Artwyrd

Autumn Equinox 2017 and the first pumpkin of the season!

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dav Autumn officially arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere yesterday, astronomically speaking.

And with autumn comes the desire to knit pumpkins.  I have no idea why, but it’s something that I did last year, followed by knitted christmas trees and stars.

I think it may have something to do with the nights drawing in, the cooler temperatures, the cosy and candle-lit home.

It may also have something to do with the fact that as it’s getting cooler my cat thinks I’m warm-blooded furniture again and he requires lots of lying on and cuddling up to me.  Drawing is nearly an impossibility with him on my lap, but he will let me knit; he doesn’t even try to play with the yarn or needles.

So, as the nights grow longer and the days shorter, my workspace may end up being increasingly on the bed to keep a kitty happy and lest pesky, and that’s fine by me.

That was something that started when I had my first extended bout of depression/anxiety 3 or 4 years ago and I just wanted to be in bed, a pattern that was repeated during my second extended bout.  Indeed, in the first few weeks of the medication that’s the only place I could be for several hours a day as it zonked me out totally.  I think the cat got really used to my presence in his domain; he loves the bedroom and rarely ventures out of it.  Indeed, he’ll become a total pest if I’m downstairs and he wants my company upstairs so he can settle down for big sleeps.  I’m usually happy to go and spend the short time it takes for him to settle in that instance.

Having said that, he’s taken to being pesky and testy if I overstay my time in the bed and he wants to get under the duvet to settle down for big sleeps now the weather is cooler once again.

Yes, I have one crazy cat, and I love him very much. He’s nearly 16 years old, so he’s entitled to be the boss and make demands I think.  He’s also been a really good companion for me through some of the darkest times of my life.

I wonder if he’d let me weave … most probably!

Still, the first pumpkin of the season has arrived – it’s approx 5.5″ across and 3.75 inches high.  I knitted it in chunky weight yarn on 5 mm needles.

HandyWoman Loom arrives!

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Over the past week, I’ve been wrangling with Adobe Illustrator for a very good reason – to convert my art into vector graphics so that the lovely Janet Fox at HandyWoman on Etsy can use them to laser etch the designs into the looms that she makes.

You can see some of my dragonfly art on this loom, which arrived today, and I can’t wait to make use of it.

It’s only a little loom, but that’s exactly what I want … and I already have ideas ticking around my brainbox.  It’s been a long time since I did any weaving – over 10 years I think.  Hopefully I haven’t forgotten the skills I developed then, and even if I have I’m sure I’ll find my way to achieving what I’d like to with it.

The loom itself is made of wood – I can’t remember what kind Janet said – but it is of excellent quality.  She makes all kinds of looms – simple ones like the one I have, tablet looms, heddle looms and others, again all of excellent quality.

When her Etsy shop is open once again (she’s closed it so she can focus on building stock up for the busy Christmas season), I’ll be sure to let you know.

Halloween Entangled Octahedron

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Halloween Octahedron Montage _ Angela Porter _ 21 Sept 2017

Ok, not the best photo in the world, but the octahedron (bipyramidal) was fun to draw, and the colour certainly brought it to life (death?).

Quite apt I’ve done some autumnal themed work on the Autumnal Equinox.

Entangled Icosohedron

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Icosohedron1 montage Angela Porter 19 Sept 2017

Having more fun!  This time a 20-sided icosohedron.  And I’ve just noticed I lost the plot slightly in creating the montage above – the same image repeated, d’oh go me!  First time I’ve ever done a photo montage though, so maybe I can be forgiven!

Entangled in 3D…

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Angela Porter Entangled Tetrahedron 1_19th Sept 2017

I’ve had an idea rattling around the old brainbox for a while – to use 3D nets and entangle them to form a 3D entangled drawing.

Ok, the patterns don’t wrap around all of the edges, however, on all but one the patterns kind of match up even though they’re not the same.

I’ve not coloured or added shading to the drawing (which I scanned and printed out so I could keep the original for future use) as I just wanted to see if it was something that would work.

