Zenspirations: Letters & Patterning (Design Originals) Beginner-Friendly Techniques for Frames, Doodles, Lettering, Patterns, and Borders to Decorate Your Journals, Drawings, Crafts, Gifts, and More

by Joanne Fink

Great ideas for doodling and lettering that anyone can do! Patterning is fun, easy, relaxing, and a great way to add interest and texture to any design. If you think you can't doodle, think again! Inside this jam-packed 48-page little book, artist Joanne Fink presents creative monogram and pattern techniques, offering intriguing ideas for filling margins, edges, and spaces with beautiful creative flourishes. The many decorative borders, frames, shapes, and alphabets appeal to a wide spectrum of tastes and styles while the techniques are easy for any age to master quickly! Use Joanne's techniques to create details, depth, and beauty reminiscent of classical architecture, medieval block printing, and manuscript calligraphy. Her passion for beautiful patterns is contagious! Joanne makes it easy for even beginners to turn simple lines into attractive designs with her easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, while her doodled shapes and dangles will inspire you to embellish more and just have fun with the process. Whether you like to journal, draw, doodle, design, craft, or create homemade gifts for friends and family, you'll find a world of inspiration inside Letters & Patterning !

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Drawing, Crafts, Journaling

52 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Overall, a good book, just not quite what I was hoping for.

If your main interest in this title is learning to apply zentangle principles to lettering and creating monograms this book will likely not meet your expectations. While it is a slim volume with large text and of course lots of graphics there are only 8 or so pages dedicated to lettering and monograms, and really only one style is shown.

If, on the other hand, you are interested in ornamenting drawings with patterns or zentangling with representational "strings" there is much to be inspired by in this book. I did enjoy how she demonstrated that patterning is a building process and one can stop at any point. That is not something often mentioned when looking at zentangle step-outs. It also means the how-tos here are not presented in multiple colors so as to demonstrate the look achieved if one stops at any of the steps. I personally liked that, but if you are spatially challenged it might be harder to ascertain what the next steps in drawing the pattern are.

[Teela · Rating 4 out of 5]

ZENSPIRATIONS beautiful and contagious

This 51 page paperback is exactly what I was hoping it was. Joanne Fink's ZENSPIRATIONS Letters & Patterns is one of those things that if you get stuck on a deserted island you would want to have with you! It's so entertaining but also gives one confidence in being able to turn their 'can't draw a straight line' into some much more fun and interesting. Definitely recommend to all doodlers, artists or wanna be artists.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a lot of cool ideas, but I really wanted some more detailed or step-by-step instructions for the monograms. She had one letter all drawn out step-by-step, but I would have liked the whole alphabet; the final designs were just too intricate to break down on my own. Liked the book though, read through it several times for ideas and started going with it right away.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first bought the book, I glanced through it, realized it wasn’t actually a book on lettering, and shelves it for “later.”
Today, I picked it up again with a different goal: creating my own beautiful letters, rather than learning to duplicate someone else’s beautiful lettering style.
This book is about Patterning. Once you learn the basics, you can create beautiful designs out of anything on paper: letters, flowers, doodles, etc. Wonderfully inspiring, Joanne!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's only one thing I disliked about this book -- it's too short! 🤗

[Sandy Weir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I bought from my Zentangle Instructor. Again it was highly recommended and I was very interested in learning more about lettering. Also looking for more tangles (in a step by step instruction). I did not find much of that in this book, but the lettering instructions were helpful. Also border suggestions and patterns for narrow long shapes (to fill).

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for ideas and inspiration. I've already used it in some of my artwork.

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting flowers, lettering, frames, borders, circular borders, mandalas, dangles, use of color, and suggestions of how to incorporate designs onto objects & retail items.

[Huda Fel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doodlests' addiction <3

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas - discovered I'm NOT the doodler I thought I was, but enjoy playing around with it.

[Kris Desimone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the step by step instructions and the additional ideas throughout the book.