Paradox Fun

You may have noticed that I do enjoy doing zentangles from time to time. When I first heard about them, I would try to find patterns that I could figure out how to do on my own. As I have learned more I have sometimes found that my idea of how to do a pattern was different and often harder than the correct way. There is a wonderful website, Tangle Patterns, that has links to how-to's for all sorts of patterns.
One of the things I learned from a link on that site is how to draw the pattern Paradox. It is one of my favorite patterns now that I know how to do it. It is almost ridiculously easy, but until I saw the directions I could not figure it out. Oh, I tried, but I made it much harder than it needed to be. And it didn't look anywhere as nice. It might have been possible for someone to figure out that I was trying to draw Paradox, but that is as close as I ever got on my own.
Armed with the knowledge of how to do the pattern, I came across a zentangled drawing that the artist alleged was from Paradox, but that was beyond me. I saw it or similar designs more than once and stared at it until I figured it out. They look something like this, which was my first attempt at it.I was very pleased with myself for figuring it out and thought I would show you how to do it, too.
The first step is to learn how to draw the basic Paradox. The same method can be used to fill in shapes other than triangles.
Next, divide the area you will be filling into smaller areas for the individual Paradox patterns. On the top of the first one I did (above) it happened to form an sort of star pattern that I wanted to try to duplicate so I drew this:
Then I started filling in the shapes with the Paradox pattern. Here it is with just the upper right area filled in:
Each space was then filled with the Paradox pattern working each time in a clockwise direction. That is what gives those S-column (for lack of a better word) shapes where two Paradoxes meet. If you look carefully you can see that I have kept the pictures of these three steps oriented the same way to make it easier to believe it is that simple.
Next, I tried dividing a space into six (an even-number) shapes radiating from a sort-of center point. Sorry there is no before picture. I wanted to see what would happen if I alternated the direction of the Paradoxes as I filled in the shaped. For instance, in this example the upper right shape is done clockwise while the upper left shape was done in a counter-clockwise direction.
It is the change of direction that gives the fans and points of this design.

Last, I wanted to show you this envelope I recycled using the same idea. This was done while I was watching TV with my daughter. After I had filled in a couple of shapes she looked over and asked me what had happened to the first two shapes I had drawn. The pattern overwhelms the initial shape it fills.
It is something you almost have to try to understand. Or at least that is how my brain works.

Zentangled Valentine's Bookmarks

Here are two bookmarks I made for a swap on swapbot. The picture was taken before I covered the bookmarks with packing tape and strung some fibers through the hole in the top of each bookmark to fancy them up, because I didn't want to deal with glare on the bookmarks. If you click on the picture, a larger image of it should appear on your computer.

The pink bookmark is the one that actually fulfills the requirement of the swap which is for a zentangled bookmark. I adapted some patterns (unyun, finery, and paradox) to be valentine-y and then just filled in with puf, netting (bottom of the page, but check out that map of the USA just above the instructions for netting) and some tassels. On the netting I added some petals to the center to fill it in visually. The shading was done with a red colored pencil, instead of the standard no.2.

The white one is based on an ATC that I did a couple of years ago, that is based on a pattern I was trying to copy from something I saw on deviant art when I was looking for patterns to use in zentangles. I could not get the pattern right and hearts kept showing up in the pattern. Well, I gave up, outlined the hearts in red colored pencil and said I planned it that way. When I tried to do the same thing on the bookmark, I couldn't get a single heart to volunteer to show up, but had to go back and fit them in. Funny how things work out.

Nine Inchie Puzzle

Here is an abstract drawing to be cut into 9 inchies to make a puzzle for a swap on swap-bot.
And here it is cut.

A Line is Fine ATC

A Line is Fine ATC
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

It has been a while since I have done a zentangly sort of thing only because there are just so many things that can be done that it is hard to stay on one thing for a long time, but when I do do this I enjoy it and I know it will stay in the rotation for the foreseeable future.
This was clearly done by me -- it has my lines and patterns -- but it is also a bit different in ways that I like so I think it has worked out well that it was set aside for other things for a time.
I shouldn't say I haven't done any tangledoodling. A while ago we were doing some organizing at work and we ended up only using the middle parts of the some labels leaving strips of about half an inch of labels on each end. Being the creative (or crazy -- I've heard it both ways) type I saved those. Last month I drew various zentangle patterns on them and have been using them as stickers on envelopes. The best part is I can be sloppy around the edges but when I peel the label remnant off the sloppy edges stay behind and it looks so clean, like I was much more careful than I actually was.
Anyway, this went out to my swap-bot partner today. Hope she likes it.

zentangle quilt

zentangle quilt
Originally uploaded by jdphoenix

Look at what my daughter did with my zentangle sampler. She colored it and gave it to me for my birthday. Yes, that was back in February, but she only just posted it now. I think it is beautiful. If you click on the picture it will take you to where she posted it on Flickr. You should be able to hit the "all sizes" button above the picture and get a larger image to see the detail.

Postcard Swap

This is a postcard I drew for a swap on swap-bot. It is a companion swap to one they did a couple of weeks ago with a Valentine's day theme. I forgot to take a picture, but it included a large heart and it called for using pink and/or red in addition to the traditional black and white.


The rules for this postcard said that it had to use only black and white and that it was for March. Since I had just finished the Valentine's one it seemed reasonable to make this one with a shamrock for St. Patrick's day. As a rule I really like the plain black and white, but after adding pink to the other I had an urge to use green for this one, but I followed the rules.
The funny thing is that just by random chance in assigning partners, this one is going to the same person who got the other one. Hope she likes it.

Tangle Doodled Sampler

When I first discovered zentangles I started keeping a sheet of paper with various designs I found by looking at other peoples' drawings. It was sloppy and disorganized, but it was helpful.
Then I saw this by tropicalart77 who has some pretty amazing doodles in her collection if you want to look around. This is my version of a zentangle sampler with some of the patterns I like to use and a few I just made up for this exercise.
If you want to learn more about zentangles, check out the zentangle homepage.