Drawing

Zentangle-style drawings.

Angela Porter1 Comment

Two drawings today, both done over the night as I couldn’t sleep as I really wasn’t at all well.

The larger one is a Zentangle ‘cartouche’. The central floral image is from one of Tim Holtz’s Ephemera packs. The paper is natural coloured mixed media paper by ClaireFontaine. I used a mixture of black, gold and rusty-red pens to draw the frame around the image. To add colour and shadow I used a mixture of pastel and graphite pencils, along with some tortillons. The design is approx. 12.5cm x 16cm (approx 3″ x 5″).

The smaller design is approx. 13cm x 8.5cm (3.3″ x 5.2″) in size. The paper is a piece of Medioevalis paper by Fabriano. This is lovely soft, gently textured paper that has a high cotton content. It’s easily damaged by the use of tortillons, however. So, I did add some shadows with a graphite pencil, but then added colour with Inktense pencils, brush and water. The paper really works well with wet media it seems. To draw the design I used a black fineliner, a brush pen and white and gold gelly roll pens.

I saw the ideas of cartouches, as a decorative frame around writing or image, and Zentangle designs on a youtube video and wanted to try it out. I decided to do that in the dark depths of the night when I wasn’t able to sleep. I may very well experiment with this idea as time goes on – particularly using drawings of my own as the focal point. I’ll see how it goes.

Entangled roses? WIP

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Yes, another WIP (work in progress). I’m fairly happy with the drawing, and I may re-draw it with less detail for this week’s coloring template. I’ll see how I get along.

This one is vexing me in terms of adding colour. I think that because elements of this are far less abstract my brain kicks into making things like life. I think I need to find a way to kick my brain into using shadow and light to bring dimension rather than focusing on colour.

This frustration may be because I’m feeling more than a little anxious and a bit like a startled rabbit. I have an appointment in a short while, and that means going into the world where there are people.

Design drawn on A4 heavyweight cartridge paper with Unipin pens.
Background and colour added digitally.

Entanglement – 13 Mar 21 – WIP

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Another abstract drawing that is a work in progress. This time, the drawing is done, but I’m working on adding colour to it.

To draw this one, I used a hard Tombow fudenosuke pen with natural coloured mixed media paper. I enjoyed working with the broader lines in contrast to the fine line work of the previous abstract entanglement drawing.

I have made the background darker than the original paper, and I do intend to leave areas in this colour. For now, I’m working with colour to develop a sense of dimension. Of course, I’m adding colour digitally. Every now and then, I circle back to traditional media, and I think that diversion serves to remind me of how much I prefer to add colour digitally.

I keep circling around this. I like to draw designs with pen on paper. I get a much better sense of the flow of the design that way. But I like to add colour digitally. And so, it’s time for me to do what I can to accept this is how it is meant to be for me. I may dabble with traditional media from time to time, but digital art, at least as far as adding colour is concerned, is where I love to bring my drawings to life.

So it seems to be that from time to time I need that diversion to remind me of what really makes my artsy heart happy. A diversion or a break from the usual? Either, neither, both I suppose.

I do love the richness of these rather vintage, steampunk-ish colours against the warm, tan background.

Friday entanglement – WIP

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I always relax, feel my whole body let out a sigh of relief as I work on drawings like this one. Purely abstract, line and pattern being the focus, with healthy doses of black giving a very graphic feel to the design.

Playing with line width and pattern to bring layers and depth to the design is always something I’ve enjoyed.

I start with one single line, shape or motif and go from there instead of having an overall plan for the design all sketched out and ready to go. I like this organic, intuitive way of letting the design grow, developing it one pen stroke at a time.

I’m learning, slowly but surely, that areas of white space can be a powerful part of the overall design. It’s been a long journey to realise I don’t have to fill the whole sheet of paper with line and pattern.

I need to have a lot of trust in the whole of this process; that something pleasing will be created after hours of work with very fine nibbed pens.

What next when I’ve finished the pen-work? Do I add shadows, colour, highlights with traditional media or digitally? Do I just add a background coloured/textured paper? Do I leave it in it’s very graphic black and white?

