art

Rainy, grey Monday afternoon…

Angela Porter1 Comment

It is damp and dismal here in the Valleys of South Wales, UK. There’s a misty/foggy feeling to the view from my window which hides much of the glorious autumnal colours. A wind waves branches and leaves and I’m grateful to be safe, dry and warm at home. A spotify playlist is gently playing through my Huawei Free Clips as gently potter around taking photos and panicking about what to write about today.

Let’s start with my current works in progress (WIPs)…

Yesterday I started on this one in a YouTube livestream. Just like what to write about in this blog, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do! Well, apart from adding some distress inks to colour the white paper! Evergreen Bough, Peeled Paint and Aged Mahogany. Not as pale as they appear in the video/photo. But dark enough to ‘break’ the blank, white page.

The paper is half letter size and I’m using it in landscape; it’s much easier for me to use when videoing and I’m less likely to go out of view. I get so engrossed in the process of drawing I forget to check in still in frame. But hopefully I’m forgiven by the viewers.

All I wanted to do was to relax and enjoy the process of drawing and to try to limit myself to a small number of motifs and patterns. This is something I’d like to continue to do going forward…but who knows what I’m likely to do next. For now this works for me.

This one is something I’m working on away from the cameras. I’m using a letter-sized piece of paper and, again, a limited number of patterns/motifs. I’m using 0.5 and 0.3 Unipin fineliners as I find I really do like bolder lines. If I use finer pens it never feels right to me, and I think I have to learn to trust my own instincts and tastes a lot more.

It seems I’m also returning to not leaving much in the way of white space…but I think that’s more to do with the style of the art I’m creating.

What I do know now is that I’m feeling brain tired and need to nap before my meditation class this evening otherwise I’ll be good for nothing in leading the meditation.

Updates – 2nd November 2025

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Hello There!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? The reason? I’ve been finding it difficult to manage my various autistic batteries viz. social, sensory, interoception difficulties and masking. That results in my mind ‘short circuiting’ and I find myself mentally tired, and unable to speak, listen or do much. When this happens, my mind and senses are just so tired that I need a lot of alone time, sleep, and activities that soothe me.

Add to the mix that menopause has hit and it has all intensified so much, especially with all the ways that the hormonal levels have changed.

So, I’ve not had the mental capacity to write blogs, post art or just do more than draw from time to time, listen to TV/Podcasts that don’t cause a drain on my resources, and sleep a lot. Oh, and StarDew Valley!

I’ve felt that I’m permanently on the edge of a shutdown, heading to a burnout all the time. I recover somewhat in a day or three, but then I end up draining the batteries again.

The odd thing, or perhaps not so odd thing, is that when I’m with people and and getting towards overwhelm, I’m discovering stims I never knew I had, particularly when I’m with people in person. That is interesting to me, as is the realisation they’re helping me cope with things so I can finish the event.

The hardest challenge for me is learning to manage my energy and remembering that ‘NO is a sentence’. One of my problems through life has been being a people-pleaser; another autistic trait. Using ‘no’ and not feeling guilty is really difficult, but I will get there… perhaps!

Three Pen and Ink Drawings

I read a book – “Draw Tiny and Make Great Art!” by Anna Tjalsma-Pogorzelec (@Licosmoss). It helped me to rediscover my love of drawing small motifs and patterns and weaving intricate drawings – the type of art that got me noticed and led to me working as an adult colouring book artist.

Over time, however, the requests from publishers was to be less intricate, larger motifs and characters, and though I enjoyed the work, I lost my connection with my love of intricacy.

I’ve rediscovered it and the three drawings at the top of this post are my latest versions. There’s a bit of creepy cute going on for Hallowe’en (one of my favourite times of the year!). But there’s also botanicals and my beloved arches that I don’t draw often now.

I smiled and giggled as I drew these drawings, something I’ve lost overtime as things got all too serious in some ways.

So, another thing I need to do is try to be true to myself as much as possible. Draw in ways that allow my arty heart to sing it’s song of creativity. Create work that makes me smile, and then share the joy with others.

This world needs more whimsy, smiles, and joy, and if my art contributes to that even just a smidgen then I’ve done something positive as an artist.

