I spent some lovely, peaceful time today recording a video showing how I work to create variations on a theme.This theme is motifs based around circles and how I go from simple to more complex, possibly over complex.
You are welcome to come and #drawwithme as the #YouTube video is published at 19:30 UK time today, 4 April 2024 – https://youtu.be/tCHrlWi
This is my latest work, though I may add some metallics to it. May…
It strikes me that it’s a sampler of sorts, of texture patterns. Many of these are inspired by the work of Rebecca Blair.
I’m not sure if the end result is “me”. But it’s been a lovely way to spend over 20 hours over the past few days.
It’s been something that I’ve been able to do in bite-sized pieces, which has been helpful as I’m still experiencing fatigue due to burnout, anaemia and menopause.
The artwork is on an A4 sheet of Fabriano mixed media paper.
The pens used were 0.5 and 0.1 Uniball Unipin fineliners, and a white Uniball Signo gel pen.
Colour was added using Karin Brushmarker Pro pens and a fine Kuretake Zig water brush.
Finally, a day where I’ve had energy to get a fair amount done! That included drawing and putting together a collection of five mandala colouring pages, including the one above! Well, I had to have one coloured in didn’t I?
I kept to a quite simple colour palette and I’m fairly OK with the result. It does have a harmonious feel to it. But, there must be an infinite, or at least many, many ways of adding colour to such a design to make it uniquely the person who is adding colour.
Finally, I’ve set up a Ko-Fi account so I can sell small collections of colouring pages and maybe even my original art (or prints) as I go forward.
If you’d like to take a peek at this first offering (preview images of the designs are available at Ko-Fi) then this link will take you there!
These three works show my love of intricate, intuitive, flowing art. I continue to explore the use of colour to work on gaining more confidence in using it. I can appreciate how colour brings the drawing to life and sets the mood, too. I find using a fairly limited palette really helps me appreciate this.
I’ve worked on these over two or three weeks, give or take. It’s been a slow process as I’m recovering from a period of burnout from too much adulting and peopling. None are finished yet as I still have to indulge my love of pattern/texture to create more volume in the designs. Also, dots of gold acrylic paint have been added for that little bit of glitz and glimmer – something that makes my raven mind happy!
YouTube video is published at 19:00 UK Time today, 3 Feb 2024
It’s been a few weeks full of adulting, leaving me drained of energy. Dealing with fraudulent use of my PayPal account lasted a week, and I still have a couple of things to sort out that I’ve not been up to doing. Thankfully, it was all mostly sorted, my account is as secure as possible, so phew!
I’ve also had a lot of ‘people-ing’ (for me) to do, which has been lovely but has also left me drained.
I have had enough sense to take time for myself to sleep, rest, and do things that relax and soothe me. The last thing I’d want to happen is another burnout like I had last year at almost this exact time. I seem to have mostly avoided that this time. Seems that I’m finally learning to take care of my energy/stress levels.
I have done some art, some that are landmark pieces for me. I will scan and share them over the coming days/weeks. These works have taken a week or more of work to do, an unusually long time for me. But it was worth it.
The drawing above I did earlier today for a YouTube video. It was lovely to do. A small drawing. Detailed. Intricate. Diamine Oxblood ink and a Tom’s Studio Lumos duo refillable fineliner pen – I used 05 and 02 nibs.
I have to say that the Lumos pen was a delight to use! The weight of the barrel actually stopped me from pressing so hard with the nib; there’s some kind of counterbalance effect going on, methinks.
I may just have to invest in another of the Lumos pens (the duo version again). That way, I can have a range of nib sizes in just two beautifully made pens.
Although pricey at £99 (including P&P), I expect to save money on buying Sakura Micron or Uniball Unipin disposable fine-liner pens. That has to be a good thing.
The pen comes with 9 different nibs. It’s unlikely I’ll use all of them, though you never know! But I know I can order more nibs and new ink reservoirs as needed.
Oh, and the ink reservoirs are easy to fill; when you want to change to a new ink colour, you just wash them out with water.
