Coloring page, zentangle, doodle, mandala,... line art?
Article
I never put much thought into what I was coloring. When I bought or got some coloring book, I just opened it where I found it most intriguing and started coloring with my color pencils. Things got interesting when I was looking for something similar online. I was browsing through lots of websites, where some had coloring pages, some had zentangles, some had doodles, some had mandalas, and so on. I got confused - now, what is what and why are there so many different terms related to coloring?
As a wikipedia fan I checked things primarily there and I started with coloring book:
"A coloring book (or colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media."
OK, coloring book means the same as coloring page, which is a book including some pages. Maybe it's just me, but for me a coloring page is just a page, and coloring book is a book full of those coloring pages. Moving on, wikipedia says that a coloring page contains line art. Of course I needed to get further into that:
"Line art or line drawing is any image that consists of distinct straight or curved lines placed against a (usually plain) background, without gradations in shade (darkness) or hue (color) to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects."
Great, so line art is actually the black illustration on white background (usually) or a drawing which is intended to be colored. And here comes the fun part! If you say just a drawing, which is perfectly fine for a non-artist like me, apparently it isn't enough. It depends greatly on what kind of a drawing it is. So, the artists (I believe?) came up with different names for different styles of drawings. For instance doodle, zentangle, mandala, and many more. To represent those in a visual and comprehensive way, so everyone could easily understand, I made a chart.
DOODLE
Doodle is a simple drawing usually without meaning and composed of random and abstract lines, but can also have concrete meaning. They are made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. You know, like when you were in school "half-listening" what teacher has to say and in the meantime a doodle was created in your notebook.
ZENTANGLE
Zentangle is a more complex drawing which is made by structured patterns (tangles), such as combinations of dots, lines, curves and orbs. It is a relaxing way to create beautiful images, where you don't worry about the result but instead focus on each tangle.
MANDALA
Mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols, mostly used as generic term for any circle ornament. It can be used as a relaxing tool, spiritual guidance tool or for diagnostics. They are made of different layers, where in each layer there are the same symbols rotated around the center point.
And all of those are just a type of drawing or coloring page.
In this website you will find various coloring pages, which means you will find doodles, zentangles and mandalas. It doesn't matter which one is which, as long as you choose the one that suits you and is the perfect one for YOU.
Happy coloring!