Yesterday’s black and white, graphic monograms of the letter R now coloured, with added lines and metallic highlights.
For all of the letters I used a combination of Copic markers and Chameleon Color Tones colored pencils to add the colours.
I chose Copics over Chameleon Markers as I really wanted soft, gentle, almost pastel colours for these letters. The only way to get these with the Chameleon markers is through gradients with the colourless blending chambers. I wasn’t at all confident I could get the soft, gentle colours with slight blending. So, I went with something I knew that would work for me – Copic Markers with Chameleon Color Blends pencils .
I think I got way too fancy with the added lines on the lower letter R, but it’s all a learning process.
I am really pleased with the others. The colours I chose or, rather, the pastel nature of the the colours, isn’t characteristic of me, but I think they work really well here.
Of course I had to add some metallic highlights. For the smaller Rs I used Uniball Signo metallic gold and silver gel pens.
I started work on these early this morning – around 7am. And I’ve finished for now – it’s around 9am. I’ll return to them later today or tomorrow as I have a lil trip out for lunch with a friend.
Some different kinds of styles appearing in this little bunch!
The big R at the top is mostly done – it just needs some colour I think. It’s also similar in style to the previous monograms, starting with the yellow K did a couple of days ago. It’s been drawn with 08 Unipin and 04 Sakura Pigma Sensei pens. Green metallic embellishments have been added with a metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen.
The R at the bottom, with the thick lines, was drawn using a Tombow Fude brush pen. Not easy to control the thickness of lines, so I used a Uniball Unipin pen to tidy up the lines and add the bits on the end. Not sure how I’m going to progress with this one.
The two in the middle row have been drawn with the Unipin and Sensei pens.
The R to the right was drawn with a Uniball Unipin brush pen, which is a bit easier to control the line thickness than the Tombow Fude pen. I did neaten up the lines and ad more using the Unipin and Sensei pens.
The bigger the letter, the more space for embellishments – the paper size is A4 (approx 8″ x 10.5″) in size and it’s white and very smooth Daler-Rowney Bristol Board. The smoothness of the paper makes it so easy to draw smooth, even lines on it. It won’t take water colours or watercolour washes, but markers and coloured pencils work fine on it. Tombow Dual Brush pens and similar tend to cause the paper to pill. Of course, I can always use a scanned image to colour them digitally.
Yes, I could also add dangles to each monogram. However the purpose of this exercise is to practice my hand lettering, particularly in this rather ornate and embellished style. Dangles can be added in the future.
I cover drawing monogram dangle designs in my book ‘A Dangle A Day’, which is due to be published in just over a week! Exciting!
Three variations on a theme! All hand lettered and hand drawn on Daler-Rowney Bristol board (A4 in size).
For each I used black 08 Uniball Unipin and 04 Sakura Pigma Sensei pens. Here’s the other media I used for each monogram:
Top – Copic markers, Herbin Copper ink with a glass pen.
Bottom left – Copic Markers for the base colour, Chameleon color tone pencils for added depth of colour, gold metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen.
Bottom right – Chameleon color tone pencils for the colour and a silver Uniball Signo pen for the metallic highlights.
It’s taken me around 5 hours or so to complete the set of three. I’m still feeling my way with this style of hand lettering.
For the monograms coloured with Copic markers I started by drawing the letter with the Copic markers and then added the black line work before adding the metallic highlights and Chameleon pencil shadows. I love having a solid shape to embellish with line, pattern and metallics. However, white space is only possible by adding lines outside of the main shape. Which is fine. I could add white space inside the letters either by leaving some in the design before coloring, or using white ink to cover up the copic colours. These two letters look a lot more solid and heavy.
For the L coloured with the Chameleon pencils I drew the black line work first. The advantage of this is that I can leave white space within the letter. this gives a bit of a lighter, airier feel to the letter, which is helped with the less dense colour of the Chameleon coloured pencils.
I’m not sure if I like the metallic petals in the top monogram; the ink spilled over the black lines and I tried to add them back in to define the petals but it just seemed to sink beneath the metallic pigments.
Also, the glass pen with copper ink that I used to add the metallic highlights to the top monogram was a lot finer than the Sakura gelly roll so it was easy for me to add tiny patterns and shapes. The Uniball Signo silver pen gave a much finer line than the Sakura Gelly Roll so it was easier to add highlights to the bottom left monogram, but I knew I’d not be able to get as much fine details or patterning with it as with the glass pen.
