This sketchbook page is now complete! I had so much fun doing this one for sure. There’s a whole host of plants to populate any number of whimsical worlds. There’s a third video tutorial showing how to draw, step by step, the last row as simple line art as well as the start of adding colour and pattern.
Some of the motifs look a bit ‘flatter’ than I like them to, and a couple I’m not quite happy with in terms of pattern/texture. But still, it’s a page full of inspiration and possibility, something I can look back on for inspiration.
I continued the theme of sea plants today with a row of clusters of variations on a shape. Seriously, just one basic shape with small variations from cluster to cluster. The YouTube video that accompanies these drawings takes you through how to draw them, one step at a time.
Of course, I don’t stop with the main shape being varied. It was a lot of fun to add simple patterns and textures to these plants (or creatures if you will).
Alcohol markers in an analogous colour scheme of violet, blue, blue-green and yellow-green were used. The yellow greens were a late addition as I felt the first cluster needed an extra colour. The yellow-greens also link this row to the first one done yesterday.
The final steps are adding the detailed patterns and textures using both a black 0.1 fineliner and a white gel pen.
Oh, I did use a couple of cool greys to add shadow to the drawings before I added colour.
I’ve just realised I haven’t put any drop shadows behind these plants, or sea squirts, or… Maybe I’ll do that before tomorrow’s video session!
I’m about halfway through filling this slightly smaller than A5 sketchbook page with different kinds of oyster shells. Today’s even has a pearl in it!
I’m using the same peachy-pink and warm grey alcohol markers, but with the addition of a pale dusky kind of mauve colour for the shadow inside the shell.
I never claim to be an expert at colouring. However, using a very limited colour palette works in my favour, that’s for sure! The end result is good enough, which is what I always aim toward these days. Perfection is something that is unattainable. So good enough is just great!
I’ve been wintering on, both in speech and typing, about the purpose of my YouTube channel. Synchronicity struck today as two quotes about art appeared on my Facebook newsfeed today:
“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
Kurt Vonnegut
“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So, write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can.”
Neil Gaiman
These two quotes eloquently sum up what I think I want to bring to YouTube, my social media, and to you.
Confidence to create art just for the pleasure of it and in your own way too.
Building self-confidence is the first step, and sometimes that needs help, instruction, step by step methods, and suggestions for variations and making it your own.
We all can draw. We just have to unlearn that drawing isn’t always about photographic representations. It’s about self-expression, and each of us expresses ourselves differently. Maybe in a similar way to others, but uniquely our own.
To have a bit of confidence to do this, in a sketchbook, where no one else has to see until you’re ready to share in a supportive environment, is all that is needed. I wasn’t lucky enough to have a supportive environment for creating art until I was in my 40s. If I can provide a supportive environment here, around social media, on YouTube, and perhaps in a closed Facebook group or some such place, then I will.
It’s nice to find a purpose, don’t you think? I do, and I’m glad I’ve found that purpose for YouTube at the very least.
I’ve been having a lot of fun filling sketchbook pages with variations on a basic motif/pattern. It’s time, I think, to fill a sketchbook page (A5-ish) with variations of just one motif. Variations that include filler patterns, colours, shading and media used. I’m not sure that makes sense, but sometimes it’s easier to show rather than tell. Or perhaps tell while showing what I’m doing/thinking.
The video is much shorter than usual, at less than 30 minutes. I think that looking at drawing just one motif is a bite-sized activity, whereas a whole sketchbook page in one go can be a bit overwhelming.
There, I’ve got to a clear explanation of my intention behind this video!
So, I’ve decided to start with a page of variations of oyster shells. I start with line art in an Oysteroid style. Oysteroid is a tangle pattern by Eni Oken. I make sure that I use thicker lines to give the illusion of depth.
Next, add colour. I used two pale warm grey marker pens to add shadows. (Ohuhu WG1 and WG3). Then I used two peachy pinks to add colour (Ohuhu R18 and R21).
Using an 01 fineliner, I added the textural patterns. I decided to use a different one in each layer of the motif. Perhaps a bit too much pattern.
Finally, I added dots of white gel pen for the highlights.
I completely forgot to add a drop shadow beneath the motif to lift it off the paper a little. I’ll add that at a later point in time I’m sure.
The patterns added complexity to the simple colour/shadow. They also masked where my impatience meant the black pen hadn’t dried fully and the ink smudged a bit with the alcohol marker.
I do hope you’ll take a look at the video, get out pen, paper and some coloring medium and draw along with me.
This page is just a kind of doodleart that I’m exploring, along with working with alcohol markers and trying to understand how I can best work with them.
