I’m so glad to have the Diva’s challenges back! In her 368th challenge, Laura Harms has challenged us to use only straight lines in our tiles this week. Although straight is tough for me, I threw in some MicroTangling (from the lesson of the same name by Eni Oken), Baton, and some Shattuck with a bit of Knightsbridge for embellishment and called it done. I have a real appreciation for simple and basic right now so this was great for me. Although, it’s not fancy, I enjoyed the process very much and was pleased as much with the stress relief as with the tile itself. While sitting in the chemo chair today my blood pressure started at 183/90…not good at all, but when finished, after tangling the hours away it lowered itself to 132/85. Perhaps not scientific, but proof enough for me that tangling is great for the body, mind and soul! Here’s my tile!
Hello everyone! Welcome back to The Tireless Tangler! The last 2 weeks have been crazy busy with school starting and preparations for my trip to CZT32. My little one has managed to get through the last week with no problems, so (deep breath) I hope things will even out now (knock on wood!).
Almost by accident this week, I happened to catch that the Diva was back online and had finally issued a new challenge! This was great news, as I have truly missed the Diva Challenges and felt this summer was just lacking something special. Welcome back Laura! You have been sorely missed this summer! Dealing with anxiety and all it’s many forms in life is really hard! Dealing with these things and trying to create with purpose and on a schedule is daunting. It is so difficult to be a creator in any artistic area, but dealing with anxiety and depression while being forced to produce artistically brings a completely different set of problems. What happens to the schedule when the artist is empty inside? I will tell you, it’s a lot of nothing! So, I offer the Diva some encouragement and hope that she is able to start off and keep it up! While I do that, I hope this challenge will put my own emptiness to rest and start my creativity flowing again. Thank you Laura, for your weekly challenges that go back for years! I am in awe!
This week’s challenge was to go “back to basics”. A tile, pencil in dots and border, string and black ink using Zentangle original tangles. I chose to repeat the Lesson One in my Zentangle Primer. I’ve done this lesson many times and was hoping to change the look a bit this time. Instead of doing the tangles in the order of the lesson (crescent moon, hollibaugh, florz and printemps), I switched the order up and started with printemps, then moved backwards along the list. It was a real surprise to see the difference! For fun, I added my other 3 Primer Lesson one tiles. It’s clear to me that “florz” and I have a long-standing issue that hasn’t improved with time! LOL! It’s amazing to see the difference over time!
The Diva Challenge this week took an interesting turn when I applied Eni Oken’s Tangle Enhancers Card Game. The Diva, Laura Harms, challenged us this week to “Use My Tangle” with her pattern “Somnee”. Somnee is a similar pattern to Zentangle’s “Hollibaugh” and I needed some inspiration to dress it up a bit. I used Copic markers for color, and Prismacolor Pencils for shading. Luckily, I have Eni Oken’s new card game, “Art and Tangle Game“! This game is designed to guide creativity when you’re not sure what direction to take and it worked! I chose 3 Tangle Enhancers. Line weight and rounding, fancy border and color a lá line interrupted. If you struggle sometimes knowing what to do next, I highly recommend Eni’s card game. You can find it here!
And here’s my finished tile!
One last thing I want to share with you this week! I have been given the opportunity to attend CZT 32 (Certified Zentangle Teacher training) in October! I’m so excited about this opportunity! Unfortunately, I have to now raise $2250.00 to pay for the trip! Because I live on disability, and am a single parent, raising that much money is a challenge!
This last week, Eni Oken suggested I start a gofundme campaign. Eni generously donated herself, but then went above and beyond by sharing the campaign in her Shading Fearlessly group. In one day, I’d raised more than $500.00! My secret passion for becoming a CZT changed from a distant hope to confidence as I sent $500.00 to Zentangle, Inc, yesterday! My deepest gratitude goes out to all the people who have donated! A very special thanks to Eni Oken for giving me the confidence to create and promote the campaign! As of this post, I’ve raised $655.00!
It’s time for this week’s “It’s a String Thing” challenge #241! As always, you can join us anytime by visiting Tickledtotangle.blogspot.com.
I loved this week’s challenge because I got to revisit an old favorite in “Mumsy” by Sandy Bartholomew, CZT, and a new favorite, Caracole by Lily Moon. I enjoyed it so much, I have 2 tiles to share this week. A very zenful challenge!
