In today’s video, I explore fragment D5 from the Zentangle Primer. Some interesting variations appeared, which were more interesting when put into either a regular or a crazy grid (or reticulum).
I decided to use Graphitint pencils to add both shadow and colour to some of the drawings.
This week, a little more than usual, my thoughts have been on peace.
Mother Theresa said, “I will never attend an anti-war rally. If you have a peace rally, invite me.” The essence of this is that if we want peace, our thoughts, words and actions need to be on peace. That resonates with me a great deal, and I did before I’d heard of this particular quote!
So, with peace on my mind, I’ve drawn not one but two colouring pages/colouring templates this week. They are available to Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group members.
However, if anyone wishes to send me an email to Artwyrd at AOL dot com, I can send them to you.
I was born in the early 1960s and have a sister who is ten years older than me. I was, from my birth, surrounded by music and imagery of the hippy era. So, it’s natural that some of the symbols of that time can be seen in my drawings.
Art is my way of not just expressing my creativity but is a way to take my mind off worries and troubles and to focus on more positive thoughts. Any creative activity that you can lose yourself in, not being aware of your thoughts, brings a sense of peace and calm, relaxation and pleasure. Colouring has the same effect on the mind as mediation, something else that I do.
Both templates were drawn with fineliner pens on paper. Colours and coloured backgrounds have been added digitally using ClipStudio Paint.
Link to today’s video on YouTube.
It’s been a funny old day. A load of deliveries were scheduled today. I’d woken way too early, and by the time I’d drifted back to sleep, well it was time to get up ready for the Abel & Cole delivery, which didn’t arrive until after 11am. If only I’d known, I could’ve had a couple hours more sleep! Ho-hum.
Still, I pottered around with different colours on yesterday’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’ drawing, as well as adding colours to some other drawings.
Finally, all my deliveries had arrived, the last one being my order from CultPens, which included a pair of D&S A5 landscape Hahnemuhle sketchbooks. So I just had to try one out.
The paper is quite thick, has some tooth to it, but not too much. You can very, very faintly see the pen drawing through the paper, but that’s not a problem at all. And adding some tinted charcoal to the drawing was a pleasure as it was gently eased into the paper fibres by the careful use of a paper stump.
I’ve tried some Graphitint pencils and a damp brush to see if that would be ok on the paper. So far so good!
So, I’m quite happy with the sketchbook paper.
This page is just a kind of doodleart that I’m exploring, along with working with alcohol markers and trying to understand how I can best work with them.
All these ‘doodles’ turned out kind of organic in a kind of mechanical way, possibly. I’ll be turning my attention to them again this evening.
Oh, I had a lot of fun drawing this lovely tangle pattern for the first time! It combines both geometric and organic elements most delightfully.
I kept the colour simple and chose not to add any shadow. This one will end up as a greetings card for sure.
There is just something so satisfying in drawing such a geometrical, repetitive pattern. It’s both relaxing but needs focus.
As I was drawing it, I started to see possible variations on this tangle pattern. Those will be shared in the goodness of time!
Until then, here’s today’s video, where I show, step by step, how to draw this monotangle. If you’d be so kind as to click the ‘Watch on YouTube’ button, I’d appreciate it very much. (It helps with the algorithm that shares my videos with others!).
After several hours adding colour to a drawing, I needed a change of pace and activity. So, some entangled art was just the ticket. With a pen. And paper.
I really did enjoy adding colour to the cover drawing for the next colouring book after Adorable Dogs. I do love working digitally. But, there’s only so many hours I can do of it, or any one activity really, before my brain turns to mush.
I now have mushy brains. Between my ears, not as some weird delicacy. Worth having them though. The cover is complete!
I’m really busy working on the cover for my next Creative Haven book. So, no time today for a video. I’ve not even started on this week’s template!
Still, I thought I’d share with you a page of weird, whimsical robots, bots, automata, thingies that I’m gradually adding to in my sketchbook. Weird is definitely the word here!
The first day of a new month, and the first day of Inktober to boot!
