My First Zentangle

Do you know what a Zentangle is? It's a form of doodling in black and white using repetitive patterns.  I've been wanting to do one for a while now.  I read about them in a magazine a few months ago (I think it was Cloth, Paper, Scissors), checked out their website (Zentangle), even signed up for their newsletters but I hadn't really tried too seriously to do one before now. I've started doodling once or twice but kind of got stalled after a bit, didn't know how to really start or what patterns to fill in, just hadn't really focused any time on learning the how-tos. 

But the other day, I wanted to do a spread to finish off my Journalfest journal. I'd noticed after getting very messy in Juliana Coles' "Soulfood" class that it took a while to get the blue paint out from under my fingernails. I washed my hands several times but had to go to lunch with the paint still under my nails. I was a little uncomfortable with the reality of it at first but at the same time, I noticed that it made me feel kind of good.  I realized that it actually made me feel more like a REAL artist!

I decided to use that idea to make a journal page.  I decided that I would trace my hand and somehow use that as part of my design for the page.  With that thought percolating in my head, I was checking out some videos on YouTube this past weekend and came across one where a guy showed how to do a Zentangle inside the outline of his hand. I loved that idea so off I went to try it.  I had to Google a few ideas to fill in all the spaces but I was quite pleased with the finished result:

It's a very relaxing art form (other than the "stress" of trying to figure out what to fill in each space). I used a page from my sketch book to do the Zentangle, then cut out the shape of my hand when it was all done and pasted it across two painted pages in my journal.  Here's what the other side of the page looks like:

I shall leave you with this quote, which is attributed to the artist Jackson Pollock, whom I imagine was always covered in paint residue:  "It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement."