Painted Rainbow Zentangle Art

If you’ve never tried Zentangle art then you have been missing out! You’ll enjoy creating your own painted rainbow Zentagle art when you follow my step-by-step instructions. This art project is very relaxing to paint and draw, and budget-friendly since the rainbow plaque was purchased at Dollar Tree.

PAINTED RAINBOW ZENTANGLE ART

I’ve always been amazed at the Zentangle method and the art others created using the tangle patterns, so I figured I’d give it a go and incorporate some patterns into my rainbow art.

I’ve joined a few of my creative blogging friends for a Dollar Store Craft Challenge this month where we create a new craft from items that we have found in a dollar store. We share these creations with our readers so that you can make it, too. You can find what creative projects the group has shared at the end of my post. Don’t miss out!

WHAT IS ZENTANGLE ART?

The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. We call these patterns, tangles. You create tangles with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs. These simple shapes are the “Elemental Strokes” in all Zentangle art. These patterns are drawn on small pieces of paper called “tiles.” We call them tiles because you can assemble them into mosaics – via Zentangle.com

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SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Dollar Tree rainbow plaque
• Apple Barrel craft paint in multiple colors
• Paper Mate black markers ~ felt tip medium point
• 2 artist brushes (small and medium)
• sand paper or hair dryer
• tiny screwdriver
• pencil
• ruler

TIP: If you’re unable to find the rainbow plaque in stock at your Dollar Tree, you can simply Google “rainbow coloring page” and print out a rainbow drawing that you like. Print on cardstock and use craft markers instead of paint.

The pastel rainbow plaque, below, is what I purchased with the intentions of transforming it into Zentangle art. Since the time I found the rainbow style used in my dollar craft, I recently found a larger and different rainbow arc at Dollar Tree (2023)

5 STEPS FOR THE PAINTED RAINBOW ZENTANGLE ART

STEP 1: PREPARE THE BACK SIDE FOR PAINTING

• Peel the sticker off the back side
• Unscrew and remove the hardware
• Sand the area where you removed the sticker
• Update: using a hair dryer on the sticker should make it easily peel off

STEP 2: SKETCH RAINBOW PATTERN

• With a pencil, sketch a rough guide for the placement of the rainbow rows. Notice that I made a row/line over the two holes where the hardware was removed. This is to make it not as noticeable when the art is completed.
• Make the distance between your rows different widths so the finished rainbow will look more interesting. You can use a ruler to help you.
• To outline the clouds, I tried to copy the same cloud border from the front side.

STEP 3: PAINT THE RAINBOW ROWS

• Use an artist brush to start painting the rainbow colors, working from the top to the bottom row.
• Paint each row from the outer edges towards the middle and then in the direction of your arc.
• I chose not to make my colored rows look like the usual rainbow sequence of colors as I wanted a more whimsical look.

TIP: If you are interested in painting with the sequence of a rainbow, the colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

STEP 4: OUTLINE THE PAINTED ROWS

• I drew my black lines along the edge of each painted row starting from the top down to the bottom row.
• As you can see between the two greens in the photo below, I outlined in sections of about 2 inches and then added a second line 1/8 inch directly underneath. I then filled it in with the marker.
• Once all lines are completed go back and clean up at the start and stop areas making it look smoother.
• After you have smoothed the lines, any areas that are not perfect won’t be too noticeable since the Zentangles will be the focal point.

TIP: I switched to a fresh pen about halfway through the project. The felt tip seems to eventually wear down and not provide as crisp a line when used a lot on painted particle board.

STEP 5: START DRAWING THE ZENTANGLE DESIGNS

I searched on Pinterest for patterns that I thought would be easy for a beginner to draw since this was my first time with this kind of art. Let me tell you, there are TONS of examples! Below, I sketched out the designs that I chose to use.

The photo below is how the project looks when about half of the patterns are completed.

• I began drawing at the top and worked my way down.
• Keep in mind that the ink will smear if you accidently touch it, so I turned the plaque at different angles when needed and continued drawing.
• The black ink will look very dark at first, but will dry to a dull black.

TIP: I found that if I got interrupted many times within one row, I got off track with that particular design and I made mistakes. That’s the reason the pattern on my orange row ended up looking crappy.

Your tangle arcs are done and you’ve completed your whimsical “S” patterns in the clouds. Congrats, you’ve completed your art masterpiece!

I’ve propped my rainbow art on my bookshelf in my craft room and it looks so colorful and cute!

I absolutely loved creating Zentangle art! Even though it’s tedious to draw in small areas like my rainbow, it’s still relaxing and the final result is rewarding. Do you think you would try this art form?

NOW, SEE WHAT MY BLOGGING FRIENDS HAVE CREATED FOR YOU!

Across the Blvd
Purple Hues and Me
Comfort Spring
Coastal Bohemian
Southern Sunflowers
Sum of Their Stories

MORE PAINTED CRAFTS YOU MAY LIKE:

Sharing my Zentangle Art at these fabulous blogs!