Sometimes I get tired of all the patterns. I like drawing some of them, but dislike others and can't figure out some of them, despite the instructions. Then I start thinking about giving up drawing altogether, but a day or two without scribbling away on large sheets of paper gives me an empty feeling. So I've been looking at other styles (ee end of commentary).
I don't copy anything, but it's quite inspiring to take a look at other people's work. Some call it art, others doodling or scribbling. The Zentangle craze has mutated. You can't keep people caged for ever in 9x9 cm little squares.
NB The owners of Zentangle have also noticed the limitations, and have introduced triangular, tiny (bijou), and squares with various paper styles e.g. black, beige.
The message was clear from the beginning: Everyone is an artist so everyone could join in - a very clever commercial ploy as well as attracting many thousands of aspirants from all over the globe who were finally discovering something artistic they could do.. Ib many cases, the desire and even the ability to draw was overlaid by other interests or necessity, but the freedom of being in charge of a scrap of paper, whatever size it is, is undeniable, and if you have no paper left, you can scribble on anything: old boxes, newsprint, old books, packing paper... Creative activities are mind-saving. I disagree with the accusation that doodling is mindless that was put about by the zentangle originators to underline that their zen is better than other people's. They ere offended if you called their Zentangle doodling, but that's really what it had to be in order to avoid contructivism. There is no doubt that people wanting good design, plan it in some form, even if it only takes the form of a pencilled "string". But that method of starting a painting as aroundcenturies ago. Even the ancient cave drawings were intended, smooth wall for drawing chosen,and tools ought to make the drawing,
The Zentangle business, which makes a lot of money for its operators, includes various sizes, shades and shapes of paper these days, not to mention all the advertising of pens and other supplies in various dedicated web publications, which is probably also a lucrative business since the firms reach a lot of people anxious to use the equipment recommended by the owners of the Zentangle patent.. In that sense it is no different from any DIY project. You can't work wihout the appropriate tools!
The pattern/"tangle" (a Zentangle name for the patterns often constructed on the basis of some kind of inspiration from existing patterns or nature) craze did not start in 2005, as some would have you believe, or originate in the USA, but in Russia in the 1990s as Neopoprealism and basically an educational tool, and it did not stay in the amateur domain. Zentangle addicts who are also artists have taken to using larger formats and fantastic designs. Some still work in the tiny format and produce exquisitw work.
In my own biography: I did 100 tiny drawings after discovering the Zentangle format in 2012, then realized that 100 was enough tiny black on white patterns (colour was not officially used in those days!) and moved on to A4 and soon after to A3 drawings. A2 tempts me, but would cause storage problems, so I don't use it. I was then able to use any amount of colour and an eraser (which is still banned from original Zentangle - the argument being that there are no mistakes so you don't need one - as if you could easily erase ink).
After completing about 250 A3 drawings that are filed in large viewing folders, I this year ground to a halt mainly because I was repeating myself. I found. emporary relief in line drawings without patterns/tangles, and recently had a go at neuroart. Neurodoodling - another new invention that seems to come from Russia, but has not been claimed by a patent-owner as being a style written in stone, suits me better. Neurodooding is both neuropathis art and doodling rolled into one, though this opus has almost no patterns, so it does not really belong to any style at all. But it is doodle - improvised.
My current love is of brushpen drawings, and here are three, helped along by watercolour and watercolour pencils. I based these 3 on improvised drawings done on the way to bed. I took paper on a drawing board and a brushpem to start them off, so that detail was impossible.Next day I started work on the respective drawing. Colouring comes last, of course, and invoves big decisions!
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