Students were introduced to Zentangles (some had previous knowledge) through examples I had from a previous class as well as some images from the actual website. I described them as glorified doodles that are relaxing and almost meditative. Zentangles can be done on anything, but are usually executed with a black pen or marker. The space that is to be "tangled" needs to be split into sections and then filled using a wide variety of designs.
Our Zentangles are going to be a plaque on the cover of our homemade sketchbooks. Since these are personal pieces, I had the student pick a letter from his/her first or last name to be the first break in the white expanse of page.
After the letter was in the center of the page, the students had to draw three different lines going from one edge of the page to another edge. This broke up the space more and create very interesting areas for us to fill in.
Students were given a red folder that contained design contact sheets and example Zentangles to help with their design work. Using a pencil, they began filling their now sectioned paper with lots of different designs.
Once the page was full, the student was given a black sharpie pen to go over the pencil. This is the step we are on still. I believe we will need one more day of in class work time for this step to be complete. Once this step is done, students will erase the pencil and add a color to the letter in their Zentangle to help it stand out from the background designs.I will post more pictures when students begin finishing!