How to draw PRINTEN

Today we have another easy grid-based tangle to explore.

Printen is from German tangler Indrani Novello and it’s her eighth tangle on the site. Most recently Indrani shared her Surya tangle with us.

She writes,

“‘Printen’ came about on a trip to Aachen.

That city is not only famous for its Charlemagne-built cathedral and historic City Hall, but also for a special kind of Christmas gingerbread called ‘Printe’ (Printen is the plural).

Printen is often decorated with almonds and candied cherries, as well as chocolate or just plain icing.

Always eager to explore without having to pack a bag, I went on an internet visit to Aachen starting with Wikipedia. Aachen is not only known for its spa springs, incredible architecture and ancient history, by contrast it is also a technologically advanced city …

Aachen is the westernmost city in Germany, located near the borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, 61 km (38 mi) west south west of Cologne in a former coal-mining area.

One of Germany’s leading institutes of higher education in technology, the RWTH Aachen University, is located in the city.

Aachen’s industries include science, engineering and information technology. In 2009, Aachen was ranked eighth among cities in Germany for innovation.

The location has been inhabited by humans since the Neolithic era, about 5,000 years ago, attracted to its warm mineral springs.

And then interested to find out what I could about Printen, I fell down a whole new huge rabbit hole when I checked out traditional German pastries. That took a pot of tea to explore! No additional calories were consumed. {Yet.}

Printen is soothing to tangle and it has lots of possibilities for exploration and variation. Printen borrows in part from the Zentangle-original ‘Nzeppel in the way it traces around the original shape as in Step 2 below. This is sometimes now referred to as ‘nzeppeling.

Indrani illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Printen below where she also includes some easy variations to explore. Indrani’s tile also features some additional ribbon-style tangles including Adam Roades’s Ovy and Margaret Bremner’s Copada.

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Check out the tag indranin for more of Indrani’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 ?
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Share your tangle on TanglePatterns

Everyone is invited to share patterns on TanglePatterns.com, you do NOT need to be a CZT. In order for patterns to be considered for publication they must be submitted to me by email. In other words you have to let me know about them.

For a submission to qualify as a tangle it must be a genuine pattern (“a repeated decorative design”) and not “a thing to draw”.

From The Book of Zentangle:

“Keep it Non-representational. Zentangle artwork is intended to be non-representational. Zentangle’s elemental strokes are also non-representational.

We don’t teach complex elements such as hearts, stars or flowers. Tangles are also non-representational.”

Remember that tangles never start with pencil planning.

"A tangle has no pre-planning with pencil guidelines, grids or dots, no erased lines."

If you need a refresher on what makes a tangle, read the A PATTERN IS NOT ALWAYS A TANGLE page on the ZENTANGLES menu bar at the top of any page.

For details on how to submit your pattern for consideration visit the SUBMIT YOUR PATTERN page on the top menu bar of any page on the site. On that menu you will find these two pages:

1. 1. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns, and
   2. Why hasn't my pattern been published?

The first page includes instructions on how to prepare and send your JPGs. (Please save me time and do not send PDFs). It also includes a link to this PDF submission form.

When your examples include additional tangles from the site, please list them in your email. (This saves me time and my memory some wear and tear.)

If your pattern is posted on your blog, attach your steps and tile JPGs to your email and be sure your email includes the direct URL so I can link to it.

And remember, to quote Zentangle's co-founders Rick and Maria: tangles should be "magical, simple and easy to create", non-objective patterns of repetitive strokes that are easy to teach and offer a high degree of success to tanglers of all ages.

"Keep the tangles as little like 'drawing something' as possible."

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