I received an unexpected gift from my husband one day in an Amazon box. It contained “One Zentangle a Day – A 6-Week Course in Creative Drawing for Relaxation, Inspiration and Fun” by Beckah Krahula. I was excited to begin and worked my way through the book, devouring every word and doing every exercise. All I bought to begin was a set of Micron pens and a sketchbook. I admit that I took longer than 6 weeks to complete the course because I wanted to. Ms. Krahula instilled in me that I had freedom to modify the tangles and expand my personal creativity and challenge myself artistically in addition to copying them as shown. I think that was brilliant! Some days I’d do the exercises twice if they were particularly challenging, or if I wanted to spend more time experimenting with a particular tangle or methods in shading the Zentangle® Tile.
This book jump-started my personal Zentangle Journey, which I believe will be a long one with twists and turns that I can only begin to imagine. Before I had finished working through One Zentangle a Day, I began teaching family members how to Tangle. I wanted to share the joy that I was finding in the creative process. I wanted others to feel the peace of mind I was experiencing. One Zentangle A Day is well written, easy to understand and logically ordered. I believe it belongs in every Tangler’s library and I highly recommend it for new Tanglers who cannot take a beginning class taught by a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT). Myself, I took the Basic Zentangle 101 class about halfway through reading this book because I wanted the experience of taking the class first hand, and I found Kierstan Betancourt, CZT in my area. I am so glad I took the class because I learned so much. It was well worth it.
One Zentangle a Day explains everything that’s needed to learn how to get a rock solid start in Zentangle, and where you can go with it all in one book! After the main 6 weeks of lessons, the book delves into creative ideas for your art like creating your own fabric prints and art, working with mica and resin, along with a small gallery of other creative ideas for your new skill.
I had a deep inner creative itch that was not being scratched before reading this book. Thanks to One Zentangle a Day, I now have a Daily Zentangle Practice. I think that developing a daily practice is really what this book and Zentangle is about. It brings an inner calm and peace that I had not known before. My mind is clear and so much quieter.
I strongly recommend this book to everyone I know, even if they have not tangled… yet!
Click here to buy it on Amazon and get started soon. You’ll start seeing everything in a whole new way!
Followup: It is now about 6 months later and I am now a CZT in the Portland, OR and Centralia/Chehalis, WA areas. Zentangle has changed my life! Take a class, it will change yours–for the better! I still love this book and heartily recommend it to my students.