Inktober Tangles 2025

I did complete Inktober Tangles 2025! I did so in seven livestreams on YouTube. You can find the videos in the live section of my channel.

I really enjoyed the challenge, which I always seem to do as an exploration of each pattern, looking for variations and working with them.

I also have found that ‘going live’ is really good for me. I can get a video done when I have the mental/emotional energy and focus without the adding drain of editing and so on. It’s also nice to have some interaction with people who message in the chat during the livestream.

Creating content by livestreams isn’t as draining for me as you might think, given my comments above. I’m in my safe, quiet home. I’m essentially chatting about the art, things that are going through my mind as I draw. There’s not much noise going on around me (though at the moment noisy, bangy fireworks are going off…again) and I don’t get so drained. Even if I feel tired after the livestream, It’s a different kind of tiredness to interacting with people.

So, going forward with YouTube I’m going to focus on livestreams, as impromptu as they may be, as a way of creating content without draining me. Art is one of my passions, sharing my processes and lessons I have/am learning is too. Editing videos really is a real drudge and drain on my resources! Wellbeing boundary set!

It’s been a while…again…sigh.

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It’s been a heck of a year, this 2024. Between anaemia, fatigue and brain fog exacerbated by COVID followed by tonsillitis in the last couple of months and other things going on, it’s been tough to focus long enough to post anything much to social media.

I haven’t done as many colour templates as I usually would in a year for the Angela Porter’s Colouring Book Fans facebook group.However, I’ve managed to get three done in the past couple of weeks and I’ve just uploaded them to the group. You can see the templates at the top of this post.

I’ll also be making them available for free on my Ko-Fi store. In both instances, terms and conditions for use do apply.

It’s soothing for me to draw and create, but so hard to put words onto a page, or into a YouTube video. I have, however, done a few Draw With Me live streams, which are easier for me to do than record, edit, upload and so on – less brain power needed.

I’ve also learned a lot about my art in the past year. Understanding what is an expression of myself, including in some ‘styles’, and accepting this has been a significant step forward for me. There’s more, but I’ll blog about it another time. The fog is closing in, and I have more to do today…

I know I’ll get better. I’m taking B12 and iron if it’s anaemia. If the fatigue is due to long COVID and/or perimenopause, things will also improve in time. I just have to learn to pace myself and not overdo things on a day when I have lots of energy (or when I’m masking my tiredness to interact with others). This is most definitely a work in progress.

Also, I’ve realised that I must draw designs/sketches before inking in digitally. My mind just can’t adapt to drawing entirely digitally. On paper, I quickly have an overview of the whole design and how it will appear to others’ eyes, too. I don’t get that sense digitally. So, I think that tradigital is a way for me to work – traditional pen drawing with digital colouring.

There is one exception to this, however. That is the drawing of geometric designs such as tiles and mandalas. I seem to be able to do them so much more easily digitally as I can concentrate on the lines and shapes I’m drawing rather than focusing on the maths and measurements.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been getting used to my XPPen Magic Drawing Pad for drawing mandalas and adding colour. I’ve found that I like Sketchbook and ClipStudio Paint for designing and adding colour.

I really had hoped that the Magic Drawing Pad (an Android tablet that has a paper-like screen and the ability to draw smoothly accurately and with large artwork) would make it possible for me to use it instead of a paper sketchbook. I’ve tried so hard, but my brain just won’t adjust. C’est la vie!

A change in blog name. Exploring collage.

Angela Porter2 Comments

The new name…

Yesterday, I did a live stream on YouTube, where I tried my hand at creating collage papers, making collage and mark making. It was an interesting experience, but more about that later on.

The topic of adventures came up in my wintering and the change in title is a result. For me, art is always an adventure. I’m always trying out new things, exploring older ways of working, and developing in my artistic expression.

Adventures aren’t necessarily big trips to far away places. There are so many little daily things that feel like adventures to me- the change in light through the day, the weather, the rhythm of the seasons and stars, the humourous behaviour of my neighbourhood jackdaws. There’s also reading new books, listening to stories and documentaries, trying new dishes, listening to music that is new to me, and so much more. I have a great deal of curiosity and desire to know more about myself and the world that I live in.

