Doodles and Zentangles

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I’ve been teaching myself the art of zentangling – which, if you don’t know, is the practise of making little drawings or letters and filling them in with an assortment of patterns to produce something quite eye-catching.  Typically the work is done with pencil and pen, and therefore black and white.  I know some people work with exacting measurements but not I…. Oh no, I must do freehand – and I must introduce some colour also – just to see what it looks like you understand.

Here is a pic showing the page with the first four I did

[Please excuse the quality of the photos, I took them just now, at night, under the centre light….]

Zentangle First ones Aug 13

Far from perfect – very far! – but quite absorbing to do and almost meditative.

Today, while cat-sitting my daughters boy, I doodled away at this:

Doodle Butterfly 2 Aug 13

Again, as you can see, very far from perfect – but not too bad for just the fifth try – do you agree?

Now while I was playing around with all that, I also took a short [and totally affordable!] on-line introductory course with the one and only Julie Fei-Fan Balzer on lettering.  I’ve always thought what she does is quite eye catching but never quite knew where to start to give it a go myself.

It is remarkably easy and very fun.  She is a great tutor – no airs and graces and makes it up as she goes along, which is just like in real life and completely disarming….

I learnt to make several sets of fonts in my own handwriting [which I haven’t photographed so can’t show you right now] …. but the last exercise was to doodle out a little phrase with full embellishments.  I copied Julie’s example as the phrase fits where we are seasonally and emotionally with my own little twist to it:

Doodling JFF-B Aug 13

I’m really pleased, happy and excited to see where else I can go with this new style of writing, especially in my art journal.

So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past five days or so – all-in-all a most satisfying week!

Thanks for dropping in – always nice to know you’ve been 🙂

8 thoughts on “Doodles and Zentangles”

  1. It’s interesting that you took an ‘on-line’ course. I’d never considered that or even thought about it. I have used You-tube a ton for learning craft techniques, so much info out there. I used to love to doodle but never in an organized way. Remember those black light posters you’d colour inn? I had them hanging all over my room with a mushroom shaped lamp that had a black lightbulb in it…..LOL, so 70’s. I love the colours in ‘SPRING’ and especially the ivy wrapping around the letter ‘I’.

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    • Thanks for dropping by, have to confess the word ‘spring’ is not at all original. It’s my take on the great Julie’s work …. I copied [blush] which is my way of learning – the next one was totally original and not nearly so pretty but the third one has come along quite nicely ….I like the on-line courses as it allows me to get a progression with a skill – especially when I don’t feel at all confident or proficient in it.

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  4. I remember ‘zentangling’ way back when I was a child but we didn’t call it that (it was just doodling back then). But it was an awesome pass time and you’ve proven it gets better. Now I wish doodling wasn’t so frowned upon 😦 But yours are pretty cool. I cant decide whether I like the black and white ones or the coloured ones more.

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    • I know, I had doodling thrashed out of me in my school days – now it is a legitimate art form! As a young teacher I discovered for some students, doodling helps them absorb lesson content when they are in listening mode. Now it’s known as being a kinaesthetic learner ….. the world turns and all things change!

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