Zentangle

What is Zentangle?  I didn't know until last Saturday, May 18th.  I was working an art fund raiser at Sound Point Audiology.  I had five paintings in the show.  A couple started a conversation about my art and the woman asked if it was a form of Zentangle.  I said I had never heard of it.  She explained it was designs doodles.  She told me to Google it which I did when I got home.  I found that I have been doing my own take on Zentangle in many of my paintings for years. This revelation came at a perfect time.  We were leaving for a road trip to San Antonio in the morning so I threw a small sketch book and a Sharpie in a bag and took them with me.  For the rest of the time when we were on the road I let my imagination go wild with doodles.  If I wasn't driving I was drawing for the 900 miles both going and coming home.   I did a total of 15 drawings.  I scanned them into the computer and will post images below.  I will take my favorites and make a set of greeting cards.  My first attempts were a little sloppy but I think I got better with more practice. Keep in mind I was doing this in a moving car.  Here are the images:

This is the first one that I did.  It is free form and a little busy but fun.

I toned it down with my second design and kept it less busy.

I love painting flowers so had to try one featuring them.

I have been painting saguaros like this for years so had to do one as a black and white sketch.

I was getting tired and running out of ideas when I did this.  I used the word zentangle over and over in the design.  We were 600 miles down the road and stopped for the night.

I did this on day two.  I have been doing designs like this for over 25 years. 

I had some colored gel pens so decided to try a little color.  I don't like this one.

By the time I finished this we arrived at our destination.  I did a few while there which I will post at another time.  The ones below were done on the trip home.

Another free form. I think it has an oriental look.

The last one had a design that looked like a leaf which I liked so I did this consisting of all leaves.

Leaves made me think of flowers so I did this sunflower design.

When I ran out of ideas it was back to my old stand-by saguaro.  This was the end of our first day on the way back to Tucson.

I was back to free form again the next morning and looking forward to getting home.

I started the trip with a busy one so why not end the trip with another busy one?  I have to say I enjoyed the traveling time keeping busy doing these zentangles.  I don't know how much of this sketching black and white work I will do in the future but I know I will now keep a small sketch book and Sharpie in my purse and doodle when every I have time to kill while traveling or in a waiting room!  If you have any comments I would love to hear them.  A special thank-you to Susan who turned me on to this.  I hope I can track you down to thank you in person.