For this Sunday I’m not totally switched off because I had a huge switch off day yesterday (I never even turned my computer on which was great…though part of the day was spent out getting an iPhone, but that’s another story).  This week has been a big week for drawing and painting for me.  There used to be a time when I only did art when I was dealing with bouts of insomnia.  I used to spend hours drawing, painting, and making jewelry throughout the night but since I haven’t had that problem lately I’ve had to actually make time for art.  Switch Off Sunday is a great time for art!

This week has been filled with painting and drawing.  The drawing is what I’m here to share today!  There is a system of doodle drawing called “zentangles” that you may or may not have heard of or seen before.  Zentangles are a really fun and simple type of patterned drawing that uses nothing more than some small pieces of paper, a pen and a pencil.  The standard or “traditional” zentangle drawings are done as 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 squares in a repetitive pattern.  The idea behind it is that by doing the repetitive patterns it will help you develop more focus and reduce stress.  I don’t use it like that though, I use it on a larger scale and use the concept of the patterns to make other things.  Granted this is something that is covered in the zentangle system when you get beyond the basics and into the more advanced methods.  The idea is a stringe of patterns that become tangled.  And it ends up being really pretty!

But here’s what’s great about it.  It’s simple, it’s super creative and doesn’t require any real artistic ability, and there’s no right way of doing it.  Here are a few of the drawings that I’ve been doing over the last few days.  The first one is really the only one that’s complete.  The rest are either just scribbles and experiments or thing that I’m still working on.  “Bloom” is the one that I started this morning that, because of the flower pattern frame, is going to take a while for me to do…and then I’m going to use watercolor pencil to color some of it in.

 

I love drawing and I love drawing like this because it really takes me out of whatever is going on at the time.   Time really flies when you’re drawing!   I have a couple of books on zentangles and zentangle inspired art.  There are a number of specifically zentangle books.  I have:

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There are also a few websites that you can look at that have patterns, examples of art, and ways that you can work with different kinds of zentangle types of art.  Check these out!

The official Zentangle website
Tangle Patterns
A great zentangle collection on Pinterest
Tangle Tangle Tangle blog (very cool)

A quick quick Google search for zentangle patterns will bring up a whole bunch of fun and free websites and some places that have some great books and resources that you can purchase.

Doodle today and have fun!!

[box style=”light” title=”UPDATE!!!” color=”#19cc49″ header_color=”#18695e” header_bgcolor=”#e0d0d0″ rounded=”true”]Since posting this earlier today I finished working on “Bloom”…so here it is!

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