Diva Challenge #262

I have had a lovely week with my Zentangle® Primer Vol 1. Maria and Rick say they called it a Primer "because it has all you need to enjoy the Zentangle Method" and also "because they enjoyed the 19th century feel of the word" :-) As I started to work my way through it I could imagine Victorian children having a book like this to refer to for their lettering.

We probably think we know the basics of the Zentangle Method, but the introduction has a lot of additional interesting information about it. There are Zentangle official step outs to many tangles that we know and love, but just to warn you there are no new tangles in the book. Nevertheless it is interesting going over the fundamentals of those I knew with official Step Outs by Maria. The Diva's Challenge each week, and other challenges on the Internet, have already made me think about drawing variations of tangle patterns, but somehow I had not thought of doing that with basic tangles such as crescent moon, hollibaugh, Florz etc. In the first two chapters you are taught some of these basic tangles but instantly you are led on to the possibilities of the endless variations. Another chapter is all about strings, something I was very grateful to read about and also a chapter about the Zentangle® way of shading. 

Of course there is much more, but that is as far as I have got and I have had a whole week to explore it, so that shows you how much information there is to digest. There are exercises to do if you wish, at the end of each chapter. It has been fun to go back to basics and I have really enjoyed completing some of the first exercises. If you have the new Zentangle Mosaic App there are hashtags for each exercise so that you can see the tiles others have done for these exercises. Here is a Mosaic of my exercise tiles - did you know a Mosaic is a set of tiles laid side by side and an Ensemble is a set of tiles laid side by side with a common string drawn across them? I didn't know this difference. 

I certainly haven't been disappointed with this book as I have with some others previously. I have learnt so much and I still haven't got to the chapter about the new reticula and fragments yet! Of course I couldn't resist a peek at that chapter and the ideas look amazing, but I stopped at just a peek because it was obvious that I was going to have to sit down and study it closely to undertand it properly. I will wait until I have worked my way through to that chapter.

As you can see from the previous photo, I have also been experimenting with my initials. I don't really like the one I use and I can't find an elegant way to sign Y T that doesn't take up space. I have ended going back to my usual one, so any suggestions will be gratefully received. I have even tried drawing a tiny tortoise instead but that didn't work either.

The Diva has challenged us to use the tangle pattern Fassett this week. I have just drawn a basic Z string tile. The latest tip from Zentangle HQ is that Graphite is the New Black and so I coloured the top left corner with graphite before tangling over it. I also drew Fassett in the other sections with graphite and ended with a Fassett dripping out of it. That bit hasn't worked so well, it may end up with a Bronx Cheer on it in the future :-) 

I prefer this globe:-