The Diva's Weekly Challenge #80

Imagine how surprised I was to see that my tangle design, Mi², was selected by The Diva (Laura Harms, CZT) as this week's challenge. Well, here is my contribution. As you can see, I love sprinkling seed shapes throughout my tangles. Tune in again next week as I come up with more tangles to 'seedify.'

Thanks Laura!

Mi² Revisited

A few months ago I submitted a tangle pattern, called  Mi² (Me Too), to CZT Linda Farmer's tanglepatterns.com. From there it took on a life of its own as Rick Roberts highlighted (and elegantly simplified) it on Blog Zentangle and the Zentangle Newsletter. Later, Maria Thomas praised its charms again on their blog. Then today, as I was composing my blog post with some tips on how to more easily set up the underlying 'seed' structure of the pattern, I discovered that CZT Laura Harms, has selected Mi² as weekly challenge #80 on her fabulously inspiring blog, I Am the Diva. Be sure to see Maria's sparkling contribution to the diva's challenge here. Okay, I know I've probably inserted way too many links in this brief paragraph, but it's my way of thanking Linda, Rick, Maria, Laura, and all of you who have adapted this pattern to your own zentangle-inspired art. I love finding it in unexpected places!
Here are some tips and illustrations for beginning this tangle pattern that may possibly make it easier to draw the initial 'seeds.'  With your micron pen, draw small diagonal lines, in alternate directions, for as many rows as you like. Be sure that each diagonal line is slanting opposite to the one above, below, and on either side. Then go back and connect the bottom to the top of each side of the slanted line with a mini-crescent moon. To complete the seed, fill in (or not) with ink. See here for the remaining tangle steps.

As you can see, I've varied the length of the lines, which adds to the fun. I hope this helps.

Atlas Planetanglia

I am a four-time participant in The Sketchbook Project sponsored by Art House Co-op in Brooklyn, NY. My first three Zentangle-inspired sketchbooks can be viewed in their Digital Library. (You must create an account at their site to be able to view any of the thousands of sketchbooks.)
Currently I am working on Sketchbook Project 2013, titled Atlas Planetanglia. It will build on the imagery and process I used in 2012, titled Tangled Planets. Images for this work-in-progress can be viewed on my Galleria Planetanglia blog page.

Copyright 2012 Mimi Lempart

Tangled planets?

Almost a year after becoming a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) in 2009, I began a daily practice of drawing one Zentangle a day. The small, 3.5-inch format enabled me to practice the 102 patterns I now had at my disposal to learn so that I could eventually teach them to others. I began storing the tiles in poly-protected album sleeves as a reference source which I still use today.

 Looking back through these albums I discovered the first time I used a circular format was in May 2011. My strings and tangles were random, not symmetrical as mandalas, and thus began my “big bang” exploration of tangled planets.