How to draw ARO

Greetings y’all! It’s Friday and the last weekend of August. Wow.

The Premier League has begun its new season, soon College Football (the North American kind of football) will be back in full swing, and after a bit of a break the F1 season has resumed and practice rounds begin today for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. [That’s your sports news, no Florida weather updates today 😉 ] Speaking of Belgium …

Belgian CZT Ria Matheussen is back today with her Aro tangle. Friday’s tangle is usually a little more challenging than those from earlier in the week, for me Aro certainly falls into that category. But Ria says, once you get the hang of it, you’re good. Just do not miss her key tip about the spacing of the Tipple orbs!

Ria explains her inspiration for Aro and gives detailed helpful tips on how to tangle it:

Inspired by the old Roman Art (Art Romaine) of the 4th century I deconstructed a new tangle. When I saw a picture of this wonderful mosaic I thought immediately of a new pattern and searched everywhere to found out if it already exists but as far as I know, I don’t think so. The name was easy to choose: Aro (Art Romaine) .

I tried to form Aro in 6 steps and it is not so difficult as it looks at first sight but I have to admit you have to focus well.

That means: when you start to draw, the distance between the Tipple above and the Tipple beneath is also the same measure as the Tipple itself.

In step 2, I start with the curly line on the right. Then I turn my page and draw the curly line on the left.

In step 3, I form the line on the right at height of the Tipple beneath and the line on the left starts at the height of the Tipple above.

In step 4 I simply continue the lines and in step 5 add the inner lines.

Shadowing is very important and makes the tangle pretty (also little “corrections” are possible with some graphite).

As you can see, have made a frame of Aro on a tan colored tile and filled the tangle with Doodah, followed by Verve and Ginili. Many options are possible.

You can just use black/white or color but you can also fill the tangle with other ones.

I have included my own Roman mosaic in a modern version and used besides Aro also the flower of Henna Drum, CO2, Florz and Clob inside Aro.

This Zendala mosaic was easy to make thanks to the wonderful tool of Zentangle® that helps you to divide your tile in different sections. I have chosen for 12. Many variations are possible…

The Zentangle tool Ria refers to is the the Markus Operandus from Project Pack 9, it’s a free download on that page. (A second tool, the Markus Operandus II download is available on the Project Pack 11 page.)

For my example I wanted to replicate the frame from Ria’s Renaissance Tan tile example but my thumbnail size examples are way too small to accomplish that. So I went with a very simple portion of a ribbon.

Ria illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Aro below where she includes a Zendala and a Zentangle ZIA tile demonstrating its effectiveness as a frame, ribbon-style.

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 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 thanks helps motivate them to continue to share! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Thanks!

Check out the tag riam for more of Ria’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.

.oOo.
Enhance your Zentangle experience while supporting TanglePatterns:
CURRENT EDITION! TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, 2024 Edition
	The 13th Edition of the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE is an instant-download 109-page interactive digital eBook/PDF containing approximately 2,000 tangles on the site from May 2010 through December 31, 2023. It's a great resource and a must-have digital tool for using the site. Visit the STORE > E-BOOKS page and help keep TanglePatterns.com going by getting your copy now!
	"Linda, Thank you! I was relying on too few and getting stuck after 3 years of daily working with Zentangle. This has inspired me to ‘begin again’ with renewed excitement." ~ Barbara R.
See the BOOK REVIEWS page for more details on its features and view a sample page. Note: this is a digital product you download immediately when you place your order, nothing will be physically mailed to you.
GIFT ORDERS FOR ANOTHER PERSON: To give the TANGLE GUIDE as a gift, visit this page to place your gift order.
If you're new to Zentangle® and tangling, my TanglePatterns.com BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ZENTANGLE is just what you need to get started. Also available en Français and en Español.
	This is the only Zentangle book you'll ever need: the fabulous Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1. It's your CZT-in-a-book by the founders of Zentangle®. Visit the STORE tab on the top menu bar or click on the image. For more about the content and to read the rave reviews, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab.
NEW! Now available in KINDLE format for $9.99. Spanish Edition here. Japanese Edition here.
"Absolutely the best Zentangle Book yet! As an accomplished artist I used to think I did not need instruction on this art form. How wrong I was! My tangling improved by leaps and bounds after reading this book. If you think you have Zentangle down then you need this book more than ever!" ~ Kris H
.oOo.