Overall, I’m fairly pleased with the finished results. I’ve learned that I’d like to leave white space in my monograms when I’m hand lettering them in this way. Maybe if I want to use Copics in future I should use a pale colour to draw the shape of the letter and then use darker tones to add dimension and depth to the design, allowing the lighter colour to act a bit more like white space. Of course, I can always draw the design with black lines first and then add the colour. Each has it’s advantages and disadvantages.
I’m not sure which is my favourite. I rather like the one on the bottom right. As it’s smaller in size I’ve not quite managed to go over the top with the embellishment. I like the white space within the letter. I also like the more subtle colours I’ve used.
I think I’ll take my attention to a different letter now, another I’ve not done a monogram for before, well not outside of my soon to be released book ‘A Dangle A Day‘. Of course, the monograms in the book are all dangle designs too. It would be easy enough to add dangles to these designs for sure, well it would be if I’d left enough space for them!
However, my reason for doing these monograms is to add to my repertoire of hand lettering styles. These may not be entirely unique in the realms of hand lettering, but I do want to work with them and find my own way through this to something that people can look at and say ‘that’s Angela Porter’s work that is’ in the same way they do when they’re familiar with my coloring books and my style of drawing there.
This is what I’ve spent the last 2 or 3 hours doing – I lose track of time when engrossed in an artsy project.
After the K monogram yesterday I wanted to try my hand at another letter and I just chose my own initial. I really do need to do some different letters though!
For this one I started by drawing the letter in colour using Copic markers on Daler-Rowney Bristol board. I did do a vague sketch of the letter with pencil very lightly which I then erased.
Black lines to define the letter were next, followed by the lines outside of the letter and the sectioning of the spaces inside the letter.
I wanted to finish some of the lines with some interesting shapes, so naturally I defaulted to hearts and beads!
I used some of my favourite geometric and abstract patterns to fill some of the spaces, along with dots and lines.
The penultimate step was to colour in some of the blank spaces, the hearts and beads using Copic markers.
Finally, I used a glass pen and metallic gold ink from Herbin.
I worked with traditional media to do this one, so I could use gold ink, which is something I’ve not quite worked out how to do digitally.
Having said that, my process for creating this monogram is the same whether I work with traditional media or digitally. The only difference is that some of my ‘overspills’ with the lines in the tiny patterns I have to leave here and accept as it being ‘perfectly imperfect. Also, the colours aren’t as bright and vibrant as they would be digitally, but they’ll do!
Yes, I could add a dangle or three to this design, but, again, I’m happy with how it is…for now! I’m just happy exploring hand lettering in a different way to what I’ve been doing.
If anything, this hand lettering is more about shapes and patterns than it is about letters themselves. I know this is a step forward for me in finding my hand lettering style (or one of my styles at least), and I also know that as I become more comfortable with it and don’t have to work quite so hard at it (working hard is thinking about the lines and working out how to add the embellishments so they feel part of the design and not just plonked there for the sake of plonking them there) I’ll work out how to add to them in a sympathetic way.
What letter will I do next? You’ll have to wait and see!
On looking at the monogram K I posted earlier with slightly rested eyes and mind, I’ve decided to leave it as it is. For now at least. I may try to add a dangle design to it in the coming days.
So, I thought I’d post my page of various hand lettered styles of the letter K. I used a 0.4 Sakura Pigma Sensei pen to draw them. No pencil lines were used for any of these letters, just the dot grid to help me keep things vaguely organised and vertical where they need to be.
I like the 0.4 Pigma Sensei pens. You may notice that I do tend to vacillate in my choices of pens – I just like to change things around from time to time! The Pigma Sensei 0.4 has a solid plastic tip, a bit like the Pigma PN pens. That means it’s not quite so easy for heavy handed me to wreck the nib as quickly as I do on the Sakura Microns or Uniball Unipins or Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens or the Copic Multiliners.
That doesn’t mean I’ve managed to use them until the ink runs out – the nib gets wrecked long before then – but they do seem to last longer.
I’ve spent the 3 hours or so that I’ve been up adding patterns/motifs to my lovely new A4 Leuchtturm dot grid ‘Master’ notebook. It’s a rather comforting activity for me. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to do this in various formats in order to create my own reference book of patterns/designs/motifs and so on. However, realising that my use of a bullet journal is working for me on a more or less daily basis, at least as far as organising myself and making notes ot what to do, what’s been done and so on, I wanted to use a very, very basic form for this visual reference for me.
The A4 notebook will also take up a lot less space than the ring binder I’m currently using. It is a bit cumbersome working in the hardback notebook compared to loose leaf paper, but it should help to keep things all in one place. It’s the method of tracking collections in a index in bullet journal fashion that will make it most useful for me.
