Mayan inspired

Recently we returned from two weeks in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. What a great place to go for a break from Canada in February! We didn't really realize how much we needed to get away from it all until we were actually away from it all. (*gratitude*!).

The Yucatan is where the amazing Mayan civilization rose and fell. The Mayans developed the most accurate time-keeping system in human history, combining both the solar and lunar cycles into a calendar with a 52 year cycle. I've always liked the Mayan carved stone, squared glyphs with lots of interesting details.

Here's a photo of some real Mayan stone carvings - although not glyphs - taken at Chichén Itzá (pronounced chi-CHAYN eet-TSA).

I didn't take a sketchbook but I had lots of Zentangle tiles with me. (I took way too many art supplies, but you never know what you're going to need, right?) So I used the front and back of a tile and drew some of the glyph designs I saw.

Then I used another tile and 'picked and choosed' some of these to draw a little Mayan inspired piece. No tangles here, but a similar drawing method.

I tried another (tea-stained) tile using sepia ink and brown pencil. There are larger sections and I filled some with actual tangles.

Tangles included: Ambler, Hibred, Paisley Boa, Wud

This could develop into something interesting!