It’s a good thing that an adventure can be described as new ideas and grand mysteries. It’s about enjoying the journey with no time pressure, no idea of a destination, just a desire to discover more about how I like to express myself creatively and, through that, learn more about the more profound mystery that is me.

Over the years, I’ve dabbled a bit with collage but never really found how I like to use it other than as an interesting background in a sketchbook or maybe a pleasing arrangement of papers at the edge of a sketchbook page.

I love paper, however, and want to use different kinds of paper, and perhaps fabric, in my work. However, whenever I try to, it doesn’t feel right.

All of my artsy journey has been an adventure. I try out new things and retreat into the familiar when I feel uncomfortable with art, life, and myself. But even with familiar methods, things change due to experiences. Progress is always made. Lessons are learned. Insights are gained, especially from what I don’t like about something and what can be done to ‘fix’ it.

So, chatting in the live chat as I created part of this collage, the idea of my blog changed to reflect my description of how art is a great adventure. I thought of “Angela’s Adventures in Art,” but Judy suggested “Art is the Adventure.” I chose that, though I was tempted by “Art is the Way,” a bastardization of “This is the Way” from the Mandalorian.

And so, now the time is to change the name, but not the web address of my blog; that will remain artwyrd.com.

Collage

I am intrigued by collage, mark-making, and mixed media. Yet, whenever I’ve tried them in the past, I’ve usually felt disappointed in myself.

I remember looking at the collages by Juan Gris during my A Level and loving his work. I actually created a quite nice collage using his methodology. However, I never really followed it up. Yet, the distant memory still brings a sense of joy and, I think, excitement. I have problems identifying my emotions, and they are often faint to boot.

Anyway, I love the work of so many mixed media artists, and I admire their skills and creativity. Again, I’ve tried mixed media many times, and each time felt like a fishie out of water.

I’ve recently looked at collage and bought some books that demystify the process, or so I thought until I tried my hand.

I wasn’t happy with the colours. I glued papers down before I should have. I didn’t think about the scale of the page (A5) when I decided to put really thick black lines. I had to troubleshoot the mess I felt I made of the little leaves down the stem/trunk.

Today, I’ve spent sometime treating this page as a page to reflect on my experience and create a kind of journal page as a result. (Hence all the writing on the page). I’ve also added some patterns and makes in pen and watercolour.

Also, I made some more collage papers to try again. This time, I used Canson Imagine mixed media paper, as watercolours and Distress Inks work well enough on it.

I know I need to consider the size of the paper I’m using as a substrate when cutting or tearing the collage elements. The same is true for the pen thickness.

I have an inkling that my strength may be in more abstract work. Last night, I tried creating a collage that would look like a collection of buildings, but it didn’t feel right. That’s a good thing, though, as it’s something else to reflect upon and make notes on the page.

I really hope I can find my way with collage/mixed media. It will let me use my love of pen drawing, patterns, textures, symbols and stylised art in a different way. I have a desire to involve my love of different kinds of paper in my work.

At the moment, I just feel lost at sea, without a paddle or rudder, and at the whims of the currents of creativity and art.

I was dithering about showing this debacle of a collage publically. Then, I realised that if I am going to write about my arty adventures, then I need to recount the tougher, messier, unsuccessful parts.

The perfectionist and the messy debacle

I have been plagued by perfectionism all my life. I can get very disheartened when my desire for something pleasing to the eye and heart falls even a little bit short. In this case it falls, to my mind and heart, a lot short.

One thing I have learned that this is ok. I’ve learned that even if something is a messy ‘failure’ it is a success in many ways as it’s an opportunity to learn!

I certainly have a lot to learn from this particular collage mini-adventure. But the adventure isn’t over. I have some new coloured papers to use. I’m going to stick with the A5 sketchbook and work on a smaller scale and try out more abstract/stylised shapes. Keeping it simple to begin with may be a very good idea.

I like the idea of using the colours in the collage paper to be the colours used in any artwork, lettering, stitching etc.

And, if nothing else, learning that my adventure may be to discover that while collage and mixed media may not be for me, I can still enjoy the work of others. It may lead to new ideas, new techniques, a different way of deconstructing and reconstructing motifs and patterns going forward.

