Be Still, My Tangled Heart | Inspired by Zentangle

Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, so we thought it would be fun to celebrate art that we love! Although my list is long, it’s safe to say that Zentangle* has a firm place on the list. So in honor of Valentine’s Day, I’ve come up with a couple of doodled hearts to humbly share with you.

Doodled heart pattern

The first is a black-and-white drawing (above) that was inspired by work I’ve seen in the Zen Doodle Coloring eBook. This eBook is a fun tool to have on hand for when you want to experiment with color before trying the techniques on your original drawings. It’s a way to play with color and, like I’ve done here, discover new doodle patterns to use for your own drawings.

Once I drew the outline of this heart (left image), I began filling it in with straight lines that honored the shape of the heart. I used a Micron 08 and a Micron 01.

Next, I focused on adding more details, staying as symmetrical as possible. Lastly, I added the tiny circles around the outside of the heart (right image).

Conversation hearts

And what’s Valentine’s Day without Conversation Hearts? I drew these with markers on a blank postcard.

After drawing the outlines of the hearts, I filled them in with color and wrote messages. Then I was free to doodle in the open spaces, leaving the words to float and be easily read.

Because it was too much fun to stop there, I added a few smaller hearts in the background and used similar doodle patterns to fill them in.

With inspiration from these Zentangle books, I might go back and add more color or patterns to the background–what do you think?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Zentangle® Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc

Categories

Blog, Mixed-Media Techniques

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