Zentangle Inspired

#Inktober #InktoberTangles2022, Day 9 “Sumu”

Angela PorterLeave a comment
Click on this link to watch the accompanying YouTube drawing tutorial for ‘Sumu’.

Suma (to the bottom and left of the drawing) is a lovely, lovely pattern, deconstructed by Lin Chiu CZT. It very much reminds me of Medieval manuscripts and architectural sculpture. So, it was a given that I’d love it, just like Tomàs Padrós’ “Snack” in Day 8 of the Inktober Tangles 2022 challenge.

Although Lin Chiu has given many possible variations, just as Tomàs did for Snack, I kept it simple, repeating the basic form around the bottom and left of the Heartfully ‘rug’. It also had to have that architectural, sculptured, carved ‘feel’ to it. Not sure I’ve quite managed it, but it’ll do!

My design is looking a bit higgledy-piggledy at the moment; I’m just going to trust the process and see how it works out at the end of Inktober.

Inktober Tangles 2022 – Day 8 – “Snack” by Tomàs Padrós CZT

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Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button.

Snack is a lovely pattern and Tomàs Padrós CZT has created a great step out for it, which includes lots of suggestions and variations.

I have to say, it is a motif I’m familiar with, probably early Celtic art or architecture. It was great fun for me to draw, and in keeping with my rather higgldy-piggldy arrangement I chose to use it in that way. As a nod to the architectural origins of this pattern, to me anyway, I’ve worked with shadow and highlight to practically ‘scuplt each ‘snack’ element. I particularly like the ‘half snack’ versions; again, they are familiar to me but not connected to Zentangle, and there’s nowt wrong with that at all!

#Inktober Tangles 2022, Day 7 “FluxEcho”

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Click on this link to view the accompanying #DrawWithMe video tutorial on YouTube.

FluxEcho, a lovely floral tangle pattern by Lynn Mead CZT, was a delight to draw this morning. you can see my variations of the pattern to the centre-left.

I had decided to stick to a monochrome colour scheme for my Inktober Tangles, but today I decided to go a bit analogous! I’ve added some purple and blue to the design. Analogous colours are next to each other on the colour wheel – so green, blue and purple work well together. Even more so as the background is a grey-green colour.

Something had to be done about the hand-lettered panel. I’d added some colour with Inktense pencils and a water brush, but I wasn’t happy with the finish. So, I filled the panel with black ink and added the hand lettering using a white gel pen. I’m happier with this.

Inktober Tangles 2022 – Days 4 to 6 – Souk, Molygon and Heartfully

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Click on this link ot see the accompanying draw with me video on YouTube.

I’ve added the next three tangles in the #InktoberTangles2022 challenge to my drawing. I’m fairly happy with how it’s looking, but not too chuffed with my photography/scanning skills! I seem to be able to do a fairly good job when it comes to steam locomotives, but when it’s my artwork… *rolls eyes*. But I’m sure you get the idea!

Here’s the list of tangles added in today’s video:

Day 4 – Souk by Steph Kiefhaber CZT

Day 5 – Molygon by Zentangle Inc

Day 6 – Heartfully by Helen Willams CZT

These are all lovely tangles. Souk caused me some problems and with them an unexpected variation. Molygon I’ve not been able to draw successfully before. Heartfully is a lovely tangle, but not as easy to draw as it seems!

I’ve added a lot of white highlights with either a Sakura Soufflé pen or an 05 Gelly Roll. I like the way the white seems to glow against the grey-green colour of the paper I’m working on (it’s not the pale green it appears in the scan above!). Also, I’m so glad I’m sticking to a colour palette of greens with a blue-green aquamarine.

I wish I hadn’t added colour to the title label, however. For some reason it’s really patchy. I’ll work out how to improve it, eventually.

I’m going to add background shadows/highlights when the whole page is complete. But I have added a background pattern to a couple of areas at the top of the design.

Inktober Tangles 2022, Days 1 to 3

Angela PorterLeave a comment
Click on this link to view the accompanying tutorial video in YouTube

It’s Inktober! The annual month of ink drawing and other challenges of an arty crafty kind!

Last year, I did the #InktoberTangles2021 challenge. I explored each day’s pattern, often with an accompanying YouTube video. This year, however, I’m adopting a different approach. I’ve decided to look at each pattern and combine them into one big design!

