pen drawing

Template Thursyay!

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It’s Thursday, so it’s time for another coloring template / coloring page for the members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.

This week it’s a cute, whimsical and silly Doodleworlds design. Oddly, there’s not a skull in sight! Still, it’s a lovely mood booster, and I need that at the moment.

There’s also a new color palette challenge for August in the group – bright, cheerful and tropical colours. I used the palette to partially add colour to the template.

The template was drawn on A4 Canson Imagine mixed media paper. I added the colour digitally using Clip Studio Paint.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the template is coloured by group members, even using a limited color palette. It’s always great to see how people approach the template differently.

Template Thursday … on a Wednesday?

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A sneak peek of this week’s template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group members. And it’s another Doodleworlds style template.

I have a video on youtube, catching up with the last few days’ art as well as starting to colour this template with chalk pastel pencils. Disaster struck as I continued after the video, so turned to digital colouring.

The template will be available in the facebook group tomorrow. Now, I need to take a nap as I really haven’t had enough sleep the past three nights and I’m barely keeping my eyes open.

Abstract Entangled Art | 03/08/’21

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This is now finished! Between drawing, adding colour and embellishments, it’s taken somewhere between six and seven hours, I think.

Materials used:
* SeaWhite all media paper, 8″ x 8″ (195mm x 195mm)
* Uniball Eye Pen – micro
* Uniball Signo DX 0.38 Pen
* Derwent Graphitint pencils
* Brushes and water
* Derwent Drawing Pencils
* Cold Grey IV Pitt Artist Pen
* White and yellow Sakura Soufflé pens
* Clear Sakura Glaze pen

I actually managed to keep some white space in the design! I may have slightly overdone the dottiness. I did mess up by trying to use the Derwent Drawing pencils to add some darker tones to the green ‘leaves’.

Overall, I think this is good enough to move on to the next project, which is likely to be Thursday’s coloring template.

It’s been nice to lose myself in some art for the sake of art. Especially as my emotional weather is still damp, dull and grey and making me doubt myself. It’s been an emotional rainy spell that’s been brewing for a while, and that’s why I’ve returned to the familiarity and comfort of my entangled art.

I always circle back to entangled art, regardless of my experiments with other media and styles and getting frustrated with colour!

My tricksy emotional weather is only exacerbating my frustrations with colour. I know I need to get the coloured plates done for the Whimsical Cats colouring book, but as I am at the moment I will only get myself into a right royal kerfuffle. So, it’s time to just enjoy drawing, maybe using some colour – time for monochrome colour schemes I think.

Abstract Entangled Art WIP | 02/08/21

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Today has been a day of working with colour on various drawings in my sketchbook. This one is the one I’m most happy with; it’s been a bit of a frustrating day, colourwise.

This drawing was finished earlier today, and before adding any shading I wanted to add colour. This time, Derwent Graphitint pencils were my medium of choice, along with a brush and water.

I really like the softer, earthier, more vintage-y tones of these pencils. I was getting frustrated with the brighter colours of the Ecoline watercolour inks and Derwent Colorsoft Pencils.

So caught up in the process of adding colour (along with joys and frustrations), I didn’t realise how much of the day had gone! It’s now about tea-time here in the UK, and normally I do my social media postings mid-morning.

I am tired today. Tired because I was up way too late last night. My mood is weird – I’m content yet at the same time feeling rather sad and teary for no reason that I know. My EMDR therapist told me that in the West, we are convinced we can only feel one emotion at a time, but in the East it’s accepted that you can feel more than one at a time. I certainly experience that quite often.

The sad and teary may be a manifestation of the tiredness, but it’s nice to know the touchstone of contentment is present in the core of my being. Contentment is always present, no matter what other emotional weather is being experienced. It’s a storm anchor that helps me keep balanced during the less settled periods of emotional weather. For like all weather, emotions do pass in time. For me, I’ll feel much better when I’ve had a good night’s sleep I’m sure.

Abstract Entangled Art | 01/08/2021

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Yesterday, I took quite a large wedge of time to intensify the colours and adding shadow and embellishments to the art in my last blog post.

To do this, I used Derwent Colorsoft pencils, along with a blender pencil. The embellishments were added with White Sakura Soufflé, gold Sakura Metalic Gelly Roll, and clear Sakura Glaze pens.

It’s difficult to show the effect of the glaze pen on the artwork, though you can pick some up in the top right of the artwork on the left.

Is this the magic formula for me working with colour? A limited colour palette, simple watercolour washes, shadows added with a grey pen, intense colours with pencils, and embellishments with various pens? Maybe.

The drawing to the right was testing this idea out, though I didn’t use a grey pen to add shadows but a grey pencil. I really enjoyed how the coloured pencils added colour and depth to the artwork.

Too many dots? I don’t know. Probably. I do tend to get carried away with them!