Today’s Diva Challenge, issued by CZT, Laura Harms, was to use a “Duotangle” consisting of the tangles “Tripoli”, and “Shattuck”. I use both of these a lot, so I applied myself using one of my “tan treasure tiles” made with Eni Oken’s parchment paper technique on a Zentangle ® Renaissance tile. It was perfect until I added the white gelly roll and a third Tangle appeared. I think it’s a version of hypnotic. So, I missed the Duotangle aspect completely but I still like the tile! 😉
Finally, for your enjoyment, a new Kitchen Table Tangles video! This is a Cadent Tangleation and honestly, I’m still working on it! Rick Roberts drawing is always a pleasure to watch!
Adele Bruno (Tickledtotangle.blogspot.com), has issued her “it’s a string thing” challenge for this week and featured her new Tangle, “Mack”. The new grid-based pattern is fun to play with and has lots of embellishment possibilities. Needless to say, I had to do 2 tiles! Congratulations, Adele, on a wonderful new Tangle!
This week’s challenge from CZT, Laura Harms, was to use our fingers as a guide for the string. You can join in at the Diva’s website, iamthedivaczt.com.
I actually thought this was going to be an easy challenge but for some strange reason, I couldn’t find just the “right” tangles. I drew the string 3 times and I’ll show you 2 of them. I felt pretty “meh” about them, but finished anyway. Here they are.
Lastly, I have a new step-out video for my first pattern, Apcorg. It includes a digitally drawn step-out and a hand drawn example of Apcorg in a 4 square setup, perfect for a focal point. I hope you enjoy!
Welcome back to thetirelesstangler.com! It’s been a busy week as my child’s school was out for spring break and keeping him busy is sometimes exhausting! However, we had a great week together filled with fun!
This week we have a “monotangle” which is a term coined by the Diva to mean a tile using a single tangle. I’m always more relaxed with monotangles as they remove the doubt and struggles of merging more than one tangle. The Diva chose “Paradox” as the tangle this week and it’s one of my favorite tangles! It certainly takes practice to get the sections to flow but its worth it! I love the results. 😊
Here’s my Challenge tile for this week’s Paradox monotangle.
Late last week, Zentangle® HQ released another awesome Kitchen Table Tangles video on a different way to do a Cadent Tangleation! I hope you enjoy it as much as did!
Hello everyone! Welcome back to The Tireless Tangler! This week’s artist in focus is the incredibly talented Tomàs Padrós! In keeping with my new format, this week there will be 2 YouTube videos featuring Tomàs. One will have most of the text found here in addition to art not found in this post. It is a bit long (just under 20 min) and some sections are difficult to keep up with because of the amount of text and the editing program used to “move the pictures” tends to be a problem with the text. A 2nd video is available if you want to zen out to music and incredible art but don’t want to read while watching. The normal written version is still available here, but what is special about the whole project, is Tomàs has helped to write and edit this post as well as working with me to choose music that would reflect his taste (although copyright laws make it difficult to have exactly what we want, I hope it will keep the flavor of his taste in music, which is exquisite!). Since I also have a background in Fine Arts and music, it was nice to share ideas about what to choose. Tomàs continually impressed me with his knowledge and compassion. His joy in Zentangle is clear and if you pay attention you will see he has a fun side as well. You will want to be sure to watch the video because it is packed with more art than we could share here! It is lovely and I am so excited to share it with you all! I have said before what a humbling experience it is learning about the artists in focus, and not only is Tomàs an accomplished artist and teacher, his work in his community humbles me greatly. It is with great respect that I present you the art, patterns, and story of Tomàs Padrós!
Note* you might have noticed that the accent on his first name appears differently several places. Tomàs tells me he “feels” the Catalan as well and he doesn’t mind either way. (I had to research the Catalan language, which led me to a region in Spain and surrounding areas called Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the Capitol if my readings were up to date. Catalan is not related to Spanish as many believe but is a rare Latin-based language that stems from the Roman occupation of the area. The people in Catalonia are actively encouraged to speak Catalan.)
Tomàs this last summer
“My name is Tomàs Padrós Cruz. I was born and live in Barcelona. I studied Fine Arts, as did my mother, and I’m a high school and college teacher. I have been teaching visual education, technical drawing, and the History of Art for 26 years. My father was an excellent literary writer, my grandfather was a musician, my great-grandfather, a painter and my brother makes illustrations. My brother and I also studied music. My family loves art. In the left photograph we can see, my mother, my brother and I in between. In the next photograph, I show you, my father.
Mi nombre es Tomàs Padrós Cruz. Nací y vivo en Barcelona. Estudié Bellas Artes, como mi madre, y soy profesor de secundaria y bachillerato. Enseño Educación Visual, Dibujo Técnico y Historia del Arte desde hace 26 años. Mi padre fue un excelente autor literario, mi abuelo fue músico vioinista, mi bisabuelo pintor y mi hermano hace ilustraciones. Mi hermano y yo también estudiamos música. A mi familia le encanta el arte. En las siguientes fotografías podemos ver a mi madre mi hermano y yo en medio, y a mi padre aparte.
