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Inktober 2018 Day 19 ‘Scorched’

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Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 19 Scorched

Watch me.
I will go to my own Sun.
And if I am burned by its fire,
I will fly on scorched wings.
-Segovia Amil-

Today is Friday, so as well as being #Inktober 2018 day 19 it is #dangleday.

I had a pretty rough night. I woke with intense pains in my abdomen and had a very upset stomach and nausea. This plagued me for a couple of hours. I eventually got back to sleep, but have woken really tired and feeling wiped out.

I wanted to do Inktober and dangleday, but knew I needed to do something that was relatively easy to do, something that would brighten me up, and something that would require a quote today.

A quick hunt around and I found this quote, which resonated for me and it needed to be included in a mandala design that would symbolise the sun but also have wings and hearts.

For I think that my own sun is my heart and the self-love that I’m working on achieving through therapy and other work. It is the true nature of me; not the self-loathing and low self-esteem and lack of confidence I have. It is through believing in myself, not in the messages I’ve had from others throughout my life from as young as I can remember, that I will find my own sun, a sun that will allow me to fly even if it’s light scorches my wings. However, I think the scorching will be more of burning away the final vestiges of the limiting beliefs about myself that were imposed on me by others from a young age and beyond.

I think I know what I’m trying to say, but the tiredness I’m feeling is making it hard to think or communicate.

Now, onto how I actually created this.

I did it digitally. I used a Microsoft Surface Pen to draw and hand-letter the design on the screen of my Microsoft Surface Studio in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.

I did make use of the symmetry tool as well as the tool that allows me to move things around so I could align my text properly.

All the lines are drawn as if I would on paper. I coloured the mandala as if I were coloring it on paper, but the dangle I did use gradient fills for.

Layers allowed me to add a drop shadow and a background gradient easily. I also used a brush tool to add some texture to the background.

The background really needed to be a glowing blue sky; blue being the complementary colour of yellow/orange/orange-red so it helps the mandala and dangle to glow against the sky.

I only added one single, simple dangle made up of golden hearts and beads. You see, dangle designs do not have to be at all complex; sometimes less really is more!

I intend to spend the rest of the day taking it easy so I can recover properly from the bout of icky-sickyness I had last night.

Oh, before I do, just a reminder that in my upcoming book ‘A Dangle A Day’ (available to preorder) I show you how I design dangles and give lots of examples for you to use, adapt and the confidence to design your own. I also have some simple hints and tips on hand lettering, bullet journals and more.

Inktober 2018 – Day 4 – ‘Spell’. A Dangle Design

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Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 4 - Spell

I’m a day behind in the Inktober Challenge as far as the calendar goes. Not that it’s all that important methinks.

One thing I’m sure of is that the prompt for day 4 – ‘spell’ – just spoke dangle design to me, and as I’ve made Friday #dangleday, well it was perfect that I worked on it today.

I started by drawing the black line art on dot grid paper with a black Papermate Ink Joy gel pen. These pens are a joy to use, often a bit too thick a line for much of my drawing, but perfect for this one. I drew the design in one go – no pencil lines for anything, even though my letter S is a bit squiffy and there’s a wonky dangle.

I scanned my ink drawing into GiMP so I could remove the dot grid and create a transparent background for the line art.

Next it was using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro to add simple colour to the design and background, then to add texture using brushes. Oh, and a drop shadow. That drop shadow helps to lift the design from the background just a bit.

I’m actually quite pleased with this design, though it was touch and go whether I’d finish it or show it at one point.

When I’d finished the line drawing I thought ‘oh no, how awful this looks!’. I didn’t give up, though. I was going to try to keep it monotone, adding shading in stipples and lines and so on, but I decided colour may be the thing that brings it to life.

I’m always doing my best to say thank you to members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook page and other colorists for bringing my line art to life by wielding their magical coloured pens and pencils and other media, and commenting on how wonderful they make my line art/coloring template/illustrations look.

I often cringe at some of the drawings I did for books just a few years ago, and often at the work I do now, today’s dangle design in it’s line art version being an example of that.

Then, when colour is added it works like a magic spell in making the art look wonderful, even the simple colouring I’ve done with this dangle design.

So, all of you colorists out there, continue to work your magic spells on the black and white coloring templates and please show me the results of your color spells on my coloring templates by tagging me on Facebook, Instagram or twitter.

This would look really nice as a bujo, planner or scrapbooks spread for Hallowe’en. I think it would make a lovely greetings card or note card. It would look fabulous printed and framed in a spooky black, glittery frame and displayed as part of some Halloween decorations. In fact, it would look great all year round for fans of magical fiction, films or TV.

