Zentangle

Artist Statement:

The subject of this drawing is a Zentangle that progresses evenly from black to white. I made this by sketching out some patterns in pencil, then I outlined it with pen. After I did this I decided that some of the patterns were similar and some seemed messy too, so I restarted using my favorite patterns from my old drawing. Then I outlined it and glued it on a clean sheet of paper so it would look neater. I chose to create these specific designs because they have varying amounts of lines and varying looks. I used the lines and negative space to show shape and value. Which creates the illusion of 3d form. For example, the third and fourth square use lines to create 3d shape by showing the height, width, and length of the shape. My project started out as a basic sketch of the patterns. I penned it in. I started over and took my favorite squares and carried them over. As inspiration for the others I thought of patterns that I might see in nature or in regular life. For example: a chain link fence or leaves. The artwork itself does not mean much to me, but the practice is very important. Creating repetitive shapes has never been easy for me, but it was interesting how I ended up with a piece that I was almost happy with even though it was very different then I expected it to turn out. If I could redo this piece one last time I would focus on keeping the patterns I wanted to keep repetitive exact copies. Aside from this I would've used a smaller pen so I could use more lines without affecting the pictures overall tone.