How to draw IASWAA

Greetings y’all!

Hope everyone is keeping cool, this summer’s extreme heat has been off the charts everywhere. And then there’s all the terrible flooding from Vermont to Japan. Mother Nature seems to be having a nervous breakdown. All we can do is stay cool and tangle on …

Our tangle of the day is from Florida CZT Rachael Schwartz and Iaswaa is her first on the site.

Rachael introduces herself and her tangle,

I became a CZT in EU-6 … I have taught individuals, families, school staff, corporations, and riverboat travelers. My passion lies in providing people of all ages with this amazing art form to promote self-care and mental wellness. I believe that many of the lessons of Zentangle® are meaningful lessons for everyday life – “There are no mistakes, just opportunities to do something you hadn’t planned.”

The tangle IASWAA (It’s A Small World After All) is a tribute to my mom who has always been my biggest cheerleader and supporter. Her absolute favorite ride in Disney is “It’s a Small World.” Now that I am a tangler, I see patterns absolutely everywhere. While enjoying the ride with her, I noticed this organic image amongst all the other amazing visuals. I appreciate its versatility in that it works beautifully on its own, as a border, and as a string.

Given the steady diet of 4- and 5-“petal” flower submissions arriving in my inbox, flowers are very popular patterns but they’re not always tangles. As an abstract pattern, Iaswaa shares DNA with many of the floral tangles but I’m particularly reminded of CZT Angie Gittles’ Dotty. The very first, and for me the classic 4-petal tangle, is CZT Sandy Bartholomew’s Buttercup from her Totally Tangled book.

For the “contour” shading in my Iaswaa example I liked using just a graphite-laden tortillion for the soft impression it makes. If your tortillion doesn’t have quite enough graphite on it to suit you, simply scribble a small patch of graphite on a scrap of paper and pick up what you need from there.

Rachael illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Iaswaa below and in her tiles she demonstrates its flexibility. In the first Zentangle she uses it as a string and fills it with the Zentangle-originals Mooka, Tipple, Flux, and Striping. In her second tile she uses it as a ribbon/border framing the tile and in the third tile she shows it as a free-form duotangle including Moonpie.

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. “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! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Thanks!

Check out the tag rachaels for more of Rachael’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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Share your tangle on TanglePatterns

Everyone is invited to share patterns on TanglePatterns.com, you do NOT need to be a CZT. In order for patterns to be considered for publication 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:

1. 1. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns, and
   2. Why hasn't my pattern been published?

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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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.
11. If you have questions about the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site for COMPLETE details!

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