Draw Something Beautiful with Zentangle® — You’ll Feel Better
New and traditional patterns come to life in a step-by-step, meditative drawing process for all
First Encounter with Zentangle
In 2012, I was a burned-out university ESL instructor seeking any creative outlet that might restore my faith in discovery and spontaneity. At first, the search seemed futile. Lagging energy suggested that I needed a reduced daily schedule, not another project on my plate, even a creative one.
Still, I kept trying. While poking around on the Internet one day, I navigated idly from one site to the next, following breadcrumbs that piqued my interest with no particular destination in mind.
Somehow, I happened upon Chris Dunmire’s award-winning site, Creativity Portal. (It’s gratifying to see that in 2021, the site is still going strong.) When I landed on the home page, I was overwhelmed by the number and variety of links leading to all sorts of highly creative-sounding destinations. Then I noticed a link for doodling, of all things.
I was intrigued. As a teen, I had been one of those under-the-radar ADD girls, apparently quiet, cooperative, and conformist, but in reality, disengaged from a formal education system that seemed for all the world to follow the teachers’ schedules, instead of my own. (Why hadn’t anyone noticed this?)
As a student, I doodled incessantly in class to keep my mind engaged, never understanding why it was so relaxing — it had always seemed like a pointless activity. Later, I continued to doodle on telephone calls and in faculty meetings. I discovered that making marks on paper kept me present just enough to stay focused while not losing the thread of the information at hand.
I navigated to Zentangle.com and experienced something like love at first sight. For me, it was a moment of recognition. Zentangle designs were related to doodling but with more vivid imagination. Looking over the drawings, I knew I could learn to create them. I felt energized and joyful as if emerging from a small dark place, into spaciousness and possibility.
After two years of drawing tangles (deconstructed, teachable patterns) on my own from online tutorials, I traveled to Providence RI for a four-day workshop to become a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT). Since 2014, I have kept a Zentangle blog and taught the Zentangle Method to family and friends, university students and colleagues, adolescent girls in crisis, retirees looking for a new interest, expecting mothers, and many others in community education settings.
I need to mention here that I have worked exclusively with older teens and adults, so using the Zentangle Method with kids is not my area of expertise. If you are most interested in how the approach works with children, some of what I discuss may still interest you. You can also find a few videos here.
How did Zentangle begin?
Zentangle was born in 2003 when founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas stumbled upon a moment of hyper-clarity during an ordinary interaction in their relationship. Maria was working intently on a calligraphy project when Rick interrupted her to ask a question. As she emerged from a flow state to respond, Rick noticed the mental shift in her and asked what she was thinking. She described an experience like meditation, which surprised them both. Maria, who has zero interest in formal meditation, realized that she was indeed a regular practitioner of another kind of contemplative practice.
In the following weeks, excited discussion of their discovery led to the first draft of the Zentangle Method. The couple started offering small classes locally, gradually streamlined and improved their approach, and took off from there.
For the last several years, Zentangle has offered several workshops per year in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In our current pandemic, the wealth of online resources will likely make more sense for most.
What is the Zentangle Method?
Rick and Maria describe Zentangle as “an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns.” Eight steps related to focus, gratitude, and ease formalize the approach. For more information on the steps and a two-minute video demonstration of the process, check out the links above.
At the heart of the Zentangle Method is a principle the founders call “the elegance of limits,” which describes a paradox of creativity. In a word, limits are essential for unleashing maximum creativity.
We are all familiar with this, right? Imagine for a moment that you are to lead a project at work. After accepting the assignment, you learn that the project has no schedule, no deadline, and no clear roadmap to follow. You would likely call a meeting for all stakeholders to discuss these concerns before taking another step.
Many people who understand how projects work, do not recognize how these same principles apply to making art. It is a common experience to feel lost or intimidated by a blank canvas, sheet of paper, or block of wood. Even worse, once the discomfort takes hold, negative self-talk echoing low self-confidence, anxiety, or confusion can form a three-part harmony that drains motivation and desire.
In truth, just like any project at work, basic questions need to be answered before being able to move forward with art:
- What is the medium (e.g., oil, watercolor, pencil)?
