Wrapping up Zentangle Project Pack 1

Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. In November of 2017, Zentangle launched their first Project Pack. And now, four years later, I have just completed it! Today I am going to share my 08 Days of Zentangling from Project Pack 1 and my thoughts on this great little pack.

Project Pack 1 focused on Role Reversal (aka White Ink on Black Tiles)

Project Pack 1 celebrated the release of white gel pens from Sakura. It focused heavily on using white ink on black tiles and I was drawn to it for this reason.

In Project Pack 16, one of the projects had us working in white ink on a black tile, and I really struggled. I knew then that I wanted to focus on this method for a while in an attempt to improve myself. So this Project Pack seemed like the perfect idea.

Traditional Zentangle sees us working in black on a white tile, so the role reversal was welcome.

And Project Pack 1 has lots of video…

Zentangle HQ released a video to accompany each activity in Project Pack 1. This time I actually worked along with the videos, pausing them as I caught up to whomever was teaching. The video’s aren’t long and I found it quite simple to tangle along with them.

All of the videos are available to watch on YouTube if you’d like to give it a go.

My 8 Days of Zentangle with Project Pack 1

Day 1

So Day 1 focused on Crazy Huggins. I made an absolute mess of this first tile and to salvage it, I trimmed around the Crazy Huggins. I decided to mount the trimmed tangle on a stencilled background and it ended up looking ok. This technique of “mounting” tiles is something I like, so I continued it throughout the project pack.

Day 2

In Day 2 we looked at Paradox, and we worked on a 3Z triangular tile. I enjoyed shading Paradox in this activity. I decided to mount this one on an octagonal tile – I think it looks awesome!

Day 3

And Day 3 focused on Crescent Moon. I didn’t have the various pen sizes Zentangle recommended to get great variation in this tile, and I think it shows. I was quite disappointed with it, but mounted it none the less. A strongly coloured background helped to detract some focus.

Day 4

In Day 4 we focused on striping. I didn’t have a black pre-strung zendala like Zentangle were using, but I did have one in white. I chose to work this activity in black ink on the white tile. The focus was striping and I did nothing but!

Day 5

Interestingly, Day 5 was a Warm-Up activity and I loved it! I think this is my most favourite tile from this pack as I love the illusion of it. In this tile I introduced some coloured chalk to the beads to provide contrast and I think it worked well. The background stencil seemed to perfectly match this tile too.

Day 6

For Day 6 we focused on Dewd, a new tangle by Zentangle. This is my least favourite tile, I feel it’s quite a mess and the Dewd goes everywhere. Dewd is a pattern I will need to practice more to be able to see it’s true beauty.

The background mount for this tile was given to me by Kathrin Burmeister in her Travelling Tangle package. It’s really beautiful. I added some gold foil to the edge and a stencil over the top before mounting the Dewd tile. It’s my favourite thing about Day 6’s activity.

Day 7

So Day 7 was the first of two focuses on Bales. It was by here that I began to really appreciate white ink on black.

Note that I didn’t mount the tile. This is why.

Day 8

And Day 8 was last activity and the second focus on Bales. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first, but think it looks great mounted on a night blue starry background.

To the big question…. Where to next after Project Pack 1?

In Project Pack 16, I said I would be participating in all Project Project Packs from now on. Well, I meant it.

Project Pack 17 starts soon and I am ready and raring to go! My pack arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago. Who else is participating? I can’t wait and I’m looking forward to seeing what Zentangle has in store for us.

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Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!

Bless you my friend

Chrissie xx