How to draw TAHONA

Hello again my tangling friends!

So good to enjoy your company for another week of fresh tangle inspiration …

Today’s easy Monday tangle is named Tahona and it’s another from Maryland CZT Angie Gittles. Tahona is her 22nd tangle on the site!

I always enjoy seeing Angie’s mail in my inbox because I know she’s sharing a tangle that’s totally in keeping with the Zentangle Method™ intention of a non-representational structured pattern composed of 2 or 3 simple repeated strokes.

Non-representational: not resembling or portraying any object in physical nature.

Pattern: any regularly repeated arrangement, especially a design made from repeated lines, shapes, or colors on a surface

Quoting Zentangle co-founder Maria Thomas, “A pattern is not always a tangle.” All too frequently “patterns” are promoted as tangles when they’re more “some thing to draw” rather than a genuine pattern (“a repeated decorative design”). Angie never disappoints in deconstructing actual tangles. Be sure to check out more of her tangles on the site, including her recent “dotty” series.

She introduces her latest:

Tahona is an easy tessellation tangle. It can be a border, or it can be stacked. I’m sure there are a few more things that can be done with it, and I look forward to seeing what other tanglers do.

I grew up on “Tahona Drive” from the early 60s to the early 80s. Many of the street names in my area were derived from Native American words, Tahona Drive, Cherokee Lane, Navaho Drive, Chickasaw Drive, etc. However, I cannot find any historical reference to “Tahona” as it relates to Maryland, and I think maybe it was a phonetic spelling or maybe even a misspelling of Tahoma or Tacoma or something.

I did find other references to the word, such as it’s a large, heavy stone used to crush agave when making Tequila (before modern distilleries). I also found reference to 18th century Afro-Cuban music. I guess I’ll never know for sure.

In the spirit of Zentangle’s “no up or down”, I’ve rotated my Tahona example 90° – amazing how different this can make a tangle look. I used Angie’s black-white-gray fill but there are more ways you can explore an interesting combination of fills for Tahona.

Angie illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Tahona below where she includes a minimalist monotangle Zentangle® tile. As Angie notes with her Obelus tangle,

Sometimes I think it is important to work with an easy pattern.

Sometimes it’s just what you need if you are in a tangle slump and need a jump-starter.

Just take an easy pattern and do a monotangle on the whole tile. I love doing monotangle tiles!

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

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Check out the tag angieg for more of Angie’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.

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