Only water-based dye inks with no glittery bits in them are recommended. Though Rohrer and Klinger SketchINK was mentioned in the information that came as working well in the pens. I believe SketchINK is waterproof. It is after it’s thoroughly dried – I just checked! So that is something I may consider experimenting with, especially as it comes in a range of lovely colours!
This drawing has taken a bit of an unexpected turn, to say the least.
Two black ink-filled Parker Jotter XL fountain pens, one with an M nib and the other with an F, were used to draw the structure of this drawing and add some patterns and textures.
I then decided to use some Zebra Sarasa gel pens with vintage colours to add more patterns and textures. All was fine, but it all looked flat and not finished in any way.
So, I added some flat colours with softly coloured alcohol markers. This improved things a little, but it wasn’t quite right. The drawing was missing contrast and dimension.
A deep breath was taken as I broke out a graphite pencil and tortillon and set to adding shade to the design. And that really did help, much to my surprise. Even more surprising was I actually preferred this way of adding shade to using alcohol markers, and it was easy to remove any overspill of shading with an eraser!
Next, I added some layers of the colours I’d already used to intensify the colour in some areas. I also added some more darkness with pen textures.
Finally, I was happy-ish with what had been created on the paper, so much so that I felt it was finished!
Yes, that’s right, I’m happy-ish with this! Using less saturated alcohol markers to add colour also works for me, especially the more muted, vintage and less bright and garish.
What works for me is seeing the drawing scanned in, as scanning seems to improve how I view the graphite shading.
So, is this an onward process for me? Yes, I think so. I think the graphite shading needs to be added last. Also, I think the use of Pitt Graphite Matt pencils will improve how I view the use of graphite in this way. Maybe coloured fineliners would work better for me than the gel pens. Things to consider (and make a note of too!)
This is a drawing I started three weeks ago for a series of YouTube videos. Today’s video is part 4 of the series.
I finished the basic drawing in part 3. It’s all about colour and contrast now before I add the final detailed textures/patterns.
To add colour and contrast, I used Chameleon markers.
Adding colour/shade is always a nervous time for me. Surprisingly, I’m not really confident with colour. I prefer to work with a limited palette of monochrome or analogous colours, maybe with a sprinkling of a complementary colour here and there.
That’s the case unless it’s one of my Doodleworlds, whimsical, colouring book page designs. Then the more colours, the better! But, for this kind of entangled art, I prefer a more limited and elegant colour palette.
I always seem to use grey undertones for the shadows. I think I may have to try complementary colours to see how they work to add shadows.
My Chameleon markers have been rather neglected for a long while. However, I remembered I had them last week, and in using them in limited palettes, I’ve found them pleasurable to use, more so than all the other marker brands I have and have tried. Also, I’ve not been tempted to return to watercolours, Inktense, watercolour markers, pencils or pastels all the time I’ve used them. That has surprised me!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. In fact, this year has been quite icky for me healthwise – physically, emotionally, mentally and energetically.
I am getting better bit by bit. I’m doing my best to get a youtube video out each Saturday. I’ve managed at least one colour template a month for the Angela Porter’s Colouring Book Fans facebook group.
I’m fortunate that the publishers I work with, and others, have been patient and understanding with me. And my huge gratitude goes to them too.
And a huge amount of gratitude to you too for encouragement, kind words, and sticking with me through this year. It means more to me than I can find the words to express.
May you be blessed with all the best wishes for the season and the days and years ahead of you.
This is the colouring page I’ve drawn for the Angela Porter’s Colouring Book Fans facebook group. Of course it’s spooky cute. It makes me smile, and certainly gave me a lot of pleasure to do so.
Drawn with pen on paper, painted digitally using Clip Studio paint.
I love Hallowe’en. I can’t explain why entirely. It may be that there are no awful memories associated with this celebration. It may be the spooky side of me resonates with the energy of the day. Perhaps it’s because I love the autumnal colours. Maybe it’s a mix of all these and a few others.
I haven’t drawn much in the way of spooky cute, or doodle-worlds style for a long while. I’m a bit rusty at it. But I enjoyed creating this nonetheless. And I was pleased as parts of it have come to life with colour. That is always a fun thing to do.
However you spend your Hallowe’en, dear reader, may it be a lovely time for you.
Angela Porter 