So, this morning I’ve started to add my small collection of medieval motifs inspired by jewellery and floor tiles.
I suspect I’ll be having a bit of a quietish day today. I’m practically nodding off here as I type! Maybe a short nap later will help me a bit – but not too long otherwise I’ll be up at stupid o’clock once again!
This is what I end up doing when I’ve fallen asleep earlier in the evening and end up being alert far later than I’d like to! All thanks to that one small glass of port after my lunch. I very, very rarely drink alcohol, so it always floors me either in terms of needing to sleep or in terms of my mood. At least this time it was the nap, so I’ve still got my calm, content mood intact at the end of this day – the first time I’ve felt this way on a Christmas Day for many, many, many years. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way. Therapy is working! Yay!
Anyways, after I woke, had a huge mug of tea, I picked up a dot grid pad and a 0.4 Sakura Pigma Sensei pen and started to draw variations on the theme of letter ‘k’ as I listened/watched the second part of the Fellowship of the Ring.
I then remembered that I wanted to try something digitally like I did yesterday, so this is the result. I’ve been working on it for over 2 hours (it’s now around 1:30am, so if some words don’t make sense it’s because I’m just about ready for my bed).
I started by sketching out the shape of the letter in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, using a Microsoft Surface Pen on the screen of my Microsoft Surface Studio.
The next step was to finalise the shape and redraw it and colour it in. After this, I added the black lines round the K, then the curvy lines on the outside edges. The final step was to add the patterns and colour in small sections of the outside embellishments. Oh, and I created a thin drop shadow and plonked the monogram on top of a paper texture background.
What I want to do tomorrow is to add a dangle to the design. I started trying to do that this night, but my concentration is now going. I also want to try to add some shading to the patterns within the K too. I think they could do with a bit more illusion of dimension.
Oh, the knitted stegosaurus is now complete. I may photo and show. Not sure if I’ll be doing any more knitted dinosaurs. I much prefer amigurumi! I have started an amigurumi monster, but I need to remember to limit my time spent crocheting as it does make my finger joints ache in a way knitting and drawing don’t.
Wishing everyone who visits this little space on the interwebs all the very best blessings and wishes of the season.
I also wish to thank you for visiting, for sharing my posts.
However you spend this day, whether with friends, family, at work, or by yourself, I wish you well and the best.
About this image
I woke early-ish this morning and had an idea that involved creating this mandala/wreath design, so I had to do it!
Unusually, I drew the motifs in colour! Yup. No black line, just colour.
They’re all very simple with simple colour gradations. The black lines were created by removing colour so the dark background would show through.
I think the outer ring of leaves could be a little lighter, but then it does give a sense of the outer ring bending away, with the hearts and mistletoe on the high point of the ‘wreath’.
Adding texture to the design helped to scuff up the perfection of the colours.
I really enjoyed doing this, as simple as it is.
I am really grateful that I used an insulated mug for my gingerbread mocha latte this morning – I forgot all about it for over 3 hours, so engrossed in my art as I was, and it’s now just the perfect temperature for drinking!
My tools were Microsoft Surface Pen, Microsoft Surface Studio and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. Yes, this is a digital piece of art.
The rest of the day I intend to spend in arty/creative pursuits, including finishing off my knitted cuddly triceratops (yes, I know yesterday I incorrectly said it was a stegosaurus).
I was browsing through ‘Decorated Lettering’ by Jan Pickett yesterda and came across something I thought I’d like to try. This something involved drawing a letter using coloured pencils or watercolour pencils then adding patterns and embellishments afterwards.
I usually do the patterns and embellishments first, then add the colour. But I also know that if I were to use coloured pencils, watercolour pencils or other media over my line art (traditional art time here!) then the black lines can become masked a little by the colours.
So, I had to try this out.
I grabbed a pad of Daler-Rowney Mixed Media paper along with my Inktense pencils and a fine water brush and began the process of creating the design in colour.
I did use a pencil to sketch out the shapes very lightly, even using an eraser to make them lighter still. Pencil can become trapped under colours and become difficult to erase.
As I knew I’d be posting it on Christmas Eve, I thought a monogram C along with a simple Christmas themed dangle would do the job just nicely. Red, green and gold had to be the colours used too.
For each part of the design I used two or three different colours to achieve the colour gradients. Once I’d finished this step I scanned the drawing/painting/design in and you can see it on the left. Scanning does tend to wash out the colours a little – they are a little more saturated, honest, but not much more.
