How to draw NARFELLO

Hi everyone, welcome to a brand new week of fun tangles and creative inspiration.

It’s been a very long while since we’ve had a new tangle from the mother ship, aka Zentangle HQ or ZTHQ, but they’ve just introduced Narfello to the general public.

Zentangle® co-founder Rick Roberts deconstructed this and it was shared with CZTs two weeks ago with CZTs being offered a chance to name it.

Among the many suggestions submitted, CZT Jane Rhea of Kendalville, Indiana, won the honor of naming Narfello and the story behind the name is in the newsletter.

Rick introduces Narfello:

I like that this tangle uses aura in its initial construction. I like its simplicity – it uses only two elemental strokes, the “S” shape and the curve.

Another aspect of this tangle is that it is both tangle and reticula for other tangles. As you probably have discovered, this is true for many of our tangles. However this one is designed with that in mind.

A couple tips:

• • The technique of “Take off and Land” serves you well in this tangle
  • Your initial “S” curves do not have to be perfectly the same

You can shade each element as I did. Or, you can use each element as a reticula for a fragment as Maria, Martha and Molly did. As always, aura is your friend.

My strokes forming the first two steps of Narfello were a little wonky so I restated them (hid the blips!) with my Sakura Graphic 1 pen, not intending for this to be my final example. But when I finished adding inner auras and a little graphite, I actually liked how the bold lines turned out. (No mistakes!)

To my mind this could be viewed as another way to draw an ogee grid, albeit a narrow fellow 🙂 Thus, for more ideas on how to fill it check out ogee grid in the TANGLES BY TYPE section in the left sidebar, OR the live link below in the date bar above the comments section.

Rick illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Narfello here in their latest newsletter where you can take inspiration from the examples Rick describes. I particularly like Molly’s peppering interpretation on a Phi tile.

Check out the tag zentangle for more Zentangle-original (aka “official”) tangles on TanglePatterns.com. These can also be found on Linda’s List of Zentangle-Original Patterns.

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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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Announcing: CZT Seminar 37, Online May 14-17, 2021

The latest Zentangle newsletter also contains the announcement of the ONLY Certified Zentangle Teacher training seminar hosted from the USA this year.

Details and links for more information for CZT-Europe and CZT-Asia seminars are also included in the newsletter together with the instructions for tangling Narfello.

BTW, you can always locate information and registration links for the CZT seminars on TanglePatterns.com by visiting the ZENTANGLES > TEACHING ZENTANGLE > HISTORY OF THE CZT TRAINING PROGRAM page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.

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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
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.
9. Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
10. Never miss a tangle! FREE eMAIL NEWSLETTER - visit the SUBSCRIBE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site and sign up to get notices delivered free to your inbox.

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