Explaining "strings"

After teaching my first class of Zentangle® on Thursday I have begun to refine a few things that will go faster and smoother next time.

For one thing...explaining how "strings" set up the patterns on the Zentangle® tile takes more steps than it needs to. I simply laid a piece of clear plastic over two of mine and traced the original string so that it becomes obvious how that works and why strings are important to designs.

Now I can just slip the transparent strings over the design to show how I started!

Voila.

The strings sort of "disappear" after the patterns are filled in. At least sometimes they do. And folks take a while to see how the whole thing works together.

I was pleased that I started out with a short lesson on shading because that does not come easily to non-artists. And although Zentangle is designed for the inexperienced, that particular thing does need a little explanation. They caught on quickly. We had a good time. But two hours is NOT long enough. You need at least 3 hours.