2. What is the intended structure of the piece (square, oblong, oval)?
3. What size will it be?
4. What will the piece depict (people, plants, designs)?
5. How will these elements be arranged within the frame?
As art historian and scholar E. H. Gombrich points out, “Humans can only be creative in relation to problems they seek to solve” (page 64) — or the questions they ask and strive to answer. (Gombrich’s lectures on the psychology of decorative art can be found in The Sense of Order, available for free on Internet Archive.)
The Zentangle Method supports people in their desire to create art by taking care of the hard questions from the get-go. This leaves people free to focus their energy on learning to draw the patterns while feeling held within the psychological safety of structure.
First lessons propose a piece of paper 3.5 x 3.5 inches square, also called a tile. A frame is drawn in pencil by connecting four dots placed in each corner. Next, students draw a string, any shape that serves to organize the space into different areas. After that, artists follow along as they are shown how to draw one or more patterns to fill the spaces created in the string. Finishing touches include shading, initialing the finished piece, and appreciating the materials, process, energy, and imagination that make it all possible.
Working with tiles is the best way to begin exploring tangles, but other formats and approaches are waiting for those who want to keep learning. Mandalas, for example, (called Zendalas), are popular in the Zentangle community. Reticula and fragments offer yet another area of Zentangle that teaches design through combining and recombining modular elements.
Are you an artist?
The founders of Zentangle are on a mission to remind people that to be an artist is a birthright as well as a professional identity.
As poet Naomi Shihab Nye remarks, “I love what William Stafford used to say when somebody asked him, ‘When did you become a poet?’ He said, ‘That’s not the right question. The question is, ‘When did you stop being a poet?’ We’re all poets when we’re little, and some of us just try to keep up the habit” (quoted from Shihab Nye’s reading of “One Boy Told Me” on YouTube.)
The same is true for the plastic arts. As young children, before we learn about the pain (psychological, social, physical) that comes from making mistakes, we explore life fearlessly, with joy and wonder. Eventually, we close doors within ourselves to narrow the range of possibilities for our lives.
With a process like Zentangle, the invitation is to reconsider some of those old beliefs that no longer serve or protect us. Can we remain safe enough in our current life if we dare to peek behind a few of those locked doors? The answer is clear, of course, yet many of us remain too fearful to revise childhood decisions about who we may be and what we are capable of.
Learning to draw “One Stroke at a Time”
The Zentangle Method addresses this pervasive inertia by leading practitioners through the creation of a tangle from the bottom up, pen stroke by pen stroke, what Gombrich calls “an even-handed method” of “successive enrichment or elaboration” (page 80).
In Zentangle, this principle takes the form of step-outs, whereby the elements of a design are shown step by step as a roadmap to its reconstruction. It’s an approach that teaches even novice artists to appreciate the balance of elements inherent in a single pattern.
As students lay down each line step by step, they come to understand the underpinnings of a finished design. From there, they apply their principles like symmetry and repetition to the overall design.
It’s a bit like learning to dance. You and the instructor move together, one step at a time, and you feel supported while fully immersed in an experience that would likely exceed your abilities if you were alone. What might feel discouraging becomes interesting, even exhilarating. Just as in learning to dance, Zentangle acolytes learn to draw patterns one step at a time.
Learning how to create Zentangle art from a teacher in real-time is a great experience, but by no means necessary. Hundreds of designs have been deconstructed into their step outs by the founders for artists to follow. Many other designs and their step-outs have also been created and posted online by artists themselves.
Since its inception in 2003, a vibrant, international community has been formed with many participants contributing to the canon of Zentangle patterns. The founders of Zentangle, as well as CZTs and others worldwide, have also made thousands of video tutorials freely available on YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs.
Often, when people see Zentangle art for the first time, they wonder how someone could draw it. The answer is not easy, but it is simple: one stroke at a time.
What about mistakes?
The Zentangle Method reframes mistakes as opportunities. Drawings often take unexpected directions that you can resist or follow. Even perfectionists gradually learn to work with these distractions by tapping into the reserves of curiosity and hunger for discovery we all have. And here is the good news: in most cases, tiles that seem destined to fail take surprising turns for the better.
I often tell participants in Zentangle workshops that drawing is very much like handwriting. This reminder helps to ease the anxiety of those who see their drawing as “wrong” because it doesn’t look like mine. While the basic patterns have specific structures, the goal is not so much to copy, but more to interpret what is being shown, in a way that makes the most sense to each individual.