I think it does work.  I suspect my yuletide decorations may be made from such things, with plenty of sparkle and glimmer!  Not to mention the more spooky ones for Hallowe’en…

Fancy having some to colour and construct?  Let me know!

Autumnly Entangled 5 and 6

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AutumnlyEntangled5and6_AngelaPorter_18Sept2017

Last two of the six Distress Oxide coloured 14 x 10 cm sheets of paper.

Making stamps and more Autumnly Entangled

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Stamp Carving

I woke up the other morning, Thursday I think it was, and had the overwhelming desire to try my hand at carving stamps from rubber blocks again.

I enjoyed doing lino cuts when I was doing my A level in art over a decade ago, well apart from the way my finger and wrist joints would hurt after doing this.  So, I thought I’d have a go with soft rubber, and above you can see the first of my efforts.

The weird flower was the first, and I’m not happy with it, though I think it would be fine as a background stamp in mixed media work, maybe.

The other circular stamps followed fairly quickly after that one, but the stylised thistle was one I did this morning. The white rubber discs are made by Essdee, and I used lino and stamp carving tools by the same company.

The leaf, heart and geometric patterns I carved this morning from a different kind of pink rubber: Speedy Carve from Speedball.

Both kinds of carving material were easy to work with, perhaps a little too soft for my liking, but only time will tell.  The only other tools I used were a pencil to draw the designs on the stamp carving material and a craft knife to cut the Speedy Carve.  Oh, and some sepia Archival Ink from Ranger, and an acrylic stamp block for the circular discs to adhere to while I stamped with them.

Autumnly Entangled

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Two more, drawn on paper coloured with Distress Oxide inks, with highlights of white gel pen and metallic gel pens added.  Also, the bottom one has had colour added using Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Pens from Kuretake and also some Prismacolour pencils.

I still have two more 10cm x 14cm sheets of coloured paper to draw on… so at least two more to come!

Autumnly Entangled 2

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AutumnlyEntangled2_AngelaPorter_14Sept2017

This morning, I spent time with pens and paper coloured with Distress Oxides, and this entangled creation appeared.  I may need to add some shading to it … but that can wait as I think I have a big vector drawing to do and that will take all of my concentration.

Autumnly Entangled 1

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AutumnlyEntangled1_AngelaPorter_14Sept2018

I’ve had a busy couple of days with this and that and the other.

Yesterday and today it’s been learning about vector files, images, graphics and how to get my artwork done as that kind of file and to a maker so she can use them to laser etch her products – more about this when I have photos of the projects!

Lots of head scratching, googling, and finally settling on downloading a program that works in vector graphics.  So, a lot of learning to do with that, but it’s easy, intuitive and makes a lot more sense than Adobe Illustrator; I chose Serif’s Affinity Designer.  I don’t know if it is as sophisticated as Illustrator, but I can’t see me wanting to get to that kind of level – I love Autodesk Sketchbook Pro way too much for that!

Certainly a different skill set is needed, but I’ll get there as I usually do.

After all the time on the ‘puter, I had the need to return to traditional media, and the photo above is what I’ve spent my evening doing.

First, the paper (approx. 14cm x 21cm), along with a few other sheets, was coloured with distress oxide inks.  Then I drew on it using a mixture of pens.

It was really nice to do, the colours of all the sheets are rather autumnal, and I’m looking forward to drawing on the others over the coming days.

Inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

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Angela_8Sept2017

I do enjoy exploring different genres of art, and the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles of art are ones that resonate with me.

I’ve loved the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh for a very long time, but never really took time to explore the work and to use it as an inspiration for my own work.

I sketched the outline design on paper, then edited and tidied it up in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.  I have used a mixture of gradient fills and colouring as if I was using a pencil or marker in other areas.  I’m now adding some typically ‘Angela’ intricate patterns to various areas, so this isn’t finished.

I really do tend to gravitate towards creating digitally these days, and loving it too I am, though I still like to sketch the bones of my idea out on paper, scan it in and then use that as a guide; I’ve still not got my head around the size on the page and the real size of the art that will result.