entangled

Art washes…

Angela Porter2 Comments
©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

Art really does wash the dust of everyday life from my soul. That’s why it’s something I do nearly every day. Creating art soothes my soul, my emotions, my mind. It helps me find balance when life has me all topsy-turvy. It helps me find the touchstone of contentment that now resides inside my chest, within my heart. I know that if I can’t settle to doing something artsy, then I’m seriously out of kilter.

I finished this drawing this morning. I think it’s taken me around 6 hours to do, give or take an hour or so. It’s a little smaller than A4 in size (6.75″ x 10.25″). The design was drawn with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens (F and S). I added shadows with grey Pitt Artist Brush pens.

I was rather clumsy with the shading in some places, so I took advantage of digital tools to smooth and blend the grey out.

My final digital task was to add a background texture to the artwork, which also added some colour. I do have a bit of a thing for grungy, distressed backgrounds.

On the whole, I’m pleased with this, though I must admit I didn’t think I was going to be so, especially with the heavy-handed shading really bothering me.

Art washes from the soul …WIP

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©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

This is my current work in progress (WIP), where drawing is concerned anyway.

I’m sure I’ve used this quote before, but I stumbled upon it again and it seemed appropriate I should used it again.

I’ve often blogged about how one of my self-soothing, self-caring activities on days where life has overwhelmed me is art. And so it is the case at the moment as I recover from a tummy bug and from a busy time during November and into December too.

So, I printed out the quote, along with some framing lines, using Affinity Publisher to do the typography, on a piece of Bristol Paper from Frisk.

I’m using F and S Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens to draw the design and a grey Pitt Artist brush pen to add some shadow to the design.

I’ve added the coloured and textured background, along with my watermarks, digitally.

I’m almost half way through this drawing and it’s taken me around two and a half hours so far.

My other main WIP is the New Year coloring template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. These should keep me busy for the next day or so for sure.

New Year coloring template

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New Year coloring template (c) Angela Porter – Artwyrd.com

Today, I seem to have a lot of my focus back. I’m still not 100%; my appetite and taste buds are still way off, but my mind seems to be a bit less fuzzy.

That means I’ve been working on a colouring template for the members of Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group to celebrate the incipient calendar changing celebration.

Here is a section of the template, which I’ve been working on colouring. The gold background is just a temporary thing.

I used Affinity Publisher for the typography in the centre of the design. I then used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro to draw the design and to start colouring it. The template is in my entangled signature art style.

I’m enjoying adding colour to this design; this is a good sign that I’m recovering from the tummy bug that has laid me low for the the best part of a week now.

If you’d like to download a copy of the colouring template, you do need to be a member of the facebook group – it’s free to join and the template is free to members!

Of course, I’ll be posting my coloured version of the template to welcome in the new year.

Entangled Lines – a video

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©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

Here’s my video of my entangled design I showed yesterday. I really do have a lot to learn about making and editing videos. Still, I hope you enjoy having a look at it.

The drawing took over 55 minutes, though I’ve sped it up so it lasts around 17 minutes.

I used Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens to draw the design on a 6″ x 6″ piece of Strathmore Vellum Bristol Paper that I had previously coloured with Tim Holtz’s Distress Inks by Ranger.

Monday morning

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©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

On Saturday, I recorded a video of me drawing this design on 6″ x 6″ Strathmore Vellum Bristol Paper coloured with Distress Inks.

This is an example of intuitive, entangled drawing; I started in the red area and worked my way out from that point. I had no idea what kind of design I wanted to create, I just wanted to draw and lose myself in that process.

The only guides I had at the start were some pencil lines to give me a border to work within, leaving a clear, plain border around the design. However, my mind seemed to do a bit of a flip when I came to drawing the bottom left of the design; I completely ignored the pencil lines for some reason totally unknown to myself. When I realised what I was doing, it was too late to change it as I was working in pen without any sketch to guide me.

It took me over 55 minutes to do, and I’m still trying to figure out in my head how to edit the video and post it, as well as making intro and outro pages.

I know that I’m busy for the rest of today, so I’m not likely to sort the video out today. I’m hoping I’ll have a bit more time tomorrow.

I was really surprised by the kind comments people left about my first, trial video, so I will do more. I do need to work out a realistic schedule for that for myself to work to amongst other projects I want to get going when I’ve finished Spectacular Sea-Life.

