Putting The Zen in Zentangle

This artwork is called a zentangle scratchboard. It combines two different art forms and makes it one. For this project you'll need watercolor paper, (it's stronger and thicker) oil pastels, black tempera paint, and dish soap. The first thing to do is color the paper with the oil pastels. I did random colors all over because I didn't want it to be just lines of colors. It works better if you make the pastels thicker instead of lightly coloring. This makes it better for the scratching later on. After you've finished coloring the paper you'll need to make a mixture of the black tempera paint (non-washable) and the dish soap. I mixed mine in a plastic cup, about 1/4 cup of each. It'll take about 3-4 coats of the mix. I did one coat and let it half of it dry and then did another coat and let it fully dry. It still didn't get quite dark enough so I did another coat. If you don't put enough on it will chip away once you start scratching. I let it dry for a day after the third coat. I used the following tools for scratching: plastic fork, bobby pin, toothpick, and a pen lid. The one that worked best was the bobby pin because I could angle it and it was sharp enough to scratch with just the right amount of force. The scratching should be patterns that have nothing to do with each other but have something in common at the same time. Make patterns that flow throughout the entire paper, there shouldn't be a lot of empty space. I like to think of it as combined organized randomness. I just made patterns as they came to my mind. It didn't have one in particular that I was trying to copy I just wanted to do whatever. I really like the way it turned out and I had a lot of fun making this artwork. This is something that I will for sure do with my future students and own children. 

Here is a link zentangle  that gives some great examples.