Arts and Crafts

Bookmarks

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Angela Porter 25 August 2018

I’ve been playing around with a different kind of material and techniques and created these bookmarks. I’ve had a bit of fun doing them, something different, the same kind of drawings but different techniques.

I’ve used parchment paper and various ball tools to draw the images and Tombow Dual Brush markers to colour them.

I like the one on the left a lot. Surprisingly, the more muted, pastel tones really appeal to me.

I do have other bits and bobs of parchment here that I’ve tried things out on, and there’s some skills to develop for sure; but it’s a nice way of working, to draw in white on white then add texture and colour. I don’t think the textures show well on the photos though.

A nice way to spend a Bank Holiday Saturday – being quietly creative and learning new stuff at the same time.

 

Abstract Botanical 22 August 2018

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Angela Porter 22 August 2018

Another day, another drawing/artwork/illustration/design. This one is only a little one; it’s approximately A5 in size.

I used some new watercolour paper from Canson – Moulin du Roy. It’s smooth, slightly off-white, pure cotton mould made and seems to work nicely with Intense pencils and a waterbrush.

I’m waiting for some metallic paints to arrive so I can add some highlights to this – there are places where a dot of gold will really work nicely, but not too many places methinks.

Also, I chose just seven colours to be my palette – sherbert lemon, apple green, iron green, lagoon, violet, red-violet and sienna gold. I thought that a smaller number of colours could result in a more cohesive feel to the design, and I think that it may have done so!

For this one, I drew the design first in pen then added colour.

When I draw first I do tend to fill the space with drawings. When I add colour shapes first I end up with more white space and a more random ‘edge’ to the design.

Why that is, I don’t know, other than it may have something to do with me filling spaces in with pen and ink habitually.

A habit I need to modify I think.

All the same, it’s nice to do little designs. I already have another drawn out waiting for colour!

Perfectly Imperfect and an Abstract Botanical 21 August 2018

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Angela Porter 21 August 2018

My latest design. It took nearly 2 days work to complete, though I may add some metallic highlights here.

I used Inktense pencils and blocks with water brushes, Uniball Unipin pens and Daler-Rowney Aquafine smooth watercolour paper.

Black line definitely keeps my need for that high contrast work happy, but the ability to add layers of colour or create gradations in colour with the Inktense also keeps me happy. Together, they work for me.

I did start off the central area with shapes of colour, but then I started to draw in the designs around the edge and then add colour. Both ways work for me for sure. Also, there’s a kind of randomness to the colour and some over-spill outside the lines, and that is something I’m learning to live with and like.

Perfectly imperfect.

Just like me. Just like us all. We are all perfectly imperfect and that is OK. In fact, it’s more than ok, it’s just perfect and I think we should all embrace it. The imperfections are what contribute to our uniqueness, our individuality as much as anything else (perhaps even more). Society sends a message we all need to be perfect as people with perfect lives and perfect homes and perfect bodies and perfect smiles, hair and so on.

The reality is, however, that we aren’t.

We are all imperfect. Life is imperfect. Nature is imperfect.

But all is perfectly imperfect.

And that is good. It is. At any moment in our lives we are all doing the best we can.  Sometimes things work out perfectly. Sometimes they go wrong. The balance of it all is that it is all perfectly imperfect.

My artwork is perfectly imperfect. I do my best with digital art, but I’m not really happy with what I do often. I learn each time I do some, and move forward, improving. The same is true when I use traditional media.

The same is true of life. Of my life. Of all our lives, our perfectly imperfect lives from which we can learn and grow as people.

 

 

Entangled Art 18 August 2018

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Angela Porter 18 August 2018

Planning a relaxing arty day, no digital art planned at the moment.

In the last couple of days, in between work for my next Entangled coloring book in the Creative Haven series from Dover Publications Inc, I tried something a bit different for me.

I tried drawing shapes for the design in colour first, then adding the black ink details over them.

For the completed design I used a Kuretake Zig Brush Pen and Tombow dual tip markers. I say completed, but I may return to it and add dome metallic/pearlescent/iridescent embellishments.

