Today's Tangle - DIVI

"DIVI" is by Jem Miller (The Ragged Ray) and the step-out is posted HERE on her blog. I drew the ribbon version. 

I'm trying something different today with the way that I'm displaying my tile. Placing them on a background will eliminate the problem of tiles that are the same color as my blog background. What do you think? Below you can see how today's tile looks without a background.

Classic Zentangle® - Chainging, Flukes, Flux & Tripoli

I drew this for last week's Z-string prompt in the "Today's Tangles: Keeping it Classic" Facebook group.

These are the tangles that I used:

Chainging - I blogged about "Chainging" HERE.

Flukes - You'll find info about "Flukes" in THIS post.

Flux - I blogged about "Flux" HERE. On today's tile I used Maria's version of "Flux"

Tripoli - Read about "Tripoli" in THIS post.

Today's Tangle - Travertine

This design called "Travertine" has been around forever and I have seen more than one method for drawing it. This version is by Sandra Strait and her step-out makes it very easy to get nice results. You'll find the step-out HERE on her blog. I shaded and highlighted mine to give it the look of basket weaving.

Today's Tangle - Sanis

"Sanis" is by Sandra Hoffner and the step-out is HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. Dawn Collins has a video about this pattern HERE. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to draw this in a grid but I was pleasantly surprised to see how pretty it came out when I did. I embellished my tile with dots of metallic copper gel pen.

UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.

Even though this has quite a few steps, it was such a pleasure to draw that I drew another one and colored it a little differently this time. I also filled the squares with more lines on this tile. I added dots of metallic silver Gelly Roll at all of the intersections.

Today's Tangle - Kandy Ribnz

"Kandy Ribnz" is by Cheryl Wilson CZT and you'll find her step-out HERE on her blog. For some reason these remind me of slippers. There are no examples on Cheryl's blog but I saw a few on Pinterest that look more like ballet slippers than bedroom slippers like mine.

Today's Tangle - Exinside

This pattern, which is called "Exinside", looks like it might be complicated to draw. It's not though. The step-out breaks it down into simple steps and it all comes together quite easily. You don't even have to worry that you've drawn some of the lines a little too long or short because they can be adjusted later as needed. The pattern is by Sandra Strait and it is posted HERE on her blog.

I have one tip for drawing this design. In the first step you're supposed to draw a cross-like shape but no info is given as to how to accomplish this. When I draw it, I start with four tiny dots that represent the four corners of a small square as you can see in the mini step-out below. They can be very close to each other as I drew mine or farther apart. It all depends on how big you want the final shape to be. Next I draw for straight lines some distance out from each pair of dots as shown below. They can be any distance away and any length as long as they are longer than the space between the nearest pair of dots. Next, connect each pair of dots to the ends of each of the corresponding lines as shown and you'll end up with a cross shape.

I drew the tile below first but wasn't happy with the muted colors so after that I drew the colorful tile at the top of this post. As you can see, you can have sharp corners on your shapes or rounded ones.

Today's Tangle - Siri

I had some fun coloring and shading this pattern called "Siri". There is a pattern with the same name that's by Simone Menzel CZT (her step-out is HERE) but this one is by Sandra Hoffner and her pattern is posted HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. Dawn Collins has a video about this version HERE.

UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.

Today's Tangle - Feather Grid

"Feather Grid" is by Ina Sonnenmoser and her pattern is HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. I blogged HERE about another of Ina's patterns that is very similar called "Feathering Spiral" that you can see on the tile below. I just happened to draw that one in a square grid even though the step-out doesn't suggest doing that. In any case, I embellished this one differently than the other one so it looks completely different.

UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.

Dawn Collins has a video about "Feather Grid" HERE.

Today's Tangle - Porter

"Porter" is by Alice Hendon and the step-out is posted HERE. This design reminds me of some other patterns that I have drawn such as "Flyte", "Lines" and "Sand" but it is different than those three.

Today's Tangle - Heidi's Sand Swirl Tangleation

My Facebook friend, Heidi, came up with this variation of the pattern called "Sand Swirl". Instead of drawing several auras around each stem before aura'ing the other stems, she draws one aura around each stem then adds another aura around each of them and so on. The result is a "barreled" effect where the swirls are intertwined. You can read about this technique HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. Some official Zentangle patterns that make use of this technique are "Arukas", "Auraknot", "Betweed" and "Hibred".

Heidi has posted her step-out and a couple of example tiles HERE on her Facebook page. She also explains better than I have how this tangle is drawn.

