New Zentangle Video Series

I've had to put away my beading stuff until after Thanksgiving so yesterday I spent some time watching the new video series by the creators of Zentangle. Click HERE to go to their YouTube channel. The idea is that you should buy a Project Pack which contains all of the materials that you'll need to do each of the tutorials in the series. There are nine videos that go with Zentangle® Project Pack #01. I don't have the project pack but I was able to do four of the tutorials using materials that I have on hand. Series #1 features mainly black Zentangle tiles and Sakura White Gelly Roll® pens in three tip sizes. I used some black card stock squares and the one Gelly Roll pen that I have which has the medium size 08 tip. Sakura recently came out with extra fine 05 tip and bold size 10 tip pens.

If you're interested in purchasing the project pack, it's for sale on the Zentangle site HERE. Oddly, it doesn't say what comes in the kit but what they showed in the videos were the three white gel pens, a white charcoal pencil, a tortillon, a Renaissance Square 3.5" Tile, a Black Apprentice Tile, a Black 3z Tile (triangle), Black Square 3.5" Tiles, a Black Pre-strung Zendala Tile and a Black Bijou Tile. I don't actually know how many of each kind of tile you get but it must be enough to at least complete each of the tutorials. The Zentangle site only sells the Sakura White Gelly Roll® Medium 08 Pen separately and not the other two sizes (see my update below). I didn't have any luck using Sakura's store finder on their website to find a store that sells the new sizes. Amazon carries both of the new sizes but they're out of the size 10 tip pens and only have a small number of the size 05 pens left in stock. I don't really need six of each size anyway and the medium point pen is readily available and is fine for most things.

UPDATE: Since I posted this yesterday, the Zentangle site has added the two new Gelly Roll pen sizes to their shop. You can buy the size 05 pens HERE, the size 08 pens HERE and the size 10 pens HERE. They are $1.49 each.

Below I will tell you about the four video tutorials that I tried and show you the examples that I drew. Clicking the title of a project will take you to that video.

Project Pack #01 -- WarmUp

I really wanted to try this one because it features a tangle design that hasn't been published. It's also the introduction to this first series. It came out very cool looking and it was fun and easy to draw. I did add some shading like Molly did on hers but I decided to erase it because I like it better without it. The outside stripes were my idea just to fill the empty space on my tile. Molly drew hers on a tiny Bijou tile so she didn't have much space left around her drawing. If you're just getting started with Zentangle, this tutorial is great because it teaches some of the most basic techniques.

PP01 - Dewd

I was also excited to try their brand new tangle called "Dewd". It's just the sort of tangle that I love. I drew the example above as directed in the video by Maria accompanied by Rick and Molly's right hand (you'll have to watch the video to know what I'm talking about). I'm happy with how it turned out with the white ink on the black tile. However, I ran into some issues when trying to draw "Dewd" on a light tile with a regular black Micron pen. When I used a bold tip pen it came out too fat and chunky looking. I recommend drawing it with an 01 or no fatter than an 03.

The example above was my first successful "Dewd" drawing using black ink. The trick seems to be to keep all of the lines as close together as possible so that the result doesn't look clunky. I also found that my little dewds tend to come out more wild and curly when drawing them with black ink versus white on black. Rather than making a halo around the outside, I did a much narrower shadow close to the edge. The added color really brings it to life.

I was having a lot of fun drawing "Dewd" and adding color and came up with the example above and the one below. On the one below, I drew Fescu-style tips on my dewds instead of round shapes. I used my white Gelly Roll pen to add the highlights in both examples.

Zentangle® Project Pack #01 - Crescent Moon

The next tutorial that I tried was "Crescent Moon" taught by Rick. I have drawn "Crescent Moon" before but not with white on black. This is one where I wish I'd had all three sizes of Gelly Roll pens. I wasn't able to achieve the same effect as Rick did with his but it was still fun to draw along with him.

Zentangle® Project Pack #01 -- Crazy Huggins

I have drawn "Huggins" before and "Shattuck" but I'm pretty sure that I hadn't tried "Crazy Huggins". I loved Molly's idea of filling the Huggins shapes with other tangles and I had never tried "Nzeppel" or "Crazy Nzeppel" before. "Crazy Nzeppel" is another tangle that I think looks better with white ink on black paper than with black ink on white paper. I did add some dark shading to mine but not as dramatically as Molly does. I kept my shading very close to the edges and only blended it out a little. I added the white charcoal highlights like Molly did but I'm not sure if I'm keen on that look. White Charcoal pencil can be erased so I may end up removing it.

So, if you think you'd like to give Zentangle a try, I think this video series is a great way to get started even if you just follow the tutorials using supplies that you already have on hand.