Charlottetown Zendala
One of my favorite things to do while on a trip is to extract and sketch urban detail, especially if there is some historic or ornamental quality to it. During my recent trip to Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island, Canada, I sketched some ornament I found inside the local church.
I then used pieces and fragments extracted to create a Zendala, using one of my pre-strung Zendalas.
The idea is not to copy identically, but to find inspiration in the urban ornament all around us. This is the same concept I taught in my class Sketching Urban Detail which you can find at my video shop.
Here’s a close-up view of the final Zendala:
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All of these images are copyright 2023 Eni Oken
A few weeks ago Art Clubbers and I worked on a “Tangle Combo” (a new series of lessons) between Verve (JJ LaBarbera) and Paradox (Zentangle) and I was playing with a duotone version. I enjoyed it so much I created this other picture that reminds me of a landscape with trees in front. This project definitely coming to Art Club very soon.
Yesterday Art Clubbers and I worked on Part 1 of this beautiful ZIA project: the Palmette Zendala. Tangles include Icanthis, Mooka, Wyforwings (tangleation of Wyfore) and Fluxecho (Lynn Mead). In Part 2 we’ll cover the shading!
This mandala took me a LOOOONG time. I was determined to NOT use a pencil for shading, only ink. After testing the ballpoint shading technique over another tile, I set out to shade this monster. It took me 4 days but was worth it, the depth achieved by the ballpoint is remarkable.
Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unusual places. Looking at a bunch of vegetables and fruit, I found myself extracting shapes and forms. This is a larger piece for me, it measures 5-1/2x5-1/2 inches (approximately 13x13cm), and that really makes a difference, it took a lot longer to complete.
About 12 days ago I participated in a CZT After Hours session conducted by Rashim “Dolly” Bhargava where we developed a star and filled it in with tangles. The project was in color, but I went a little rogue an made a black and white interpretation using Betweed, Verve and Moon pie.
Last Thursday Art Clubbers and I completed Part 2 of this intricate black and white Zendala, finishing the line-art with some advanced “drawing behind” and super fun 3D shading.
This Palmette-inspired Zendala has been sitting on my desk for several months, I work on it a little at a time. Today I said “it's done”. Tangles are Fluxecho (Lynn Mead), Cyme, Icanthis, Mooka (Zentangle) and Wyforwings (tangleation of Wyfore.
Yesterday Art Clubbers and I had Part 1 of this intricate black and white Zendala inspired by georgian revival architecture, using a complex overlapping string.
One of my favorite things to do while traveling is to extract urban details, and then use those details in a Zentangle Inspired piece. This one is from details extracted from the local church in Charlottetown, Canada during my recent trip.
Last week the lovely Jane Osborne conducted us through a session at CZT After Hours creating a star string. After I filled it up with tangles - Hamsix (Alena Light), Betweed, Fluxecho (Lynn Mead) and others, I decided to shade this with ballpoint pen again - not my brightest decision. I think I might have overdone it this time…