Has anyone got the time for this?
If you’re attracted to Zentangle so far but feel doubtful about finding enough time to give it a try, focus for a moment on the suggested size of the “canvas.” At 3.5 x 3.5 inches square, the dimensions of an official Zentangle tile (or any paper you have around the house cut to that approximate size), we are not dealing with the Sistine Chapel. A basic Zentangle composition takes about 20–30 minutes to complete.
When I first started creating tiles, this factor was probably the most important for keeping me interested and engaged. Unlike so many open-ended projects at work that seemed to drag on for weeks and months without any tangible feeling of accomplishment, I was delighted with all of the finished artwork I was able to create, even in stolen moments on weekday evenings.
To begin your journey, grab a pencil, any fine-point marker, and a piece of paper cut to the recommended size. Select a video tutorial, set a timer for 25 minutes, and see where it goes. Those minutes will pass anyway, so why not use them to create something beautiful and unique?
Where do the patterns come from?
If you take a quick look around your living space, you are likely to see patterns similar to tangles. Shower curtains and tiles, kitchen floors, living room rugs, upholstery, bedspreads, wallpaper, placemats — all of these household textiles use designs that have been around for years, decades, or centuries. Many of these familiar patterns are international, having landed in our homes from the African continent, Asia, Europe, Scandinavia, and elsewhere.
One well-known tangle, for example, Huggins, reanimates a pattern found in Egypt during the 18th dynasty (roughly 1550 to 1292 BC, also the era of famed King Tut). For more information, see Pattern Design by A. H. Christie, 1929, page 308. (This book is available for free on the Internet Archive.)
Many other tangles use geometric and symbolic elements from traditional African motifs. Even the familiar, six-petal flower design has been documented in Phoenician and Assyrian decorative art (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Israel, and modern-day Iraq, Turkey, and Egypt respectively) (Gombrich, page 67). In Zentangle, this flower motif is called Fife or Quandary, depending on the approach you prefer.
Owing to her background as a calligrapher and illuminated manuscript artist, Maria has also offered homage to traditional motifs used in these arts as inspiration for many Zentangle patterns. Like decorative motifs from all times and places, many of these designs borrow freely from nature. Verdigogh depicts a sprig of pine, Poke Root, a particular weed that Rick and Maria find in their garden, and Flux, a traditional flourish used in illuminated manuscripts.
Maria has also drawn inspiration for tangles from renowned illustrators. For example, Mooka is a tangle that celebrates the style of 19th-century painter and illustrator Alfonse Mucha. In 2018, German illustrator Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations attracted her attention and inspired an exercise she facilitated at a ZenAgain event (a yearly refresher workshop for CZTs). (Remember how things were before the pandemic?) My humble rendering of Haeckel’s glorious Desmonema annasethe shows how it is possible to reinterpret even complex original art with an understanding of its elements.
Are you ready to experience a new way of seeing?
Many other tangles share distinguished lineages. In this sense, I see Zentangle as a kind of international folk art that encourages practitioners to celebrate and appreciate the hidden diversity surrounding us in our daily lives. By taking some slow breaths and spending 20 minutes looking deeply into a traditional design or two, we find a doorway to a collective consciousness, woven from the threads of cultures and times throughout history.
Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s observation offers further food for thought: “Everything we do is an act of [creativity] if we do it with mindfulness. Growing lettuce is poetry. Walking to the supermarket can be a painting.” (from Peace is Every Step, Part One: “Our Life Is A Work of Art.”)
Are you seeking inspiration for your next (or first) original artistic creation? Consider beginning your journey by contemplating your shower curtain, living room rug, bedroom curtains, or even the bare winter tree branches outside your kitchen window. (Yes, there is a tangle for that, too. See Hollibaugh.) If you find a motif that brings you joy, be it an artifact or a form in nature, know that you can likely re-create it yourself by following a few simple rules of analysis and remembering the elegance of limits.
As the late, great Sir Ken Robinson tells us in the most popular TED talk of all time, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. By the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”
Why not begin 2021 with a bold stroke and dare to re-educate yourself, back into your creative possibilities? Tune in to an online Zentangle tutorial. Like me, you may discover increased self-awareness, as well as a new sense of belonging to our shared lineage of creators everywhere, throughout history.
Thank you for reading my article. I hope it has inspired you to explore your creative potential.