Then the fun begins. I decided to use a 0.7 Copic Multiliner outline the design elements and add some of the patterns and lines. I then used a 0.25 Copic Multiliner to add some of the finer lines, particularly around the dangles.
I was toying with the idea of using a dip pen or brush and gold ink, but thought I’d play it safe this time and go with rather graphic black lines.
My final steps included using green and gold metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pens to fill in small sections and add dots. I regret the outlines around the stars.It’s made them way too heavy and cumbersome I think. However, as this was an experiment, was me trying something a bit different, it’ll do.
Although I carefully drew out the design elements and added the colour to ensure that the shape was maintained, adding water to activate the Inktense colours meant there were places where I didn’t keep to the shape exactly. I used the finest water brush that I have, but I really could’ve done with not being so lazy and grabbing a fine brush and a pot of water. However, as this was just a bit of a play the waterbrush worked.
Also, I realised that I could fix any wobbly edges with the black lines and any overspill could be incorporated into the embellishment lines/patterns quite happily.
So, I didn’t start over. I went with the imperfections in the ‘just colours’ version.
Next, it was the fun bit – adding lines and patterns. My favourite thing! This time it was adding them to the shapes formed by colour, which is backwards to how I usually work.
There were times when I was getting a little stressed about the lines not looking right or I was making a mess of it all and I’d have to start again.
However, I reminded myself it’s an experiment, it’s trying something new to me and I just need to trust myself and go with it. Which I did. After all, working directly with black pen with no pencil lines, as I mostly do when I draw, means that what you put down stays down!
Adding metallic colours to these patterns as well as the dots around the lines meant that I became happy with what I’d done.
What I could’ve kicked myself for, however, was using the mixed media paper. This has a grainy texture to it and the pens just didn’t want to leave clean lines on it. I do have smooth watercolour paper lurking in my stash, but the mixed media paper came first to hand. Also, some of the smooth watercolour papers – the hot pressed ones – aren’t as white as the mixed media paper and I didn’t want the vibrant colours of the Inktense pencils to be dulled. Mind you, a watercolour paper would’ve helped the colours to flow and not be quite so patchy I think.
Overall, I’m fairly happy with this. It is ‘perfectly imperfect’ in its own way. Learned from the process. Enjoyed challenging myself to do something a little different. It’s certainly something I’ll be doing again, perhaps with different media. Copics or Chameleon markers spring to mind, as do Tombow Dual Brush pens and the Kuretake Clean Colour Real Brush pens, though not exclusively these. I do have watercolour pencils here somewhere, and Distress Ink pads and refils so they’re a possibility too. And, of course, I have plenty of coloured pencils.
I definitely have a love affair with digital art these days, but I also love using traditional media. They’re both important to me and allow me to express my creativity in different ways, that are really the same in so many ways.
Traditional media really makes me have to accept imperfections in colouring and line work as I create. Digital art means it’s easier for me to create those perfect colour gradations and to blend colour and add texture and so on. Also, it’s so easy to have really vibrant colours with digital art, something I really struggle with when using traditional media. I do love vibrant colours, if you hadn’t noticed!
I woke early this morning, it was still dark. The night has now lifted to reveal a dull, grey, misty, damp morning here in the Valleys of South Wales.
I wanted to re-colour the holly mandala in a more traditional colour scheme of red, green and gold, and so I have done so.
The colours help to give an illusion of dimension to the concentric rings in the design. Of course, the colours are kind of my signature – bright and jewel-like. I chose to change the background colour from stark black to a very dark, inky night-sky blue. I did add some lighter texture to the background to break the colours up just a tad.
It’s worked out ok. I think I prefer it muchly to the green foil version. The foil images are fun to do, that’s for sure. And of course they’ve allowed me to work out another way of creating art digitally, which is essentially by removing black to reveal the design. This has resulted in me drawing my motifs in a slightly different way to how I’d usually do them. They definitely have more of that lino-cut feel to them with the simplification of designs and lines. I like that.
I also like how the holly berries in the outer ring seem to be floating above and below the leaves. That wasn’t intentional! It’s just how it’s all worked out.
Sprinkling stars everywhere is one of my favourite things to do it seems and they do add a little magic to this design for sure.
Which version do you prefer? This one or yesterday’s green foiled version?
Tools used – Microsoft Surface Pen and Surface Studio. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
Holly is the major motif in this mandala, along with stars and geometric patterns.
Again, it’s a mandala I’m pleased with. The green metallic designworks quite nicely with the stark black background. I like the simplicity of the motifs too; they remind me of lino cuts just a little.
This one was, too, created with a Microsoft Surface Pen and Surface Studio along with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
Art is the Adventure 