Over time I was losing contact with other artists. I suffered a disappointment when I drew many drawings for a project that was canceled. I’m not a fan of social networks either. I didn’t use Facebook, Instagram or know Pinterest, etc. I simply disconnected progressively from art practice.
Con el tiempo fui perdiendo contacto con otros artistas. Sufrí una decepción cuando dibujé muchas ilustraciones para un proyecto que se canceló. No soy fan de las redes sociales. No usaba Facebook, ni Instagram, ni conocía Pinterest. Simplemente desconecté de la práctica artística.
I met the world of the Zentangle by chance in the Holy Week of 2016. I’m a Catholic and I‘m involved in groups of preaching and other parish services, especially listening to and accompanying homeless people. We welcome these people in a space that used to be a chapel and now it serves so that they can rest, feel covered, have a coffee, water, juice or cookies and talk. If we can, we help them or we can refer them to the appropriate social services. In the photograph, you can see me and many homeless brothers in an image of the interior of the church during the celebration of the first anniversary of this “Campaign Hospital” in which we have converted the Church of Santa Anna in Barcelona.
Encontré el mundo del Zentangle por casualidad en la Semana Santa de 2016. Soy católico y estoy implicado en grupos de oración, primer anuncio y otros servicios parroquiales, especialmente escuchando y acompañando personas sin techo. Acogemos a estas personas en un espacio que antes servía de capilla y ahora sirve para que descansen, estén a cubierto, tomen un café, agua, zumo o pastas y puedan charlar. Si podemos, les ayudamos o los derivamos a los servicios sociales apropiados. En la fotografía me podéis ver con barba rodeado de hermanos sin-techo en el interior de la iglesia durante la celebración del primer aniversario de este “Hospital de Campaña” en el que hemos convertido la iglesia de Santa Anna de Barcelona.
One day, I entered a religious bookstore without looking for anything concrete and I found myself with a Zentangle book at eye level. The cover was attractive and it caught my attention. The book was: The Great Zentangle Book by Beate Winkler. I fell in love at first sight and started drawing when I got home.
Un dia, entré en una librería religiosa sin buscar nada concreto y me topé con un libro justo a la altura de la vista. La cubierta era atractiva y me llamó la atención. El libro era: El gran libro del Zentangle de Beate Winkler. Fue amor a primera vista y empecé a dibujar nada más llegar a casa.
I have always liked to draw patterns. The method and philosophy seemed great to me. I spent more than a year practicing patterns and revising or designing mine with a Zentangle mentality and drawing just a few tiles.
Siempre me había gustado dibujar patrones. El método y la filosofía me parecieron geniales. Pasé más de un año practicando patrones o revisando y creando los míos con la mentalidad del Zentangle. Solo dibujé algunos pocos azulejos.
My brother, Esteban Padrós, makes fantastic illustrations for pleasure and publishes them on Instagram and I decided to do the same. This has become a great impulse to draw tiles and systematize my patterns. This happened this past summer, in June of 2017. In just a few months, I have met a lot of wonderful Tanglers from all over the world from whom I learn a lot by sharing. In the image we can see my brother and me, this summer, drawing to post on Instagram.
Mi hermano, Esteban Padrós Cruz, hace fantásticas ilustraciones por gusto y las publica en Instagram, así que decidí hacer lo mismo. Esto se convirtió en el gran impulso para dibujar azulejos y sistematizar mis patrones. Esto ocurrió el pasado verano, en junio de 2017. En solo unos pocos meses conocí a muchos maravillosos zentanglistas de todo el mundo y de los que he aprendido mucho compartiendo. En la imagen podemos ver a mi hermano y yo este verano preparando dibujos para Instagram.
In these images, I show some of my drawings before the Zentangle discovery. I love the drawing from life, especially the artistic nude. But I also like the more cartoon style. Here are sketches and finished drawings for various projects or gifts.
En las siguientes imágenes os muestro algunos de mis dibujos anteriores al descubrimiento del Zentangle. Me encanta el dibujo del natural, especialmente el desnudo artístico. Pero también me gusta dibujar en un estilo más caricaturesco. Aquí podéis ver alginos bocetos y dibujos acabados para varios proyectos y regalos.
I also like to design and build small polyhedrons and pop-ups. Then, my students suffer them as technical drawing exercises.
También me gusta diseñar y construir pequeños poliedros y pop-ups. Luego, mis alumnos los sufren como ejercicios de dibujo técnico.
