digital art

WIP Wednesday

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Angela Porter Wednesday 11 April 2018 This is my current work in progress, with a little bit of wisdom thrown in.

I planned the lettering out on Rhodia dot grid paper before scanning it in. I then re-drew the letters digitally.

I did a blog post with tips for hand lettering  yesterday, but there’s also some in my upcoming book A Dangle A Day, available for pre-order.

The patterns around the quote were also drawn digitally, using my faithful Microsoft Surface pen, along with my Microsoft Surface Book and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.

I’ve started to add colour, though there’s quite a lot to do, including adding textures. It’s a pleasant way to spend time.

What I’m quite pleased with is the stone background behind the letters.  It’s not perfect, but I got my head around how I could achieve this.  Working in layers means I can do things I can’t do with traditional media, try as I might, but it involves working out how I can use layers to do different things as well as becoming aware of what I could use layers for.

Yes, I could watch and read tutorials, but there’s something satisfying about working out for yourself how to do things, and creating things in your own way.  That’s the sheer bloody-minded independence I have at times.

Perhaps I could learn quicker with tutorials, but I also know I can become quickly overloaded with information and instructions and ideas (something that frustrates me as before my two episodes of severe depression and anxiety I had no trouble at all…) so bit by bit I discover what I need to be able to do at any one time. Then practice using it until it’s easy to do and natural.

I do love how I can flip-flop between traditional media and digital work, as well as combining the two, whether it be a sketch that is then worked on digitally or using traditional media backgrounds to draw upon digitally. It also takes me a little bit out of my ‘comfort zone’ too, but in an enjoyable way.

Sunday funday

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experiment 8april 2018 angela porter It’s Sunday, so that means it must be #fundaySunday #Sundayfunday.

This was my bit of fun for the day.  I created a background using Distress Inks, a mini-blending tool and a stencil.

After scanning it into my Microsoft Surface Book, I imported it into AutodeskSketchbook Pro and started to draw entangled patterns on the top of it.

It was just an experiment to see how it worked out, including the use of colour gradient fills for the entangled patterns.

I think it worked out ok.  I think there’s some more things I’d like to try out using this method; scanning backgrounds and then working on them digitally opens a new world of possibilities for me, as well as keeping me playing with more traditional media.  I do love the mix of the old with the new.

Of course, drawing on my Surface with the Surface pen is a lot like drawing with pen and ink on paper but with more possibilities…

Dangle Design

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Angela Porter 20180331_01 coloured small

The quote on this dangle design is rather appropriate at the moment and reflects a number of recent conversations I’ve had with people about art and other things.

I know I have a LOT of practicing to do with my hand lettering; I’m not all that happy with it in this design at all.  Well, the words ‘novice’ and ‘master’ are fine, it’s the other wordage. But the more you practice, the more you do, the better you get.  So, it’s a work in progress with me (something else that the BuJo will help with.)

I drew this with a Sakura Pigma Micron PN pen on paper, scanned it in to my Microsoft Surface Book and then coloured it in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.

Want to learn how to create your own dangle designs?  My upcoming tutorial book ‘A Dangle A Day’ is available for preorder now!

On a slightly different note, a new colouring template will be available exclusively in the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group, a lovely, friendly group of people!

Doodleworlds 18 Feb 2018

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AngelaPorter_Doodleworlds_Coloured_02

I’ve just finished colouring in this template from my book “Doodleworlds”.  I drew the template using pen and ink on paper, scanned it in for the book, but I chose to colour the template digitally using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, my Microsoft Surface Book and Microsoft Surface Pen.

Doodleworlds is available on Amazon and in my Etsy shop – Artwyrd.

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day 2018

Angela Porter Valentines 2018

I designed this colouring template for the facebook group Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans for them to post coloured versions today.

This is my coloured version.  I drew on paper with pen, but coloured it in using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on my Microsoft Surface book using my Surface Pen.

Why I’ve been so quiet…

It’s been nearly a month since my last blog post.  The reasons?  Focusing on a book at the moment.  It’s called A Dangle a Day: Lettering Alphabets and Seasonal Designs with Charms  , though there’s no cover image for the book yet on Amazon it is available for pre-order.  It’s not a colouring book per-se, it’s more of a tutorial book, but colouring does play a big part of course.

It’s a new direction for me, I’m learning new things about publishing, and enjoying the challenge.  I have to focus on this project for now, and not sure I can do ‘sneak peeks’ yet, but when I can, I will!