What would you do with it? Where do you think it could be used? Please leave comments.

Just a reminder that my book ‘A Dangle A Day’ is available for preorder and it’s due for publication in January 2019.

#Inktober2018 #adangleaday #angelaporterillustrator

 

Dangle Day Friday 21 September 2018

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Angela Porter Dangle Day 21 September 2018

It’s Friday, so that means it’s #dangleday!

A simple, elegant design with a sweet sentiment for this week’s dangle design. I like the symmetrical nature of the dangles.

I did sketch the design out in pencil on dot grid paper which I scanned in to ink in digitally and make use of the symmetry tool in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I also coloured and added texture with various brushes in Sketchbook. Naturally, I made use of a Microsoft Surface Pen and Microsoft Surface Studio to do this.

I kept to a really simple colour scheme, using just one pink, golden, blue and green colour gradient for the design, with the exception of the rainbow beads in the central dangle.

It would be really easy to put a different sentiment or greeting in the box, but I like this one.

A different colour scheme, of course, would result in a very different ‘feel’ to the card, matching all kinds of seasons and occasions.

This would make a lovely greetings card or note card. I think I’d like to use it for the beginning of each month in a BuJo, planner or diary, changing the colour scheme as appropriate for that month. I do like playing with themes for my BuJo, but there’s something in me that likes a cohesiveness in design/style.

What would you do with this design? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Of course, I could print the uncoloured version out and colour with different media. It would be no great chore to re-draw the design on paper more suitable for, say, watercolours, where my printer doesn’t cope with decent quality watercolour paper.

Just a little reminder that my book ‘A Dangle A Day’ is available for pre-order, just click on this link. In the book I give help, guidance and advice on creating your own dangle designs, as well as providing many examples of monogram dangles and dangle designs that you can use for your own projects.

Dangle Day Friday

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Angela Porter September 2018 coloured

Friday is dangle day!

We’re a week into September and autumn is nearly here in the Northern hemisphere, so I thought my dangle design should be one for this season. I think this would be a lovely BuJo page to separate the autumn months. I also think it would make a pretty notecard or greetings card. The hand lettering could be changed for another sentiment and it would be suitable for an autumn celebration. Alternatively, it would look great framed and hung as part of a quartet of designs that cover the four seasons; now there’s a project for me to do!

I drew the design on squared paper using Sakura pigma micron pens.

Then, I scanned the image in, used GiMP to remove the squares and create a transparent background

Next, I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro to colour the image, create the textured background and add a shadow to the design.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I love autumn! I love the way the world changes in terms of colours over the space of a few weeks, and the colours can be absolutely glorious.

I don’t know how the long, very hot and dry summer in here in the UK will affect autumn this year.

If you would like to design some dangles and not quite sure how, then my upcoming book A Dangle A Day (available for pre-order) will lead you through the steps as well as giving you plenty of ideas for dangle design.

Friday freebie

Just a reminder that today is the last day for you to enter any of my giveaways, the prizes being signed copies of Eerily Entangled Art, my latest book in Dover’s Creative Haven series of coloring books.

See my previous blog post for details on how to enter.  I’ll be drawing the winners at random tomorrow evening, UK time.

Furbaby Friday

Over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group, it’s furbaby friday.

Of course, it’s Furbaby Everyday over on the Happy Tails Animal Group facebook group.

Both groups would love to see your pictures of your furbabies, as would I.

Wednesday Wisdom – Fear…

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Angela Porter 18 July 2018

Another Sirius Black quote.

I printed the quote out, then hand-drew the design around it.  I enjoyed using some of my Lamy ink pens to do this. However, I needed to clear some smudges and smears up when I scanned it in.  Thank goodness for GiMP, and the magic that I’m learning to use in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.

I can see I do have some details to add to the drawing, but as I want to, eventually, colour this in in my more usual style, they can wait until then, perhaps. With colour there may be no need for additional details in pen and ink lines.

So, as well as this being a #wednesdaywisdom artwork, it’s also a #wipwednesday work too!

It’s #wipwednesday over on the #angelaporterscoloringbookfans facebook group. New members are always welcome!

Today is also the release day for Eerie Entangled Art, at least in the USA.

Don’t forget, you can pre-order A Dangle a Day and Entangled Butterflies, both of which are due out in the Autumn

 

#dangleday

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Angela Porter 13 July 2018

I declare today, Friday, to be #dangleday! And to celebrate, here’s a dangle design, which includes a hand-lettered quote.

