EVOLUTION OF MY MOOKAS Part I: Mooka, the first

As I said earlier, I first found Zentangle on Dec. 12, 2012. I didn't have much time to explore Zentangles (ZTs) as it was the annual Christmas rush.  However, I did do some reading.  I produced my first tangled art work on Dec. 26 and my second on Dec. 27.  I fell in love with Mooka the first time I saw it in a ZT.  However, I found it to be very difficult to draw, especially without instructions. That being said, my first use of Mooka was in my second ZT.  It looked like this: 

By January 3, 2013 I had purchased my first Zentangle book: "ONE ZENTANGLE A DAY", by Beckah Krahula. I must admit that the reason I selected this book from all the ZT books at the Hastings bookstore is that it had clear instructions for drawing the Mooka design.  I also liked the idea of working on one chapter a day and each chapter having only 3 or 4 new designs (tangles) to learn.  After practicing on scratch paper many times, my Mookas began to look more like what I saw in the book and online. By January 3, they looked like this:

Wow! I felt I was in Mooka heaven!  As I worked my way through the book in the evenings, I started drawing on Artist Trading Cards which were available even in my small town (population under 5000).  Somehow, every ATC I drew had at least one Mooka on it.

By January 8, 2013 I had found the YouTube demonstration filmed by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-d2UdXAD7k). Now, my Mookas appeared perfect to me. However,after awhile I felt somewhat restrained.  By drawing the mooka as demonstrated, you were limited to how many 'fronds' you could build into one Mooka, no matter how large you started with the first frond.  I had started experimenting with the basic Mooka form. I saved the newspaper each day and , using a heavy Sharpie, Mooka'd every page in every conceivable way.

One modification I found was to draw the Mooka backwards - from the inside  out.  By starting with the smallest inner frond, I could keep adding new fronds to the outside and make the mooka as large as I wished!  A second modification was to turn the tops of the fronds outward - away from the center. Also, by adding small circles beyond the tips, it gave the appearance that the fronds were 'shooting' something away, like molds or ferns shooting spores away:

For the rest of January, I played with the Mooka and its variations.  I still found a mooka in almost every piece of artwork I created during this time.

Next, I will cover developments from February and March.  Happy tangling!