For the coloured design, without details, I used the same brush pen and Winsor & Newton Water Colour Markers.

I’m trying to decide if I’m going to add the details using a Uniball Unipin pen or whether I’m going to use a fine brush and watercolour.

Perhaps with this one I’ll stick with my Unipin pen(s) while creating a smaller, test piece for the use of watercolour with a fine brush.

I must admit, I do like the more graphic, high-contrast black lines, but I do think I have to give lines in colour a try.

Weekend relaxing with art, my #weekendvibes.

#makeitmonday More UV resin pendants

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Angela Porter 6 Aug 2018 Resin

Playing with the UV resin once again and here’s the three latest pendants. I’m possibly finding my way with this stuff, though I do have other things I’d like to try out. For the rest of the day, I need to be drawing, however.

Resin Jewellery 5Aug2018

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Angela Porter 5 Aug 2018 Resin

I mentioned a while ago that I’ve been having a lovely time playing with UV resin.

These are some of the results!

Weird things happened in the long, thin bezels when I cured the resin. Strange, alien, geometric patterns appeared in the coloured layer. A surprise, a strange one, but not unpleasant. However, it wasn’t what I was aiming for! It’s not happened since…odd.

The square glass pieces, currently without bails, were the glass ‘cabochons’ or ‘covers’ that came with the square bezels. I thought I’d try adding resin to the back of them, and they’ve worked out quite nicely!

I think I need to learn wire wrapping. I need a course or several to do that though. Or find someone who’d like to work with me where I make the pretties and they do the wire-wrapping.

I have lots more ‘pretties’ in my finished and happy with stash now, including quite a few pairs of little star earrings.

All I need to do now is to figure out what to do with this lot!

I have odd things happening when I use silicon moulds to make resin pendants. When I cure the resin it often bends/warps. I’ve tried thinner layers, thicker layers, and nothing seems to stop it. I supsect the only way forward for me, at this point in time, is to use bezels, and the glass covers if I can get the bails to adhere to them.

I may play around with resin a bit more later today. I had a load more bezels arrive yesterday. Would be a nice, relaxing way to spend some of a quiet Sunday.

Bookmarks – #makeitmonday

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Angela Porter Bookmarks 30 July 2018

Amongst other things, I’ve had a lovely crafty time over the weekend drawing tall and think designs that make lovely bookmarks, and here they are!

I love black and white line art, but I thought I’d try working in colour too with a mid-blue and a dusky kind of purple. Not too sure about the coloured drawings; I think that’s because I do like high contrast.

The first task was to cut paper (Winsor and Newton Bristol board and Claire Fontaine Paint On mixed media paper) into strips that are 30.1cm x 5cm or 30.1cm x 5.5cm in size. For each, I drew a pencil border around them that is approx 3mm wide.

Then, came the inky drawing. Usually, I start with one motif and let the design grow out from that one. However, with these I scattered large motifs across the space, then slightly smaller ones. Finally I used small patterns and even plain colour, to fill in the gaps.

I tried to keep to just three or four patterns in each design (a self-imposed challenge); some have just two patterns, others have 4 or so.

I really enjoyed doing these!

Now, I have to decide what to do with the originals. Do I scan them and then gift/sell the originals? Do I use them as the focal points for some mixed-media work? Do I use them to created some printable pages for people to make their own book marks? Do I scan and re-colour them in the way I have my recent quotes? Do I scan, print and set small parts into bezels to create my own custom jewellery? Do I turn them into greetings cards? Do I add shadows/shading to them?

So many possibilities and I feel quite overwhelmed.

I do know I need to turn my attention to my next coloring book for the Creative Haven series from Dover Publications Inc; I need to get a few templates done in the next couple of weeks, with one to be coloured as the cover illustration.

All #makeitmonday projects!

Talking of #makeitmonday; I uploaded a bonus colouring template to the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group yesterday. It is a group exclusive, so if you’d like to print and colour it and share it with the group, pop along and join in with the lovely group of people over there.

Dangle Day Friday – new BuJo spreads for August

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August BuJo Spreads

Angela Porter 27 July 2018

The last days of July are upon us, which means it’s time for new BuJo pages.

