With spare time on your hands, there has never been a better time to channel your inner
Picasso for some much-needed relaxation, wellbeing and balance.
Art has always been a great therapeutic platform for wellbeing and mental health, renowned for its naturally meditative qualities. However, if you’re not a natural artist, never fear – there are easy styles of art that everyone can do. That’s why here at Bawah Reserve we teach Zentangle art or Zendoodles – forms of art that are simple to master.
The makers of Zentangle explain it best :
“The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful images
by drawing structured patterns. We call these patterns, tangles. You create tangles with
combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs.” Zentangle.com
Because Zentangle is ideally not planned, structured or representative of real-life objects, you can
take your design in any direction (as we do with our marine life).
Often the finished product is a complete surprise to the artist.
It’s fun, intuitive, relaxing and creative. All in all, it’s a great way to channel the mind and clear the head.
We found the eight-step method outlined by Zentangle to be the most effective and easiest way to get started - they do place importance on non-representational art, but don't let that stop you, if you prefer to create a familiar a real-life object then go with it! It's good to explore Google and Pinterest as there are a number of other methods out there and there are no rules to this - so go with what works best for you.
Take a few deep breaths and feel gratitude and appreciation for the beautiful paper, tools and
the opportunity before you.
Place a light pencil dot in each corner.
Create a square by connecting the dots with a straight or curvy line.
Create a string. Draw light lines inside the border to separate your border into sections. A
string can be any shape – curvy or straight, touching the border or not.
Switch to your pen to draw the tangle, a sequence of simple strokes that make a pattern. Draw
them freely inside the pencil strings and borders, without care about what they look like.
Using your pencil, add shading to add contrast and dimension to your paper.
Place your initials on the front of your artwork. On the back, write your name, date and
feelings about the art-making process and outcome.
Hold your art at arm’s length. Admire it from all positions and value your creation.
You can also colour your masterpiece if you want to take your art to the next level.
Many people prefer to simply colour in pre-designed Zentangle doodles, so we have prepared some Bawah patterns for you to do just that.
Enjoy and happy drawing and colouring!