How to draw TIWA

Hi everyone, welcome back!

Today’s Tiwa tangle is from Belgian CZT Ria Matheussen who’s always on the lookout for inspirational patterns to deconstruct so we can draw them as a tangle.

As a result, we now have 30 of Ria’s tangles on the site!

She writes,

Our bathroom needs an upgrade and while looking for new tiles I was inspired by the pattern on this ceramic wall tile.

It is so simple and Wati didn’t sound good for me, so I chose Tiwa.

I started with the little “squares”, connect them with a straight line and finished with a frame. You can also start with the frame and then draw the squares and the connection line inside. The final result is the same.

As you can see the lines of the squares are a little curved. I like that more than straight lines.

By dividing the squares or by filling them with tiny strokes you get different results… This tangle gives many options: you can use it as a border, straight or in the round or you can use it as a filler by repeating the border, regular (example 2) or irregular (example 1 and my fave).

There are only 3 steps but the tangle needs shadowing for more depth. By adding strokes, filling spaces with pen or pencil… you can achieve many different results.

As there is “no up or down” in Zentangle®, I’ve rotated my Tiwa example and played with alternating fills in the diamond shapes. I found that drawing the “grid” rows first (Step 3) and then adding the diamond shapes was easier for me to get the spacing I wanted.

Ria illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Tiwa below where she includes some ways to use it as ribbon-style tangle, in the round and also as a grid-type of filler tangle. Ria notes, “On my tan tile I have used also Fassett, Garlic Cloves and Fescu. A tiny bit of coloring, a lot of shadow and white charcoal/white gel pen are used for more contrasts.”

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Check out the tag riam for more of Ria’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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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!
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