I’ve had a busy day so far. First, I got a few sketches done for the next colouring book for Creative Haven. Then, after showering etc, I went out to do a little food shopping. The sun was way too bright for me and my sensitive skin, even with sunblock on! Next, after a mug of tea and some lunch, I turned my mind to creating a mandala and adding some colour.
Sorting out the colours I’d like to use for this design was a bit of a trial. But, I’m quite happy with the succulent kind of palette at the moment.
No YouTube video today. My morning warm up art was drawing for the book, and I don’t show my templates in advance, usually, though I may show a sketch here and there to whet the appetite, maybe.
Yesterday, I used one of my rather mechanical entangled drawings last week to generate some tiles and surfaces in Repper. I figured out my colour palette and how I wanted to add colour yesterday, and this morning I continued to work on the design for over an hour.
Rather than having radial symmetry, this design has two axes of symmetry – horizontal and vertical.
I did record this process, and I found myself talking about some things that are too personal to share. These were some things I needed to voice, to hear with my ears rather than my inner voice. The process was valuable to me, but not something I want to be available to all and sundry.
Instead, I deleted the audio, and replaced it with a brief voice over introduction and some music to accompany the sped up video recording. I condensed over an hour of work into about fifteen minutes.
I also learned that voice over is entirely possible to do, but that I need to find a different way to do this. The function I used in Movavi only gave me a few seconds of voice over time. I’ll work it out for sure.
This week, it’s a more geometric design, albeit with plenty of curves. I was inspired by my art of yesterday. Also, I played around with adding some texture/pattern to areas of the design as there are fairly large spaces in this one – perfect for entangling/tangling/zentangling in, if you’re of a mind to do so.
It’s Monday, so it’s time for a mandala. This one includes lots of Zentangle tangle patterns, many quite organic in nature.
I, again, chose a monochrome colour scheme, and enjoyed playing with light and shadow to add dimension to this artwork. Perhaps not quite as contrasting as I’d like, but still interesting.
Digital art – Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Surface Slim Pen and Surface Studio.
This week’s offering is a mandala. I always find mandalas soothing to draw and colour. The circular form and repetitive nature are beguiling, relaxing, soothing and magical in some way.
This week’s is quite simple, as colouring templates need to be. It’s also quite botanical in nature. The colour palette I’ve chosen is full of sunshine, growth, peace, harmony and self-care. I haven’t quite finished colouring it, but that’s fine. It did what it needed to do for me.
I’m well out of sorts today. I really didn’t want to get out of bed. But I did, and showered.
I know what’s causing my emotional and mental turmoil at the moment. I just can’t seem to actually act to bring that to an end. Guilt, grief, and other emotions are causing me problems. I know I’ll act when I’m ready to do so, but it’s so difficult to let go. But I need to do so for my own emotional and mental well being.
Talking of emotional and mental well being, today is Time to Talk Day. It’s a day where Time to Talk Wales, along with sister organisations, encourage everyone to have a conversation about mental and emotional health. All to help to end the stigma and discrimination that exists around mental health.
This year’s theme is ‘Small things’. I’ve written on facebook about three small conversations I had that have led to me healing from complex post traumatic stress disorder. Not completely. I’m not sure you can completely heal as part of surviving complex trauma is hiding that trauma deep inside. I am, however, healed enough. I’m just waiting for the lockdown to end so I can start pushing my boundaries a bit.
Anyway, I’m going to finish all the social media stuff now and then I’ll be returning to arty pursuits. Maybe a nap too as I’m feeling so tired today. Emotional turmoil exhausts me. Also, sleep is one of my coping strategies when I’m stressed out in some way.
I realised that I haven’t drawn a mandala in quite a while. So, that’s what I did! Intricate, geometric and organic repeating patterns. It was a pleasure to do.
I’m quite happy with the highlights and shadows on this one, and keeping it all monochrome works for me today as well. A calm and soothing green – just what I need today as I’m still recovering from the stress from earlier in the week.
Tools – Microsoft Surface Slim Pen, Microsoft Surface Studio, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
Yesterday I had a godawful migraine-y headache. I managed to get some drawing done for Entangled Starry Skies. However the headache scuppered my plans to complete the templates.
I woke this morning, after a broken night’s sleep due to overheating and some hot ‘flashes’, my first night time ones. So, though I’m a bit tired, the headache has, thankfully, gone and I was able to focus on work. All the templates are complete, apart from any edits on the new ones and a couple of the very first ones drawn. So, the next job will be to colour in three of the templates that the editorial team will choose. I let them have that difficult job as I find it so hard to choose just three out of the thirty-one templates.
So, to celebrate I turned my attention to my Christmas ‘card’ for this year. I do need to get a design done sooner rather than later for the cards that need printing and posting. I suspect that Moonpig will be used this year for those.
The design above is the next iteration of the Christmas/winter tree idea I have. I’ve got as far as trying out some color palettes for the final design. Green would be traditional, but I rather like the opalescent colours at the top right of the test area.
After doing my social media posts, I’m going to go and sort a late lunch/early tea out for myself. It’s a tad late to organise myself to go out for a walk – with the skies growing darker with clouds dusk will fall early. Ho hum, perhaps tomorrow!
This week’s mandala is a tad different. I decided to take my entangled assemblage drawing from yesterday and create a ring mandala behind it. The patterns in the mandala are in keeping with the focal image.
I’ve not finished colouring the focal image, yet. But I have done a little bit more since yesterday. Just a little bit more.
I rather like the contrast of teals and turquoise with browns and coppery tones, hence my colour choice for the mandala.
All in all, a fun way to start my arty work day. It’s always nice to do some warm-up drawing before I get to drawing coloring templates.
Focal design drawn using 0.35 Rotring Rapidograph and acid-free cartridge paper. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro used to add colour the to focal point, the background texture and to draw and colour the mandala.
A mandala in my entangled assemblage style. I really enjoyed drawing this, not least because I proved to myself I can transfer this way of drawing to digital art.
Unusually, there’s not a single botanical element in this artwork. Not one leaf, not one flower, nor any seed pods. It’s purely abstract.
I think I may have used up too much of my time this morning (a deadline is about to go whoosh past me), but it has given me ideas for some of the remaining templates I need to complete.
Another ‘pen went for a walk drawing’ along with a quote today.
After I’d exhausted my creativity for coloring templates yesterday, I switched to playing around with digital art for a short while to create this border.
To go with it, I chose a quote from Hundertwasser.
I remember reading somewhere, somewhen, that the intricate swirls and abstract patterns of prehistoric rock art may have been representations of those shapes and patterns we see when we close our eyes, when we fall asleep. Or even what is seen in psychedelic visions.
So, this quote about dreams seemed to fit just nicely with the design I created yesterday.
The colour I chose for the artwork reminds me of verdigris – the dusty surface that copper or bronze gets when it’s weathered and aged. It’s a calming, soothing, peaceful kind of colour, and that is the mood I am reflecting through my art at the moment.
In the evening, I sat with sketchbook and pens/pencils and just drew abstract patterns. I really enjoyed using pencil to draw with. I all too often draw directly with pen and I forget how pleasant and ‘soft’ working with pencil feels.
Angela Porter 