On January 30, commemorating the death of Gandhi, we celebrated the day of peace and non-violence in my school (DENIP). Each year we paint a PART OF the schoolyard wall with the 16-year-old students. This was the first design. One student had the idea. I made the sketch and the students and I painted it on the wall.
El 30 de enero, conmemorando la muerte de Gandhi celebramos el Dia de la Paz y la No-Violencia en mi esciela (DENIP). Cada año pintamos una parte del muro del patio con los alumnos de 16 años. Este fue el primer diseño. Una alumna tuvo la idea, yo hice el boceto a lápiz y los alumnos y yo pintamos el muro.
Shortly after discovering Zentangle, I was also interested in the design of Mandalas and floral doodles that I met through Pinterest. So I spent a few months with this but I soon returned to Zentangle.
Poco después de descubrir el Zentangle me interesé también por el diseño de Mandalas y motivos florales que conocí través de Pinterest. Estuve unos meses con esto pero pronto volví al Zentangle.
As I said, it took me a long time to draw an authentic tile. I spent months drawing only patterns on my notebooks. I love all these exercises. When I can not think of anything, I look at my notebooks and always come up with some idea. In this picture, we can see some of the first sketches of Zenemone, Fringe 2 Fringe, Clorophylia, Fontana and other exercises.
Como ya he dicho, me llevó tiempo dibujar un auténtico azulejo. Estuve meses dibujando solo patrones en mis libretas de apuntes. Me encantan esos ejercicios. Cuando no me sale nada miro en mis cuadernos y siempre sale alguna idea. En esta imagen podemos ver algunos de los primeros bocetos de Zenemone, Fringe 2 Fringe, Clorophylia, Fontana y otros ejercicios.
Although I had done other tiles before with the basic tangles, this was my first tile with a tangle of mine. It’s in the center and it’s called Masx. We can also see Tipple, Crescent Moon, Punzel and a double Shnek frame. Next, I show the Masx step by step that I prepared a lot of time later to show on Instagram. It was the first tangle that I deconstructed to show.
Aunque ya había dibujado azulejos con los tangles básicos, este fue mi primer azulejo con un tangle mío. Está en el centro y se llama Masx. También podemos ver Tipple, Crescent Moon, Punzel y un marco con doble Shnek. También os muestro los pasos para dibujar Masx realizados bastante más tarde para mostrar en Instagram. Este fue el primer tangle que deconstruí para mostrar.
I drew this tangle soon after and I like it a lot. In it we see an edge with Flux. In the interior we recognize Pais and lobed leaves even without baptizing.
Dibujé este azulejo poco después y me gusta mucho. En el podemos ver un marco con flux. En el interior se reconoce Pais y unas hojas lobuladas sin nombre.
Maybe this is my favorite tile. Because the strings allow me to generate interesting feelings of superpositions and I love all the patterns. It was the first one I posted on Instagram because I like it a lot and it respects all of The Zentangle® Method’s requirements with well-known patterns. It seemed perfect to me as a presentation.
Quizás este es mi azulejo favorito, porque las cuerdas me permiten generar iteresantes sensaciones de superposición y me encantan todos los patrones. Fue el primero que mostré en Instagram porqué me gusta mucho y respeta todos los principios del Método Zentangle con bien conocidos tangles. Me pareció perfecto como carta de presentación.
I also felt very satisfied with this tile. It contains two tangles of mine: Membranart and Vertebraid. In the upper right margin, I show a kind of geometric cells that I have not named. I think it has a drama and an organic character that I love. Currently, I would intensify more its shadows in the lower layers.
También me sentí muy satisfecho con este azulejo. Contiene dos tangles míos: Membranart y Vertebraid. En el margen superior derecho os muestro unos compartimentos geométricos sin nombre. Creo que tiene contrastes dramáticos y un carácter orgánico que me encanta. Actualmente, intensificaría más las sombras en las capas inferiores.
I also like to play with well-known tangles, merge them or find new possibilities. In the first image we see how to draw an intricate Diva dance.
También me gusta jugar con conocidos tangles, fusionándolos o buscando nuevas posibilidades. En la primera imagen vemos como dibujar un Diva Dance intrincado.
In the next tile, I progressively merge Margaret Bremmer’s Diamond Panes with Jane Monk’s Trimonds.
En el próximo azulejo, fusiono progresivamente Diamond Pines de Margaret Bremner con Trimonds de Jane Monk.
Here I show the possibilities of a simple looping string adding auras. When I drew this tile, I thought it was a simple and original idea. But I discovered recently that this is called Courant and it’s an official tangle if I’m not mistaken. I happened more than once to “create” a tangle that already exists.