Talking of which, I’ve nearly completed the third out of four coloured templates, so I’ll soon have them all done. I will post some sneak previews of them as I go.

Another sneak peek – Spectacular Sea-life

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©Angela Porter 2019

Yesterday was one of those strange days where nothing goes as you hoped it would. Phone call after phone call coming in that needed to be dealt with. Other things that needed doing, and I ended up with absolutely no time for any arty pursuits. One of the phone calls ended up with me in a panicked state, anxious and in tears.

Today, I’m making sure I have some self-soothing time. I have a busy, busy evening ahead of me – a very people-y and noisy one and probably quite frenetic too. So, self-care, self-soothing, and probably a nap is required as I’ve just about reached the limit of my anxiety/stress about it for now.

Part of my arty self-soothing has been completing the dolphin illustration for Specatcular Sea Life for the Creative Haven series of adult coloring books from Dover Publications Inc. And here’s a sneak peek of part of that illustration.

I’m really surprised at the reactions to my little video of me drawing the other day. Plenty of people are asking me to do more. So, I will do so, as well as invest in some equipment I think…

Sneak Peek – Spectacular Sea-Life

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Sneak Peek! ©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

I’m currently working on one of the three illustrations I need to colour for “Spectacular Sea-Life” for Creative Haven by Dover Publications Inc. This will be my next colouring book in the Creative Haven collection.

I don’t get chance to colour many of my own drawings, which is why I LOVE to see how people approach them and use their own special brand of colouring magic to bring them to life.

That’s why I love to pop over to and wander through the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. All are welcome there and the lovely people love to share their coloured templates.

I’ve already signed the contract for my next colouring book in the Creative Haven library.

A little video of a little drawing!

Angela Porter4 Comments

Eeek! I’ve finally gone and done it – recorded a video of me drawing. It’s a little video of a little drawing. And that means I now have a YouTube channel – Angela Porter, oddly enough.

I used my mobile phone with a swan neck holder, stand, thingy. That was stable, but my desk was a little wobbly.

The drawing itself took me around 11m30s to do, but I’ve sped the video up somewhat and added some music too.

I’ve had to do some work with social media for an organisation over the past few weeks, and being thrown in the deep end of editing videos, subtitling, turning stills into videos and so on, meant I really couldn’t put off trying this myself.

I have a lot to learn it seems. However, my toes have been dipped in the waters of videoing me ‘arting’, and they haven’t been burned too badly, yet.

I hope you find it interesting to watch me draw (with or without the music). I have no idea where this will take me – only time will tell.

Entangled tile

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Entangled Tile

For the past six or so hours I’ve been busy with various social media video creation for something I’m involved in. I needed a break from it, and that meant some arty stuff.

I had this coloured ’tile’ in my stash. It’s a 4″ x 4″ piece of ClaireFontaine mixed media paper coloured with various green Distress Inks.

I used Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens to draw the design to create a border. To add some contrast to the background, I used water, Distress Ink and a brush to add darker shades to the design. I also thought some shimmer and shine was needed on the berries and flowers. So, I used some Perfect Pearls gold spray as well as some gold and silver Cosmic Shimmer Iridescent watercolour paints.

Finally, I added some spatters of the pearlescent colour to distress the background a bit more.

One thing I didn’t do was to add some shadows to lift the border from the background. I often say that I forgot to add shadows. One day I may remember!

All the same, I’m happy with this little design. The space is perfect for a quote or sentiment I think.

Entangled designs

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Entangled Designs ©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

I’ve had a nice couple of hours this morning playing around with drawing and paper coloured (and not coloured) with Distress Ink.

I started with drawing the border with the flower straight onto the coloured square of mixed media paper (top right).

For the middle design, I cut a rectangular panel of Distress Ink coloured mixed media paper and glued it to another piece of coloured paper. Then, I decorated the panel along with some simple patterns spilling onto the background.

The bottom right design uses a square piece of plain paper with a small rectangle cut from some Distress Inked paper. I used a die with a stitched detail to cut this panel out along with a Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine.

I’m not at all fussed on the stitched detail in this case. However, I do like the contrast of the coloured panel against the white background.

I do have a fair few pieces of paper coloured with Distress Inks, so I think some fairly quick, simple and soothing designs will be done over the next day or several.

Not sure what I’ll do with them yet. If you have any helpful suggestions, leave a comment! Also, leave a comment to let me know which design is your favourite.