So, I have finished some days ago the Zentangle Primer Volume 1. You can find some posts about the first half of the book.
Chapter 1 & 2: The First Tiles
Chapter 3: Strings and Verdigogh
Here I want to talk about the rest of the book.
In Chapter 5 they talk about embracing mistakes, and maybe take advantage of them. A wrong stroke could bring to a new pattern, or can be recovered with a block over it. I have some errors here and there that I attempted to recover in a bad way, but it does not occur often fortunately.
In Chapter 6 they introduce 14 tangles and some concepts: sparkle and auras, linking, layering and tangleations.
Sparkle and auras are basic enhancements. In sparkle you draw a line, lift the pen while moving it and then land on paper a bit further away, leaving a gap. Aura is contouring something. Sometimes the aura touches the pattern, more often it does not. If you have tangled for more than one week you should already know what an aura is. :D
Linking, for what I got, is the act of connecting two tangles, like morphing one into the other. In the last tile of the second page Cadent morphed into Huggins at some point for example. In the first page fifth tile sometimes out of a Rixty comes a tentacle and not another Rixty.
In Layering you simply purposefully draw a pattern behind another. They probably call it "in Hollibaugh fashion" in Zentangle HQ. Since with Hollibaugh you have to learn layering and drawing behind.
Tangleation is a variation of a tangle, sometimes involving two tangles. To be honest for me the difference between linking and tangleation is still a bit blurry, I will have to investigate better on the topic.
I left with the feeling that the chapter introduced these important even if advanced concepts but did not really go deep with it. So, like with shading, I felt a bit deceived. Is it better to introduce less concepts and go deep or not to introduce them?
Let's go with the pages I tangled for this chapter, so you will also discover the 14 tangles introduced.
I did some extra drawings with Rixty, since I did not really get the jist of it.
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| Striping, Tipple, Rixty, Flux, 'Nzeppel, Ing, Spoken Rixty, Cadent, Huggins, Paradox.18 August 2025 |
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| Zinger, Munchin, Tripoli, Auraknot, Fengle, Printemps, Shattuck, Toodles, Tipple, Crescent Moon, Pokeleaf, Florz, 'Nzeppel, Striping, Flux, Ing, Cadent, Huggins. 18 August 2025 |
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| Flux, Shattuck, Paradox, Zinger, Tipple, Florz, Bales, Sampson, Hollibaugh, Printemps. 19 August 2025 |
Some tea bags envelops during in the same period of the chapter 6. I practiced Zentangle original patterns but also checked something new and did some attempts for one of my patterns, Barbix, that I have not published yet. Stay tuned!
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| In-N-Out Folded, "O", Tipple, Sampson, Verdigogh, Betweed, Flux, Printemps. 18 August 2025 |
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| Munchin, Barbix, Flux, Printemps, Crescent Moon, Ribbon Rose, Tipple, Nanalee, Bear Huggins, Mooka. 19 August 2025 |
In Chapter 7 the topic is reticula and fragments. Many patterns can be used as reticula if drawn big enough! As for fragments, there is a list of them, that you can find also here on Musterquelle. Every fragment has a code, given from the letter in the column and the number in the row.
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| F2, H5, P6, L3, J6, K3, L5, H1, E3, L6, E6, F6. 21 August |
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| U7, H16, A14, H33, E 21, C21, C24, E25, B24, Ing. 21 August |
Chapter 8 was about last words. Material to use and the Zentangle website and a lot of words that did not stick to my mind. But I read it before sleeping. :D
They talk about having a proper space to tangle (I tangle in bed the most of the time, probably not the best space) and to make time for it (I make even too much time for it), to repeat tangles and get familiar with them, to start a group... Actually I started a group to meet at a café, this week it will not work, let's see the next one! :)
My last words on the book
It is a nice change to see something on a different device instead than reading everything on your laptop of mobile. I bought the Kindle version, yet it was a change.
I like the idea of the beauty of limits. Also giving some specific tasks shows that. You usually follow a video and do what they do, instead of following some prompt to draw. Or draw free, without any guideline.
I have seldom shaded or used strings before reading the book, while here it was perfectly shown how useful they are.
On the not so bright side, I think that many topics were not discussed in the depth I needed (shading, layering, linking), many patterns were not introduced before using them in drawings, alternate versions of shading were not given (or maybe you should have checked the whole book, which can be more difficult with the Kindle version).
Worth the 10 euros of the Kindle version? Probably. Worth 30 euros for the paper version. Not really.
But I am happy that the book showed me that sometimes you have to restart from the beginning when you learned everything on your own. It made me curious about a couple of things.
I bought a book on shading, I will see how it is, and will later see for some more info about linking tangles.
Zentangle Original Patterns
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