Tangle*A*Day

My Zentangle practice for 2013 centers around Carole Ohl's (CZT) Tangle*A*Day calendar. Greyden Press, publisher of the calendar, describes it as: "specially designed for those who love the Zentangle® art form. Each day of the year offers a space for creating Zentangle-inspired art. Use the calendar as a tool for some Zentangle relaxation time, a workbook for learning new tangles, or creating a visual art diary for 2013. Each month is lightly illustrated with just enough tangling to spark an idea. Each 8” x 5” page is printed on cover stock that takes Sakura Micron pen with ease! "

And I love the fact that Carole used my tangle pattern Mi2 on the cover as well as inside. Thank you, Carole!

Here is my first tangled page for January 1-3; first, unshaded and then, shaded.

Carole's Tangle*A*Day Calendar can be ordered here.

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.