It took me some time, but I got the video edited and uploaded to YouTube. I’ve left it in real-time with the hopes that people will find it relaxing to watch.
I do have some things to learn about editing still. Not so much the mechanics but the aesthetics and flow of the video. I’m trusting that as time goes on and I make more videos that I’ll get to understand this a bit more.
I also need to try to control how I move the image around as I draw, and also placement of it on the screen. I created this mandala digitally, using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Microsoft Surface Pen and Microsoft Surface Studio.
One advantage of recording the screen, is that my hands and pen don’t get in the way of seeing what I’m doing.
I have to say that Movavi is quite simple to use, yet has plenty of features that are quite powerful. Cutting the video, adding music, intro and outro screens, as well as fades are really easy. I can also add transitions, which will help when I can focus long enough to edit out the crazy whirling bits of the video!
As with everything in life, learning to create videos is a work in progress.
I am hoping to get one video done a week. Well, that’s my aim. Life really can get in the way at times.
I’ve been busy this morning, working out how to video record the screen of my computer as I draw digitally.
I found a YouTube video about using OBS Studio to do this. I followed the instructions, problem solved, and after three attempts I had a poor quality video that I wasn’t happy with.
So, I went to Movavi, a video editor I’ve used previously. It has an app that will record the screen, easily. It’s a one button click to launch. A simple, small, and minimalist control panel sits in the bottom right corner of the screen. I can record, pause, start again easily.
I recorded myself drawing the mandala above. The video is currently processing and being saved. I’ll then need to edit it. The still of the video I can see while this is happening is of a fab quality it seems. So fingers crossed the video will be too!
I didn’t think to look at Movavi before Googling for advice on recording the screen. I did have to buy the software, but it wasn’t extortionately expensive and I’m sure that it will meet my needs.
So, once the video is saved, I can spend sometime today editing it and I hope to upload it tomorrow, as long as the recording is of a good quality.
Yesterday, I had a day out with my friend Liz. We visited Hay On Wye for a walk around and lunch. It was one of those glorious winter days where the sun shines warmly and the air is crisp and cool. It was mild enough for me to walk around without a bulky coat.
This morning’s warm up art is this mandala featuring some flowers as well as some zentangle and geometric patterns.
I’m not entirely sure this works, but sometimes an idea just has to be tried out. The flowers are a bit ‘flat’. The zendala/mandala background may be a bit too busy or just not the right colour. I’m really not at all sure.
However, whether it’s worked out or not, it’s been a relaxing process. It’s always pleasant to create for the sake of creating, and also working digitally too.
I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Microsoft Surface Pen and Microsoft Surface Studio to create this design.
Another mandala today, this time with my favourite Hafiz quote in the centre.
I wanted a mandala that seemed to be almost glowing for this quote. Also, I added a very subtle rainbow colouring to it too. I’m quite happy with this mandala, though some darker shading behind some of the parts, along with some subtle highlights, would’ve helped with the dimensionality of the design.
I didn’t hand-letter the quote; instead I used a clear and simple pair of fonts. I do want to learn how to create circles of typography; I think the quotes would then be more sympathetic to the circular geometry of mandalas. I’ll need a bit of time to play around in Affinity Publisher and Affinity Designer to see if I can achieve this. Mind you, I do need to practice my hand lettering a lot more too.
All the same, I’m still happy with this design. The lettering will do – for now.
I always enjoy drawing mandalas, and it’s nice to revisit the line-art style of mandalas with lots of intricate patterns in them once again. They are so delicate, airy, lacy in feel compared to my more arty, abstract, coloured mandalas. They’re also a lot quicker to create!
It’s definitely a mandala morning here in the autumnal valleys of South Wales. The sun is managing to peek out through the pale grey clouds – the light is wintery wan.
I’m not sure if that description of the sky has influenced my colour choices for this mandala today or not; maybe on a subconscious level it has.
I’m really pleased with this particular drawing today. I like the pale, chalky colour on the darker background. I think I’ve got a nice balance betwixt densely patterned areas and more open designs. I also like the shading I’ve added to the background; it’s added a fair amount of depth and dimension to the design.
It has been a lovely way to spend an hour or so as I slowly come around this morning.
I was going to draw a flower or three to float above the mandala, similar to the skulls I drew through Inktober. However, I like the mandala just as it is, for now.
Digital Art created using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro along with a Microsoft Surface Pen and the digital paper that is the screen of my Microsoft Surface Studio.
