Creative Journaling (4) – Nurturing the Right Brain

[Reference: One Zentangle A Day for Relaxation, Inspiration and Fun by Beckah Krahula.  Note:  “Zentangle” is a trademarked term.]

Let’s talk about Zentangles.  It’s “Zen,” as in meditation or focusing the mind, and “tangle,” as in all tangled up.  They are so enjoyable that once the members of the journaling class learn to do them, it’s addictive, like eating peanuts – you can’t eat just one.  The class members do them at home, and bring them in to “Show and Tell.” 

A Zentangle is somewhat like doodling, only with a few simple guidelines.  It’s something we all have done, and deceptively easy.  You know, maybe you are talking with someone on the phone, and your mind start to play.  You pick up a pencil or pan by the telephone, and you just let your mind wander while you talk (remember the right brain can do multiple things at the same time), and you start to doodle some pattern on the telephone pad.  Zentangles are like that.  They are short, spontaneous drawings which energize, encourage and focus the right brain, similar to the way exercise benefits the body.  They activate and stimulate the conditions for creative right brain work, like a pianist doing scales on a piano.  However, as there is a method for doing piano scales and, so too for doing Zentangles. 

Zentangle Activity: If you have not done a Zentangle, here is a summary of the process we use in our journaling class, just to get started.  This activity should not be long a tiresome – about 15 minutes or so is about right. 

·        Take a piece of paper and draw a square 3.5” x 3/5” (We like card stock, and have several rectangles pre-cut ready to use.).

·        Using a pencil, put a dot in each corner of the square about ¼” in from the edge.

·        Connect the dots, forming an inside “frame” around the edge of the square.

·        In the space inside the frame, draw 3 lines, called “threads.” (Don’t think about it too much. As in doodling, just let your mind be free to follow the pencil and to make whatever lines it wants to.)

·        Now using a pen, make a different pattern in each of the spaces between the threads.  These are free-form patterns, not pictures.  No erasing – be brave!  This step usually takes just a few minutes.

·        Now back to using a soft pencil, turn the pencil on its side so that it will make a wider line, run the pencil along some of the lines, and using your finger or a cotton swab, “pull” the shadow line from the edge toward the center of what you have drawn.  It will “smudge” into a soft, shaded shadow, making the image appear more dimensional.

·        Take up the pen again, and put your initials somewhere in your image.  (Every artist signs his work.)

·        Finally, turn the paper over.  On the back side, make a square in the center about 2” x 2”.  In the square put your signature, the date, a title/name for your Zentangle, and perhaps a comment (ex: “This is my first Zentangle!”)

When you started out with the Zentangle, you just worked without the preconceived formality, which the left brain usually controls.  You worked just with lines and patterns, which the right brain usually joyously controls.  Then, putting the title down at the end requires words/language, and at that point the left brain suddenly wakes up and kicks in.  In the process of making the Zentangle, thoughts and images become visual.  And finally, in the titling, the visual is translated into language.  It’s heuristic, in that the value is in its structured guidance, to discover and reveal creative insights.

Some Words of Encouragement:

·        “This drawing … requires no previous artistic training or experience at all… ability to use the power of drawn lines is already in place and available for use… You will draw no recognizable objects at all and no symbols, letters, or words.  … you need not know beforehand what the drawing will look like.  In fact, you don’t want to know, because the purpose of the drawing is to reveal aspects … that are perhaps not accessible to conscious, everyday thought – again, to show you what you know but don’t know you know.”  [Ref: Drawing on the Artist Within, Betty Edwards, Ch. 8, p. 97.]