How to draw SQLAP

Hello my tangling friends, lovely to see you again.

I don’t know about where you are but even here on Florida’s Treasure Coast we’ve had some pretty cold-for-Florida weather these last couple of weeks. Fortunately for us the cold is usually accompanied by wonderful sunshine but it’s definitely weather I’ll be glad to see the back of.

Our last tangle for this week is called Sqlap and it’s from Chinese CZT Kaman Iu. This is her first tangle on the site.

Kaman, from Macau, China, introduces herself:

I learned about the Zentangle® Method in 2014, and it became a part of my life since 2017, after I joined the class by Vibian Kou CZT (Macau) and became a CZT myself in 2019.

I love and enjoy tangling as a simple drawing method, but the most attractive thing to me is the characteristics and philosophy behind the Zentangle® Method which has many metaphors for life, for examples, no mistakes and elegance of limits.

She tells us about her Sqlap tangle,

In the process of daily tangling, I was inspired by this pattern. I particularly enjoy the layered and three-dimensional effect with shadows playing a significant role.

I named it “SQLAP” because the pattern intuitively consists of several overlapping squares. Upon deconstructing the basic drawing, I realized there are numerous possibilities for variation, such as transforming squares into other shapes.

I tried searching for a tangle like this on TanglePatterns.com, and I found two tangles ’Brella and Palrevo. While they share some similarities, they are different.

For me Sqlap falls into the category of “focus tangles”, ones where mindfulness is the watchword and a bit of precision needed. As I was doing a couple of trial runs, I realized Sqlap‘s strokes can be spaced/placed by thinking about 1/4 and 1/2. By that I mean if you look at Step 1, the strokes come in from the corner and end at 1/4 of the grid square’s width. Step 3’s strokes extend down from the 1/2 way mark of the grid square. And Step 4 extends from the 1/2 way point of each base … Maybe too much analysis??

Kaman illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Sqlap below and demonstrates a variety of interesting ways to explore it. Her second tile is a duotangle with a touch of Wyfore.

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. For more information, click on the image for a discussion entitled “Artists for Respect” by several prominent artists. “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” ~ C.S. Lewis

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 kamani for more of Kaman’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.
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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