I recently completed this Zentangle mandala or “zendala” the other day. Done on 130lb watercolor paper, 8 1/2 x 11″ in size, it is the largest piece of Zentangle artwork I’ve done to date, (can you tell I’m a small-scale kinda gal?). While this wasn’t the first zendala I’ve created, it was certainly the most intricate.
I’d recently purchased the book Zen Mandalas, by Suzanne McNeill, and have just barely cracked the book, but did read the section on creating mandala templates starting with a cut paper snowflake, in the section written by Carole Ohl, a talented and inspiring CZT in Ohio. So I grabbed a piece of paper, cut it into a square, folded it a few times diagonally, and started cutting bits and pieces out. Unfolded, I traced around the cut edges, and then followed Carole’s suggestions for linking up corners in a symmetrical fashion to create the template for my mandala. It was at that point I noticed the shape of birds, and decided to just run with that inspiration….
After filling in the mandala with various tangles, I realized that this would really pop if I added some color, something I’ve barely begun to incorporate into my Zentangle work. I recently got a small set of the Derwent Inktense water-soluble pencils and with a water brush started to work some color into the birds, and a couple of other elements to tie it all together. I won’t go into great detail here how I painted with the pencils, but suffice to say that there are plenty of tutorials out there in the cyberspace if you google up Derwent Inktense and tutorial…
Well darned if that hasn’t now set me off into another path… yesterday, while at the Brattleboro Co-op, I came across a Kirigami – a- day calendar… and just had to buy it! Kirigami? I hear you say…
According to this Wikipidia listing…
” is a variation of origami that includes cutting of the paper (from Japanese ”kiru” = to cut, “kami” = paper). It is also called “Kirie”, from “Kiru”= to cut, “e”= picture.”
“Typically, kirigami starts with a folded base, which is then cut; cuts are then opened and flattened to make the finished kirigami. Kirigami are usually symmetrical, such as snowflakes, pentagrams, or orchid blossoms.”
And yup, plenty of tutorials on this to be found on the net… as well as a web app to play with how cuts will yield a design (requires Java) … so have at it! And do share if you come up with some zendalas from Kirigami!
January 14, 2012