I can’t possibly predict how this side-adventure in my artsy adventure will work out. All I know is it will lead to interesting places with plenty of things to learn from the experiences it offers.

recent art and thoughts

Angela Porter2 Comments

The woes of social media…

I’ve been almost totally absent from social media for a while. For a few reasons, I’ve been finding it somewhat overwhelming. I’m seriously considering how many social media platforms I use, deciding which ones suit how I enjoy communicating, and how to sort this out. I’ve not made any decisions other than keeping my blogs, Curious Stops, and Tea Shops.

The realisation has dawned on me about how much time social media can suck from my day, but also how much energy. Also, to be honest, I really don’t get social media. I have the same problems interacting with people on social media as I do with humans in person! Ah, the wonders of neurospiciness! And I’m slowly working out how to balance my energy levels as I learn more about my neurospiciness.

Two YouTube videos and one livestream over Monday and Tuesday depleted my energy levels. I enjoyed creating the content for my YouTube channel, but I had no idea how much this affected me. I had to go back to sleep a couple of times between 7 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Postie saves the day with New Noodlers Ink!

It was only a door knock by my friendly postie that got me up and moving. The last time I saw my postie was last week when I was suffering an IBS flare-up with a migraine; I was feeling and looking more than a tad grim. He asked if I was feeling better. I said kind of but migraine-y, which was true. But two mugs of tea, some food and some pain killers has worked it’s magic.

I’m glad it did, as he had a parcel with a bottle of Noodlers Walnut ink for me. After some brunch, I had to clean out one of my TWISBI Eco fountain pens and fill it with this ink. The first try of the ink was disappointing as it looked pale orange-brown; I was hoping for a much richer colour. However, it darkened to a beautifully rich, red-brown colour as it dried. The ink is semi-bulletproof, which means it’s waterproof primarily, but some will dissolve in water. That’s something I want to try!

Oh, and there are more semi-bulletproof inks in the Noodlers range. The green-brown one intrigues me!

A flip-through of my Recent Art…

So, even though I’ve been absent from social media, including this blog, for a while, I’ve been enjoying creating different kinds of art.

One of the videos I released on YouTube was a flip-through of my recent art. This included my more abstract, twiddly, entangled art, creepy-cute drawings, and some whimsical people and animals inspired by the work of Danielle Donaldson.

All of the art I’ve produced I’ve enjoyed for various reasons. Learning how I can ‘overegg’ a drawing with too much texture/pattern and not enough open space is a lesson I have yet to learn.

Working with some of the lessons in Danielle Donaldson’s book The Art of Creative Watercolour is helping me better understand watercolour, colour mixing, and how I like to work with this medium.

I’ve enjoyed drawing ‘littles’ from the same book by Danielle – whimsical people, often with wild hair and fun clothes. Then, I tried drawing cute, whimsical critters in the same manner.

However, I’m so used to drawing with a fineliner pen that using pencil instead of pen to draw the characters and adding colour felt wrong. However, looking back on my sketchbook work, I realised I immensely like it! What a revelation!

So, I tried drawing an ‘illuminated letter’ with pencil and adding colour with soft, pastel watercolours. That still doesn’t feel ‘right’ to me. My love of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval manuscripts doesn’t let me use just pencil for such work. That’s not a problem at all!

My creepy-cute drawings bring me joy and laughter as the characters appear on the page! Ink is the suitable medium for these, though I may try the Danielle Donaldson method out of curiosity at some point. I enjoy the more ‘cartoony’ feeling of the black fineliners, but I’m open to experimenting with a different style.

The creepy-cute critters have lent themselves to using alcohol markers and cross-hatching/textural patterns to bring them more to life. I’ve particularly enjoyed using more vintage colours for them.

I’ve made some choices with the creepy cuties that I regret in hindsight. Colour choice really can be an issue for me. Using a limited palette is the best way for me to work, though I sometimes forget that (and I rolled my eyes at myself as I typed that!).

I can’t say often enough that I love creepy cuties! Pure imagination and fun, and they bring out the pink and sparkly goth in me!

Exploring motifs based on a shape.

This was a livestream I did on YouTube. It’s a technique I love to do, and encourage viewers to draw along with me.

So, I begin with a shape or basic motif. Then, I work on variations of inner patterns, basic shapes, etc. I drew some variations in ink, left others with pencil lines, and added colour with watercolour pencils and a waterbrush. The brush was used to pick up colour from the tip of the pencils, allowing me to get delicate colours.