I’ve settled into a kind of pattern for myself as far as a BuJo/Planner goes. It’s really minimalistic in terms of what I keep track of, but not so minimal in terms of artsy-ness!

I have two designs for the monthly cover page. One, a dangle design, the other one of my zentangly, entangled style drawings. Yes, I hand lettered these ones, not like the quotes where I am printing out the words before drawing on the paper.

Like my dangle designs? You can pre-order ‘A Dangle A Day’, my book where I take you through how to draw your own dangle designs!

I like both of my monthly cover spreads, but I know the more complex one may never get completely coloured in – it would need a lot of time invested in it.

I like to have a monthly overview page for my events and appointments, and I’ve added dangle elements to that, though I do like a simple layout for the days.

The final planned-out page I like to have is a mood tracker. As you may be aware if you’ve been following my blog for a while, I have CPTSD and keeping track of my mood is useful. For August, I’ve decided on some bunting. The spaces are large enough that I can, if I wish, record different moods throughout the day.  Also, I like to keep the key for my moods simple, with just five different ones.

Hearts and stars are the theme for this month, which are common with me. They are two motifs that I really, really like.

The stars this month represent the Perseid meteor shower which happens around my birthday each  year, natures own fireworks. Hopefully the skies will be clear this year so there can be a good view of them.

A little about the materials used

  • A Leuchtturm 1918 A5 dot grid notebook
  • Unipin pens from Uniball and a mechanical pencil to sketch out the letters and so on.
  • Chameleon duotone pencils for colouring
  • A metallic gold Sakura Gelly Roll pen for some metallic highlights on the cover page.

Furbaby Friday and a new facebook group

Today it’s #furbabyfriday over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. The members love to show their beautiful furbabies, especially when they’re ‘helping’ with their colouring! You’d be most welcome to join the group and share your beautiful furbabies.

One of the admins of this group has started a new facebook group called Pet Love, Care & Happiness. If you love pets and animals you’d be more than welcome to join in. I believe they have a competition at the moment to win some Amazon gift vouchers.

 

 

Another Terry Pratchett Quote…

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Angela Porter 25 July 2018

I am enjoying doing these quotes, as I’ve said before.

I enjoy the intricacy of the drawing/design/illustration.

I quite like taking a black and white line drawing and turning into a rainbow line drawing too.

Today is WIP over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group – you’d be made very welcome if you pop over and join in!

Decorated Terry Pratchett Quote and Chameleon Pencils first impressions

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Angela Porter 23 July 2018

Another quote from Terry Pratchett. This one from one of my favourite characters – Death. Death tries so hard to understand humanity, yet he gets it both very wrong and quite right at the same time.

I like the way I’ve added colour to my black and white line art in this example, but one day I hope to get around to colouring in the black and white version.

Maybe I’ll print the art out and then colour it in using Chamelon Pen’s ColorTone Pencils, which arrived yesterday.

I have spent some time  colouring with them and so far I quite like them.

They are softer than Polychromos and others, but not quite as soft as Prismacolours. They blend quite nicely, and a little help from a blending pencil results in really nice blends.

I like the colour palette; the colours are nice and bright and just the colours I love to use in my art, which is a huge, huge bonus! As I often struggle to choose and use colours in a sensible manner when I have a huge choice, the limited palette of 50 colours is really useful for me, as are the double ended pencils. Being able to flip to add shadow or light is a nice touch, though I would like a bit more contrast between some of the colours as some are a bit too similar.

The leads are a bit thicker than other pencils, such as Prismacolours. However, this makes the barrels of the pencils a bit too thick for a standard pencil sharpener. My Staedtler pencil sharpener – the ones with the handles that you turn around – should cope well with them though.

At a price point of £45 on Amazon.co.uk with free prime delivery I think they’re good value for money, even though you essentially have 50 half-sized pencils. However, the thicker colour leads make up for that to some degree.

I’ve not been able to find out if you can buy individual pencils when some wear down. However, I can’t see that being a big issue as I suspect that I’ll use most of the pencils fairly equally.