I do have another colouring book to do after this one …more about that later on.

The other reason is that I’ve been unwell.  Nothing serious, thought to be a ‘viral wheeze’ (which is affecting me like asthma) but it’s got worse again, and is stopping me sleeping properly and lacking energy to do more than what I need to contractually do.

 

Update…

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23 January 2018 Angela Porter

I’ve been busy with work for a book, so my focus has been on that of late.

On the facebook group ‘Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans’ a new ‘free’ template will be available on Thursday 25 January, which is St Dwynwen’s Day in Wales.  St Dywnwen is the Welsh equivalent, kind of, to St Valentine, so the template with have that kind of theme to it.  If you fancy colouring it, head over to the group!  The template will be exclusive to group members.

The image above is something I wanted to try out, and I’m kind of pleased with it.  Drawn and coloured in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro using my Surface Pen on my Microsoft Surface Book.  Hand drawn though in a digital environment.

Repeating pattern

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Tile11 onelayer Angela Porter small and watermarked

Oh, I’m having so much fun creating repeating patterns!  There is something inside me that loves geometry and symmetry and messing around with dimension, and it gives me a bit of a creative break from the contract work I have at the moment.  Not that I’m not enjoying that, ‘cos I am, but sometimes it’s nice to do something a bit different.

I used one of my entangled drawings of late with the Repper program, GiMP and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro along with my Microsoft Surface Book and Surface Pen to create this.

The colours came from this months color palette challenge over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group, though I added the teal green into the palette.

Repeating patterns, my first experiment

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Pattern 18 coloured v01 watermarked

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about and looking at how to make repeating patterns.

I’ve tried the old fashioned way of working on paper and cutting the paper and so on, and not found the results at all satisfactory.

I’ve had a bit of a go in Adobe Illustrator, but I find Illustrator so confusing and frustrating to use.  There seems to be a total disconnect between my brain and the software architecture of Illustrator, and other similar pieces of software.

A day or two ago I found a little app in the Microsoft Store called Amaziograph that lets me create repeating patterns in sheet form, which is great if I want a sheet of black and white repeating, entangled line art, but not what I want if I want a coloured repeating pattern.  Oh, the app is a lot of fun to mess around with for sure and no doubt I will use it to generate patterns.

Looking around at software today, a lot of it either works in Illustrator or is prohibitively expensive given that I just want to have a play, see what I can come up with and see if it’s something that I’d like to spend more time with.  Where they offer free trials, I know they’re not going to be a long enough trial for me to get to grips with Illustrator and the software/plugins, so I’d not be able to make my mind up.

So, on a wander around the corners of Google, I found a lovely little program called Repper. It had an online trial version that I could play with quite happily, and I decided to purchase it afterwards.

In Repper, you open your own artwork and use parts of it to create repeating patterns.  The pattern above is an example of that, kind of.

What I did was to take one of my coloured mandala patterns and use that to create a pattern that was pleasing to me.  Actually, I had many, many patterns that were pleasing to me, and I saved them as tiles that would form a repeating pattern.  With some, I saved them as a surface pattern, where the tiles were already repeated.

What is nice is that the program lets me set both the size and quality of the tile or surface image.

Next, I put the  tile I particularly liked into GiMP (GNU image Manipulation Program, open source software) to copy the black lines and create a new, uncoloured tile with a transparent background.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro was my next destination so that I could colour the tile as I liked.  Not so easy where the edges of the tiles will meet  and to have no edges showing up.

The tile is partly finished in terms of colour, but I wanted to see how it would look tiled.  Go, back to GiMP I went and the above was the result!

My head now hurts a little after this, which means I need more tea, LOTS more tea and a bit of a break.

I absolutely love that I can take my artwork and use it to create more interesting designs and patterns with.  It’s absolutely fascinating, very easy to get lost in it all.

Definitely a very nice way to spend a few hours on a chilly and very rainy afternoon!  My Surface Book and Surface Pen have had a good workout in the process too!

Mandala for 30th December 2017

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Mandala 30 Dec 2017 by Angela Porter

#createdonsurface #autodesksketchbook

Mandala for 29 Dec 2019

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Mandala 29 Dec 2017 by Angela Porter

I started this one late last night and finished it today.

A very different kind of colour scheme, reminds me a little of Steampunk.  Also, I used a watercolour brush to colour it in and I’ve left the texture in the colour mostly there, again something quite different for me.

Microsoft Surface Pen, Microsoft Surface Book and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

#created on surface #autodesksketchbook