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Linda Farmer, Certified Zentangle Teacher

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How to draw MUEHLENZ

Zentangle pattern: Muehlenz. Image © Linda Farmer and TanglePatterns.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may use this image for your personal non-commercial reference only. The unauthorized pinning, reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.Hi there and welcome back, I trust your weekend was lovely and you’re ready to add some fun new tangles to your repertoire.

We begin the week with New Zealand CZT Ildica Boyd’s sweet Muehlenz tangle.

Ildica writes,

This tangle was deconstructed while looking at some of the native shrubs planted beside the telecom cabinet (part of our local council’s City Beautification Programme). I was tangling with some Zentangle Inspired Art on the cabinet, and was looking for some more organic tangles to grow up the columns I had drawn, and having chatted to the volunteer gardener about the native plants nearby, I went to have a look. I found a few Muehlenbeckia Astonii, a native plant which has beautifully bright green heart-shaped leaves, on red tangled branches, with white berries and black seeds. A perfect one for tangling up one of my columns.

Muehlenbeckia astonii image on Wikipedia

Muehlenbeckia astonii – By Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The shrub goes by other names too, Shrubby Tororaro, Wiggywig Bush or Pohuehue. 

More details about Ildica's community project

Ildica’s ZIA on a telecom cabinet in her local community

Ildica shares her tip for tangling Muehlenz:

If you want to add the loop as you draw it you can do, but I found when I added the loop in the first stroke, when it came to the heart shaped leaf my pen was all confused, so I added the loops afterwards.

It can be in the foreground as well as a perfect background tangle to fill up some space behind others.

Ildica illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Muehlenz below and she demosntrates it in a duotangle tile with the Zentangle®-original Flux.

How to draw the Zentangle pattern Muehlenz, tangle and deconstruction by Ildica Boyd. Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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 ildicab for more of Ildica’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

Related Links

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  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. What Makes a Zentangle tangle? 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, and tangles never start with pencil planning.
  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.
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2 comments to How to draw MUEHLENZ

  • Joyce Blodgett

    I see what Ildica means about that loop confusing her “pen.” I had a hard time getting my pen to go where I wanted after trying the loop, so ended up adding it after the fact.
    Pretty pattern, no matter when the loop shows up.

  • Jan Brandt, CZT12

    Delightful new tangle! Thanks for sharing it with all of us! And I love that your local counsel has a City Beautification Programme. 🙂

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