Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

Black and white needn’t be boring, in fact a bit of mono work can look very effective and give your projects a modern, cutting edge feel. This is especially true when you apply a black and white zentangle-inspired patterns to cool shapes and on-trend motifs. So why not try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens?

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

Bugs and beetle illustrations are enduringly popular and look great when you work these motifs with this black and white drawing technique. This project shows you how to create a range of buggy designs that look like über accomplished, stunning artworks. Don’t worry, they are way easier to do than they look. And, once you master the technique, you’ll be hooked.

Beetle mono design with PIN pens

Make your mark

You can make a great impact just by using different marks and filling techniques. The Uni-PIN pens are fantastic for this as its choice of nib sizes allow you to produce various line-widths and mark sizes to get different results. We’ve used sizes 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5. The 0.1 is super fine, allowing you to make delicate lines and dots, the 0.3 is a little more robust with a thicker line and the 0.5 nib allows you to fill in large areas with solid black while still letting you make a strong and confident mark.

Something to keep

This is a real keepsake make, as uni-PIN pens boast Super Ink Technology which keeps colour solid and vibrant; perfect if you don’t want your work to fade. Plus, the pen doesn’t bleed through paper so you can sketch away and create a range of brilliant drawings to your heart’s content.

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

We’ve done some of the work for you as we’ve given you a template with five bug shapes to trace and transfer onto your chosen paper. All you need to do is experiment and have fun. The level of detail on this artwork is up to you, after all this is your project. But take your time on this; use it as an opportunity to practice some mindful colouring-in, anyway you can’t rush perfection.

You will need

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

Practice your shapes

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

1: First, get a scrap of paper and use your 0.5 pen to draw circles, hearts, triangle and petal shapes. Now practice filling in those shapes with all three pen sizes using various strokes and marks.

2: Experiment on your scrap paper with horizontal and vertical straight and curved lines, see what visual effect you can produce by playing with their proximity to each-other. Try overlaying dots and dashes along the edges and in-between the lines to see how they look. Now practice a scallop-edge design by drawing semi-circles along the edge of some of your lines.

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

3: Staying with your scrap paper, make zig-zags and try simple criss-cross lines – observe how different they look depending on the size of nib you use. Have a go at roughly overlapping your lines at an angle to create a random net-like design.

Transfer your beetles

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

4: Download, print, trace and transfer the free bug template onto your paper. Download your template by clicking Beetles template and saving to your computer. Print out and place the template on a flat, smooth surface. Lay the tracing paper over it and fix with the tape. Trace the picture with a 0.5 PIN pen. Once you have finished, remove the template from underneath the tracing paper.

Turn the tracing paper over so the image is face down. Apply 2B pencil to the back of your drawing. Move your pencil lead back and forth to create an even surface.

To transfer your drawing, place the tracing paper gently on top of your card with the pencil stroke side face down. Stick with masking tape. Trace the image, by going over the lines using a sharp HB pencil, with pressure, onto the card. Lift up the tracing paper to reveal the image.

Fill in and go for it!

Try zentangle-inspired art with PIN pens

5: Sketch out the areas where you would like solid black coverage and fill in with your 0.5 PIN. Now use the 0.1 PIN to go over the basic pencil outline. Leave for a minute, then rub out any remaining pencil marks.

6: Now you have the basic black and white drawing on paper (and you’ve practiced your pen strokes) you can add details to the bugs. Either use the design to copy from, filling in where shown, or employ your own design based on your experiments.