Angela Porter

Draw With Me … Zentangle Pattern “Huggins” Variations, Part 2.

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Link to today’s Draw With Me video on YouTube

Exploring “Huggins” is way too much fun! Actually, exploring all patterns and motifs is, but Huggins just lends itself to so many variations in lots of different ways. Even as I’m typing, another idea has come to me. It’s never ending!

I look at just a few more variations in today’s video, and I invite you to join in with me as I draw these variations.

I have lots more variations in my sketchbook, no doubt soon to have some more added!

I’m noticing that the practice of exploring, working on iterations, of these patterns and motifs is making it easier for me to do this elsewhere in my art, particularly lettering. It is fascinating how just small changes make a huge difference and lead me down paths I may not otherwise have trod, so to speak.

Becoming flexible in my creativity is something I hadn’t thought about. But here I am experiencing it and loving the process! In some ways, more than creating new artwork! I do feel, however, this is a path I need to journey down on a regular basis to keep my creativity exercised and flexible.

Zentangle Pattern “Huggins” Variations … Part 1?

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Click on this link to view today’s video.

One of my YouTube subscribers wondered what I could do with the Zentangle pattern Huggins. I think Linda’s exact words were ‘I’d like to see you take on Huggins’.

So I did. This page is as far as I’ve got for now, which is further than I got in the video. But what else is there to do while a video is uploading and processing?

Huggins is one of my favourite tangle patterns (there are many). It’s always fun to play around with varying the pattern, and it’s a very good one to add variations to!

Not my neatest drawing, but it is in a sketchbook. Sketchbooks are, sometimes, the place to get ideas down quickly as they come to you. And that’s exactly what I did in today’s video.

Seed pods and flower variations sketchbook page

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Click on this link to go to today’s YouTube drawing tutorial.

This was such fun to do! I mean, every drawing I do is fun, but this one is more so. I started with a tiny little motif and it inspired a whole page of variations.

Sometimes, I didn’t like what was there. However, I’d later go back and adjust or add to the design based on what I was learning from the later motifs I had drawn. I’d also talk about what was going on in my head as I was drawing.

It’s a tutorial for sure. Not just step by step how to draw these variations, but also about the mindset I have when I spend time with a page.

It would be fab if you’d pop along to YouTube to watch this video and have a go at drawing along with me! And then, see what other variations you can come up with! Of course, I’d love to see them too.

A flowery tangle pattern – Blomkoal by Maaike Terpstra CZT

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Blomkoal, by Maaike Terpstra, is a tangle pattern totally new to me. It’s flowery and unusual, so I just had to do some pattern exploration!

A lovely hour was spent drawing, adding colour and trying out Distress Microglaze to bring out the colours.

If you’d like to draw along with me, find out more about the variations and so on, then here’s the link to today’s video on YouTube.

A page from my lettering sketchbook

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I’m having a lot of fun practicing hand lettering! I’m taking a course on Domestika :

Hand-Lettering Sketchbook: Techniques to Unlock Creativity A course by Adam Hayes

I really am enjoying it and I’m gaining confidence in creating and using hand lettering. I suspect some of that confidence in playing around with shapes and patterns comes from all the pattern explorations I’ve been doing.

While this page isn’t strictly what the course involves, it is my kind of thing. It combines both hand lettering, my kind of pen drawing, and a way for me to get used to using hand lettering in artwork.

While the black and white version is just fine. I think it needs colour to bring it to life. So, Inktense and Colorsoft pencils are being used to do this. Once I’ve finished adding colour, I may add pattern/texture using other pens e.g. Gelly Roll pens, coloured fineliners.

Oh, I did scan this page before I started to add colour, just in case I make a total mess of it!

The words/phrases are just things that came to me as I was drawing, often commenting on my life at the time I was drawing parts of the design.

“Because I can!” is a phrase I use often during my video tutorials. Talking of videos, there won’t be one today. Time has run away with me and I have things I need to do today. There’ll be another video tomorrow, all things being well!

Draw With Me… Zentangle Inspired Flowers, Seed Pods and Peace

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I invite you to draw this design with me. Link to today’s video tutorial on YouTube.

On the weekend, I like to do an artwork of some kind using some of the pattern or motif variations that I’ve developed in the week. This week, the seed pods and flowers just needed to be used in some way.

I thought of lettering the word ‘peace’ but decided on using the peace symbol as the focal point instead. Being born in the early 1960s, I do remember hippies, flower power and the peace movement, so popping plenty of flowers and foliage around the symbol seemed the right thing to do.

The seed pods fit in well, and the song ‘Sowing the seeds of love’ by Tears for Fears came to my mind too. so doubly fitting the message of peace.

Naturally, there are some hearts hidden in there too! And the plumptious moonberry blueberries too, adding some delicious goodness too.

The green background was a tad serendipitous. Partway through the drawing, I remembered that green is symbolic of peace and harmony, among other things. Rather fitting!

I’ve only got the skeleton of the design done. I’ve yet to decide on how to add colour, shadow and/or texture. So, I’m taking a bit of a break from it for my mind to mull things over subconsciously. I think I’d better scan the page before I do anything more to it though! Things tend to go awry when I start to add colour etc.

“Bilt” variations and a sketchbook page border.

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Please click on the ‘Watch on YouTube’ option.

Bilt, a tangle pattern deconstructed by Lisa Skeen, is one I’ve not used that I remember. It is, however, great fun to explore variations of!

In this video, I go through how to draw Bilt, one step at a time, and then look at some variations.

A bit of a change from flowers, but sometimes change is as good as a rest!

Template Thursday!

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Ooh, I do love a mandala! And a flowery one is just the ticket for this week. Things botanical have been a bit of a theme for me this week, so it’s natural they’d find their way into this week’s colouring page/template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.

I kept to a fairly limited palette this week, and that really does help me produce coloured art I feel happy with. And this colour palette does make me smile.

Draw with me … A flower border

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There are never enough flowers in my life. I’ve really enjoyed drawing flowers (and seed pods) over the past couple of days. So, I thought I’d make use of one of the flower motifs from yesterday to create a border on a page edge in my sketchbook.

I like the graphic contrast of the black background and the flowers and foliage. It’s going to be a lovely page to make notes or record thoughts about whatever I’m drawing in my sketchbook at this time.

If you’d like to see how to draw this, and follow along with me, then please take a look at today’s video on YouTube.

Draw With Me… Flower Variations

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Today is one of them days when I really needed some flowers in my life. So, I decided to create a bunch of them in my sketchbook!

I started with the one in the top left and just worked on variations as I went. I’m absolutely positive that I’ve not created all the possible variations, but these will do for now. Any number of them are starting points for more variations at another time.

There is a simple contentment in drawing simply. Focusing on the essential lines. Adding stylised and simple details, one by one. Using colour to add shadow and volume brings the line art to life.

I invite you to join me, drawing your own versions of these flowers by watching today’s YouTube video tutorial.