Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Zentangling My Way to Relaxation

One of my best bloggie friends in the Universe (hi, Jenn!) introduced me to the Art of Zentangling.  For those of you who don't know or haven't tried it yet, to Zentangle is the art of meditative drawing in some repetitive form that's relaxing and almost soul-searching (that's why the "Zen").

This week's theme over in the Artist's Play Room is "Let's Zentangle." And since I've never done it before, I decided to (literally!) try my hand at it.


I took a tracing of my hand and let my mind wander. For whatever reason, the song "That's Life" played over and over in my head as I was drawing -- I'm not sure if it was Frank Sinatra coming for a visit, or if some of my images became to represent aspects of my life that are important to me.  Many of the images here are representative: proud (peacock feathers), trust (Cladgh), tears, storms, marriage, birth, turtle (tough exterior, mush inside), hope (flower springing from the tears), God (eye), delta/change, identity (thumbprint), new life (leaves), ups and downs (chevrons), time flies, time heals all wounds ...

You get it...

Now do your own. It doesn't have to be representative of anything. Just relax... and draw.

A typical Zentangle is black and white or black and shades of gray on white. So I kept my original of this piece of art as just black waterproof archival pen on white. Then I made a copy of it, printing onto watercolor paper, and colored it in using my Copic markers. After I was content with the color, I trimmed it off its sheet and pop-dotted it onto a thicker watercolor/artists' paper, suitable for framing.

I'll be posting this Zentangle on Jenn's Artist's Play Room ... and hanging it in my PaperJungle, just for fun and inspiration.  What have you done for you today?




DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

10 comments:

Jennifer McLean said...

can I say?? Your bestie is SOOOOOOOO proud of you to see you branching out to your own artwork, your own design. Beautiful Ellen. I love it and I think it's a perfect thing to hang on your wall, it'll wave at you every timde you're in there.
Hugs my friend.
Jenn

TwinkleToes2day said...

Wow this is amazingly superb! Mine is 'baby steps' compared to this, but at lest I now know I got the principle right. Hoping to upload mine tomorrow and also hoping not to embarrass anyone with my effort :0)

minnemie said...

What a fun site you have:-) Your hand-tangle is marvelous.

SandeeNC said...

wow, this is awesome, love that you did it in color! fantastic! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

Tracey FK said...

your tangle is just a breath of bright fresh air... just gorgeous... I will be interested to see if you o some more...xx

Darla said...

It is so much fun to tangle, love your use of color too. I'm fairly new to the subject but see many tangles in my future.

Darla

VonnyK said...

I am learning that there is so much more to zentangles than I thought. I always stress when doing them, guess I need to chill out a little. Had a closer look at your hand, just amazing, so much detail. It is truly beautiful.
Von.

Kim Collister Studio said...

This is so gorgeous! I didn't get to play this week and nothing I could have done would ever measure up to this beautiful piece.

Very stunning, I love it in color!!

Brilliant!!!

XO
Kim

D- said...

WOW!!! That is gorgeous.
I am so going to try this.
I am going to also do with with my students this fall.
It would be a wonderfully relaxing way for them to fill those quiet moments while waiting for their classmates to finish up. AND they could be used to make a Mother's and/or Fathers Day gift later in the school year.
Thanks so much for the inspiration!
dmcardmaker at aol dot com

Neesie said...

Your hand is amazing...and the colours...Wow!
I've not been drawing zentangles for long, but I'm having a great time doing them. My mind wanders off somewhere but I have no idea where. I find them sooooo relaxing.
I didn't even know I was doing them or that they had a particular name until someone told me ;D
Enjoyed nipping over to your place...thanks for sharing ~ Neesie