Zentangle for Kids

Today we have a story, maybe I have already introduced it a bit.

I was at a dinner organised by the restaurant owners to know people.
Lots of food, lots of drinks, lots of chatting! My plate and my glass were almost always full and I never had the time to take pen and paper out of my backpack... until a point.

Towards the end of the night, I asked the girl by my side if she wanted a bookmark and ended up drawing 4 bookmarks as fast as possible (not good if you want decent results) since the restaurant was going to close and it had to close. Good thing is that the last one was for the restaurant owner, so she had a bit more patience! :D

I also explained what the tortillon is, the word was new for everybody, and the closest one is "tortellino". Therefore, the bookmarks nickname became Tortellino. I like it!

Possibly the owner liked my energy, and thought I could draw there with kids while parents are having brunch. So far I have only shared something of what I know with adults, kids are a completely different. The brunch she had to organise probably is not going to happen, but I liked the idea of thinking how to teach to kids.

I have surfed a bit YouTube, the first thing that came out were the Kitchen Table Tangles with Molly and her daughters Indy and Mozzy. I did the first tile following them. I have the feeling it was Zentangle by kids rased into Zentangleland, not Zentangle for kids. So I had to change. I found a Zendoodle library with Kelly Blouin, and this was far way better in my opinion. Zentangle or some variations of it thought for kids. Still a bit stiff, but with great ideas and variations. Orbs-Marbles with different fillings (where I actually created a new pattern, as if I needed to create more!), Streets-Bridges Hollibaugh with different fillings, Bales as a fragment to fill in several different ways, and I forgot the name of the angular spirals. I checked that out, and single ones are called Box spirals, groups of them are called Emingle, ribbons are called Ambler.

Crescent Moon, Hollibaugh, Pokeroot, Tortuca, Marball, Static, Paradox, Bales, Emingle. 15-17 October 2025

More from Kelly Blouin, More box spirals, with some drawings on the different floors that created, some Whirlz petals with different fillings, and simple lines in Ahh fashion, but a lot. And finally some birds! They are so cute, and the wings are there to be filled in different ways!

What I have to add in my repertoire are a lot of animal patterns, no matter if it is Zentangle, doodles or toon inspired simple drawings. For that I have added a pinterest collection, Zentangle Animals. It's not only Zentangle, it's not only animals, but there's funny things to draw.

After that I have drawn Twisted Balloons (similar to Scallamp) and Folded Angles from Sarah Barrett.

Box Spirals, Antidots. 18 October 2025

And then I found a couple of videos from Lightly Sketched with Zentangle Patterns. Nothing mindblowing, I think easy patterns are easy patterns, and a kid wanting to draw patterns can draw them. The issue in teaching to kids while the parents are eating is that kids could not care less about drawing, you have first to make something interesting! You do not know if they like drawing. But ok, I followed along anyway. 

Then I followed another video from Kelly Blouin. The main idea I got there is using parts of your hands as contours for the patterns. Then I thought that I could prepare some kind of stencils, or that we could use objects around to draw contours and then fill them with patterns, in ZIA fashion.

Today, finally, I wanted to finish the third page. And what I decided to do? 

Draw easy forms, fill with lines, draw toon animals for the first tile.

Draw patterns a bit bigger and a big easier, like Diva Dance and Sampson, fill them in different ways. Think how many could you do in a whole page and how many different fillings you could find. And to fill white space some super easy ribbons

Printemps, Box Spirals, Knightsbridge, Emingle, Hipnotic, Paradox, Antidots, Crescent Moon, Printemps, Wirlz, Castelli,. 18-23 October 2025

Last but not least, the first Tortellino. Since I probably tangled it in less than 10 minutes after a heavy dinner, it came out better than I expected. :D

Fluxfan.

Probably I will never make a workshop with kids at that restaurant, because I have also other things to do and a job and it is not always easy to fit everything I would like to do, but I surely liked thinking about it and diving in a new world.

Because, in general, I definitely love kids and could actually use what I have learnt also when I am around the kids of my friends.

Probably I will investigate more ideas to tangle with kids.

And sure thing, will do more Tortellini! I just gave a couple around yesterday, but that's another story. :) You have to wait for it!

My Patterns

Castelli

Marball

Zentangle Original Patters

Bales

Crescent Moon

Emingle

Hollibaugh

Knightsbridge

Paradox

Pokeroot

Printemps

Static

Tortuca

Other Patterns

Antidots

Box Spirals

Fluxfan

Hipnotic

Wirlz