Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am new to the art of tangling. Having taken one workshop, I was bitten by the tangle bug. I immediately ordered 2 books and although they described the technique of tangle, I felt that they were creatively lacking. Then I ordered this book. WOW. What a difference. This book is packed with ideas and techniques that inspire. The book started out with color theory, which I thought would be over my head, but was explained very well. I don't consider myself an artist, but almost everything on every page of this book felt do-able. For the beginner like myself, this book includes 48 tangle patterns and borders. What I like about this book is that each step of a pattern is clearly illustrated. As you draw a pattern each new step is illustrated in red, so that you only concentrate on the next line. You don't have to decipher the instructions, as it is very clear what the next step is. This was a really big deal to me. One of the books I had purchased earlier was entirely black and white, and I felt the patterns were harder to figure out. So even if you might think this color thing is too advanced for a beginner, the author does a really good job of explaining patterns to a beginner. The one critique I would make is that the patterns and borders don't start until halfway through the book on page 26. A beginner like myself might get overwhelmed with the all the colored snazzy stuff you see before ever getting to how to make a pattern. I was not overwhelmed. I was inspired. However, my friend ohhed and ahhed and then curled up in a ball and whimpered. So if you are brand spanking new to tangles I recommend you do this: Browse the whole thing. Make sure you have something to wipe the drool off your lower lip. You will drool. Read the Zentangle basics on page 4-5, then jump to page 26 and play with some patterns and borders, using just a pencil. Don't try to recreate black and white pencil versions of anything the author is doing. Just play with the patterns only. This is basically what the beginner books do. When you feel comfortable with the patterns, go back to the beginning of the book and start over. Some of the more "advanced" things this book talked about are Colored Pens, Color Basics, Splash, Mask and Spray, Stamped Images, Colored Pencils, Colored Pens, Sparkle Gel Pens, and White Gel Pens. I don't think they are really advanced, they are just in color, so they LOOK really advanced. Don't let the wow factor scare you. I tried to mimic some of the illustrations in the book. This helped me really understand what the author was saying. Overall I rate this book EXCELLENT, get it and you will too!