Today's Tangles - Crazy Huggins & Yindie

I blogged about "Crazy Huggins" before HERE. You'll find a link to the official step-out in that post as well as links to a couple of videos. In today's example, I filled the sections with "Bayken", "Patena" and "Shattuck". "Shattuck" and "Patena" are both official Zentangle patterns. Read about "Shattuck" in THIS post and "Patina" in THIS post. I blogged about "Bayken" HERE.

This interesting design is popular at the moment in some of the Facebook groups that I belong to. This example is pretty rough but I gave it a try recently just to see if I could do it. First I watched THIS video where Ellen Wolters shows how to draw "Yindie" and she does a very nice job of it. Amazingly, she draws the entire thing freehand without any drawing aids. I had a heck of a time trying to draw the initial large circle neatly enough freehand so I did use my Helix Circle Maker to draw it. I drew everything else after that freehand. Since this was just an experiment, I didn't fill mine with any designs or embellishments but I did add some color to make it easier to see how it is woven and some shading to give it dimension.

You'll find Hennie Brouwer's step-out for "Yindie" HERE at Pattern-Collections.com.

UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.

Today's Tangle - OTM

"OTM" is by Cari Camarra CZT. The only published step-out that I'm aware of is posted HERE in the Facebook group Square One™: Purely Zentangle®. I didn't realized it until I was finished drawing my tile that the way I shaded it created a woven ribbon effect.

Classic Zentangle® - Florz, Indy-Rella, Munchin, Onamato, Pepper, Printemps, Rixty, Spoken, Striping & Umble

The string for this week's classic Zentangle had lots of loops. There were so many spaces to fill that I ended up using ten different tangles. Sure, I could have repeated some of them, or ignored some of the string lines, but this is what came out of my pen.

These are the tangles that I used:

Florz - I blogged about "Florz" HERE.

Indy-Rella - I blogged about "Indy-Rella" HERE.

Munchin - Read my post about "Munchin" HERE.

Onamato - Read THIS post for info about "Onamato".

Pepper - I haven't blogged about "Pepper" before. The step-out is found in THIS Zentangle newsletter. THIS Zentangle Project Pack #04 video features this tangle. I also found four more videos HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Printemps - I blogged about "Printemps" in THIS post.

Rixty - I blogged about "Rixty" HERE.

Spoken - Read THIS post for information about "Spoken".

Striping - There is no officially published step-out for "Striping", but Sandy Steen Bartholomew has one HERE on her blog. This tangle is featured in THIS Zentangle Project Pack #01 video as well as in videos HERE and HERE.

Umble - I blogged about "Umble" HERE.

SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS BLOG:

On Friday you should have received an email with yesterday's post like I did. For some reason they combined Thursday's and Friday's posts in one email. If you scroll to the bottom of the email, you'll see my post from Thursday below Friday's post. Hopefully this isn't going to be the way they'll do it from now on because it's rather confusing.

Today's Tangle - Clamz

According to THIS page at TanglePatterns.com, "Clamz" is easy to draw. However, this is the first time I've blogged about this tangle because I've never been happy with my results until now. The pattern is by Sharon Wrench CZT. If you follow her step-out, you may have the same problem that I had with it. It's too hard to judge the amount of space needed between the shell halves when drawing it as the step-out suggests. I ended up using a method similar to the way that Melinda Barlow draws it in THIS video. 

I was particularly attracted to the way that Emiko Kaneko draws "Clamz" on THIS tile that she posted on Instagram. I love how she added weight and dimension to the shells and orbs. I did something similar with my example and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out this time. 

I guess that the moral of the story is to keep trying the tangles that give you trouble and maybe you'll find a way to draw them that is easier for you and one that gives you the results that you want.

SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS BLOG:

I subscribe to this blog as well as my beading blog so that I can make sure that the emails are sent as they should be. I realized last night that I never got the emails for yesterday's posts from either of my blogs. Did anyone else not get an email about Thursday's post? I haven't changed anything in my blog settings and everything looks as it should be. Maybe they're just running late because of Valentine's Day.

Today's Tangles - Stonia & Tracery

In honor of Valentine's Day, I drew heart versions of these two patterns called "Stonia" and "Tracery".

I blogged before about "Stonia" by Miriam Gresnigt HERE.

"Tracery" is by Dianne Krumnow and I blogged about the original version HERE.

Today's Tangles - Gardenia & 1/2 Orbs

After sharing some of my favorite tangles HERE recently, I decided to draw two of them again.

This one is "Gardenia" by H.Elena. Read more about it in THIS post.

And, this one is "1/2 Orbs" by Mina Hsiao CZT. I blogged about this pattern HERE.

