Although I don’t remember meeting in Providence, Samantha (“Sam”) Taylor of Beaufort NC is a classmate from CZT #7 and Narwal is her first tangle on the site.
Sam purposely spelled her tangle differently to distinguish from actual Narwhals (whales dubbed “the unicorn of the sea”), or the trademarked animated characters created by Jonti Picking and (apparently) popularized by a TV commercial for the Sprint wireless network. Any resemblance of the tangle pattern to the animated characters’ tusk is probably deliberate.
As Sam points out, Narwal can fit in any shape section of your Zentangle® but for her demonstration and video purposes she uses “a very simple, curvy tentacle-shape string“. Narwal-like.
And then a day or two later Dutch tangler Mariët Lustenhouwer shared a beautiful, colorful Zentangle-inspired card she created for a friend featuring Narwal. You might say the Narwals aligned!
Narwal begins the same way the Zentangle-original Purk does, with sets of “lazy” S-shaped curves wrapped around a section of a string. From there it proceeds in another direction.
Here are Sam’s step-by-step instructions on how to create Narwal together with a sweet/scary ZIA-on-a-tile. Below her steps you’ll find the video instructions for drawing and shading Narwal that she created for Sakura Color Products.
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may use this image for your personal non-commercial reference only. Republishing or redistributing pattern deconstructions in any form is prohibited under law without express permission of the copyright owner.
I wanted to point out two things about Sam’s video. First, notice how she turns her tile for comfort as she’s drawing instead of turning her hand into an awkward position. (Their convenient size is just one of the things that make the Zentangle tiles so great.) And observe the way Samantha makes her strokes slowly and deliberately. A fine example. It can be helpful to see this in action as a reminder.
Check out the tag samanthat for more of Sam’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.
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- 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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June 12, 2015 | 
More like this: 
Really like both versions! Will definitely give both versions a whirl.
Ooooo videos! SO helpful, always. Thank you, Sam, for this flexible tangle! Curvy, loose patterns are always my favorites to draw. ????
Makes me think of soft serve ice cream! Will definitely add this one to my tangle notebook, thanks!
Oh yeah! What a lovely pattern, soft serve ice cream.
I love this. thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
This is a nice flowing tangle and the way Helen Williams does it makes it look so easy and it’s good to see the way she can control the shape. I found the one with the string a little harder to figure out. Thanks
This is just what I need to get me out of a bit of a Zentangle slump! Thank you. it’s beautiful ~:0)
Love this pattern, can’t wait to try it. Thank you for the videos,they are so helpful.
I like it!
What a great tangle. And I really love both of the videos. They really help with this one. I tried to do them first without the video help. Ha ha! Okay, I’ll put the videos on and draw along with them. Shouldn’t take long to get the hang of it.
I’m a bit late to the party here but I love this tangle. I found the second video easier to follow. Thanks to the creator of Narwal for sharing.