About
Welcome to the Zentangle Method! You are about to embark on a wonderful and beautiful creative journey.
The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. We call these patterns, tangles and you create tangles with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs. These simple shapes are the "Elemental Strokes" in all Zentangle art.
Zentangle art is non-representational and unplanned so you can focus on each stroke and not worry about the result. There is no up or down to Zentangle art. In fact, you can most easily create Zentangle art by rotating your tile as you tangle -- always keeping your hand in a relaxed position. You don't need to know what a tangle is going to look like to draw it. You just need to know the steps.
The Zentangle Method works because
- It is fun
- It is simple to learn
- Each stroke is easy to draw
- There are no mistakes
- There are no preplanned outcomes, yet
- You always know what to do next
- The result is unexpected and beautiful . . .
. . . and all this occurs with gratitude and appreciation.
The Eight Steps of the Zentangle Method
Step 01 – Gratitude and Appreciation
Get comfortable, take a few deep breaths and feel gratitude and appreciation – for this beautiful paper, for these wonderful tools, for this opportunity to create something beautiful.
Step 02 – Corner Dots
We teach beginning Zentangle Method with beautiful museum grade cotton paper, 3.5 inches (89 mm) square. To answer a familiar question of what to put on this beautiful paper, place a light pencil dot in each corner, about a pen's width from the edges. Now it’s no longer a blank piece of paper.
Step 03 – Border
Connect those dots with a light pencil line, straight or curvy, to create a square. This is your border.
Step 04 – String
Inside the border, draw a light pencil line or lines to make what we call a "string." The string separates your tile into sections, in which you draw your tangles. A string can be any shape. It may be a curvy line that touches the edge of the border now and then, or series of straight lines that go from one side of the border to the next.
Step 05 – Tangle
A tangle is a predefined sequence of simple strokes that make up a pattern. Draw your tangles in pen inside (usually) the pencil strings and borders. Tangle is both noun and verb. Just as you dance a dance, you tangle your tangles. Draw your tangles with deliberate strokes. Don't worry about what it's going to look like. Just focus on each stroke of the pen as you make it. Trust that you'll know what to do next when the time to do it comes. There is no up or down to Zentangle art so feel free to rotate your tile in any direction that is most comfortable for your hand as you draw.
Step 06 – Shade
Add shades of gray with a graphite pencil to bring contrast and dimension to your tile. The black and white two-dimensional tangles transform through shading and appear three-dimensional. You can also use a tortillion (a paper blending stump) to soften and blend the graphite.
Step 07 – Initial and Sign
This is art you created. You should sign it. Put your initials on the front (many people create a unique monogram or chop for this step). On the back, place your name, date, comments and observations.
Step 08 – Appreciate
Hold your tile at arm’s length. Turn it this way and that. Appreciate what you just created.
It may look simple but there is a lot going on here. Savor this time as you discover and enjoy all that the Zentangle Method (and you!) have to offer. As you use the Zentangle Method to create beautiful images, you likely will enjoy increased focus, creativity, self-confidence and an increased sense of well-being.
More on the Zentangle Method and it's Philosophies
We believe that life is an art form and that each person is an artist. The Zentangle Method is an elegant metaphor and model for inspiring a deliberate artistry in life.
For this reason, we deliberately do not include an eraser in our Zentangle Kits or use it as part of a Zentangle practice. We have no eraser in life, so why in a Zentangle Kit? There's little use for it when you think about it. Pencil strings and borders can be ignored and pen marks can't be erased. Even if those pen marks aren't initially what you might have intended (we never call them "mistakes" in the Zentangle Method), you can use them as inspirations to go in directions that you may not have otherwise explored. Instead of looking at them as mistakes, we reframe them as "opportunities."
By avoiding common blocks to creative flow such as self-criticism, fear of failure, lack of immediate positive feedback, worrying about outcomes, frustration with lengthy training, lack of inspiration and doubts about what to do next, you can create beautiful art right away.
The Zentangle Method's "elegance of limits" paradoxically inspires creativity with its gentle boundaries and structured patterns. These so-called limits enhance creativity and support a greater freedom of expression.
People of all ages, skills and interests enjoy the Zentangle Method all over the world. Together, they form a world-wide community of passionate and grateful artists, full of friendships, support, sharing and learning. Zentangle art provides common meeting ground because it is independent of language, age, political views, religious beliefs or any other category that separates one from another.
The Zentangle approach encourages self-respect and respect for your creativity by using the best materials available. These need not mean the most expensive. If you were creating Zentangle art on the beach at low tide, you would still choose the best stick you could find and the smoothest area on which to tangle.
People who draw according to the Zentangle Method, describe their experiences as others describe the states of mindfulness and flow. This can occur as soon as with the first tile. No longer is a lengthy practice needed to access these inspiring and high-performance states of awareness.
The best way to begin is to:
- Explore our website, start with the menu on the left.
- Read our books.
- Tangle With Us.
- Take a class with a Certified Zentangle Teacher.