Zentangle: Organised Chaos

What is Zentangle?

Earlier today I read about Zentangle for the first time. For some context, here’s a useful page that covers [w]hat is Zentangle?

What I like about it is the initial impression of chaos, that quickly turns into intricacy and meticulously curated … “bits of stuff”.

It’s less chaotic than at appears at first glance, but it’s also not attempting to be perfect. There’s room for a poorly drawn circle or a wobbly line in a pattern.

Here’s a soothing video demonstrating a great example of a simple design incrementally becoming more and more impressive:

@huartdrawing (YouTube): Zen Doodle Art for Beginners: Floral Tangles and Zentangle Drawing Tutorial

Breaking out of a loop

Lately I’ve been trying to break a sort of Groundhog Day loop. Things have become really repetitive: bleak cold and dark Winter days, dark both morning and night; no real motivation to get outside, not to mention it’s hardly welcoming weather; and work stresses have finally compounded enough to really me. Couple all of that with working remotely and not really seeing anyone during the week, and it’s felt very much like a repeat of the COVID years.

In an effort to stave off those feelings I’ve been trying to pick up old, and new, hobbies. Partly to rekindle some joy in my day-to-day, and partly to figure out ways to fill up my time that isn’t too “work-adjacent”. At the end of the day my lizard-brain doesn’t know the difference between solving tech problems – “getting stuff to work” – behind the screen of a Mac, where the only difference really is the setting (my office vs my couch). It’s all the same to my brain and my body whether I’m working on my own homelab or projects, or I’m working on a work-specific project. Most of the time there’s too much overlap to even call it one or the other.

Either way that’s a long-winded way of saying: “I wanted to find other ways to spend time when I’m still using a screen/Mac, that feels different.”

Enter digital art.

Digital Art

I decided to pick up my first tablet a few weeks back, which had the added benefit of being really great for drawing. That led me to discover:

1. infinite painter, and
2. Joel Designs excellent YouTube channel

These two combined helped me find a new way to while away some hours that doesn’t require braving the cold and bleak nights. It also lets me escape from sitting on the couch with a laptop and feeling like I’m still in “work mode”, all the while letting me try to be a bit more creative and pick up a new skillset.

It’s been a lot of fun and a nice pressure release valve. Plus, when I’m not following along with a tutorial, it pairs nicely with listening to an audiobook or a podcast.

The only drawback is … what can I draw when I don’t feel all that creative?

Here’s where I’m hoping zentangle can fit in; draw some basic shapes then start drawing patterns. Initially it’s not that impressive, and the inconsistent lines are obvious, but incrementally it improves until the whole becomes more than the sum of it’s parts and reduces those imperfections into something quite pleasing and satisfying to look at.