A clutch of Zentangle inspired designs

Link to #DrawWithMe YouTube Video

A difficult few days for me, but finally settled to do some little little art! Just a few patterns from my oldest Pinterest Tangle board!

Zentangle Inspired Drawing | Draw With Me Video

Draw With Me video on YouTube

This design was inspired by a Zentangle Tile I did in the Tea and Tangle session organised and run by Tracy Hough CZT.

I wanted to do a design that was simple (ish?) and didn’t use too many patterns. This will form a page in my accordion journal.

The paper is Clay toned paper from Fabriano.
The pens I use are an 0.3 Unipin fine liner and a Tombow Fudenosuke.
To add colour, I used some Derwent Drawing Pencils in Chinese White, Pale Cedar and Olive Earth.
White dots were added with a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.
Gold details added using a gold glitter Unball Signo gel pen.

Entangled, Zentagle Inspired Drawing – 28 January 2013

Click on the link to view the accompanying Draw With Me video tutorial on YouTube.

Yesterday, I had a stinking cold. One trip to a café for lunch by myself, and I pick a bug up! I’m feeling a lot better today; still not right, but better. Anyhoo, I just ran out of steam after filming the video and uploading it. I had to stop and sleep.

So, the drawing is an unusual one for me. I used an 05 brown Sakura Pigma Micron pen and added some shade/colour with a port Graphitint pencil and waterbrush. The white patterns were added using an 08 GellyRoll pen, also by Sakura.

The paper is ‘naturel’ coloured PaintON Mix media paper by Claire Fontaine, and it’s approx 10cm x 14 cm in size.

There’s more to do in terms of colour, shade and highlight with this drawing. But not today. Today I need quiet time to rest, recover, and maybe do some quiet work. I have three colouring pages to add colour to as soon as possible. Then I can breathe for a while and really take some time to recover my strength, resilience, and equilibrium after what seems like months of hiccoughs, starting with the muscle damage between my ribs nearly three months ago.

Adding colour with Pitt Pastel Pencils

Arty Musings

Click this link to view the YouTube video where I partly colour this drawing.

A day or two ago, I started to add colour to this drawing using Pitt Pastel Pencils from Faber-Castell. I thoroughly enjoyed using these pencils, possibly more than alcohol markers! That was a big surprise! I think the paper makes all the difference. I drew the design on ClaireFontaine PaintON mixed media paper in a natural colour. This paper has a ‘tooth’ to it which the pastel pencil can be worked into to ‘fix’ it somewhat.

I tend to approach adding colour as a way of adding another layer of pattern. It’s not about representational art and giving a realistic look. For me, it’s about playing with layers and volume using contrast. If I keep this in mind, then colouring can go reasonably well.

I kept to a simple palette of three browns and two greens. Oh, and a white pastel pencil too. I also used gold ink on the ‘beads’ and found that I could add shade to it with pastel left on the paper tortillon.

I will finish adding colour to this design; it will find its way into my accordion art journal. But I won’t be finishing it today.

Overwhelmed and overwrought

My emotions are all over the place for reasons I’m not going to go into. But, just to say, it’s been a tough few days, and I’m now officially exhausted.

I’ve had to push through with work to get the first drawings for my next colouring book revised and inked in. I still have one template for Whimsical Houses to colour, which is my plan for tomorrow. Not today. I can barely keep my eyes open.

I need to be gentle with myself and give myself some quiet, relaxing time and plenty of opportunities to sleep so my brain and emotions can reset. Some Star Wars may be in order … Yes, a good dose of Star Wars always does me good!

Zentangle and Early Celtic Art Inspired Drawing

Click on this link to view this design’s Draw With Me YouTube video.

I very much enjoyed drawing this design. It all began with a bit of chance. I grabbed my notebook full of motifs and patterns and opened it randomly. On the pages were some Early Celtic Art patterns dating back to the Iron Age. So, I started at the top left with one of these and let the rest of the design flow intuitively. Some patterns and practices were inspired by Zentangle principles. Oh, I did include some motifs inspired by the work of Yellena James.

I love Early Celtic (La Tene) art. It’s full of swirls and spirals and asymmetry too. It just intrigues me so much. Of course, I really enjoy drawing these kinds of non-representational designs very much.

Next, this design will need colour/shade/highlight somehow. I don’t know whether to use Inktense pencils or chalk pastel pencils. Either would work on the paper I used – ClaireFontaine’s PaintON mixed media paper.

I used 0.5 and 0.3 Unipin Fine Line pens from Uniball. The paper measures approx 4″ x 5.5″ (10cm x 14cm).

Flowy patterns, seeds and a seed pod

Click on this link to watch the accompanying YouTube #DrawWithMe Video Tutorial.

I love curvy, flowy, abstract patterns and the illusion of depth, volume, twisting, and bending space. And seed pods. And seeds. So lots of my favourite things in this design. I even snuck in a few spirals!

To add shade, I used three cool grey Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens. Though they haven’t blended smoothly, I’m quite happy with that. The design looks almost metallic as a result. In fact, I am happy with this design in its entirety. I could increase the contrast a bit more between the darkest shadowed areas and the white highlights. But I can always revisit that in my own time.

More Mushrooms!

I thoroughly enjoyed drawing this design. I’m fairly happy with the colours, but not the extra pen work to add shading/texture. I’m just feeling very tired – peopled out after brunch with my niece and older sister today. Mind you, it was the brunch – I had garlic mushrooms on toast – that inspired the drawing. Well, my love of mushrooms did.

There is a #DrawWithMe video on Youtube you can watch if you want to draw this design along with me.

All the P’s! Pods, poppies and poppy pods!

Click on this link to watch the accompanying Draw With Me video on YouTube.

I really enjoyed creating this small design. And it is a small design. The tag it is on is just 12.5cm x 6.8cm (that’s approx 5″ x 2.75″).

I chose to mix seed pods, poppies, and poppy pods in this drawing. Lots of Ps for my surname! A different way to create a ‘monogram’ – all motifs beginning with P (apart from the leaves … but I think I can be forgiven for that).

My emotions are still all over the place. But I’ll get back to a stable footing, for a while at least. Drawing is always a soothing thing for me, especially when the motifs or patterns I’m drawing are familiar. Familiarity is soothing. Drawing. Star Wars. Various books and audiobooks, and TV series. No change in the story or relationship with me. Not at all difficult to navigate as the world of actual humans. Having said that, each time I watch a film, re-read a book or listen to it once again, or watch a familiar TV series, I gain something new. An insight here and there, a connection, some piece of understanding.

Knowledge. Insight. Understanding. Important things for me.

Monogram “A” Tag

After a day of focusing on inking in colouring pages, I needed something a little familiar and soothing to calm some overwhelmed emotions. So, I chose to make a little tag for my accordion journal. To decorate the tag, I created a monogram, a Zentangle style embedded letter A.

As I was drawing it, It struck me how much the folded patterns remind me of metamorphic rocks. That made me smile for sure!

I enjoyed the graphic black and white of the finished design, so I chose not to add any shade.

Click on this link to view the Draw With Me video on YouTube.

Drawing Practice! (And a catch up).

It’s been a while, but it’s nice to be back. I’ve had to take a break due to an injury. I damaged some of my intercostal muscles, and drawing, sitting, and typing has been almost impossible for nearly four weeks. But I am slowly getting better.

I have missed being able to create so much, yet I’m so rusty at doing so as well! I may not often post for the next couple of weeks or so as I continue to heal and improve, but … as time goes on, I’ll get back into the swing of things for sure!