All these ‘doodles’ turned out kind of organic in a kind of mechanical way, possibly. I’ll be turning my attention to them again this evening.
Today, I made a greetings card! The top layer can be seen in the picture.
I chose to create a Zentangle Inspired tile for the card. I’m actually fairly happy with the end result. I even managed to mount the tile on the cardblank centrally. Now that’s a first for me!
I had the devil’s own job getting the video sorted and uploaded. My head is full of mush still. This time as a result of a not nice upset tummy yesterday afternoon and evening.
All the same, I got there in the end. And that is all that matters methinks.
Here’s today’s video. If you would be so kind as to click on the Watch On YouTube, I would be very appreciative as it helps with YouTube’s arcane algorithm!
I love playing around with motifs, letting variations appear on my paper. So, having a day dedicated to exploring in such a way is, I think, a good idea for me!
Today, I chose two templates. One ‘seedling-y’, the other ‘coral-ish’. I ended up with this page (A5) full of possibilities and potential.
I worked in an A5 Arteza plain paper notebook rather than a sketchbook. I’m getting papers all over the place again. As much as I like the discbound sketchbooks I have, I just felt the time was right to dedicate a casebound book to my motif, tangle and fragment pursuits.
The paper reminds me of dot-grid notebook paper, without the dots. I didn’t expect it to work well with the washes of colour. However, as a sketchbook, it’ll be fine for me. The smooth surface of the paper is a pleasure to draw on. Also, I won’t wreck the nibs of my fineliner pens so quickly!
Oh, I also used a matt graphite pencil to add shadows – no tortillon or paper stump, just using pressure and/or layering to increase the depth of the shadow. I also worked with texture in the shadow in the blue seed-pod/sea anemone/round thing. That is something I want to look at a bit more going forward too.
A rainy, windy, grey morning here in the Valleys of South Wales. The perfect day to cwtch up in the warm and dry and work on some art.
I’ve been drawing robots, or bots, in my sketchbook lately. I blame Bill Making Stuff on YouTube. I stumbled across his channel a lil while ago, and it seems his insidious bots and makes have found a corner in my creative mind to lurk. It’s inevitable, I suppose, that they should creep out.
But my drawing style has exerted its muscle …and these are typical ‘Angela’ style drawings! Actually, I had started to work on some new bots and characters for my Doodleworlds style of cute and whimsical art. But Bill gave me, unknowingly by him, the push to have a go at drawing these creations.
Fun. Whimsical. Cute. Different. Just what I needed to do on a rainy, windy, grey morning.
Having fun today, combining drawing and cardmaking! Zentangle inspired drawing of course.
This card is 2½” x 7″ in size, and the paper I drew on is a 2½” x 6″ piece of Canson Imagine paper.
I chose to use Sandswirl and Holly tangle patterns in the design. After all, they were my tangle pattern and fragment of the week! Plus a couple of other bits and bobs – flowers, crystals, a bit of mooka and a sprinkling of flux.
I did make a boo-boo though. I didn’t let the silver ink dry long enough before I used an eraser. I checked that it was touch-dry, but it wasn’t eraser-dry. Ho hum, dash and darn it!
I used the same metallic silver to draw a border and add a little bit of embellishment. The embellishment is under my fingers, duh!
The sketchy diagram to the right are the dimensions for making an envelope for the card. Red means cut out, blue add glue.
This card is now almost finished. I have learned some things from yesterday’s debacle. Mainly that I’d make a much wider border for the embossed background.
I did add Speckled Egg Distress ink to this embossed background, but it’s such a lovely, subtle colour the camera hasn’t picked it up well.
The embossed layer is so tactile! I used some Micro Glaze to seal it so that being touched won’t affect the distress ink.
Actually, I used Micro Glaze on the top layer too!
I could only find cream coloured card blanks and envelopes, and these layers really didn’t look too good on them. So, hopefully I’ll remember where my card blank stash is, or I’ll make a blank and envelope.
In the video I try embossing an envelope – a case of ‘envelope art’. I’m glad I did. The embossing works well. However, the areas where the flaps are glued together on the back of the envelope make indents in the front. Distress Ink brings these out so much. So, I’ll be sure to emboss the front of the envelope, and colour with Distress Ink, before I glue it all together!
All in all, I’m much happier with this card. Mind you, I do have ideas for others! Probably too late for Christmas now, but … there’s always lots of other reasons for sending greetings cards, including ‘just because I can’.
Winter solstice 2021 Mandala
Winter Solstice Greetings and Wishes to you all to the north of the equator! Summer Solstice Greetings and Wishes to you all south of the equator!
Some sunshine on a chilly, dull Winter Solstice day here in the Valleys of South Wales, UK.
Art is the Adventure 