How to draw CALIGRAV

Here we are zipping through July and the back-to-school ads are showing up already! Egads.

In another couple of weeks the English Premier League starts its season followed quickly by our American college football … and the height of hurricane season. So far, so good this year.

CaligraV is a lovely grid-based tangle from Carnegie PA tangler Mary D’Angelo and it’s her first on the site. Mary is a student of Pittsburgh CZT Sue Schneider (sues) and is looking forward to becoming a CZT herself in October. She writes,

After graduating early from high school I completed a traditional apprenticeship with a Stained Glass Master in New York City. Designing and building in this art form was my business until well into my 40’s. I gradually found that due to the progression of Lupus I could no longer sustain the physicality required for the craft and reluctantly sold my business.

That created a new opportunity to study at Paier College of Art. I majored in color theory and illustration. Those days were some of the most joyful of my life!

In Northern California for 17 years I partnered with my friend and created our company Emma George. We published numerous how-to craft articles in national publications such as Family Circle and Woodstrokes. Now, just for fun, occasionally I paint semi-abstract water color portraits.

My focus at this time is primarily Zentangle®. I eagerly anticipate the wonderful gift of a scholarship to the October Certified Zentangle Teacher Training #32 in Providence. I plan to use my training at various Churches to teach children and their parents, or grandparents, in order to promote less “screen time” and better communication. I also plan to teach senior caregivers in my community of over 420 homes who have so little time to care for themselves. It is my intent to offer these classes at no cost except for the necessary supplies.

Mary describes how she came up with CaligraV,

As an amateur calligrapher I love to look at various style of alphabets. The name and inspiration came from an illustration of “Italic Swash Capital” letters. I often practice lettering as a warm-up line exercise. I find it helps to calm shaky hands.

Mary included two lovely tiles featuring CaligraV and “in each of these tiles I have varied the thickness of the lines, played with scale and used auras. …

Since CaligraV utilizes auras I thought it would be fun to combine it with other tangles that also employ auras. The lines are enhanced with rounding at the tips simulating serifs. I incorporated “Bumpkens” by Beth Snoderly, “CC” by Mina Hsiao CZT, “Dugwud” by Anita Roby-Lavery CZT, and “Ta-da” from Margaret McKerihan.

I particularly love the second tile where Mary has liberated CaligraV and created a free-form floating version. The calligraphic weighted serifs give it some great movement.

Mary illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing CaligraV below where she features it in a pretty duotangle with the Zentangle-original Mooka.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. For more information, click on the image for a discussion entitled “Artists for Respect” by several prominent artists.

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 comment helps motivate them to continue to share!

Check out the tag maryda for more of Mary’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
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