Thursday is the day when I create a colouring template for Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group. It’s also the last one of this calendar year.
I’ve created a mandala that has a definitely starry theme. There are many ways of picking the starry shapes out for sure. I thought that stars radiating outwards would signify light and hope and good things spreading out around the world, a world that needs so much good now.
Thursday is the day I create a colouring page for Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group. This week, I tapped into my need to create a calming, peace-inducing, relaxing mandala. I’ve been looking a lot at the work of William Morris, and this is rather influenced by that but in my own way.
I chose a rather vintage colour palette; the muted tones suit my mood today. It never ceases to amaze me how the addition of colour, even done fairly simply as is my wont, and as very much the style of William Morris.
I drew this colouring page for Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group this morning. It definitely has a fair few autumnal motifs; however, any kind of colours could be used!
I’ve partly added colour to the design, mainly to highlight some trickier areas with lots of detail.
Thursday is the day I gift a colouring page (or template) to the members of Angela Porter’s Coloring Books Fans Facebook group.
This week it’s a mandala. Why? Well, I just really wanted to draw a mandala!
I enjoy the calming, meditative process of mandala drawing. And as I didn’t want to disturb that calm space I found myself in by making a right mess of adding some colour, I decided to go with an analogous colour scheme. Soft blue, teal and green are also very calming colours.
As it’s a colouring template, I’ve not added lots of textural patterns. However, that is something I can always play around with at another time. For now, the high contrast that brings a feeling of volume and dimension to the design is good enough.
This week’s template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Books Fans Facebook group is a mandala. I just felt in the mood to create a mandala this morning, and so I did.
Mandalas are mesmerising to me. There is something so soothing about their rhythmic, symmetrical design. Creating volume in the design is always part of the fun! Choosing colours is always a bit tricky for me, however. So today I’ve gone with golds, yellowy greens and turquoise blues. A fairly analogous colour scheme, which means the colours will always work together.
I’ve not finished colouring the mandala, and it’s likely to sit unfinished somewhere on my hard drive. But it’s fulfilled its purpose of making me smile; a contented half-smile that is accompanied by a soft, warm, glow in my heart. That’s such a lovely feeling, and it took me many years of EMDR therapy to discover what contentment was. That glow, my touchstone of contentment, is always there. I can sense it even when the dark storm clouds of some emotional upset gather. It’s like a gently glowing lantern that leads me on through the storm back to contentment. It’s an amazing thing for sure!
This week’s colouring page / colouring template for Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group is full of whimsy.
I think the birds are busy using balloons to populate the twilight sky with stars and some hearts. I’m not quite sure what the tentacles are doing there, or what they may be attached to. But they may just be a reminder that Hallowe’en will be back, sooner than we think no doubt. Are those fish part of a fishy totem shoal? Or are they just floating/flying past and the pole is just a perch for the bird?
I always need some whimsy in my days, especially as the news of the world outside my inner world is always rather grim at the moment, or that’s how it seems. I think this is why so many of my drawings are whimsical these days. Partly. I think there’s something in me that has recognised that this is, perhaps, my main artistic voice, certainly when it comes to colouring pages. And perhaps my other forms of art too.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all. Fanciful and fun. Whimsical and witty. With a sprinkle of magic thrown in for good measure.
Over the past few days, I’ve been creating YouTube tutorials on drawing my style of whimsical things – fish, flowers, circles filled with patterns, fungi, and leaves. So, I thought I’d use some of these for this week’s template. And for some reason, I wanted to add a fishy totem pole, or three maybe.
Whimsical things do make me smile. And with whimsical, imaginative kinds of line art, it gives permission to use any colours that seem fun. I add colour digitally, and the colours are often vibrant and cheerful when I add them to such cute drawings.
Of course, the drawing has to be completed, but you can watch me draw this section by clicking on this link. Maybe even draw along or create your own version!
As far as I am concerned, there’s never enough whimsy in life. This kind of art lets me escape into a cute world of my own making and, at the same time, take a break from the sad, bad, heartbreaking news that can flood in from all directions. Art is something I do have some control over and, for a while, I can imagine that I’m journeying in a world that has none of our earthly problems.
Thursday is the day I gift a colouring template to the members of Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group. I know that not everyone uses Facebook, so I am working up the oompf to sort out a mailing list, so please bear with me while I do that.
This week, it’s a right feast of funky fungi, with some flowers and foliage thrown in for good measure. As far as I’m concerned, in my inner whimsical universe, all fungi are funkily coloured! And I had a lot of fun working with colour in this one, as well as a new brush or two in Clip Studio Paint.
In today’s drawing tutorial video on YouTube, I take a look at Ansu by Lori Manoogian CZT. It’s a rather versatile tangle pattern that makes lovely flowers and foliage for sure.
You can view the video by clicking on this link.
This week’s coloring page/template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.
I used variations of the Zentangle tangle patterns Ginili, Gingo and Fragment D5, plus the little seeds/stones.
Not only did I use a limited number of patterns, but I’ve also used a limited colour palette too. That’s what I seem to do best with when it comes to colour.
As it’s grey and damp and a bit miserable out in the world here in the Valleys of South Wales, UK, warm, bright colours are very much needed. They serve as a reminder that spring is almost upon us!
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.
Angela Porter 