typography

Monochrome Abstract

Angela PorterLeave a comment

A bit of abstract art, along with a quote today.

The patterns here remind me of the folds of fabric in Romanesque sculpture. The memories of visiting Romanesque churches, cathedrals and abbeys are filled with the sense of awe and wonder at the beauty of the sculpture, as well being fascinated, contented and happy.

The smooth curving forms, the play of light and shadow – these are things I love to play with in my work, whether pure abstract or with coloring templates.

The quote is how I feel about what I create. I know I put more of myself into my art than I realise, but creating beauty, allowing others to share in what I find to be beautiful and fascinating is what I do. And there is nothing wrong with that.

When I create, I carve out time to find a space of peace, calm, contentment in my life. Creating art is my sanctuary, a time and place where I can forget about the pressures of life, the pains of the past, and worry about the future for a while. If viewing my art, or colouring my colouring pages, even for a moment, gives another person a sanctuary from the pressures upon them, then that is a good thing.

Quote about Art

Angela PorterLeave a comment

A quick drawing along with a quote that spoke to my artsy, creative heart.

I used a mixture of Sakura Gelly Roll metallic and stardust pens to draw the border on some 7″ x 7″acid-free black card. The typography was done in Affinity Publisher.

Art quote

Angela PorterLeave a comment

A small drawing/painting, repeated to make a simple border for one of my favourite Kandinsky quotes. Kandinsky is one of my favourite artists, not just his art but his philosophy of art.

All artists and creatives put something of ourselves into our creations, whether we are aware of it or not. Colours, words, shapes, lines, textures, tools, media, and more are how we express our uniqueness – both in how we create our work and how we relate to the world that surrounds us, but also to our inner worlds of imagination, thoughts, dreams, emotions, and our subconscious minds.

Everytime an artist or creative creates, they share something of themselves with others. What that something is, is there for those who take the time to look for it.

Monday Morning Art

Angela PorterLeave a comment

I started my arty day with this little drawing. It’s echoing the kind of drawing that’s happening in my sketchbook, but drawn digitally making use of symmetry tools.

As I made it as a border for a quote, I had to find a quote. And I did.

Quote by Kandinsky

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Last night, I went to bed a bit earlier; I wasn’t feeling all that well again. I wasn’t ready to sleep, but I wanted the comfort of being in bed, as well as the comfort of drawing.

So, I sat in bed and just let my pencil take a walk on the page. No preconceived ideas. No idea of what to draw in my head, only the desire to draw before settling to sleep.

This design was what appeared. In pencil on off-white mixed media paper. It reminds me of the designs on the Nazca Plains of Peru, but also some hints of Hundertwasser trees. Maybe even prehistoric rock art.

It was nothing other than a bit of self-soothing and self-care.

This morning, I knew I wanted to re-draw it digitally and make it look like it was kind of carved into rock. I’m not sure I’ve pulled it off, but I’m happy with it as it is, for now. I think I used too smooth a pen to re-draw the design. I’ve not got the right settings for that illusion of depth and dimension.

I wanted to add shadow and highlight to the design, but I’ve run out of steam again and my brain is fogging over. I think I’ll be returning to this design (along with others) in the coming days, weeks and months. This is something I don’t often do – create iterations of designs and artworks to put into practice observations, ideas as well as to try out new things with the same design. Perhaps this is what I’ll do in the next couple of weeks as I focus on completing a contract, but still make time for personal projects. I’ll see how I feel.

The design is purely abstract. As my favourite abstract artist is Wassily Kandinsky, I thought I’d add a quote from him. This one seemed to fit my drawing today. It’s not meant to represent anything other than what brought me peace and comfort when I wasn’t feeling too grand last night.

Quote

Angela PorterLeave a comment

If the quote applies, I have no idea what my morning drawing says about what my art says about the world! Perhaps it says more about my inner world – imagination and emotions. I’ll let you decide that one.

All I know is that my Tuesday morning art has been influenced by the drawing I’ve been doing for the coloring book I’m currently working on. Cute. Doodle-y. Fun. Using colour for the sake of colour. Lots of colour.

I drew the design with an 0.5 Rotring Rapidograph pen on Rhodia dot grid paper. Next, I scanned it in, cleaned the drawing up and added colour digitally. Finally, background, texture and quote were added.

A nice way to spend the first three hours or so of my day before I turn to other things, like breakfast, shower and maybe even a walk if the weather keeps dry.

Strata 02

Angela PorterLeave a comment

I had so much fun making an abstract design based on strata yesterday, I thought I’d do another today, this time adding a quote.

I’m not so sure I’ve done a good job on either the typography, the background or the artwork. I may have too much contrast, but also shrinking the size of the image for posting to social media along with the games WordPress plays with colours has affected how it looks here.

No matter, I enjoyed the process of creation, so that’s all that matters. It’s all about experimenting, trying things out.

It was a quick bit of art as I was up early for my weekly organic food delivery, to find it was already delivered. So, after breakfast, I went back to bed.

I have other things that I need to focus on today, so a quick project was in order.

Autumn

Angela PorterLeave a comment

How true those words are. How I look forward to a walk where trees are dressed in their fiery autumn finery. How much the colours glow in sunlight and against a leaden grey sky. They lift my heart and fill my mind with warm memories to last the long, dark nights of winter. The bright colours are a reminder from nature that spring will return again, after the well-deserved rest over winter.

My clunky arty design today is just that – clunky. Awkward. But it will do for now.

Wednesday Wisdom | Paleotober | Drawtober

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Wednesday is a day when I’m up extra early for an organic food delivery. I usually spend the time awaiting the knock at the door drawing. Today was no different.

I had an idea to try to work in layers of patterns and to add a quote to one side. The first layer contained some ammonite-style shells, surrounded by little bubbles that could represent the sediment.

The next layer has seed pods, but the pattern they create reminds me of the fossilised stems of plants found in the carboniferous coal of the South Wales coalfield.

The third layer reminds me of the limestone beds exposed on the Glamorganshire Heritage Coast, particularly Southerndown and Nash Point.

The fourth layer reminds me of some kind of fossils or sea plants, the name of which I just can’t bring to mind.

I thought a quote about fossils would finish this off nicely.

Drawn with 05 Pentel Energel and 0.38 Uni-ball Signo DX pens on marker paper. Background, shadows and quote added digitally.

Monogram “a”

Angela PorterLeave a comment

I got this monogram finished yesterday evening. I think I may have been a bit heavy handed with shading in some places. However, overall I like it and I like the volume or dimension that the shading adds.

I definitely enjoy working in such a detailed, intricate and organically intuitive kind of way. Having the monogram as a design to work around does help quite a bit.

On a kind of related point, I had a new A5 dot grid notebook delivered yesterday so I can start to make a collection of motifs and patterns as I use them or create them. The idea is I can winnow out those that I never/rarely use. The reason for this is that the dot grid notebook I’ve kept as a visual dictionary for the last couple of years is just about full! I will keep it as a reference, but it’s time to start a new, more relevant one I think.

I have a snazzy, teal coloured notebook, covered in vegan faux-leather. It has 218 numbered white pages that are a tad thicker than the usual dot grid notebook pages, The paper is velvety smooth and a pleasure to write/draw on. It’s made by Wordsworth & Black and I came across it on Amazon. Oh, the ink doesn’t feather, bleed through or ghost on the pages. I paid £15 for it and I’m very happy with it so far.