Evolution of a Zendala

"Creativity is just connecting things.When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something."   Steve Jobs

A couple of weeks ago the prompt for the journal group I belong to was to do something that shows our strength, something we are good at, something we love to do. Since one of my favorite things to do with Zentangle is Zendalas, that's the direction I headed in.

I began with a stencil from Genevieve Crabe (Tangle Harmony) which you can check out here. Her stencils are made from sturdy plastic with lots of holes in them. You draw a dot in each hole and then connect those dots in whatever way you want to create a template for a Zendala. Very simple method, but some trial and error until you get the design you want. Usually I do a bit of erasing and changing my lines; however, this time I hardly did any of that. I took a picture of the template before tangling (yay for remembering to do that), but somehow that picture seems to have gotten lost in cyberspace (have I mentioned how frustrating I find computers?), so I have no pre-picture to show you.

However, I do have photos of the steps during my tangling process. Where you see the 'x' marks, that is a note to myself not to tangle there, since I decided those sections would be my white space. I began with the tangle Fassett by Lynn Mead.

In the next picture you will see that I changed my mind and rounded those outside spaces rather than leaving them pointed. I think that was a good decision. I added a pattern called Petales de Fleurs but unfortunately don't know who to credit for that pattern.

This is the point where I got very nervous. I really liked what I had so far and was scared to death of messing up as I continued. Some of you can probably relate to that feeling! But I forged ahead, after much debating what the next pattern would be, and added my own tangleation of Paizel, by Angie Vangalis. 

Between the Paizel sections I wanted something with a lighter, simpler look, so I did this variation of Florz, using circles at the intersections rather than diamonds. This may be a pattern with a different name, but I'm not sure.

Finally I drew Diva Dance (Rock 'n Roll) in the center. I began in the outer ring of the center and was planning to leave the small circle in the middle open, but changed my mind as I drew.

There you have it. My completed Zendala with no disasters along the way. But of course, in my mind, almost no Zentangle, or ZIA, or Zendala would be complete without shading to really bring it to life. So here is the final Zendala shaded. 

Did I say that was the final Zendala? I lied. I had to try adding some color. Here was the first part.

And then with some more color.

That's the really final Zendala. I might like the black and white one better. What do you think?