How to draw DEN-DEN — and TanglePatterns Turns Sixteen!

Welcome my dear tangling friends!

The date is May the 4th and TanglePatterns is another year older — it’s our 16th Tangleversary !

Today marks sixteen wonderful years of sharing Zentangle® learning, creativity, fun and inspiration with you.

This unique Zentangle resource exists because of all of us. With a world of thanks to Maria and Rick for the amazing gift of Zentangle, to the wonderful Zentangle artists who share their beautiful tangle deconstructions, and to our incredible worldwide community for keeping the site going with your contributions and for your comments and encouragement. Treasures all! And naturally a special thanks to Robert, my biggest fan and my Sweetie of 53 years 🙂

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s a joy and an honor to be part of your Zentangle journey. Thanks for celebrating this milestone with me! xoxo

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And now for today’s fun and easy addition to our creative resource as we head into our seventeenth year.

Japanese CZT Yuko Owada shares her sweet ribbon-style Den-den tangle with us today and it’s her first on the site.

Yuko introduces Den-den and explains how it comes by its name:

The name “Den-den” comes from the word “den-den-mushi”, a children’s word for snail in Japanese.

This tangle is very simple and easy-to-draw, and it leads you anywhere!

The spiral shape can be a circle, a triangle, or a square, and the ‘leaf’ parts can also be arranged into various shapes and in any number you like.

Basically, you draw alternating counterclockwise and clockwise spirals, but if you want a concentric feel, perhaps keep them all in the same direction.

Yuko illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Den-den below with some ideas for fun variations to try out, including the concentric she mentions. And I always love the quirky “angular” versions of the Printemps spiral.

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. Republishing images isn’t allowed. Thanks!

Check out the tag yukoo for more of Yuko’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." 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 Here's how to SUBSCRIBE button (top of left sidebar on any page) 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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