One Zentangle a Day

white. In some of my Zendalas, I leave most sections black and white and add just a small splash of a bright color with a marker or add a bit of color with a gel pen or a fine glitter pen.”
    Shading with graphite is often Geneviève’s favorite part of tangling. “It seems to inject life into the drawing,” she says.
    Whatever you use to color in your Zendala, check that it does not bleed on the paper you are using. It is important to have control of the color you apply.

DAY 34 GEOMETRIC ZENDALAS
    MATERIALS
    •
Micron 01 pen
    •
pencil
    •
white drawing paper cut to desired size
    •
colored drawing paper cut to desired size
    •
template from below
    •
colored pencils
    YESTERDAY’S ZENDALA HAD A mostly organic, flower-like shape, but today’s is geometric. All the lines are straight, so all the sections are either triangles or four-sided shapes. Geneviève used the same steps to create the template, but the focus on this template is geometric and a play on angles. Geometry is a favorite subject of hers, and she enjoys playing in this field of shapes.
    Geneviève says, “Whenever I see a triangle shape, I think of Rick’s Paradox, which is one of my favorite tangles. In this piece, I used Paradox all around the edge of the design, and I added lines in the star shape in the middle. And to add just a little organic touch, I used a variation of Flux.”
    Copy this template as you did for the first Zendala template, creating a copy for your achromatic tangled Zendala and your ZIA Zendala. Create an achromatic meditative tile using the templates of the day.
    There is less shading here because Paradox creates its own curved shading.
    Sometimes you get unexpected results when you finish coloring a piece. In this one, notice how the lightest part of the colored Paradox sections forms an interesting ring around the design.

Coloring Your Zendala
    For the colored version, the ink drawing was scanned and then printed on a sheet of orange Mi-Teintes paper. The color was selected to match the warm, earth-toned color palette Geneviève chose. Colored pencils were used, in the shades of cream, rusty orange, and dark brown. In addition, black and white were layered sparingly, to darken the shadows and lighten the highlights, giving more contrast to the image. The colored pencil must be applied with a light touch; otherwise, it can cover the ink lines.
    A FUN EXERCISE for expanding your skills, today’s ZIA calls on you to make several copies of the Zendala after inking your tangles. Then try different shading methods or different color schemes. For another exercise, you can use different tangles around the circle, rather than repeating the same ones. Yet another exercise would be to use just one tangle for the whole design. Paradox is a good choice for that; you can create different effects by changing the direction the spiral goes. You could invent your own board game! Think of how you could use this Zendala. There are no rules, so have fun!

DAY 35 COMBINING ORGANIC & GEOMETRIC PATTERNS ON A ZENDALA
    MATERIALS
    •
Micron 01 pen
    •
pencil
    •
drawing paper cut to desired size
    •
template from below
    •
Inktense colored pencils
    IN TODAY’S ZENDALA, Geneviève combined organic and geometric shapes, which engage both the left and right sides of the brain. When you mix different kinds of shapes, you can create an endless variety of Zendalas.
    Copy this template as you have for the past two days. If you look at the shapes around the outside, you see that not all the shapes have to be symmetrical. By having the outer shapes all pointing in the same direction, you get a great pinwheel effect.
    Geneviève’s tangle, Fleurette, is diagrammed below. Fleurette allows you to create symmetrical flower petals with minimal work. It’s a very useful tangle for Zendala centers, but you can also use it in many different shapes.

    USE WHATEVER PATTERNS OR TANGLEATIONS you would like to create a meditative Zendala in the achromatic scale.
    Starting with Knights Bridge and extending the first column out into the next shape achieved the black-and-white-striped ribbon effect. The center flower is Fleurette, which, as you can see, works great.
    The small circles and dots in the outside shapes are flair you can add in any area that needs extra detail.

Coloring Your Zendala
    For the color version, Geneviève scanned the inked Zendala and printed it on 140-lb watercolor paper. For the color, she used Inktense pencils, which are