Zentangle Art and Mandalas: Video Tutorials and Supply List
Zentangle, zendoodling, and mandalas are a great way to relieve stress, relax, and calm yourself. There are no hard and fast rules to it, and you can let your mind dwell on other things or just peacefully lose yourself in the lines and patterns while you listen to music or an audiobook. In here are videos with some good examples and demonstrations, and some links to products you can buy. The links are all affiliate links so if you buy something through them, I receive a commission. The products on here are all good, but I will tell you straight up that the one thing I think you really NEED is a good set of pens. The other stuff is just extra.
Best (Black) Pens for Mandalas and Zentangle Art
If you are looking for the best pens to use for this, I won’t give you some long list of options, because there are only two worth mentioning. Fineliner pens come in sets of various widths, going down to a very small size for careful and precise drawing. They are my favorite type of pen to use for art. There are only two brands that I would recommend as high quality and reliable:
Both of these are well made, and you do get what you pay for. I highly warn against going with a cheaper, China-made knock off. I am all for buying the cheap version of SOME things, but if you are serious about drawing, your pens are not an area you want to compromise on.
Best Colored Pens for Mandalas and Zentangle Art
If you are looking for colored pens to use, there are three brands I recommend, depending on your needs.
1. Sharpie Felt Tip Art Pens
These pens are all very finely pointed for detailed drawing, writing, and coloring, and they don’t bleed through most paper.
The tips are .4mm
2. Staedtler Colored Pens
is another brand that makes really good pens in black and color. I have found they bleed through certain thin paper. They are slightly smaller than the Sharpies at .3mm
3. Zebra Mildliners
These are a different style than the others, more of a highlighter texture rather than a firm felt tip. They are double sided, with one side having a flat tip and one having a pointed tip. The colors are very pretty. They are water based, and the finer point is .6mm. They are good if your focus is more on coloring rather than thin, fine lines.
They also sell a neutral palette, which is nice for nature or scenic coloring pages.
Neutral Palette Zebra Mildliners
If you want a retractable version, these do not have the highlighter side.
Paper
If you are looking for some paper to work on these zentangle patters and mandalas, these artist tiles are a thick weight and perfectly square at 4×4.
Best Coloring Books
If you are looking to get started with entangle designs and want to practice, you can get this workbook:
Zentangle Basics: Beginner Friendly Exercises and Techniques
This is another workbook:
Joy of Zentangle: Drawing your Way to Increased Creativity
If you just want to color without drawing your own designs, this coloring book has 125 mandalas you can color for relaxation and meditation.
This one also has mandalas pre-drawn, and each page is able to be torn out.
If you just want to color zentangle animals without drawing your own animals, this adult coloring book has the animals already drawn, and you can color them in.
Other Supplies for Mandalas and Zentangle Art
If you want to draw your own mandalas and are using traditional paper and pen, you need a few tools to help you draw perfect circles and straight lines, like this
or this
When I draw, I use Procreate, which is the best app for digital art and graphic design. It costs maybe $10 and is totally worth it, to have every art supply at your fingertips. You just need an Apple Pencil and an iPad Pro. If you have been on the fence about it, I definitely recommend it for any type of digital art. They have a variety of brushes for calligraphy, typography, painting, vector drawings, etc.
If you are looking for a simple start up kit, this one by Sakura is a good choice.