Monday, January 14, 2013

Munchin - alternate steps

Munchin, and then some.

Munchin is one of Zentangle's official tangles, designed by Molly Hollibaugh, Maria's daughter. Munchin is based on triangles and has a nice, slightly mottled look when finished. You can see Molly's instructions, which begins with some random dots, in the Zentangle newsletter here.

I had forgotten that method until I taught Munchin to a class that included two CZTs, who reminded me about it! Because any tangle is usually drawn in an odd-shaped space provided by the string, I had come up with another way to draw Munchin, which I have been teaching. I'll share it today and perhaps some may find it helpful.

Ultimately, in order to draw Munchin, you need your space sub-divided into triangles. This is what I do first, then I fill in the triangles with the lines.

Here are some odd shapes you might have, courtesy of your string: three, four, and five sides.
     
  • If the shape is triangular you're good to go. Simply draw a line from one corner to the opposite side, and keep sub-dividing.
  • If the shape is four-sided, no problem. Simply draw a line from one corner to the opposite corner. Now you have two triangles. Keep sub-dividing.
  • If the shape is five-sided, draw a line from one corner to the opposite side and back to another corner. Now you have triangles you can sub-divide. 
  • If a four- or five-sided shape is very long and thin you can do a zigzag down the length of it to start.

Here's one possible configuration of triangles for each of these shapes:

And here are those same shapes complete with Munchin. Of course, they would have a slightly different look depending on which corner of each triangle the lines meet in, and they need shading.


But what if some of the lines are curved? You can still use this sub-dividing method and you may want to curve some of the inner lines in some of the triangles.

Here's a tile with 'All Munchin, All the Time'. I've done the string in red so you can see what I started with and how I sub-divided the sections.

And here's that same tile in black and white, with shading.
(with apologies for the fuzziness)

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, Margaret. I always found Munchin a bit of a challenge, this looks like a breeze.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, M, this is super, I'll make sure I send my Zentangle Enthusiasts Group over to check this out for inspirational creativity!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you! I've always avoided this tangle because the way I was using was just weird to me. This is much easier!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very cool Margaret. Like in life, it is a great lesson and reminder that there are often many roads to get to the same place. I believe that in many situations you can seek out many right answers and a variety of different ways to do the same things ... and this holds true in our philosophy of Zentangle. Keep up the great work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Molly! I agree, there are many paths to the same place. Munchin is a tangle I call upon regularly.

      Delete
  5. Margaret, thank you so much for clarifying this pattern for me. I can hardly wait to try it. It's been intimidating me. lol.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very helpful. Some patterns really need a leg up to get them into available spaces. This idea is worth building on, I think!

    ReplyDelete
  7. So happy I found this. I love Munchin but only used it when it was in an "easy" spot. This helped me tremulously for fitting it into odd shaped or circular "strings". Cheers.

    ReplyDelete