The Quiet Side
Exploring the unseen benefits of creative focus.
Deliberate : slow, unhurried, and steady as though allowing time for decision on each individual action involved
Slowing down, and focusing on a single thing at a time can be hard to do. We are coming away from a time where multitasking was rewarded, and we are learning more and more that the benefit of mindfulness and focus on your health is great. You can’t truly focus on many things at once, and it is a great break for your brain and good for your well-being to take time to do something deliberately. Just a small amount of complete attention to an activity will bring better results.
In Zentangle practice, a deliberate stroke can help you enjoy and benefit from the process even more than the thrill of a beautifully drawn tile. Taking time to focus on the ink coming from your pen onto the paper, taking a deep breath and focusing on the time to get from one point to another helps you relax into the process, and brings a calm to what you are doing in that moment.
Learning tangles in a specific, repeatable order also helps to make sure that you are drawing deliberately. This isn’t an absentminded doodle. You want to take this time for yourself.
Whether you have completed a hundred tiles, just taken a class or are just beginning to explore Zentangle, give this exercise a try. Think about each stroke as you make it, allow yourself a few moments to focus.
Try This
Bales is one of my favorite tangles because of the repeatable, deliberate steps taken to create a fun design. Give yourself a little time to follow these steps, go slowly and relax with your pen.
Start by drawing parallel lines one direction. Make each stroke deliberate, focus on your pen and paper. Go slowly, this is not a race.
Now rotate your tile or paper to make parallel lines the other direction, perpendicular to the first collection of lines to create a grid. Notice that by rotating your paper, you are keeping the same motion as you create a grid, keep focusing on the stroke as you go.
Next we are going to add some curved lines from point to point within the grid. If you make the strokes vertically like in the picture above when drawing Bales, there is a tendency to make curves quickly down the column, never lifting your pen, never stopping to breathe at each intersection.
If you make the little rice shapes across a row, like in the picture below, then proceed to the next row, it forces you to slow down and pay attention.
Stopping at each intersection, taking a breath and lifting your pen creates more even strokes, deliberately helping you to slow down, calm down and relax into the process. Deliberately draw one curve then pick your pen up and move to the next.
After your grid is filled with little curves in one direction, turn your tile and continue in the same manner, the same stroke filling in the other direction.
Continue with the curved shape across the rows in the other direction. By rotating your tile you keep the same stroke which helps you find a relaxing rhythm. Moving your pen in a methodical motion across your tile in this specific deliberate way, you can help make the stroke a soothing and relaxing motion.
This simple exercise is an example of how the practice of deliberate strokes can help you relax and find focus with the Zentangle method. I hope you take some time to try this pretty little tangle, and keep practicing these strokes as a way to calm your mind and find focus in your day.
deliberate – still – appreciate – quiet – focus – trust – deconstruct – beautiful – reflect – relax – discover – create – comfort – shade – breathe – inspire – be bold – embellish – savor – slow – calm – admire
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