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A review by girrlfriday
Joy of Zentangle: Drawing Your Way to Increased Creativity, Focus, and Well-Being by Suzanne McNeill, Sandy Bartholomew, Marie Browning
4.0
This book was great at breaking down actual technique and I recommend it. BUT I'm glad I read reviews here and on Amazon before I bought it. Things I learned:
1. I agree, who puts in a copyright notice specifying what you can call your work in the front of an art book? It's a little like Monet writing a book on Impressionist painting with a foreword asking to please be sure to put a trademark symbol on your work if you sell paintings using the techniques he invented and put in the book, and otherwise please note it as "Inspired by Monet' when you paint your lilies slightly different than he taught, because you are still creating a IIA (Impressionist Inspired Artwork).
2. There is a talk about how it changes your life, mediation benefits, hippie dippie type stuff, but not as much I was prepared for after reading reviews. A lot of it came from the sidebars of people talking about what Zentangle means to them, so it was easy to look at their cool tangles and skip the propaganda.
3. Tip from an Amazon reviewer: paper coasters are super cheap and a good size. Despite what they say about how the 'fine Italian paper' of the trademarked Zentangle artist tiles will make you scoff at lesser mortals who use mere card stock, I thought that was a great idea. I did also buy some of the Strathmore 'Artist Tiles' for 'Pattern Drawing and Meditative Art' and so far I haven't been struck down by official Zentangle lightning yet, so that's good.
Overall, the actual drawing information was good, especially for someone like me who doesn't draw all that well.
1. I agree, who puts in a copyright notice specifying what you can call your work in the front of an art book? It's a little like Monet writing a book on Impressionist painting with a foreword asking to please be sure to put a trademark symbol on your work if you sell paintings using the techniques he invented and put in the book, and otherwise please note it as "Inspired by Monet' when you paint your lilies slightly different than he taught, because you are still creating a IIA (Impressionist Inspired Artwork).
2. There is a talk about how it changes your life, mediation benefits, hippie dippie type stuff, but not as much I was prepared for after reading reviews. A lot of it came from the sidebars of people talking about what Zentangle means to them, so it was easy to look at their cool tangles and skip the propaganda.
3. Tip from an Amazon reviewer: paper coasters are super cheap and a good size. Despite what they say about how the 'fine Italian paper' of the trademarked Zentangle artist tiles will make you scoff at lesser mortals who use mere card stock, I thought that was a great idea. I did also buy some of the Strathmore 'Artist Tiles' for 'Pattern Drawing and Meditative Art' and so far I haven't been struck down by official Zentangle lightning yet, so that's good.
Overall, the actual drawing information was good, especially for someone like me who doesn't draw all that well.