The first three tangle patterns are Rain, from Zentangle Inc, Delwhy by Stephanie Jennifer CZT and Isea-u by Dory Peeters CZT. You can see my attempts at them from left to right.

Layers upon layers! A Zentangle Inspired #DrawWithMe

Angela PorterLeave a comment
Click on this link to watch the accompanying YouTube drawing tutorial.

One of my lovely YouTube subscribers asked if I could look at some zentangles by Patrica Aragon (myzenarts.ctz on Instagram) and see if I could do some artwork inspired by her work. As a YouTube drawing tutorial, of course, he asked.

Well, I looked at the artwork and then did my own version. It took a little over an hour to get to where it is in the drawing above. And there it remains until I decide how to complete the picture. If I’m going to, that is.

It was an excellent way to spend Saturday lunchtime.

Taiga and Elm Seeds

Angela Porter2 Comments
Click on this link to watch the accompanying video tutorial on YouTube.

I do love seeds! There’s such a huge variety across the globe. Today, I chose some elm seeds to stylise for this drawing.

I also had a hankering to tackle, once again, Tomos Padros’ beautiful Zentangle pattern “Taiga”. It took me two attempts to work out how to do it, but I got there in the end. It is a beautiful woven pattern with so much volume when high contrast shade and light are used.

Gourgeously Gourdgeous Gourds (pumpkins-ish!)

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Click on this link to view the accompanying #DrawWithMe tutorial video on YouTube.

Carrying on with the theme of pumpkins and gourds, today I tackled the Zentangle tangle pattern “Gourdgeous” and drew this cute pile of pumpkin-ish gourds.

Of course, as they are drawn with a Zentangle pattern, it was only right that I filled them with some Zentangle patterns – Purk, Sattuck, Crescent Moon, and B’tweed.

I drew the design on a 6″x3″ piece of grey-green mixed media paper. Tombow Fudenosuke and Zebra flexible nib pens were used to draw the main black sections of the pattern. Then, I added the patterns with 0.1 and 0.4 fineliner pens.

To add shade and light, I used some Inktense pencils – Light Olive, Madder Brown, Iron Green and Iron Blue. Oh, and Antique white for the highlights.

The white dots were added with a Sakura Soufflé pen.

This was a lot of fun to do, especially playing with light and shadow to create volume! There’s some bits I’m not happy with – the tendrils are a bit clumsy looking, some of the highlights could be brighter. But on the whole it’s not too shabby!

Swirly gourdgeousness WIPs

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These are my current works in progress. They’re full of swirly curvy loveliness, along with a smattering of the Zentangle tangle Gourdgeous too, amongst a couple of others.

I’ve drawn the designs on clay-toned paper from Fabriano. It’s a warm grey, just a bit darker than in the scanned image. The soft grey does tone down the Inktense colours a tad, making them feel more vintage or metallic in some way. Although the paper isn’t designed for water, I find I can get away with a barely damp brush to activate and spread the Inktense to create gradients. The white Inktense is opaque enough to add highlights, and even to colour the grey white!

Part of me thinks that monochrome or analogous colours are the way to go. I’m not all that keen on the orangey-rusty colours. Sticking to the greens and blues would feel more coherent perhaps. But as I’m learning more about my art, toned papers, adding colours, then it’s all a process of learning!

And I do love working on the toned papers for sure. There is something fascinating about starting with the a page full of the mid-tone colour and then adding dark and light to it.

A tiny Zentangle Inpsired Tile

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Please click on the link to watch it on youtube 🙂

I really enjoyed drawing this tiny tile this morning. I love the soft, muted green tones of the paper and the the way the Inktense pencils I used to add colour, shade and light work so well with it. The bright white touches of a Sakura Soufflé pen shine so bright against everything else.

The paper is a 6cm x 6cm (approx. 2.4″ x 2.4″) piece of grey-green ClaireFontaine PaintON mixed media paper.

My first step was to draw a single cell, or fragment, of the Zentangle pattern Well. and I added a variation to that pattern. To fill in the sections created, I used the tangle patterns Purk and B’tweed.

This will eventually be one of my little Random Acts of Kindness cards, once I work out what message to put on the back and whether I’m going to hand letter it or print it out. I have not practiced my hand lettering much lately, and I think it shows. But maybe I’m just being overly harsh on myself, I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that I love creating these tiny drawings as much as I do my larger ones. I love the cuteness of the size very much.