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!

Infinity Card – Part 3

I’m really enjoying adding panels to this infinity card. Each panel is a quick project, with no pressure to be perfect or polished. I’m finding them a fun way to explore patterns that develop from one into another, that share common features in some way, or that spark off an idea for another. It’s always a bit of a mystery trip, never knowing what the destination is, only where the journey began.

Today’s journey started in the bottom right with the Zentangle pattern “TagH”. The plumptious, rounded shapes of each part of Tagh, led me to think of circles with flowers inside, like blooming discs or spheres. That led me to Moonberry by Debbie New CZT at the top right. I used some of my favourite leaves and more TagH to fill in the remaining space.

To add volume, I used some red-grey Ohuhu brush markers. Oh, and to draw the design, I used a black Uni Emott everfine pen.

Oh, you may have noticed the notch at the top left. That shows this is also a pocket!

If you’d like to watch this panel being drawn and some sample shading click on this link to watch on YouTube.

Entangled Art Infinity Card – Parts 1 and 2

I’ve had some fun with this, and there’s more to come. And a bit of a story to tell first.

I was asked on my YouTube channel how I know which patterns go with each other. That’s not an easy question to answer; experience, experimenting, trusting instincts, and having some patterns or motifs that are your go-to ones.

Then, yesterday morning, as I was slowly coming around from sleep, I watched a video on YouTube at Jen’s Arty Inclinations on how to make a fast and simple infinity card for a junk journal.

Jen recommended going to Lynn at Playing with Paper and Glue to watch her video about making a slightly different infinity card. So I did that.

And as I watched and saw how easy it was to make the infinity card (yes, it really is!), I realised that this would be a lovely and different way to collect together my favourite go-to motifs and patterns. And that thought linked back to the comment on my YouTube channel.

So, I made an infinity card, mucked it up a bit, but learned from that. Then I made a HUGE one, which was ridiculously big! So, I made another one to the sizes Lynn gave, which you can see me doing in part 1. Then, I had to add the first panel on the left of the image above.

I went with variations of pokeroot, pokeleaf and pokepods! I’m not sure there’s a pattern called pokepods, but there is now. I cut a notch out of the card and created a little pocket for a drawing, note, colour palette, or something else to be hidden.

I drew with Copic Multiliner Sp pens (0.5 and 0.25, I think). Colour was added with yellow-grey and neutral-grey Ohuhu markers. A white gel pen was used to add dotty highlights and the pattern to the back.

In the video for part 2, I created the panel to the right. Daisies are always a flower I love to draw; I have many variations of them in my memory hoard. The flowy pattern and Diva Dance are two of my go-to patterns; they share some similarities in my head.

For this panel, I used a Uni Emott 0.4 ever fine pen to draw the design, then green-grey Ohuhu markers to add colour. Then, I used a white gellyroll pen to add the dotty highlights.

I wasn’t sure about the Tim Holtz scrapbook paper I used to make the infinity card, but as I added the panels, it mostly got covered up, just a hint of a background behind the drawings.

It may not be the best choice of paper to make the infinity card from, in terms of colour and pattern. However, as I’ve never done anything like this, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make!

Actually, I wasn’t sure about the entire project. I thought it may be a bit odd, whacky, and weird. But, now two panels are done, I’m looking forward to completing the infinity card.

I will be adding more pocketses, possibly even panels that open out to reveal more. There are, possibly, 32 panels to be done, though I’m not sure as I keep losing count! But it’s a longer-term project.

Having said that, the panels are small. Cute even. Perfect for when I have just a little time to draw.

Medieval Inspired Botanical Bookmark

I have no idea why, but tall, thin drawings (bookmarks) just appeal to me. Indeed, they always have.

I enjoyed drawing this one, and I’m fairly pleased with the chosen colours. There’s a soft, muted, vintage palette along with the flowers, seed pods, berries and leaves mainly inspired by Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts and the work of the Arts and Crafts Movement artists.

If you’d like to follow a #comedrawwithme video for this design, just click on this link!

Moon Poppies

A bookmark decorated with whimsical and stylised ‘moon’ poppies.

I really enjoyed drawing this one and adding shades of blue-grey to bring out the volume in the drawing. Of course, there is a drawing tutorial on YouTube showing how I created this bookmark.

Whimsical, stylised Seed Pods #ComeDrawWithMe #DrawWithMe

I love seed pods! They are often so architectural in nature. They lend themselves to whimsy and stylised drawings so well too.

I love giving them sturdy stems with tops that look like column capitals. The leaves on these are inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts, something else I absolutely love!

For the panel behind them, I decided to keep the pattern fairly simple – Tripoli, a Zentangle tangle pattern.

If you’d like to draw your own seedpods, then take a look at the accompanying draw with me tutorial on YouTube.

Flowy Op-Art Pattern – Draw With Me video tutorial.

In today’s YouTube drawing tutorial video, I show how I draw this pattern/design which is very reminiscent of Op-Art. It was a bit of a tricky one to figure out, but I got there! And once figured out it’s not that difficult to draw, honest!

I also show how this pattern can fill any kind of space in the video. I do hope you’ll have a look and give this pattern a go yourself.

Whimsical Flowers – Creating Variations

Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button to view in Youtube. Cheers!

Flowers are things I really enjoy drawing, particularly whimsical and stylised ones. So, today I drew a few for a drawing tutorial YouTube video.