Zen Doodling

"Zentangling" has become a very popular form of doodling.  Check out the "home site" for this new art craze at http://tanglepatterns.com  There are many blogs on-line also that have photos and descriptions of other "tangler's" pieces, as this one is going to do.  My friend Donna Pepper is a Certified Zentangle Teacher and treated a group of us to a class.  It was amazing in that it made a group of very close friends go from chattering and laughing to total silence the moment we started to concentrate.  I can understand why it's called "ZENtangling" by that experience. 

Zentangles can be done in a book or journal (one of the participants has a fabulous collection in a little book and they are incredible)  and can be any size you like, but the typical is a 3" card referred to as a "tile".  Donna gave us each a few tiles and a pen (pencils and erasers not allowed), and started us out on the essentials to begin our very own tile.  It was great fun and I loved it.

So I decided to try it at home.....in fact....finish the piece I started in that mini-class.  Now I'm wondering if I missed the "zen" aspect altogether because the piece I did is so uptight and strangled that it doesn't look like I relaxed or got into the zone at all! Too many tiny little squiggles, too much black.....I think a psychiatrist might have fun analysing this one!  I don't remember what mood I was in when I tackled this one, but I do believe I'll have to try again....or then again, perhaps I should just stick to stitching! Here's my first tile (she says unhappily)....and I know the photo isn't in proper focus, but figured it shows well enough how badly I did~!