I managed to fill a page with variations in my A5 sketchbook. However, I didn’t get to add colour and details of highlights/shading to more than one and a half lines.

I really enjoy YouTube live streams. Interacting with people through live chat is a lot of fun. It’s also nice to know that people are joining in with me and finding inspiration in what I share, both the art and my words.

A Stylised Ammonite

The image at the top of this blog post was created in another YouTube video.

To start, looked back at the page full of the motifs created in the livestream mentioned above. My aim was to use it to make a pattern.

Now, I love ammonites. Indeed, spirals of all kinds have always fascinated me. There’s something so beautiful and joyful about drawing a spiral, or any curved line. Even my ‘straight lines’ have a softer feeling to them than those drawn with a ruler. Curvy seems to be a signature of my art! The imperfections are a manifestation of the way I draw, and I’m good with that. I’m human, not robot or AI!

Anyway, I started with a small ammonite, drawn with an 0.2 fineliner. I filled it with the Zentangle pattern Diva Dance. Diva Dance reminds me so much of the patterns you can see on shells, and it’s a pattern I love to use in various ways.

After that, I used a pencil to draw a guideline for an outer spiral. The chosen motif was repeated to fill the space and to create the pattern.

The next job was to add an underpainting. As I was completing work on the page of motifs, I’d used a Van Dyke Brown watercolour pencil to add shadows to some of the motifs. I loved this so much more than graphite and a tortillon, so I decided to use a burnt umber Inktense pencil to do similar here.

Inktense was chosen because it’s waterproof when dry. This was important as the paper I was using wasn’t watercolour paper.

The next step was to add colour. I decided to use reds, yellows, and pinky oranges for some of the motifs and turquoise and green for others. Complementary colours are one of my favourite ways of using colour. In this instance, I added the watercolour pencils to the paper and blended it with a waterbrush. I should have used a finer brush for the smaller and narrower areas. However, I wasn’t too worried if the colours ran or overspilled; this was more of a sketchbook page to try an idea out rather than a finished artwork.

I can have a tendency to hyperperfectionism. I’m learning that it’s okay not to be perfect in the art I create, that it’s OK to make mistakes or be a bit slapdash. I know I can re-draw the design, improve it, and choose how to add colour.

I often think that I’d be better off adding colour digitally—creating tradigitalart. That way, I can easily change my mistakes. That’s not something I can do on a livestream. But if I decide to redraw this design, I can scan it and colour it digitally.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I’m painfully aware of all the icky bits of the artwork, but I remind myself that it’s not a finished work.

Closing thoughts

I need to consider and think about a lot of stuff. The biggie is not tiring myself out, so I’m good for nothing for several days. Social media is a constant bugbear for me. I prefer to create and explore art, knit, nap or read. Oh, and cook, eat and sleep and do all the other things that I have in my life.

I have to think about how to increase my income, too, trying to forget about my worries about AI art. So much is overwhelming, though. I will get there.

All I know, for now, is that I really enjoyed creating YouTube videos and doing a live stream. There was something energising about it, as well as tiring, in a good way.

I may be ‘missing for a couple of days, especially as I have something ‘people-y’ to do this evening; as lovely as it will be, it will exhaust me.

But for now I will sign off and do some drawing and get ready to pop out for a while this evening.

Some of August’s Artyness…

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August has been a weird old month. I managed to get all the pages for my next colouring book called “Daydreams” done. The work was enjoyable, but the constant fatigue hasn’t been. All I have to do now is to add colour to two templates!

I’ve managed to get some videos done, too, three in the last few days! They can be seen on my YouTube channel @AngelaPorter.

I have rediscovered an old love and source of inspiration – Ernst Haeckel. I bought myself a collection of his work for my birthday. It fascinates me and entrances me – both the beauty, the detail, the stylised way of drawing and the science that goes with it! It’s all the things I love most about scientific drawings and illustrations. And that love has followed me through my life.

Unsurprisingly, I’ve dipped my toes into the richly inspirational waters of the Arts and Crafts movement. Again, the wonderfully stylised yet richly intricate designs fascinate me.

