Goodbye, January; Hello, February! The days are getting longer here in South Florida, although we’re having a bit of a cool “snap” how absolutely lovely to see more sunshine each day.
Belgian CZT Ria Matheussen is back today with a lovely grid-based tangle inspired by an African design.
Zimba is Ria’s second tangle on the site, Paravan was her first.
Ria sent along this image of her inspiration for Zimba:
and she writes,
Always looking for nice color combinations, I have found a lovely African pattern out of Zimbabwe.
It was difficult to draw, so I have changed it a bit to made it more simple and give it the name Zimba.
Zimba can be used as a border, in a grid or as a fragment. It has lots of possibilities to make variations.
For my example I used some graphite fill after an internal debate whether to use more ink there as that would be striking too. Here’s a tip for keeping the “arrowheads” evenly spaced in the second step. I found it helpful to place a small pen dot to guide my strokes, as shown on here on the right. There are so many ways you can vary this tangle with something as simple as varying the “coloring in” whether with aura strokes, solid fills, or in ZIA-fashion using color. Or simply adding a little shading along their edges to pop the arrows off the page.
Ria illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Zimba below and in her ZIA’s and her steps she shares a variety of interesting variations to explore with these simple shapes.
Image copyright the artist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the step outs to recreate the tangles from this site in your Zentangles and ZIAs, or link back to any page. However the artists and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they should not be publicly pinned, reproduced or otherwise republished. Thank you for respecting these rights.
As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please do leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours.
Check out the tag riam for more of Ria’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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Free Download: How to draw four basic grids (reticula) for your Zentangles
Like some help drawing grids? (In the Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1, Zentangle HQ is now referring to grids as reticula and give 30 examples.)
Here is a free TanglePatterns PDF download showing how to ink a basic Freehand Squared Grid, Freehand Diamond-Shaped Grid with a Triangle variation, and a Freehand Ogee-Shaped Grid.
You can always locate this tutorial again by visiting the TUTORIALS tab on the pink alphabetic tangle menu bar.
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February 1, 2017 | 
More like this: 
This pattern is so amazing and versatile Ria!
Thank you very much for sharing it with us,
I am looking forward tangling ZIMBA 🙂
Congratulations to you to Belgium from Cologne,
Nadine
Dear Ria, thank you for that beautiful tangle and congratulations to its publication here!
I am going to try it soon ;-))
I love this new tangle. great work! I also went to see your other tangle, Paravan which I somehow missed and That one is also great. Thank you for sharing…
Barb B. CZT
Thanks for your pattern instructions Ria. it looks like a keeper to me and I shall have a go at it later today! Can’t wait!
Mooi gedaan Ria. Goed uitgelegd. Groetjes
I found this fairly intricate tangle utterly absorbing to draw and was astonished how different the variations looked. Love it, thank you Ria.
Leuke tangle , Ria. Ga ik zeker eens uitproberen !!
Wonderful tangle Ria. I’m going to have fun exploring the variations on this one too. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Dear Ladies, thank you all for your nice comments.
I hope you will explore the different variations of Zimba, I wish you a lot of fun and keep on tangling!!!
Dear Linda,
It was a nice surprise to see Zimba on TanglePatterns. Thank you very much and also for the helpfull tip for keeping the arrowheads evenly spaced in the second step.
I hope that tanglers will be inspired by this tangle and I would be happy to see Zimba or variations on someone’s tiles!
Warm regards from Belgium and thanks again for all the information we can find on your site.
MAGNIFIQUE CREATION
Merçi beaucoup Bernath pour votre réaction!
Weer een mooie tangle om mee te experimenteren Ria, dankjewel! Another nice one, Ria, thanks!
Dank je wel Marianne om ook hier een reactie te geven, iedereen kan tangles uitvinden, je vindt ze overal, maar het is niet zo éénvoudig er bestaan er al heel veel, maar je weet nooit…