Want to draw your own dangle designs? Need a bit of inspiration or advice? Then my book “A Dangle A Day” is available to pre-order from Quarto.

I drew this one on paper with a Sakura Pigma Micron PN pen, scanned it in and then edited and coloured digitally using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, which is now totally free! My Microsoft Surface Book and Pen were used to do this.

I’d include this in my bullet journal (BUJO) as a really cute quote page.

It would look lovely as part of an art-journal page too, though cutting out all the fiddly bits could be a bit challenging, though re-drawing them would be easy enough I’m sure.

I do have some ideas about dangle designs and art journals and other stuff that’s running around my head, but they’ve not really become solid enough that I can bring them into practice…yet.

If I made the dangles a bit longer, then this would make a really nice bookmark. It would also work quite nicely as a tall and thin greetings card, I think. Especially as the quote could easily be changed for something different.

Over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group, it’s #furbabyfriday. I’m looking forward to seeing them all! Why not pop over and say hello?

Kindness is the light that…

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Angela Porter 11 July 2018

Uniball eye pens on heavyweight cartridge paper (acid free). Coloured using Chameleon Color Tones marker pens.

Today is #wipwednesday over on #angelaporterscoloringbookfans facebook group.

Eerie Entangled Art, Entangled Butterflies and A Dangle A Day are new books from me that are available to pre-order now.

Saturday Mandala

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Angela Porter 28 April 2018

No quote, no lettering, just pure mandala. Drawn using my Microsoft Surface Pen on my Microsoft Surface Book with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.  The background was created using Rangers Tim Holtz’s Distress Inks on mixed media paper then scanned in.

Just a quick one to start the day.  I have some editing to do for A Dangle A Day (available for preorder) before going out to a Lebanese/Moroccan restaurant called Mezza Luna with my sister. For the first time, she gets to drive!

My car is still poorly; the Mercedes garage seems to be having problems working out what has gone wrong with Smartwo Deetoo.  I hope I get her back soon; if not, I’ll have to hire a car for a day or two for some appointments I have later in the week.

I’ve still not calmed down after the drama of last weekends car breakdown.  I’m all of a dither, my mind all over the place, my digestive system is still upset, and I’m so tired all the time.  How I ever managed to function as a teacher when I felt like this all the time is beyond me, but I did until my precarious mental health crashed in on me.

Over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group it’s #supplysaturday.

Shine

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Angela Porter 25 april 2019 small

Phew, this took some doing…

I tried four or five times to create this quote illustration using traditional media this morning.  I failed each time; they just weren’t right at all. I’m still really anxious/stressed from the debacle of a car breakdown at the weekend.  Once my stress hormones are elevated, it takes a goodly while for them to leach away.  It takes a good while for this to happen as I’m much more susceptible to being startled or becoming even more anxious.  I know from past experience that eventually things will return to a less stressful level.

So, in frustration, I turned to my trusted trinity of Surface book, surface pen and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and created this one.

I’m learning how to set up pens in Sketchbook pro, and finally have one that mimics a roundhand nib. My hand-lettering is still a bit wonky, but I finally have something I like.

The background was made using traditional media by myself – distress inks on mixed media paper, scanned in to the ‘puter so I can make use of them.

Drawing on the surface is almost like drawing on paper, but without the eraser mess.

I do need to create more backgrounds for me to use now I’ve got my head around doing that.

I chose this piece of wisdom for #wednesdaywisdom because it is relevant to myself at the moment and the healing I’m going through in my EMDR therapy. I’m sure, however, that it is relevant to many, many people.

On another note, it’s #wipwednesday over in the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. I keep saying it, but they’re a lovely bunch of people, friendly, supportive and appreciative of each other.  Why not pop along, join up and say hello?

Also, don’t forget A Dangle A Day is available for preorder  as is Eerie Entangled Art.

Dangleday!

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Angela Porter 20 April 2018 dangleday coloured smallFriday means dangle day!

So, here’s my dangle for today.

It’s been rather warm and sunny here in the UK.  Spring flowers are blooming.  Trees are beginning to show their fresh-green finery. The birds are busy nest-building and singing their hearts out at dawn and dusk.

So, I wanted to reflect this in my design for today, along with some nice words, and to help me get those #weekendvibes going.

If you’d like to learn more about creating dangle designs, my book ‘A Dangle A Day’ is available for preorder now.  Just click on the link!

Over on the Angela Porter’s Colouring Book Fans facebook group it’s #furbabyfriday.