I have learned that I can’t use the Zest-it blending fluid anymore – my asthmatic chest doesn’t like it at all! The Derwent blending pencils are a bit abrasive and moved some of the black pigment from the drawing. So, I switched to a Faber-Castell Blending pencil, and that worked just fine.

I also noticed that the blending pencil made the colours more vibrant – both the coloured pencils and the background watercolour wash. I think it’s because it leaves a glossy sheen, which I bring out by ‘polishing’ with a paper towel.

So, lots of learning and experiences yesterday and this morning, and perhaps progress in my use of colour by mixing media to my advantage.

Abstract Entangled Art | 31 July 21

Angela Porter3 Comments

This is, I think, finished.

It certainly was a task and I needed to persevere at the beginning. I was really hesitant about adding colour and seriously disliking the colour as I started to add it. The more I did, the more comfortable I became with adding colour.

I think what helped with the colours was the use of a limited colour palette. Indigo, prussian blue, gold ochre, burnt sienna and bronze green made the basic palette up. Mixing the colours gave me plenty of variation in colours and tones while at the same time keeping a coherence.

I started adding shading with a biro. As this drawing was a testing ground for various ideas, I used a cool grey Pitt Artist pen to add the rest of the shadows. I found the result pleasing, particularly after adding colour. A darker grey may have worked more to my tastes of high contrast, but this is a starting point.

Indeed, I rather like the combination of biro and pitt pens. I did end up adding some cross hatching to some areas to intensify the dark areas betwixt the elements of the design. That darkness helped to lift the colours somewhat.

To add highlights, a white Sakura Soufflé pen was used. I also had a hankering to add some metallic highlights too, so a gold metallic Gelly Roll came in useful.

Using flat colour washes and letting the grey shadows add volume seems to have worked well enough. I may, later, try out some coloured pencils to add more shadowing. But not until after breakfast!

Friday Flip-through

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Friday seems the perfect day to have a look back on the week’s sketchbook art. A vlog seems the perfect way to do that.

I also start to add colour to the latest drawing using a limited colour palette of Ecoline brush pen colours – gold ochre, burnt sienna, indigo and prussian blue. Another colour (or two) may be added to the limited palette. I’ll see how I get along.

This particular drawing is being used as a place to test out ideas concerning adding shadow and highlight, simple colour washes, and anything else that springs to mind. It may never been completed, but that’s not the point! Experimentation and experience are the points of this particular exercise.

It’s Template Thursyay!

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Thursday seems to come around so quickly, and each Thursday means it’s time for another coloring template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book fans facebook group.

Yesterday, I created a timelapse video of the pen drawing of this template. You can find the time-lapse drawing video by clicking on this link.

Today, it’s another time-lapse video of colour being added to part of the template. Click on this link to see the time-lapse colouring video.

I added colour digitally, using Clip Studio Paint. Also, I added a grey background. I much prefer using a coloured background, it’s easier on my eyes. Also, the colours seem more vibrant against the grey background.

The template is a typically ‘Angela’ entangled, stylised, abstract one, with some inspiration from Zentangle patterns too.

I always enjoy the way that colour brings the drawing to life, and helps to enhance the layers in the drawing as well. It’s a bit of magic in my daily life for sure.

I’m not entirely sure about my colour choices. I wasn’t trying to keep within a colour palette, just having fun with colour and figuring more about Clip Studio Paint brushes. I really enjoy adding colour to my artwork with both digital art and a limited range of traditional media. I enjoy digital and traditional for different reasons. Digital work takes away the stress of making sure the right colours are chosen. If I mess up, it’s easy to change things without having to start over. It’s relaxing to do, just as art with traditional media, apart from colour choice.

Abstract, entangled pen drawing

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This drawing was finished a couple of days ago. I like the graphic nature of black and white, so am not at all sure if I want to add colour to this. I think this is a case of scanning the drawing in and adding colour digitally before deciding. My fingers, however, would like to make use of the Ecoline watercolour inks.

Time will tell what I decide to do. After all, there is no rush.

Today’s vlog is a continuation of the drawing I started yesterday (link to yesterday’s blog).

Here is the link to the vlog on YouTube.

Pen Drawing WIP

Angela Porter1 Comment

I have an introvert ‘hangover’ today. This has absolutely nothing to do with alcohol, just a bit too much socialising on Zoom yesterday! The headache will lift soon. The tiredness will gradually go, especially after some more sleep. It was lovely to spend time with like-minded people, particularly Brett from the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.

So, doing some entangled, intuitive pen drawing was just the thing to start the day off. Gentle, familiar, enjoyable, calming and peaceful.

I have no idea what this drawing is going to turn into. Time will tell.

I have created a time-lapse vlog of this drawing. Not only do you get to see how this WIP drawing was done, I also show some of the other work I’ve been doing in my sketchbook as well.