Starting Over, Part 1

One thing I’ve never done is take a beginning Zentangle class. I’ve been largely self-taught since my sister introduced me to this art form this summer. Most Certified teachers require a student to take a beginner class before taking other classes, and this is true of CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) Carmen Burgos.

So I signed up for a private lesson and spent yesterday afternoon with Carmen. In spite of having a few months experience in tangling, there was a lot for me to learn, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

We started by discussing the concepts behind Zentangle, and the method itself. Then we moved on to learning the first four tangles, drawing them on a tile, and shading them. All of the supplies (pen, pencil, blending stump or tortillon, official zentangle tiles) are included in the price of the class. 

The first tile included tangles Crescent Moon, Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh, and Msst. All of these I’ve used before, but I still learned a lot, including a way to draw Crescent Moon without hating it! Look how shading the Crescent Moon makes it look like you are looking down from on top of stacks of coins. I do wish I had been able to take a picture of the tile before shading, since adding a little graphite makes such a huge difference in the finished tile..

Class Tile 1, counterclockwise from upper left: Crescent Moon, Knightsbridge, Msst, and Hollibaugh

I love that she encouraged me to fill the areas behind Hollibaugh with different fill tangles. I attempted to have them gradate in value between black (at the top) through Amaze, Tipple, to a simple open crosshatch. Looking at the tile now, I probably should have reversed the order of Amaze and Tipple, since Tipple “reads” darker than Amaze.

On to the next tile in Part 2