The design was drawn with a medium nib TWISBI Eco fountain pen filled with Documentus Ink on an A4 sheet of Canson Imagine mixed media paper.
I’ve added colour digitally, so making this tradigital art! Why digital colouring? Well, partly because I can, but also I can try different colours out.
Adding colour was interesting it seems. I started thinking I’d use softer, more muted, less saturated colours. But that soon changed, without any conscious decision, to richer and glowing jewel-like or metallic colours.
As I tend to work very intuitively, whether drawing or adding colour, what appears in my creation is an expression of my unconscious, inner self. I’m sure there’s a message of some kind here for me about me!
That’s right, there’s an annual day to celebrate coloring books and to indulge yourself in the relaxing, calming, stress-busting activity of coloring, no matter your age or gender!
As you can see if you browse this blog, I do a lot of art. Whether drawing, colouring, or other forms of creativity in art it really does relax, calm and soothe me when I need it.
And there are times when I really do need calming and relaxing. It’s no secret to anyone who has followed my blog for a while that I have complex PTSD (CPTSD) and I am slowly recovering from it with the help of EMDR therapy. On the days where I have low mood or anxiety or I’ve been startled into hyper-vigilance, art really helps to soothe my jarred emotions and calm me until the stress hormones leach from my body returning to their normal level for me. That is still an elevated level, but a level that has always been there in my life.
It’s not just me saying this. Research has shown that spending time colouring has a similar effect on the brain as mindfulness meditation.
One piece of research at the University of West England in Bristol has shown that colouring can reduce stress, boost creativity and increased mindfulness (being aware of what you are doing at that moment, not thinking about the future or past).
There are so many coloring books available as well as colouring pages, you can find just about anything to suit your tastes. Also, I have many colouring books available (I think it’s around 20 now) – have peek at at my Angela Porter Amazon author page.
If you like to draw your own designs to colour and are looking for something new and a little different, then you may like to take a look at my book ‘A Dangle A Day’. In the book I show you what dangles are, how to draw them and use them with hand lettered sentiments and monograms. They’re fun to draw, simple, and there are many ways to use them such as in bullet journals (BuJos), planners, journals, scrapbooks, greetingscards, note cards, bookmarks and more.
Also, I gift an exclusive template to the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group at least once a month. They’re free to members and shouldn’t be available anywhere else, though intellectual theft isn’t unknown in the realms of the internet.
The image above is the August template for the facebook group. I coloured it digitally using gradient tools for some speed. It would take me weeks to do the way I’ve been creating digital art of late!
No matter what you use to colour – digital or traditional media – I’d love to see how you’ve brought my line art to life, whether from one of my books or from one of the templates available in the facebook group. There’s also some templates available on my angela porter illustrator facebook page too.
Here’s the tags you can use to connect with me on the social media platforms that I use:
Here’s a little teaser of a #freebiefriday dangle design I’m giving away for personal use in celebration of my soon to be released book ‘A Dangle A Day’.
You’re free to use the template for your own personal use, but it is not for re-sale in any format.
Feel free to share the link to angela-porter.com in your social media posts.
I’d love to see how you colour it in – you can post your images in the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group, or tag me in your posts on other social media platforms.
It would be lovely if you could also use the @quartocreates tag so the publishers can see your glorious colourations!
A Dangle A Day is available for pre-order and it’s release date is 11 October 2018 in the UK and 4 September in the USA. In the book, I give lots of designs, advice and instructions on how you can draw your own dangle designs for use in many different projects such as greetings cards, bookmarks, pictures, keepsakes, and bullet journals.
First work in progress (WIP) for this Wednesday is the Doodleworlds colouring book. It is currently in the last phases of approval and proofing at CreateSpace.com, so it should be ready to purchase soon! There will be a pdf version available on Etsy at the same time.
The coloured cover art on the front and back covers has been done by the winners of the contest run in the facebook group Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans.
Here’s the back cover with the list of winners and their images on the covers:
Congratulations to them, and thank you for your work as well!
WIP Wednesday is a weekly event in the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group, so pop on over if you’d like to join a whole heap of lovely, creative, friendly coloring fans!
And here is my contribution to this week’s WIP Wednesday:
The first is the sixth in the ‘Color Me’ series from Race Point Publishing, part of the Quartos group. This one is called Color Me Grateful, and is Lacy Mucklow and I It’s already available in the US, and in the UK from Thursday.
Last week, someone on my facebook page asked if I had a peace sign design. I didn’t, but I do now, as you can see above.
If you’d like to download the image to print and colour for personal use (no selling on, no publishing in other places without express permission from me), please visit my facebook page! I hold the copyright to the image and all the legal stuff that goes with that!
I admit, the lines are thick on this one, but then it will, hopefully, end up looking like stained glass!
All I ask, is that if you do colour it, please share an image of the coloured design with me either here or on my facebook page, or on instagram – I really do love to see how people interpret my designs and bring them to life with colour!
Here’s a little teaser of a #freebiefriday dangle design I’m giving away for personal use in celebration of my soon to be released book ‘A Dangle A Day’.
Angela Porter 