Eccentric Circles

Laura Harms, Certified Zentangle Teacher, hosts a weekly challenge on her blog, I am the Diva, in which participants are asked to do a Zentangle in accordance with guidelines she lays down. One week we may be using a specific tangle, the next playing with color. This week's challenge (number seventy-four!) is to experiment with strings. She asked us to use "eccentric circles", which are circles drawn a little wonky and lopsided.

This reminded me of a lecture my drawing teacher gave his class last fall. He talked about circles and how difficult it is to draw a perfect circle freehand. It is possible, and Giotto famously possessed this skill.

But Zentangle isn't about perfection. It's the imperfections that make each one interesting. And even when something isn't quite right, the shading typically makes it look great, if not wonderful! In this tile, near the upper right corner, I attempted a two sided Paradox (trying to imitate the beautiful example Rick posted here on the official Zentangle blog). It didn't turn out as I had hoped, but it still looks kind of cool. When you're focused on the process, not the outcome, it doesn't matter if it came out how you wanted - I love that about Zentangle!

Notice the pebble-esque pattern? I usually do that with circles, but decided I should use a tangleation of oblong shapes instead. See the half-moon forms? If you connected those, they would definitely not be perfect circles. Even the ends of my fescu tangle are quite uncircular. Fun stuff! Thanks for the challenge, Laura!

Pigma Micron Pen Set Assorted 6/Pkg - Black - Scrapbooking

Pigma Micron Pen Set 3/Pkg - Black - Scrapbooking