I decided to colour the bat skull and mushrooms to contrast with the graphic nature of the zentangle patterns I used to draw the background mandala.
For a bit of fun, I added an eerie glow to the eye and nasal sockets of the skull. Well, bats, spooky and October-Hallowe’en just go together! Of course, black, white and purple makes for a spooky colour scheme too. I think I’ve made the purple a bit dark, but it’s good enough! I can always, always rework my design in the future if I need to.
I wanted to keep the skull and mushrooms quite stylised rather than realistic. That’s hard for me to do when I’m working from photographic references.
In the past, I have drawn objects in an almost scientifically accurate kind of way. However, I do think that one of my strengths as an artist is being able to simplify and stylise whatever motifs and design elements I’m working with.
I have used Inktober 2019 prompts on from three lists on Instagram for today’s drawing:
Animal Skulls by @book_polygamist
Mushrooms by @nyan_sun
Tangles by @havepen_willdraw
So, Angela, how are you feeling today?
Yesterday’s EMDR session was productive if a bit painful and distressing with the thoughts, emotions and body feelings that arose during the session. I was left feeling a bit dazed but not too bad; I even managed to stop on my way home and wander around three shops, though I did baulk at the fourth one and decided it was time to head home.
After having something to eat and a bit mug of tea I was cwtched up in bed and asleep before 8pm. I didn’t wake until past 8am this morning. Between a late night on Sunday and EMDR yesterday I must have been absolutely exhausted. I’m still feeling a bit tired now.
Although I do feel a bit tired, I’m also feeling quite content. That is helped by it being a sunshiny day and sunshine always helps my mood.
Back to EMDR. I’m working with a physical sensation in my body at the moment. There seems to be no memories of trauma associated with it. However, that may be because there’s lots and lots of similar traumas rolled into one, or I may have dissociated from the memory – the memory being too painful to remember. However, the trauma is stored in the body and emotions and it is being processed.
I’ve experienced a foul, nauseating smell, a horrible taste in my mouth, a sensation that my heart can’t ‘breathe’, a feeling of tentacles being wrapped around my heart, nausea, pains in my abdomen, back, neck, head, my face going numb, my fingers feeling as if they are being burned, electric shocks in my feet and hands, lumps in my throat, a feeling of being restrained by my upper arms, fear, disgust, overwhelming sadness, and a heavy emptiness inside me. There’s also been a an awareness that I just don’t feel right, a feeling of being out of balance, of not knowing what someone or some people expect of me, that whatever I do is never right or good enough. I haven’t experienced these things all at once as I process this particular trauma; each comes and then goes as I just let it ‘happen’. All this happens in the 25 to 45 minutes an EMDR session lasts.
So much goes on in my body, with my emotions and with distressing memories that I can be left exhausted afterwards.
Yet, I know it’s working and helping me have a healthier relationship with myself. That feeling of being content is proof of that!
I’m still in self-soothing mode after Monday’s emotionally draining trigger and EMDR session. I’m feeling a lot brighter, content, and not worried, but I’m tired as the stress from Monday is still affecting my sleep. It takes days for the stress hormones to leak away from me, bearing in mind I always have an elevated level thanks to the CPTSD.
Any way, back to art…
My self-soothing arty activity involved adding some patterns and motifs to my visual Zibladone (kind of a journal thingy). Always a soothing kind of experience for me. It also gave me the practice with pen on paper that I’ve discovered I need to do daily.
While drawing these patterns and motifs, I knew I wanted to try to create some of them in colour, with a lot of texture and dimension. So, the best way for me to do this is with a mandala. Well, that’s what I ended up starting work on. Originally I wanted to create a page similar to one in my Zibladone, with examples of motifs and patterns that are drawn/coloured digitally.
I may turn my attention to that after I’ve had some lunch. I’ll see.
Yesterday, I also completed the August template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. I’ll post an image of it tomorrow, but it’s up in the group already, along with a colour palette challenge for August. The template is exclusive to members of the group, and new members are always made welcome there. I’m always blown away by the beautiful and unique ways in which the members of the group bring my line art to life with the magic of colour.
Sometimes, the simplicity of monochrome is enough! Of course, there’s touches of gold , which don’t photograph very well.
The mandala, cirquedoodle, zendala, design was drawn using Sakura Micron and Uniball Unipin pens on a circle of mixed media paper that is approx. 4.25″ in diameter.
Art is the Adventure 