I’ve taken time since finishing the artwork for the book to indulge myself in sketchbook work, pattern and motif explorations, and the simple joy of drawing.

I had thought about creating a ‘junk’ journal. Well, more of a sketchbook cross art journal cross zibaldone/commonplace book cross journal cross elements of junk journaling.

As I started to work on it, I got so overwhelmed. So, I started to put together a disc-bound sketchbook. As I’ve added work to the sketchbook, ideas of how to incorporate elements of the various kinds of journals/sketchbooks start to make sense.

This tells me I really do need to stop getting overwhelmed and start with a drawing. Then, just trust that creative intuition will work its magic and meld ideas together – one at a time.

One thing at a time. One thing at a time, as in one focus at a time, is easy to do. I find it hard to juggle multiple projects. I have a couple or more on hold. I know if I start on them again, then that project may totally take over my focus. But starting at any one of the projects after a break can fill me with anxiety and fear of failure. I know that to do nothing is the only real failure, but picking up a project after a break from it and having to pick up the flow of it again …

Well, perhaps I need to learn to trust the creative and inspirational flow and put aside the fear, doubts, and negative inner voice. Easier typed than done!

Linked to this is I’ve started to read Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”. It’s surprising how much of this I recognise so far – I just needed the words for how I work. I am going to work my way through it, though. I have a feeling it will be very valuable to me. And some lined paper for the daily pages has arrived today, so no excuses tomorrow morning!

A peek inside my new sketchbook

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Earlier this week, I started a new sketchbook. This is an A5-sized one from Royal Talens Art Creations range. The paper in it is ivory, sturdy and reasonably stiff. It’s smooth enough to be a pleasure to draw on with all kinds of pens, yet it has enough ‘tooth’ to work with coloured pencils. It will also take very light washes of water-based media. Distress Inks blend nicely on the paper, making less smoothly blended backgrounds easy.

Page 1 started the sketchbook off, and a dragon surprised me by peeking out of the entangled foliage and artefacts! That wasn’t a conscious decision; it just happened. This makes this dragon the guardian of this particular sketchbook!

The other pages are me trying out monograms, some more successfully than others. And that’s the whole point of a sketchbook; it’s a place to try things out, experiment, practice, and become familiar with new (or old) media and techniques. It becomes a storehouse of ideas, a record of my artistic journey.

I also allow myself to finish a drawing or leave it as it is. I can write notes and ideas, commentary and reflections on the pages themselves or if there’s not enough room on pieces of paper, that can be attached at an appropriate point. This way, it becomes more than just drawings. It really becomes that record of an artistic journey.

The A5 format means it’s easy to carry while away from home, along with a small pencil case with the bare essentials. I can record things I see that interest me.

There are elements of stylised art, abstract art, Zentangle-inspired art, Rebecca Blair-inspired patterns, botanical, architectural details, imaginative designs and intuitive work, to name a few!

An intuitive, abstract, entangled piece of small art

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Link to the accompanying Draw With Me video on YouTube

I had a lovely couple of hours this afternoon drawing and then adding colour to this small artwork. And small it is; the paper I used is an approx 10cm x 10cm (about 4″ square) piece of Canson Imagine mixed media paper.

I chose this paper as I enjoy drawing on it with a fountain pen. Today’s pen was an extra fine nibbed TWISBI Eco pen filled with black Documentus ink. This particular ink is archival and waterproof. Perfect as I had decided to add colour using Inktense pencils and a waterbrush.

The more muted, earthy tones do suit my present mood. I’m feeling rather tired, flat and disconnected from everything. Perhaps the earthy tones represent a need to spend more time with the physical world rather than in my head, imagination and creativity?

I do know what has caused this mood – too much adulting, people-ing and a couple of other things that I’m not going to share (sorry!). Out of sorts is what I am and have been for a while. I know it’s a temporary thing for me, a readjustment to changes that are ongoing.

The daily dose of anti-depressant/anti-anxiety meds keep me from sliding down into a dark pit of despair and tsunamis of tears. I know they only mask the anxiety I feel when I’m around people, whether one or many. My hands shake, my vision is different as the hypervigilance kicks in. Getting home means time relax and rest and it can take me days to recover from each people-ing.

