How to draw L’S

Hello there friends and a very happy Friday to ya!

As we’re quietly recovering from yesterday’s celebrations — and enjoying our delicious leftovers — let’s also have some fun with Canadian tangler Cyndi Knapp’s L’s tangle.

This is the second tangle this week that makes use of the letter L for its construction.

Cyndi writes,

Checking my morning online feed, I came across an architectural photo with a tiny glimpse of intriguing wallpaper … that’s all I needed to create this fun Notan pattern. It was named L’s for it’s multiple use of the “L” shape. A very simple pattern but the opposing colours and/or lines may require a bit of concentration as you get into it.

In this Zendala Cyndi includes the Zentangle-orginal Striping (visit the link to CZT Margaret Bremner’s Striping with a Twist tutorial on that page).

Cyndi illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing L’s below. She gives us tips and explains the different versions she demonstrates using columns in the Zentangle® example below the steps:

L’s turned out to be more versatile than I thought. Not only can you vary the number of lines in Step #3 and use it as a border but you can transform it from a Notan to an Op Art pattern by tangling it solely in black on white.

Regardless of how it’s tangled, the backbone of this pattern is Step #2 as illustrated in the Zentangle. From the left column to the right:

1. The fundamentals of Step #2 in grid form.
2. Op Art variation 1 – Step #2 lines tangled in the same direction.
3. The intended Notan pattern.
4. Op Art variation 2 – Step #2 lines tangled in the opposite direction.

Note, the shaded areas of the two variations are to draw your attention to their illusory zig zag effect, as well as the addition of the diamond effect in variation 2.

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. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining what copyright means in plain English. “Always let your conscience be your guide.” ~ Jiminy Cricket

Here are Cyndi’s tips for tangling L’s:

• To stay focused, tangle all of one step before moving on to the next step.
• In a grid, try drawing Step #2 as a continuous line instead of square by square.
• For the Op Art variations – Once Step#2 is established, note the alternating ” [ ” shapes that span two squares (see Zentangle column #1 and ZIA Collage #1 below). These are more easily and uniformly tangled as one instead of square by square.

In this Zendala, Cyndi demonstrates L’s “in the round”:

In this image, she shows a progression collage of how she tangled the above Zendala tile:

Check out the tag cyndik for more of Cyndi’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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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.
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