This year I’m definitely going to the Inktober Tangle 2021 prompt list of Zentangle patterns. I’m going to try to combine the official Inktober 2021 prompt list with them.
Today, I’ve managed that. ‘Crystals’ is the prompt from the Inktober list. The tangle pattern for today is ‘Lunar Flux’ by Debbie New CZT.
I dug out a piece of paper coloured with Distress Inks from my stash of such paper. It’s a rather grungy kind of green, which appealed to me first thing this morning.
0.1 and 0.3 Unipin pens were used to draw the design. Next, a variety of green and white chalk pastels were used to add colour, shadow and highlight to the design. Finally, embellishments were added with white Sakura Soufflé, yellow/gold Sakura Stardust, and clear Sakura Glaze pens.
There were a number of times through the process where I wondered what on Earth I was doing and was going to give up. The first was when I started to dislike the coloured paper. The next was when I thought the pen work wasn’t looking too good, I didn’t have the space to add a third stem of lunar flux (I like groups of odd numbers). Finally, adding colour with the pastels felt like I was making a bad job worse.
I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m actually quite pleased with the finished drawing. There’s some volume to the elements, and a sense of layers too. The highlights and shadows really helped to lift the colours and the design.
It’s been a lovely, if a tad frustrating at times, way to spend a couple of hours this morning.
Yesterday evening, I spent some time playing around with the basic idea of Lunar Flux and came up with a sketchbook page full of variations. I’ll show this in tomorrow’s Sketchbook Saturday vlog.
For now, I’m going to get a fresh mug of mocha, and spend sometime drawing, making use of Lunar Flux. I’m still not feeling quite right after my upset tummy Wednesday and yesterday. I had a horrible night’s sleep, with two vivid nightmares that had me wrenching myself awake from them. I have no idea what caused them, but the unease and fear they provoked in me is lingering today, along with a sense of exhaustion too. So, self-care time is very much needed today for sure.
This week’s coloring page / coloring template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group is a typically entangled, abstract, zentangle inspired and rather weird pen drawing.
It’s going to be interesting to see how people add colour to this design. My example here is the third attempt to find colours that I liked, and even then I really am not fussed on the stuff to the left. I do seem to have an ongoing issue with colours this week.
Drawn with a Tombow Fudenosuke pen, coloured digitally in Clip Studio Paint Pro.
It’s that day of the week once again. Wednesday. The day I draw the coloring page / coloring template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. And I video the drawing process too.
Today it’s only part of the template. Truly a sneak peek at a work in progress (WIP). I’ve used, so far, two Zentangle Patterns (oysteroid and flux) and a triangle leaf/seaweed kind of motif. I have no idea how this is going to finish, other than well, hopefully.
I’m drawing with a Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen on ClaireFontaine dot grid ‘Sketch’ paper. The pen dries quickly on this paper, there’s little to no feathering of the ink, and the dots I can remove digitally when I’ve finished the drawing. And then add colour…eek!
I started adding colour to another drawing early this morning. Mistake. A BIG mistake. You can see that drawing over on Instagram.
I have no idea why I keep inflicting the torture of colouring drawings in with traditional media upon myself. I don’t know how many times I say to myself I need to stop doing this, and then I go and do it again any way. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome”, is a quote mis-attributed to Einstein, but it seems relevant to myself and my colour struggles!
Today, I’m going to put it down to waking early for the weekly Abel & Cole delivery and being just plain tired. I had to return to sleep after that disastrous coloring session.
This template, when finished, will have some colour added to it digitally. I seem to do so much better when I work with colour in an art package, currently Clip Studio Paint Pro. I think it’s partly because I can make an awful colour choice and then correct/edit it easily. And I tend to stick to limited colour palettes a lot more easily than I do when I have a whole load of pencils, pens, or paints in front of me to choose from. Then it becomes a nightmare for me!
One day, I trust I’ll remember not to add colour when tired and to use limited colour palettes only. One day soon I hope!
Art is the Adventure 