Angela Porter

Cool Calm – mixed media, Vida Collection

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CoolCalm Angela Porter Small

I’ve spent the last couple of days completing this mixed media drawing/painting where I focus on colour and line.  I’ve called it Cool Calm.  It reminds me very much of stained glass.  I love the warm highlights I’ve added, as well as those sharp, bright green tones too.

What I do want to do, now it’s been scanned for things like Vida and printing, is to add metallic/iridescent elements/patterns to it and then, maybe, put it on Etsy as an original work of art.

I’ve also used it to add new items to my Vida collection, including this tee-shirt:

 

Digi Hallowe’en Pumpkin Stamp set

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I have a set of 13 digi stamps with a whimsical Hallowe’en Pumpkin theme available in my Etsy shop, Artwyrd.

The set includes :

  • 3 pumkins without faces
  • 5 faces to add to the pumpkins or any other images you wish ( spooky eyes in the dark, on monsters, ghosts, aliens…your imagination is the only barrier!)
  • 5 leaves to use to create an autumn/fall scene with or without the pumpkins

Use them to create cards, or to fill a page with images for a custom colouring page, or any other craft you can think of.

 

News

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Autumn1 Angela Porter 30 Sept 2017 coloured watermarked

Vida

I have been adding new items to my collection on Vida.  All feature my artwork, and the collection includes tops, scarves, wraps, bags, jewellery and tapestries.

There’s a 40% off deal until midnight PST 30th Sept; use the code BESTEVER to get the discount!  This isn’t available with any other offer.

Also, there’s offers on my collection until the 10th October 2017. The code WELCOME-25 will give you a discount of $25 off orders over $75, and the code WELCOME-75 will give you $75 off orders over $200.

Colorist

Autumn Mandalas, a collection of ten Autumn and Halloween themed designs, is now available in Colorist!

Colorist is an app for Windows that allows you to colour in the templates as if you were using pencils or gel pens!

Etsy

There’s now a total of eight digi stamps of whimsical, simple flower designs available in my Etsy Shop, including the one to the left.

The large open spaces in the designs mean you can go to town on shading, or you can add doodles or patterns.

The beauty of digital stamps is that you can print them again and again on paper that is best suited to the media you’re using.  Also, you can re-size the image to suit the card, picture or other item that you’re making.  Not only that, these can be layered as the background is transparent, but the flowers and leaves are white.

Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group

A pair of lovely ladies who love my work have created a Facebook group for those who also love my colouring pages.  They’re Krystal and Brett.

Why not pop across there and join up!  They’re determined to make it a friendly, kind nook on the internet.  It’s in it’s early days, so will grow and develop as Krystal and Brett work on it and with the members.

One thing I can guarantee is that I’ll create unique colouring pages just for members of that group!  The first one will be live on the page very soon.

I also know they have a poll on the go to find out what you, the colorists, would like as theme for my next book!

Also, I’ll wander through there from time to time, though I don’t think I’ll have time to comment about everyone’s beautifully interpreted and coloured templates, I’m sure to leave a comment to let people know I’ve take and least a quick peek and answer any questions pointed in my direction.

Vector graphics and Adobe Illustrator

I finally got the dragonfly artwork finished as a vector graphic.  How frustrating was that?  Every line drawn as a series of points.  It took me days to re-draw a drawing that took just a day or so to draw.

Still, I’ve learned how to do it, I have a request for some other bits and bobs, as well as a suggestion that I should create vector graphics and sell them as there’s a market out there for that kind of thing.

Something else for me to wrangle with!

Embroidery Patterns

Someone has suggested that my designs would make lovely embroidery patterns.

I’m not an embroiderer, nor do I have a clue about what to do, but if there’s anyone out there or if any one knows someone who’d like to work with me to do this then please either contact me or suggest they contact me!

I already have a few cross-stitch designs available via Paine Free Crafts.

Juggling time

All this means I feel like I’m getting a little overwhelmed at the moment.  Learning time management seems to be something I have to do sooner rather than later.

I have, however, found time start to create this year’s knitted pumpkin patch; the one from a few days ago is no longer alone … I think I’m going to need to find homes for these…

Between working on things for Etsy, sorting out a collection at Vida, doing Vector graphics, completing the Autumn mandalas for Colorist, and everything else, I’ve not had time to play with the 3D forms or other ideas I have.

Angela Porter’s Vida Collection now available

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Ever wanted to have some of my art on a bag, pillow, wrap, tapestry or jewellery?

Well, now you can!

I’ve just started to build a collection on Vida, so why not check it out for unique items and special gifts.

Here’s just a couple of items from the collection:

Autumn Splendour

Sunshine and Berries

Artwyrd – My Etsy Shop

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dav

I’ve been busy the last couple of days adding some digital stamps to my Etsy Shop.

So far, I’ve added eight whimsical flowers, an example of one is to the left.

They do have quite bold black lines, which I quite like as they give a stained glass ‘feel’ to them, possibly a lino cut one too.

The images are simple outlines, which leaves them free for purchaser to add patterns and colours as they wish to.  Also, being digital, you can print them on any kind of paper so it’s easy to work with different media.

