YouTube drawing tutorial

Inktober Tangles 2022 – Day 14 “Slidehat” by Karin Frank

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Click on this link to view the accompanying drawing tutorial on YouTube

I had a lovely time drawing many variations of Slidehat by Karin Frank earlier today.

Although not all the ‘hats’ worked out well, they were still fun to explore as possibilities. As this is a sketchbook page, the permission to experiment, explore, and try things out is implicit. A sketchbook is a place to do all these things and more. You can finish a piece of art or not. You can show people or not.

A safe place to be artful, that’s how I think of my sketchbooks more and more. I put too much pressure on myself to always finish a drawing, to have it polished and “imperfectly perfect”. If I don’t finish something, I can beat myself up. But I’m learning that in a sketchbook, I can do all I need to learn, grow, and develop. And sometimes that includes knowing when enough has been done!

It may take me a long while to be able to set aside my perfectionism to fully embrace this, but like everything in life, it is a work in progress!

#Inktober #InktoberTangles2022, Day 9 “Sumu”

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Click on this link to watch the accompanying YouTube drawing tutorial for ‘Sumu’.

Suma (to the bottom and left of the drawing) is a lovely, lovely pattern, deconstructed by Lin Chiu CZT. It very much reminds me of Medieval manuscripts and architectural sculpture. So, it was a given that I’d love it, just like Tomàs Padrós’ “Snack” in Day 8 of the Inktober Tangles 2022 challenge.

Although Lin Chiu has given many possible variations, just as Tomàs did for Snack, I kept it simple, repeating the basic form around the bottom and left of the Heartfully ‘rug’. It also had to have that architectural, sculptured, carved ‘feel’ to it. Not sure I’ve quite managed it, but it’ll do!

My design is looking a bit higgledy-piggledy at the moment; I’m just going to trust the process and see how it works out at the end of Inktober.

Inktober Tangles 2022 – Day 8 – “Snack” by Tomàs Padrós CZT

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Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button.

Snack is a lovely pattern and Tomàs Padrós CZT has created a great step out for it, which includes lots of suggestions and variations.

I have to say, it is a motif I’m familiar with, probably early Celtic art or architecture. It was great fun for me to draw, and in keeping with my rather higgldy-piggldy arrangement I chose to use it in that way. As a nod to the architectural origins of this pattern, to me anyway, I’ve worked with shadow and highlight to practically ‘scuplt each ‘snack’ element. I particularly like the ‘half snack’ versions; again, they are familiar to me but not connected to Zentangle, and there’s nowt wrong with that at all!

#Inktober Tangles 2022, Day 7 “FluxEcho”

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Click on this link to view the accompanying #DrawWithMe video tutorial on YouTube.

FluxEcho, a lovely floral tangle pattern by Lynn Mead CZT, was a delight to draw this morning. you can see my variations of the pattern to the centre-left.

I had decided to stick to a monochrome colour scheme for my Inktober Tangles, but today I decided to go a bit analogous! I’ve added some purple and blue to the design. Analogous colours are next to each other on the colour wheel – so green, blue and purple work well together. Even more so as the background is a grey-green colour.

Something had to be done about the hand-lettered panel. I’d added some colour with Inktense pencils and a water brush, but I wasn’t happy with the finish. So, I filled the panel with black ink and added the hand lettering using a white gel pen. I’m happier with this.

Inktober Tangles 2022 – Days 4 to 6 – Souk, Molygon and Heartfully

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Click on this link ot see the accompanying draw with me video on YouTube.

I’ve added the next three tangles in the #InktoberTangles2022 challenge to my drawing. I’m fairly happy with how it’s looking, but not too chuffed with my photography/scanning skills! I seem to be able to do a fairly good job when it comes to steam locomotives, but when it’s my artwork… *rolls eyes*. But I’m sure you get the idea!

Here’s the list of tangles added in today’s video:

Day 4 – Souk by Steph Kiefhaber CZT

Day 5 – Molygon by Zentangle Inc

Day 6 – Heartfully by Helen Willams CZT

These are all lovely tangles. Souk caused me some problems and with them an unexpected variation. Molygon I’ve not been able to draw successfully before. Heartfully is a lovely tangle, but not as easy to draw as it seems!

I’ve added a lot of white highlights with either a Sakura Soufflé pen or an 05 Gelly Roll. I like the way the white seems to glow against the grey-green colour of the paper I’m working on (it’s not the pale green it appears in the scan above!). Also, I’m so glad I’m sticking to a colour palette of greens with a blue-green aquamarine.

I wish I hadn’t added colour to the title label, however. For some reason it’s really patchy. I’ll work out how to improve it, eventually.

I’m going to add background shadows/highlights when the whole page is complete. But I have added a background pattern to a couple of areas at the top of the design.

Inktober Tangles 2022, Days 1 to 3

Angela PorterLeave a comment
Click on this link to view the accompanying tutorial video in YouTube

It’s Inktober! The annual month of ink drawing and other challenges of an arty crafty kind!

Last year, I did the #InktoberTangles2021 challenge. I explored each day’s pattern, often with an accompanying YouTube video. This year, however, I’m adopting a different approach. I’ve decided to look at each pattern and combine them into one big design!

The first three tangle patterns are Rain, from Zentangle Inc, Delwhy by Stephanie Jennifer CZT and Isea-u by Dory Peeters CZT. You can see my attempts at them from left to right.

Layers upon layers! A Zentangle Inspired #DrawWithMe

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Click on this link to watch the accompanying YouTube drawing tutorial.

One of my lovely YouTube subscribers asked if I could look at some zentangles by Patrica Aragon (myzenarts.ctz on Instagram) and see if I could do some artwork inspired by her work. As a YouTube drawing tutorial, of course, he asked.

Well, I looked at the artwork and then did my own version. It took a little over an hour to get to where it is in the drawing above. And there it remains until I decide how to complete the picture. If I’m going to, that is.

It was an excellent way to spend Saturday lunchtime.

William Morris Inspired Botanica

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

William Morris, one of the primary founders of the Arts and Crafts Movement, is one of my favourite artists. I love the ornate botanical and nature-inspired designs of quite stylised motifs. I also love the way that colour is used simply in them. That is definitely something I can learn from!

It can take a while for pennies to drop with me, and I don’t know how it has taken so long before I took a look at Morris’s work.

Like myself, Morris was inspired and influenced by Medieval manuscripts. That explains a lot!

I use some motifs from Morris’s designs in this drawing. I applied colour with chalk pastels to the pen drawings, with subtle white highlights from white charcoal. I’m quite happy with the result; I’ve not decided what to do about the background.

Where is this study going to take me? I don’t really know! But I know it’s going to be an interesting one. I’m particularly interested in how Morris used colour, and I hope that will make me comfortable with my own simple way of adding colour to my art.

Seed Pods and Flying Seeds

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Click this link to view the accompanying drawing tutorial on YouTube.

I love seed pods, and here is a small selection of my favourite ones, just pen sketches with some light washes of Inktense added to some.

I don’t know what it is about seed pods and flying seeds that I love so much. Maybe it’s their shapes, or the association with autumn, or the architectural and aeronautic nature of these seeds. Or it could just be they appeal to my sense of aesthetics!

Either way, they are fun to draw, adapt and use as focal points in drawings.