All I’ve wanted to do for the past couple of weeks (or even few months) is to lose myself in art, audiobooks, music, and interesting tTV.

And, to circle back, my art tends to reflect this in one way or another.

I am learning to embrace the imperfections that appear as I use Inktense pencils and a water brush to add colour. I’m starting to accept that the imperfections create intriguing textures.

Discovering interesting shapes and patterns in my drawings is also fascinating to me. I need to remember to use a ‘viewfinder’ as I did two decades ago when my art journey began. Isolate a section of a drawing to re-draw on a bigger scale and work on developing it as a new work.

Hanging on my walls are three oil paintings I did about twenty years ago. They are abstracts of patterns from the robes of a Romanesque angel sculpture, the cogs from a diesel locomotive and the worm screws from a steam locomotive. I used a view finder to isolate the sections of my photographs/drawings to enlarge and recreate as abstract paintings. The colours I used for each painting reflected my emotional response to the original items and places where I found them.

Each of these oil paintings have a lot of contrast and trick the eye into thinking they are three dimensional. I didn’t realise I’d done that until the art exhibition at the end of my AS course. People kept touching these paintings and I didn’t know why. So, I asked a friend. She said she expected to feel ridges and valleys and was surprised to find they were totally flat and the illusion was purely optical.

Once she’d pointed it out to me, I could see what she meant!

That love of using high contrast to bring out dimension hasn’t left me. I’m not sure I’ve achieved a great level of contrast in this small drawing; there are some areas where shapes appear to curve up or down and where layers are more apparent. I may revisit this little artwork to increase the contrast at some point in the future. Maybe.

Illustrated Journal – a collection of motifs and patterns – page 2

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It’s a gloomy, wet Saturday here in the Valleys of South Wales, and the weather matches my mood. My inner sun touchstone of contentment is still there; I can sense it as a constant beneath the clouds and know that it is there the same way I know the Sun is behind the clouds (or the Earth at night). All storms, or successions of storms, eventually pass, and I know that the stormy inner weather is related to something(s) I’m having to work through and sort out. I will get there. I was reminded today that I’ve got myself through such times in the past and that I’m quite capable of doing so again (thanks to my friend for reminding me!).

To use my metaphor, I’ll weather the storms that come and go, and art will help me do so.

When I sit and draw, my mind empties of all the thoughts the negative self-talk likes to shout at me, the sunny touchstone shines through the clouds a little more and the contentment increases. For a while, I have a break from it all. And when I stop drawing, I feel better, even if the storm starts up again.

I will be fine; I am in many ways. And there’s always art. And writing. And music. And Star Wars!

Oh, the page above. I worked on it last night and today. I’ve done as much as I want on the page. Partly coloured or shaded, and some areas with a darker background. It is, to me, a way to suggest what I could do. That’s why I like pages like this. Unfinished, or inconsistently finished, with possibilities and potential and inspiration.

I used 05 and 01 Sakura Pigma Micron Pens to draw the design. To add some shade and the background, a Warm Grey III Pitt Artist Brush pen was used. And various Graphitint pencils and a water brush added colour to other motifs.

A Grand Day (Creepy Cute Style!)

Angela PorterLeave a comment

Where has this monstrous mushroom been? And why has the raven accompanied him? The sun has set on the day, and the stars twinkle in an alien sky. Yet the mushroom has managed to acquire a cute heart balloon and a rainbow lollipop, and a bit of a sickly complexion too. Where in the galaxy have these companions been and what have they been up to?

I’m sure there’s a story to tell, but if there is, these unlikely companions are keeping it to themselves… for now. And if I know the tale, and I’m not saying I do, then I will have been sworn to secrecy too!

I could be accused of having too much fun with my creepy cuties (Kreepy Kuties?). Does that bother me? Not one tiny bit! I’m enjoying drawing, exploring a new kind of style to add to my toolbox, and just plain indulging myself in some creepy, crazy, cute, critter-y, klutzy monsters!

I finally turned to digital art to colour in my pen drawing. What a sigh of relief I gave as I did so. Yes, it’s fun to add colour with traditional media, to a degree in my case. But it’s so much more satisfying for me to add colour and texture digitally.

Traditional pen drawing on paper combined with the addition of digital colour makes it tradigital art!