Working digitally with a scan of the finished drawing allows me to experiment, though I’ve yet to work out how to add shadows in the way a blended graphite or pastel pencil would do. And I do have a tendency to use much brighter, saturated colours than I would with traditional media.

Perhaps it’s time I sorted out my own digital colour palettes from my traditional media. That is something for another day, however. For the rest of the day, I’m going to lose myself in completing this drawing.

Tuesday Tangles

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A pair of tangled drawings today.

The tall, thin one is approx 10.5 cm x 29.7 cm in size – a piece of smooth, heavyweight cartridge paper. Colour has been added with a mixture of fineliner pens and graphitint pencils with a damp brush.

The smaller tile is 4″ x 4″ (10cm x 10cm) piece of the same paper. Again, I’ve used graphitint pencils and a damp brush to add colour. A white gelly roll pen has been used to add highlights to the image.

Both drawings have also had shadow added with a graphite pencil and paper tortillon.

I love the graphic nature of a pure black and white drawing. However, there is something almost magical in the way that colour and shadow/highlights can bring a drawing to a lucious 3-D appearing work of art.

I’m also loving the softer tones of the graphitint pencils with a damp brush. The water activates the colour a little and allows me to drag it out to create a gradation of colour, along with a darker, shadowed area.

The cartridge paper is not the best for using damp brushes on, but the texture that results actually isn’t all that bad.

My mind is wandering to the square tile, and wondering if I could create it in polymer clay … a thought to try out at a later time, maybe.

Weekend Tangles

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One drawing I’m working on and three Zentangle tiles that are complete.

TheA4 drawing is very much full of contrast and drama, very ‘graphic’ in nature. It’s not finished yet, but I’ll get there with it for sure.

The smaller tiles are rather geometric in nature with repeating patterns. I find drawing this kind of art soothing and pleasing too. I also enjoy the combination of the vintage brown tones with the black and grey. They just seem to work so well together.

I turned to work on the smaller ’tiles’ as I was feeling a tad overwhelmed last night. I really do find smaller pieces of art help me to settle back down. The repetitive nature of the patterns is soothing in itself.

I seem to be constantly circling around and returning to Zentangle – watching YouTube videos, looking at artwork online, and creating my own. I’ve been thinking about becoming a CZT – a certified zentangle teacher. I’m dithering about it, and I don’t know why that is. It’ll sort itself out I’m sure.

Saturday entanglement

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This was very much intuitive art. I just let it grow as it needed to grow.

Unipin pens and a white Gelly Roll pen on Daler-Rowney smooth heavyweight cartridge paper. A4 in size.

Entangled Art – almost finished!

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It is almost finished too. I’m dithering about the un-shaded arcs, and whether gold and /or white gel pens need to be used to add small accents and highlights. I can also see places where colour/shading is needed. However, there is no rush for it to be done!

The paper is 12″ x 9″, so I can’t scan it in one image. It’s Daler-Rowney Murano paper for chalk pastels and coloured pencils. So, as well as having fun just filling the page with shapes and patterns, I took the opportunity to try different kinds of pencils to add colour, shadow and highlight. I certainly enjoyed experimenting with gel pens and various kinds of pencils to create this drawing.

It looks a lot better in the photo than in real life, even with the weird banded light on the photo.

Template Thursday

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A spring-themed template this week, and a challenge, over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.

The challenge is a month long and I’ve asked the members to hold off posting their completed templates until 31st March so they can all be posted together. I thought it would be fun to do that way.

Anyway, the challenge is to use a limited colour palette plus black and white to colour this week’s template, or any other flowery template for the 31st March. I’ve chosen some springtime colours. It’s going to be interesting to see how different people use the colours to complete this challenge.

Work In Progress Wednesday

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Oh, the things I do when I wake up in the middle of the night. Fully alert and unable to get back to sleep for a couple of hours.

I just drew a pattern of curves and arches on the page of grey-ish pastel paper and started to fill the sections in with various patterns, zentangle and otherwise. I’ve used chalk pastel pencils to add colour and shading to some areas.

A total work in progress, for no other reason than because I couldn’t sleep.