Tangle-Inspired Botanicals

Exploring the Natural World Through Mindful, Expressive Drawing

Sharla R. Hicks

• Publisher: Quarry Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781631594267
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Techniques d'art

In Tangle-inspired Botanicals, author and artist Sharla Hicks guides you in exploring and developing yourown style of botanical, landscapes, lush foliage, and mixed-media color enhancers. It's not hard to see why drawing tangles continues to grow years after tangles first hit the scene. These types of drawings are easy to pick up, and can be drawn on just about anything. With a f ocus on simple mark making as well as drawing with the intention to relax and becreative, tangle drawing is a powerful tool for people looking to tap into their inner artist.

Tangle-Inspired Botanicals guides you in exploring and developing yourown personal style of tangle-inspired botanicals, land and seascapes, leafyfoliage, and mixed-media color enhancers. Artist Sharla Hicks uses nature photographs and monoprints embossed with flowers, leaves, and grasses for her inspiration.

Tangle-Inspired Botanicals includes more than 200 illustrations, including many finished artworks, along with written instruction.

CHAPTER 1
Find Your Rhythm with the Dancing Duo:

Logic and Intuition Explore Botanical Lines, Strokes, and Patterns

Make Your Mark!

“Beauty surrounds.
Monumental grandeur demands.
Creation reverberates.
Pattern integrates.
The soul resonates.”

—Sharla R. Hicks, 2016

Reeds and Weeds, Edisto Island, South Carolina

Introduction:
The Tango of Expressive Botanicals

Unfortunately for many, the act of making art brought so much joy in childhood but disappeared as self-awareness increased, bringing on a transition where we compared our artwork to those of others. If we did not measure up, felt incompetent in drawing, or a callous remark discouraged us—somehow that became the measure of whether or not to continue doing art. Then our social and school lives got complicated, and the end result was that art began to take on a minor role.

Many felt something was missing, and for the lucky, the door to art reopened with Zentangle, a simple method for drawing patterns. The childhood joy returned with many additional gifts, like mindful focus and the creative desire to do more with simple strokes and repetitive pattern. The unspoken question remains, How do you keep patterning and drawing interesting so you don’t fall away from art again?

Learning is fundamental to keeping engaged in an artful journey. My intention is to guide you through the art of tangling, patterning, and expressive botanicals by opening up the intuitive artist within to find your style of expressive mark making. It will be a narrow focus that uncovers the magical alchemy of weighted line and enhancements and the expressive potential of two tangles, Mooka and Verdigogh, and a few others along the way. You will discover the intuitive fundamentals of what you already know, fusing it with a logical approach that incorporates mindful focus, visual language, and memories with the art essentials of expressive line, design, and composition. These simple tools will become your guides to a lifetime of creative joy in art. Welcome to the journey!

To learn more about Zentangle or to look for a Certified Zentangle Teacher in your area, go to www.Zentangle.com.

The Rose, expressive botanical illustration using mixed media, alcohol ink, black pen, 2013, 8" × 10" (20.3 × 25.4 cm)

LESSON 1
Repetitive Pattern:
The Dance between Logic and Intuition

Artists who use repetitive patterns are drawn to the simplicity of the process. For those not comfortable with their drawing skills, this safe technique allows the intuitive brain to settle into a mindful focus that aids the creative process.

Each sequence prompts mindful focus by inviting you to experience the dance between logic and intuition. Logic observes and feels the rhythm with insightful observations and communicates via visual vocabulary that enhances intuition’s creative imagination. As in a dance, there is trust for the ...