Easy Zentangle®-Inspired Patterns, Step by Step

Pick a tangle, watch it draw itself stroke by stroke, then print a practice tile and try it with a pen. Every pattern here is drawn by us, free and without sign-up.

Tangle patterns

Before you start

You only need three things: a small square of good paper (the classic tile is 3.5″ × 3.5″, but any paper works), a fine black pen, and a pencil. Lightly draw a dot in each corner, join them into a border, and draw a loose pencil line through the middle (the “string”) to split the tile into sections. Then fill each section with a different tangle.

The five basic strokes

Almost every tangle is built from five simple marks:

DotA small filled point.
LineStraight or gently curved.
C-curveA curve shaped like the letter C.
S-curveTwo curves joined like the letter S.
OrbA circle drawn in one stroke.

Questions

What is a tangle?

A tangle is a small, repeatable pattern drawn with simple strokes, one at a time. In the Zentangle® Method you draw tangles in sections of a small tile without planning a picture in advance.

What is the difference between Zentangle and zendoodle?

The Zentangle® Method is a specific practice created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas: abstract, black ink on small tiles, no eraser. “Zendoodle” is a looser, informal word for doodles drawn in a similar repetitive style, often inside a recognisable shape like an animal or a letter.

Are these the official instructions?

No. The tangle names belong to their creators, and the step drawings and explanations here are our own. For the full method, a Certified Zentangle Teacher™ or zentangle.com is the place to go.

Can I print these for a class?

Yes. Each pattern page has a “Print practice sheet” button that prints the steps plus four blank tiles on one letter-size page.