When In Doubt, Aura

You may recall that our dear friend Bijou wrote 24 new Bijouisms for our 2025 Bijou Be Well series. We released a new Bijouism for 21 days straight in May, and our community loved them. 

But wait... that means there were three new Bijouisms that were not released in May... 

Today, we release one of those three!

When In Doubt, Aura

Maria writes...

You might be tired of hearing me talk about “aura,” but please hear me out.

When Rick and I were handed this gift (later called Zentangle), we were constantly “winging it.” “How about this?” Or “Let’s try that!” Our thoughts were caught up in whirls of enthusiasm, passion, and of course, creativity. There was no room in our journey for self-doubt. Simple as that. 

The patterns we were drawing were simple, simple enough to assure the beginner tangler that they could draw them. Why? Because we wanted to attract people who were absolutely convinced that they could not even “draw a straight line.” We met these people at craft fairs and the like who would watch me calligraph beautiful words with flowing, unwavering messages that held them captive. Just about every one of them said, “I could never do that... but I wish I could!” And that was probably true as I had trained and practiced constantly for forty years at that point in my life.

But as we listened closer to them, it wasn’t exactly what I was doing that they craved, but overall flowing creativity they saw. To make something beautiful... that was the real desire.

This was our main desire: to show people how to create beautiful images PDQ (pretty darn quickly). Rick and I loved this challenge. It felt like training to climb Mount Everest. Well, sort of. No offense to mountain climbers (maybe I should give it a try...). But we not only had to do it ourselves, but also push others up the mountain as we went along.

All of this is to explain the necessary simplicity of the Zentangle Method. We began with the simplest step we could think of. Four dots with a pencil on a small square of paper. Done. Connect the dots with a light pencil line. Done. Draw a “string” with a pencil. Done. Now the fun part begins: our first tangle, crescent moon.  

We go right to the pen and draw the tiny black “ladybug” shapes around the inside of a portion of the string. Then, the magic happens. Draw a line. Not just any line, this line is called an aura. This line mimics that ladybug shape but leaves a small space between the line and ladybug. This is how we introduce confidence, one tiny step at a time (again, that mountain climbing analogy). What we perhaps didn’t know at the time, is how often we would use this line, this technique, in many of our tangles. 

Aura is so powerful. It can change the character of a tangle just by how (often) you use it. 

I have to admit that I use aura when I come to a standstill, when I’m unsure what to do next. I aura the last aura. Or I go back to the other tangles and aura inside their shapes or around the perimeter of the whole tangle. It never gets tiring. And to me, the details always enhance the composition. Zentangle is all about tangles. The more complex it is, the more interesting. Of course, that is just my humble opinion, and, well, I’m sticking to it.

Long story short... when in doubt, aura!

Let us know in the comments how the philosophies of Lady Aura guide you as you tangle. One lucky commentor will receive a new Bijouism deck (Nos. 25-48).