Enhance Your Tangles with these Free Zentangle Tutorials & Youtube Videos

Here is a list of free Zentangle^® tutorials and Youtube videos that illustrate the various drawing techniques used to enhance and add interest to your tangles. The term “enhancement” is used in Zentangle to describe these special techniques.

Sparkle Enhancement Tutorials

Add a sparkle or highlight to your tangles by lifting your pen mid-stroke to create a gap in the tangle.

• Sparkle Tips + Which Tangles Work Best with the Sparkle Enhancement
• How to Add a Sparkle
• Printemps with Sparkle Enhancement Tutorial (Youtube Video)

Aura Enhancement Tutorials

According to the Official Zentangle Blog: “In the Zentangle Method, a line tracing around the outside or inside of a tangle is called an aura.”

• Creative Ways to Use Auras
• The Awesome Art of Aura
• Tanglenhancers: Auras and Rounding
• When in Doubt, Aura!

Translucent Tangle Enhancements: Dew Drops, TransluZENce, TranZENding

This section lumps together a few similar Zentangle techniques that use shading tricks to create translucent tangles and illusions.

• Dew Drop Tutorial
• Tips for Tangling Dew Drops on IZA
• How to Draw Semi-Transparent Bubbles with Colored Pencils or Graphite (Two Tutorials)
• TransluZENce Tutorial
• TransZENding Tutorial (Youtube Video)
• Short TransZENding Tutorial (Youtube Video)

Reticula & Fragments Tutorials

Reticula and fragments are a more recent Zentangle^® development that was introduced with the release of the Zentangle Primer in 2016. “Reticula” is the term used for any type of grid, and “fragment” is the term for the pattern used to fill the grid. A good example of this concept is the official tangle Tripoli. In this example, the triangle is the reticula and the fragment is the pattern drawn inside the triangle.

• Reticula and Fragments List

ZenButton Tutorials

ZenButtons are button-like mandalas that are created using the above Reticula & Fragments technique and shading tricks.

• How to Draw ZenButtons
• ZenButtons Youtube Tutorial (Youtube Video)

Miscellaneous Free Zentangle Tutorials

Here are a few more helpful free Zentangle tutorials that don’t quite fit the above categories.

• Romancy – Use curvy bands to enhance your tangles.
• Zentwining Tutorial – Use this technique to draw amazing ribbons.
• Triangulation Enhancement – Widen lines, angles, and corners to add interest.
• Curve Enhancement – Widen curves to add interest.
• Spiralations – Adapt your tangles to a spiral string for interesting results.
• ZenWindows Tutorial – Draw beautiful cathedral-like windows with this technique.
• How to Connect Tangles on Your Tile
• How to Draw Cross-Braided Ribbons
• Stippling Tangles
• 7 Ways to Deal with Artistic Mistakes

Perfs & Rounding Enhancements

Perfs and Rounding are two Zentangle enhancements that don’t currently have any tutorials or Youtube videos illustrating them. They are, however, fairly intuitive techniques that don’t require much instruction.

• Perfs – Add dots to the outside of your tangle. Similar to an aura.
• Rounding – Darken the small gaps between your tangles.

If I missed any links to helpful tutorials, then please let me know in the comments.