“Circle of Friends” by Molly Alexander From “Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles” published by North Light Books

One of the most popular art crazes right now is called “Zen Doodling”, and is truly one of the most relaxing ways to spend time.  The art of zen doodling grew out of the much more structured art form called “Zentangle®”.  As I am not the best rule-follower and strongly dislike structure, I was drawn to zen doodling for it’s more relaxed approach.

Looking at different zen doodled artwork, it can be a little overwhelming knowing where to start on your own:

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The trick is to start simply, and build from there, and this tutorial will show you how:

Materials:

• Paper
• Pencil – optional (a mechanical pencil works best)
• Fine point pen

Step 1:  Draw a circle in the middle of your paper, approximately 3″ in diameter and add a single row of humps

Step 2:  Start building on your existing design by:

• adding 5 smaller concentric circles to your big circle
• adding 2 more rows of humps and then a third row of humps that have a pointed top (like a leaf)
• filling in the pointed humps with stripes
• drawing lines between each hump and adding dots to the ends of the lines

Step 3:  Continue embellishing your design by:

• thickening up some of your lines
• adding dots to the tops of your pointed humps
• drawing small circles around the dots on your humps and the lines
• adding small circles and humps on your inner circles
• filling in the middle circle with tiny circles

Step 4:  Continue adding to your design to fill it out by:

• adding tiny lines and dots to the two rows of circles left
• adding an outside border and filling it in with more tiny lines
• keep going until it feels finished to you

Helpful hints:

• it will make your design more interesting and give it dimension to work in lines that are both thin and thick
• you can never have too many dots
• color will make your design pop, so if you want to add color to your artwork, just spray on some workable fixative to keep the ink from bleeding and add your color
• don’t aim for perfection or you will drive yourself crazy – small imperfections make your artwork interesting and authentic

Great Zen Doodling resources:

• “Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles” by Tonia Jenny
• “Zen Doodle: Oodles of Doodles” by Tonia Jenny
• “Creative Doodling and Beyond” by Stephanie Corfee
• “Zenspirations” by Joanne Fink

Zen doodling is a beautiful and creative way to add designs to your artwork, and you don’t need a whole lot of supplies to do it.  Have fun!