Hi there my tangling friends, and welcome back for another week of Zentangle® pattern adventures 🙂
Congratulations are in order to each of the new CZT#41 folks who just wrapped up their 4-day online training sessions today. Another fine group of Zentangle enthusiasts become new teachers to help spread the Zentangle love!
Our super easy and kinda striking Monday tangle, Culdesac is from Texas CZT Suzanne McNeill. Suzanne has a ton of tangles and video tutorials on the site so be sure to check them out (see the Related Links section below for a how-to).
In English and French the word cul-de-sac means a dead end street: “a street or passage that is closed at one end”. According to Google Translate cul-de-sac in German translates to sackgasse, in Spanish it’s calle sin salida, and Dutch it’s doodlopende straat.
Suzanne’s tangles often have a notan look to them and Culdesac fits right into that category.
Notan: ‘The combination of lights and darks especially as used in Japanese art: the design or pattern of a work of art as seen in flat areas of dark and light values only.” ~ Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Culdesac is from Suzanne’s Zentangle 7 – Inspiring Circles, Zendalas & Shapes booklet originally released in November 2012 then updated in 2014. Check out the BOOK REVIEWS > ZENTANGLE 7 page on the top menu bar for more about this publication.
Fox Chapel Publishing (who hold the copyright) and Suzanne have graciously given me permission to post her copyright-protected images on TanglePatterns for your reference.
Suzanne illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Culdesac below. It could be fun to explore some simple variations by changing the curves in Step 1 to angular lines including open-ended triangles, squares or rectangles. Or hearts, or ??? … 🙂
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
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 suzannem for more of Suzanne’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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.
- 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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September 25, 2023 | 
More like this: 
Thanks for sharing this one. Looks fun.
This falls into the category of “But of course. Why didn’t I think of that!” Thank you, Suzanne, for your inspiration.