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If you’ve ever looked at a Zentangle tile and wondered how anyone could know what to draw and where, here’s something to keep in mind: they probably didn’t know either when they started.

That’s not a flaw in the process. It’s the process itself.

The Zentangle method is based on the idea that you don’t start with a finished image in mind. You start with a pen, a piece of paper or a “tile,” and one decision at a time. What appears on the paper emerges from each step, not from a planned drawing.

There are no mistakes, only moments when the drawing takes a particular, sometimes even unexpected, direction, and those moments are often the most interesting.

Zentangle recently wrote about this, The Creative Process… Journey – Zentangle, and that article stayed with me. It rang so true to me. What’s written there, I’ve experienced it and so have my students: the final result is certainly beautiful to look at, but it’s the creative process that makes all the difference.

That’s why I’m suggesting three patterns for you to draw here, one at a time, without having a specific idea in advance of what they’ll look like together. Draw them separately first if you’d like. Then, try putting them together on a single sheet of paper without trying to plan any specific outcome. Just follow the moment to see where it carries you.

A quick note for beginners

If you’re new to Zentangle, here’s all you need to know before we start. A tangle is a pattern made of simple repeated strokes such as lines, curves, dots. Most anyone can draw them. You don’t need artistic talent or special materials. A pen and a piece of paper are enough.

A tile is simply the piece of paper you draw on, traditionally a small square, but any paper works. The one in the photo above was drawn on regular printing paper with a ballpoint pen. If that’s all you have, it works and that’s all it takes. It’s better to draw with what you have than not to draw at all.

If you’d like a gentle introduction before we continue, the Mini Course Draw in Five Minutes is a good place to start, and it’s free.

Crescent Moon

Crescent Moon is one of those patterns that feels immediately satisfying. It’s made of curved shapes that build into something that looks complex but isn’t. Follow the step one by one and you might be surprised by the result.

How to draw Crescent Moon

• Along one side of the string or border, within a space created by the string on your tile, draw with your pen small black half-circles (like ladybug shells or domes). These should hug the string or border closely and can vary slightly in size for a natural look. Leave some space between each ladybug or half moon.
• Around each black-filled half-moon, draw a thin aura line, a parallel outline that follows the shape you created.
• Continue adding more aura lines around each half-moon, spacing them evenly if you can or want.
• You can let the aura lines overlap and weave behind neighboring shapes if needed until you filled the space as much as you want.
• You can also add extra half-moon in open areas and repeat the aura process if you want.
• Use a pencil to shade the spaces between the half-moon shapes outer perimeter and aura lines.
• Blend gently with a tortillon or finger to create depth and softness.

As you draw, notice how the curves start to find a rhythm. You don’t need to plan how many to draw or where to stop.

Here’s where you might see a fork in the road: how tightly do you want to pack the shapes together? How large or small will each one be? Will you let them grow a lot or just a little? There’s no right answer, only what feels right on your tile in this moment.

Printemps

Printemps is the French word for spring, but in English it’s both the season and the coil. Rick and Maria, the Zentangle founders, love to play with words, and this pattern carries that playfulness in its name. You can carry it into your drawing too. Just have fun, step by step!

How to draw Printemps

• Using your pen draw a small spiral.
• Draw more next to it.
• Some can look like they disappear behind other spirals.
• Use your pencil to shade some spirals to create depth and dimension.
• Blend with your tortillon.

This is a pattern where your line doesn’t need to be perfect. A slightly wobbly spiral has often more life than a mechanical one. If your Printemps looks different from the step-out, that’s not a mistake. That’s your version of it.

And this is something I love to see happening in the Club ArtsAmuse Live session, I, along with everyone else, get inspired by the different way everyone draws.

As you draw, you might notice another fork in the road: how open or closed will your spirals be? Will they be large and loose or small and tight? Will they fill the space evenly or grow in one direction more than another? Follow what you see, not what you think it should look like.

Mooka

Mooka is the most fluid of the three. It moves across the paper like something alive, tendrils that branch and curl in whatever direction your hand takes them. It’s often a love it or hate it tangle in the community. I’ve seen it happen for most tangle patterns, some “click” faster for us than other. Just experiment with and see where it takes you.

How to draw Mooka

• Using your pen draw a vertical, slightly curved line that curves around itself but stops short of touching back to the line.
• Continue to draw that line by turning around and coming back down towards where you started always leaving the same space in between.
• Repeat the process as many times as you want.
• You can change direction, do it smaller or bigger.
• Shade with your pencil the round areas and the base if you want.
• Blend with your tortillon.

Mooka rewards slowness. Draw each stroke without rushing to see where it ends up.

The forks in the road here are everywhere: where will your first tendril go? Will it curve left or right? Will it branch once or many times? How large will it grow before it tapers? Let your hand decide. This is one of the patterns where most people have their first “I didn’t know I could do that” moment.

Putting them together

Now take a small square piece of paper. Draw four dots in the corners and connect them with light pencil lines or borders. Then draw a loose wandering line across the surface, this is called a string, and it divides your paper into sections. Don’t plan it. Just draw a line.

Fill each section with one of the three patterns. There is no rule about which goes where.
You can fill each section or leave some empty, repeat a pattern more than the other. Anything goes.

This is actually one of my favorite moments in the Club ArtsAmuse Live sessions, seeing how differently everyone draws the same patterns, and how each tile becomes a source of inspiration for everyone else in the room. No two tiles ever look alike.

Want to draw live with me?

On Friday June 19, I’m drawing these three patterns live on Zoom with a small group. We’ll make a tile together, in real time, and there will be time for questions.

I have room for the first 100 people max and I want to keep it intimate.

If you want to join, sign up below and I’ll send you the Zoom link directly.

Join the newsletter to draw with me:

You’ll notice I haven’t shown you a finished tile with all three patterns together.

That’s intentional. I want yours to be the first one you see.

Tangle on,

Juliette