All hand drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook pro on my Microsoft Surface Book.

Autumnly Entangled 7 to 11

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Lots of drawing done over the past three or so days and I haven’t had a chance to upload these.

The set of four are approx. 4″ square and the paper has been coloured with distress inks.

The bigger one is drawn on ombre paper for ‘scrapbookers’.  The central image is 6″ square.  It was a bit of a ‘mare to draw; the paper isn’t absorbent and the ink takes ages to dry, which means smudging was a bit of a problem, but I’ve managed to mostly disguise it with patterns.   I need to dry different pens on this paper, as I do like the colours.  If I can’t find a way to draw on it, then I’ll be using it to mount other artwork on and in mixed media and card making endeavours.

Yes, it did seem a good idea at the time!  It could be back to colouring all my own paper again ….

Entangled d20, aka icosohedron

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dav

Just finished drawing this and assembling it.

I drew and edited the construction lines in Serif’s Affinity Designer.  I then opened the saved file in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on my Microsoft Surface Book and created layers, including a mask as the top layer.  Then I doodled.  Printed out two copies.  Cut one out, scored and folded along the grey construction lines, then assembled using Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue.

Assembly was a bit of a ‘mare, and it wasn’t helped by me not scoring and folding a couple of lines, but when put together, it kind of works. Even where the edges aren’t likely to marry up nicely, the still seem to work.

One thing I will need to remember to do on the next one is to go round the cut edges with a black marker of some kind which will help those edges to blend in a bit more.  Maybe.

I do rather like the heavy black lines on this one, and coloured in they’d look like stained glass!

No numbers, so it’d not really work as a d20 (20 sided die), but coloured in that maybe possible with a key of some kind.

All good fun stuff!

Yes, I am being busy with arty crafty stuff today … and it’s not ended yet as I had some soft polymer lino in the post the other day and I haven’t tried carving that yet!

Autumn Equinox 2017 and the first pumpkin of the season!

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dav Autumn officially arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere yesterday, astronomically speaking.

And with autumn comes the desire to knit pumpkins.  I have no idea why, but it’s something that I did last year, followed by knitted christmas trees and stars.

I think it may have something to do with the nights drawing in, the cooler temperatures, the cosy and candle-lit home.

It may also have something to do with the fact that as it’s getting cooler my cat thinks I’m warm-blooded furniture again and he requires lots of lying on and cuddling up to me.  Drawing is nearly an impossibility with him on my lap, but he will let me knit; he doesn’t even try to play with the yarn or needles.

So, as the nights grow longer and the days shorter, my workspace may end up being increasingly on the bed to keep a kitty happy and lest pesky, and that’s fine by me.

That was something that started when I had my first extended bout of depression/anxiety 3 or 4 years ago and I just wanted to be in bed, a pattern that was repeated during my second extended bout.  Indeed, in the first few weeks of the medication that’s the only place I could be for several hours a day as it zonked me out totally.  I think the cat got really used to my presence in his domain; he loves the bedroom and rarely ventures out of it.  Indeed, he’ll become a total pest if I’m downstairs and he wants my company upstairs so he can settle down for big sleeps.  I’m usually happy to go and spend the short time it takes for him to settle in that instance.

Having said that, he’s taken to being pesky and testy if I overstay my time in the bed and he wants to get under the duvet to settle down for big sleeps now the weather is cooler once again.

Yes, I have one crazy cat, and I love him very much. He’s nearly 16 years old, so he’s entitled to be the boss and make demands I think.  He’s also been a really good companion for me through some of the darkest times of my life.

I wonder if he’d let me weave … most probably!

Still, the first pumpkin of the season has arrived – it’s approx 5.5″ across and 3.75 inches high.  I knitted it in chunky weight yarn on 5 mm needles.

HandyWoman Loom arrives!

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dav

Over the past week, I’ve been wrangling with Adobe Illustrator for a very good reason – to convert my art into vector graphics so that the lovely Janet Fox at HandyWoman on Etsy can use them to laser etch the designs into the looms that she makes.

You can see some of my dragonfly art on this loom, which arrived today, and I can’t wait to make use of it.

It’s only a little loom, but that’s exactly what I want … and I already have ideas ticking around my brainbox.  It’s been a long time since I did any weaving – over 10 years I think.  Hopefully I haven’t forgotten the skills I developed then, and even if I have I’m sure I’ll find my way to achieving what I’d like to with it.

The loom itself is made of wood – I can’t remember what kind Janet said – but it is of excellent quality.  She makes all kinds of looms – simple ones like the one I have, tablet looms, heddle looms and others, again all of excellent quality.

When her Etsy shop is open once again (she’s closed it so she can focus on building stock up for the busy Christmas season), I’ll be sure to let you know.

Halloween Entangled Octahedron

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Halloween Octahedron Montage _ Angela Porter _ 21 Sept 2017

Ok, not the best photo in the world, but the octahedron (bipyramidal) was fun to draw, and the colour certainly brought it to life (death?).

Quite apt I’ve done some autumnal themed work on the Autumnal Equinox.