to April 2020! What WILL this new month bring us?!
The “seasoned” tanglers among us will recognize that today’s Zenwheel tangle shares DNA with the Zentangle®-originals Huggins and Cadent, as do many fun and interesting tangles. (I’ve attempted to keep track of them on Cadent‘s page.)
Zenwheel is from tangler Melissa Bruce and it’s her first on the site.
Melissa introduces herself,
I’m from Albuquerque, NM. I got into Zentangle® when I saw pictures a friend was creating, and it reminded me so much of pictures my late brother would draw.
It got me excited to create and express myself so I jumped in and have been tangling ever since.
This is Melissa’s monotangle representation of Zenwheel.
Just for fun I smudged little graphite spots around the edges on my example to mimic the first step of Zenwheel. If you just take a quick glance at the remaining steps you might think all six of the strokes “take off and land” on the center dot. But look closer at Step 3 and you’ll see that the alternate strokes actually meet (or leave) the Step 2 strokes part the way up. This minor difference affects the end result! Take it from the voice of “took a quick glance” experience 😉
Melissa illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Zenwheel below,
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 melissab for more of Melissa’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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Laughter is the Best Medicine
Today’s smile is courtesy of Marion “Martie” Kyde of Tinicum Township, Bucks County PA, who writes that her “very most favorite tangle is Cadent“, making this a perfect fit with today’s Zenwheel.
Martie writes, “I went out to gather ramps this morning, and these words just popped into my head. It is not great literary poetry, but maybe a little upbeat and appropriate for the times we’re in. Use it if you think it may make someone smile.”
Flowers in Spring, by Marion Kyde
I went to my window this morning –
The forest floor burgeoned with green.
I opened the frame to look into
The prettiest landscape I’ve seen
Daffodils here and hellebore there,
Bloodroot, anemones, squills –
It was almost enough to make me forget
The pandemic and all of its ills
The plague will still be here tomorrow.
How long after that we can’t know,
But depending on sunshine and weather
A succession of flowers will grow.
Life after Covid will surely be changed.
Who knows what the future will bring?
But one thing I’m fairly confident of —
There will always be flowers in spring!
So lovely, so heartwarming!
And if this wasn’t just perfect timing … my sweet sister Carol took this gorgeous photo a few days ago from one of her daily walks in Niagara-on-the-Lake (known as NOTL by locals). Carol’s photo goes so well with Martie’s poem and I have her permission to share this glorious still life with Ontario spring crocuses with you.
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Related Links
- 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.
- What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
- Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
- 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.
- 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.
- "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?
- How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
- 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.
- 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!
- 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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How to submit your pattern to TanglePatterns
Everyone is invited to submit patterns, you do NOT need to be a CZT. In order for patterns to be considered for TanglePatterns.com 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:
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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This one looks like fun. And, it’s pretty. Thanks
Love it! Completing this tangle makes me feel so clever. Thank you for the tangle– and congratulations for having your first on TanglePatterns!
Thank you Linda, thank you Martie and thank you Melissa, this tangle looks good!!!
Loved the poem. It will go on my scrapbook page with flowers and covid-19 info!
This is beautiful. I will definitely use the as the center of a zendala. Thanks for sharing.
The poem is wonderful! Very timely.
Love the zenwheel Melissa. Going to be my afternoon play. Thanks for sharing.
This is a tricky one to do. You really have to put your ‘zentangle boots’ on but, oh so gratifying when it’s finished…everything zentangle is meant to be!!!
I will definitely be trying this one. It looks lovely.
Thank you for the poem. Even though we in SA are heading for winter, there is still beauty to be found in Nature
Stay safe everyone.
The poem lifted my spirits! I shared it, along with a spring flowers image, with 500 people.
Thanks Sandi, I sure hope you shared the link to this page too 🙂
Melissa I love, love, love your Zenwheel. I will tangle all patterns that have a Cadent’s feel to them. Since I am home (as are most people, I hope) I am playing with this today. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Linda.
Everyone stay safe and well
I can’t wait to try this one!
This one took me 2 tries to get it correct. It was a little more difficult than I first thought. The 2nd time I drew it was a much better result. Thank you so much for sharing this tangle!
A beautiful pattern! Thank you for sharing!
Fun pattern!
thanks so much for this pattern