The Zentangle Process (well, mine)

I've been tangling a lot lately because I'm in a mixed episode (mania + depression, fun times!) and bored. My roommate is pissed at me and I feel really bad.. waiting for the new med, Gabapentin, a second line treatment, to kick in.. so I've been tangling. Here's my process.

First, I draw on the paper with a pencil, and do the strings and outline and stuff. It looks like this (I'll show you two)

This is a more "common" zentangle, I found something similar online and wanted to reproduce it. 

This was just me scribbling around a few circles. I started outlining in pen. All you need is paper, a pencil (if you're more daring, you don't need the pencil) and a pen of some sort. I use gel pens or thin tip felt pens. 99% of my zentangles and tangle art I do with a gel pen, except I've run through a LOT of them.

Next I outline my scribbles with black and add some embellishments. You can use any colour, you don't have to outline the strings (the parts inside) but I prefer to. Some of my zentangles I've done without outlining the strings. This is my outcome.

I didn't take a pic of just the outline, but I filled in some circles with patterns I often use, or ones I find online. This site has a lot of tangles, and I also bought the book (which was a mistake, it just links you to the patterns online. What a waste of $15!)

Here's the outline for the second one. I did add a few more strings as I went on.

Then I fill in all of the strings, and add embellishments as I go. Here they are partway through.

Well, the second one, anyways. You can see it coming along. I just fill with patterns. I always draw my tangles (patterns) first in pencil, and then outline in black, then add the shading. I get pretty messy. 

Here they are done!

The first one I did in a more common zentangle form, with the curved outlines, and the circles in it, with strings going to a main area.

This one is just a lot of random scribbles and patterns added. I tried out a few new patterns. See the circle in the almost middle? I finally nailed that pattern. 

Enjoy, and go tangle!