Aquí muestro las posibilidades de una cuerda retorcida añadiendo auras. Cuando dibujé este azulejo pensaba que había tenido una idea sencilla y original. Pero he descubierto recientemente que este diseño se llama Courant y es un tangle oficial, si no me quivoco. Me ha pasado más de una vez “crear” un tangle que ya existía.
In the following tiles, I just have fun with Septembies by Hanny Waldburger and I call it “Septembies vacation” or I play with the contrast of a rounded and a straight Ha-Krall by Holly Atwater.
En los siguientes azulejos simplemente me divierto con Septembies de Hanny Waldburger y lo titulo “Vacaciones de Septembies” o juego con el contraste entre un redondeado y un rectilíneo Ha-Krall de Molly Atwood.
Also we can see a tile on which I adapted to a hexagonal structure three tangles like X, ‘Nzeppel and Tripoli. Then, I show a merge between W2 and Weben.
Tambié podemos ver aquí un azulejo en el que adapto en una estructura hexagonal tres tangles como X, ‘Nzeppel y Tripoli. Luego, os muestro una fusión entre W2 y Weben.
I show you now a play with 3D-Room and Dex, a tangleation of Fleavy and an extreme tangleation of Weben, so far from the original tangle. I called it Lattice.
Ahora os muestro un divertimento entre 3D-Room y Dex, una tangleación de Fleavy y una tangleación extrema de Weben, ya muy lejos de su aspecto oroginal. La llamo Lattice.
My passion for the beauty of each pattern leads me to a certain tendency for monotangle, so from time to time I return to the traditional strings that delineate spaces that fill with known tangles.
Mi pasión por la belleza de cada patrón me lleva a cierta tendencia al monotangle. Así que de vez en cuando vuelvo a las tradicionales cuerdas que determinan espacios que lleno con conocidos tangles.
Also, sometimes I completely dispense with the strings and develop the drawing directly, step by step. In the first image, we see Dragoneye and Katerpy by Alena Light. In the second image I insert Katerpy and Bunzo-like shapes in a Fleavy tangleation.
También, a veces, me desentiendo de las cuerdas y desarrollo el dibujo de forma directa, paso a paso. En la primera imagen podemos ver Dragoneye y Katerpy de Alena Light. En la seguna imagen he insertado Katerpy y algo parecido a Bunzo en una tangleación de Fleavy.
In this one, I draw what I call Cross Braided ribbons. Here combined with Tipple, Bedlines and Up and Across.
En este otro azulejo he dibujado lo que yo llammo Cross Braided Ribbons. Aquí combinadas con Tipple, Bedlines y Up and Across.
But I guess one of the things I enjoy the most is designing or using my own patterns, such as already known Irradial, Membranart, Meshmerize or Chorus.
Pero una de las cosas con las que más disfruto es diseñando y usando mis propios patrones, tales como los ya conocidos Irradial, Membranart, Meshmerize o Chorus.
Finally, I show you more tiles to my taste, some with patterns of my own that are less known, such as Fontana (here merged with Maizie), Zenemone, Selfeat. Fringe 2 fringe, Vertebraid (with a Crescent moon touch), Buckled up! (here Hybridized with Vertebraid), ZigZagTrack, ZN-tangle or the fragments Mom’s clip, Bow-tie, and Neck-tie. These and some more appear with their steps in my Instagram account: @tomas-padros. I will also be uploading my drawings on Facebook. I have more patterns in reserve that I will show over time. See you!
Finalmente, os muestro más azulejos de mi gusto, algunos con mis propios patrones menos conocidos, como Fontana (Aquí fundido con Maizie), Zenemone, Selfeat, Fringe 2 fringe, Vertebraid (con un toque de Crescent Moon), Buckled up! (aquí Hibridado con Vertebraid), ZigZagTrack, ZN-tangle o los fragmentos Mom’s clip, Bow-tie y Neck-tie. Estos y otros más aparecen con sus pasos en mi cuenta de Insagram. @tomas_padros. También iré mostrando mis dibujos en Facebook. Tengo más patrones en la reserva que iré mostrando con el tiempo. Nos vemos!
It’s been great working with Tomàs. What an incredible, talented man! I am already a follower, and I decided to check out his brother Esteban’s Instagram account. He is also, amazingly gifted artistically. Follow Tomàs on Instagram @tomas-padros. (Esteban is @esteban-padros). If Tomàs accomplishes half as much in the next 6 months, we’ll be hearing from him for a long time in the future. Thank you so much, Tomás for sharing your life and art!
