Art Journal: Embrace the Flaws

The Zentangle Method focuses on trusting the process. There is rarely any planning, other than giving a random line, or string, to break up our paper into smaller spaces. This freedom helps us be more meditative, more mindful as we fill up space, one stroke at a time. And the mindfulness frees us to follow unexpected leads that pop up.

I want to show you how today's piece evolved. I set out to follow the Zentangle Method, and put down my string in pencil. I laid out a rectangle, a circle and part of an oval. I used a compass and an oval cutter for this part, which we don't encourage in Zentangle classes. As I was trying to make an oval, I accidentally scored/cut the paper and the collaged photo I put down first. Great start. No mistakes. I went ahead and tangled around the photo.

Day 1, tears and all

When I came back to the piece the next day, I considered starting over on a new sheet. No mistakes. I decided to keep working. I added some more paper and tangled the "frame".

Day 2

This morning, I continued to have serious doubts! No mistakes. I tangled in some of the white space with my gray Micron. It looked so cold and ugly! I knew I wanted color, but something more than a colored pen. I picked up my glass dip pen, which I've never tangled with. I mixed up some Lindy's Magicals pigments and started tangling with the dip pen. This was fun. (I know it sounds weird, but I could almost hear the piece encouraging me. I was the baby learning to walk, and it was the parent, arms outstretched, standing just close enough to not let me fall.) I was drawing with glass! I filled in all the spaces, one stroke at a time. I still didn't like it. The Zentangle Method step 6: Shade! The graphite was not making me like it any better. I picked up my trusty dauber, and added some distress ink. Ahh, now it was warmer. (I was warming up to it?) I applied more ink, and even started bringing it onto the tangled lines. UH OH. By rubbing the foam dauber over the paper, I had roughed up the scored/cut part. At this point, I decided to just go for broke. I folded the scored line and inked it. Then I made more folds and inked them. To further highlight the tears, I varnished the oval area with clear nail polish.

Finally, I liked it! But the circle looked empty and needed some text. "Embrace the flaws."