Fun with Lines - Irradial & Line Dance

"Line Dance" is a lot of fun to draw and the shading makes for a very cool-looking design. It's by Alice Hendon and her step-out is found HERE on her blog. 

"Irradial" is by Tomàs Padrós and his step-out is posted HERE at TanglePatterns.com. Be sure to scroll all the way down the page as there are two versions of the step-out. I drew mine on a random grid.

More Favorite Tangles & Tiles

These are five more of my favorites from past blog posts.

I blogged about this wacky pattern called "Snowcone" HERE.

This one is called "Ur-Chen" and I blogged about it HERE.

I blogged HERE about this pretty pattern called "Winflo".

This pattern is called "Yuu" and you can read about it in THIS post.

I drew this tile to use on a birthday card using the pattern called "Zefirki". I blogged about it HERE.

Today's Tangle - Slowpoke

This whimsical pattern called "Slowpoke" is by Cris Letourneau CZT. You'll find the step-out HERE on her blog. Tangle Dream has a YouTube video about this tangle HERE.

Favorite Tangles & Tiles

These are five more of my favorites from past blog posts.

I blogged about "Harfe" HERE.

I blogged about "Maryhill" in THIS post.

I blogged about "Miss 1969" HERE.

This is my "Mooka" version of a pattern called "Window Grilles" and I blogged about it HERE and HERE.

"I blogged about "Sand" in THIS post.

Classic Zentangle® - Bales, Fragments D4, K14 & Q4

The prompt for this tile was to start with a string with four lines that radiated out from one of the corners of the border and the rays are divided into four curved rows. We could fill the segments with any of the fragments from the Zentangle Primer and/or choose from a list of official tangles.

These are the tangles and fragments that I used:

Bales - I blogged about "Bales" in THIS post.

Fragment Q4 - You can see what this fragments looks like HERE on the Musterquelle site.

Fragment D4 - You can see what this fragments looks like HERE on the Musterquelle site.

Fragment K14 - You can see what this fragments looks like HERE on the Musterquelle site.

Today's Tangle - Rüggi & Another Squalink

"Rüggi" is by Kathrin Güssow and you'll find her pattern HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. Dawn Collins has a video about this pattern HERE.

UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.

I also had some fun with the "Squalink" pattern that I showed you in THIS post on Tuesday. Instead of cutting out rice or seed shapes, this time I cut out hearts for a Valentine themed tile. Not being a big fan of drawing hearts, I really only tried this just to see if it would work and I randomly grabbed a pink tile to try it on. Once I had the squares on the tile, I went ahead and filled in the background with "Raindotty".

Five More Favorite Tiles

I blogged about "Fan Zendoodle" HERE.

"Gardenia" is such a fun pattern to draw. I blogged about it HERE.

You can read about "Gotcha" in THIS post.

I blogged about the tile above HERE.

I blogged about "Half Orbs" in THIS post.

Today's Tangle - Squalink

This pattern is called "Squalink". It's by Lindy Clarkson and her pattern is found HERE at Pattern-Collections.com. Although I like the tile above very much, I thought that the shading was a little too dark so I drew the tile below and did the shading much lighter. Now I'm not sure which one I prefer and maybe the shading should be somewhere in between the two.

UPDATE: The Pattern-Collections website has shut down. Click HERE to view this pattern.

Although the pattern doesn't show this, I used a grid to draw mine. I used a grid that had twice as many squares as the number of square elements in the final design. That allowed me to see more easily where to draw the overlapping squares. Each of the elements used four squares on the grid and each element shares one grid square with the previous element and one with the next element.

Today's Tangles - Lines, Love Fragment & Bayken

This pattern is called "Lines" and it's by Mary Burrows who is one of Melinda Barlow CZT's students. Melinda has the step-out posted HERE on her blog and you can watch Melinda's video about this tangle HERE.

This is the first year that I have participated in the ValenTangle Facebook group. Although I haven't been able to keep up with each day's prompt, I did draw the tile above for Day 1. Click HERE, if you are interested in joining the group. The series runs through Valentine's Day and you don't have to do the prompts in sequence or on the exact days.

The tangles that I used on my tile are the "Love Fragment", which Marguerite Samama created for this year's ValenTangle series, and "Bayken".

"Bayken" came from a Deviant Art page that has been removed but I was able to find a picture of the step-out HERE on Pinterest. It's pretty easy to draw once you get the hang of it but I do suggest drawing it in a pencil grid that can be erased later.

I thought I had blogged about "Bayken" before but I only mentioned it in THIS post about the 2018 "Tangle*a*Day Calendar". Below is a tile that I drew a very long time ago.