I’ve completed more of this WIP this morning. It’s coming along, but it’s at that point where I’m starting to think, “What the heck was I thinking?” about various sections.
I know from lots of past experience that I often get this feeling as I work on some art, and all I need to do is to trust my instincts and intuition and to carry on working on it. And so I shall. This is the way.
Autumn is steadily creeping in; the tree-covered valley-side that I can see from my office/studio has more yellow-toned greens than the darker green of summer. I can make out some flashes of reds here and there too.
The sky is pale grey and there’s a distinct chill in the air, so warming orange tones were needed as the background to this intricate, detailed entangled mandala.
This mandala was created just for the simple pleasure, joy, contentment it brings me.
I create art because it lifts my heart, my soul. It expresses what I find fascinating in the world combined with my need for intricacy, detail and precision in my artwork. Art like this is always very personal expression of what keeps that artistic flame alight in my heart and allows me to create some beauty to share with the world. I smile when I create art like this. My hope is that my art spreads smiles with others who see it – whether on their lips or in their heart and soul.
A quiet, contemplative start to the day requires some mandala drawing, and this is today’s offering.
A sunshiny, chill-nip-in-the-air, autumnal morning and starting work on a new entangled art drawing. Not much could be nicer start to the day.
I had a delivery of some new fude brush pens to try out, so this one is being drawn with a Zig Mangaka Flexible pen along with a 02 Unipin pen. I’m drawing on marker paper, so I dug out my cool grey Copic Ciao markers to add some shadow to the image in places.
The nice thing about using marker paper and markers is that the ink stays damp long enough for the blender pen to smooth the edges of the grey inks out a little.
I think I’ve worked on this drawing for around three hours so far, so there’s a lot more to go! I hope I can manage to leave some white space in the design, as well as being mindful of the use of contrast so that different sections feel separate to each other.
I started with the square motifs, which are based on Mayan glyphs, and just let the design flow out intuitively. It never ceases to amaze me how layers and dimension appears. It’s never something that’s planned; it just happens and I sometimes don’t see the effect until someone points it out to me.
No central big motif, such as a moth, with this one. Just pure entangled art.
Finally finished! The moth with mandala and entangled background. A4 in size.
It’s taken quite a few hours work to complete this one, but it’s nice that it is finally done.
Lots and lots of my favourite motifs/patterns used in the entangled background – flowers, seeds, seedpods, leaves, arches, spirals and geometric patterns.
Plenty of line work to add depth and volume to the design.
I like that the white area behind the moth means the moth isn’t lost in the background. There are some areas where the resulting values aren’t sufficiently different, but I can live with that.
No colour (other than my watermark). A very graphic design.
‘Tis coloring template day for members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. Each Thursday throughout the pandemic, I’ve created a coloring page for members of this facebook group. The template is free to members, and it’s free to become a member!
This week’s features an iteration of one of my moth drawings, this time drawn with colouring books in mind. I just had to pair the moth with a mandala as that’s been my ‘thing’ for a few days now. Naturally, the mandala is less detailed than my drawings and the page is mostly filled with pattern and interest, as is my style for colouring templates.
I have autumn on my mind and in my heart, so the motifs reflect that – acorns, seed pods, berries and leaves. I’ve chosen autumnal colours to partly colour the template, but any colour scheme would work – a good thing for those of you in the southern hemisphere where spring is on it’s way.
A new moth design this morning, with a subtle mandala background. Perhaps a little too subtle when the image is reduced in size and resolution for social media.
The moth is very ‘graphic’ and stands out well against the background, but the background has plenty of interest as well.
I really enjoy adding the glowing centre to the mandala, which also helps the moth to stand out. There’s a feel of the moth having been attracted to the light.
‘Tis the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere, astronomically speaking. The day started bright and sunny, but the clouds have closed in, the breeze has picked up and the temperature has dropped a little.
Even though today may not be a typically autumn day, today’s arty offering has warm, fiery tones reminiscent of autumn leaves and bonfires. Of course there’s a black and white, graphic moth illustration.
This moth is an iteration of the first moth I drew a few days ago. it’s fun to work with images, alter and change them and create something new and different each time. It’s also a good way for me to experiment with line to achieve volume and texture in the illustration.
Having the mandala of acorns, leaves and berries become a texture upon the background means it doesn’t detract from the moth. It does add interest and another hint that I created this with autumn in mind.
Yet another artwork featuring a moth today.
I re-drew the moth from yesterday to try out some ideas I had when reflecting on the artwork. I’m not entirely sure if it’s an improvement, but it is what it is.
I also have drawn a new mandala-style pattern for the background. This time, I’ve added it as a subtle design. I think it works quite well as the moth really stands out.
Mossy green today, no idea why other than it appealed to me. It may mean a desire to be in nature to have my mood uplifted. I’m not feeling the brightest or upbeat this day. A headache isn’t helping. A walk is required in a while. It’s a sunshiny peri-autumn day, so a good day to walk I think.
The Art
I have been working on the moth drawing from yesterday. It’s a long, laborious, yet enjoyable process. So, this afternoon I thought I’d create a mandala to sit behind my moth illustration.
I’m quietly pleased with this one. I like the choice of colour for the background, even though it’s an unusual choice for me. The central glow and shadow helps to lighten the background a little and brings attention to the moth, which is the main motif in this design.
I decided to use just black and white for the moth and mandala, though there are places in the mandala where I’ve let the background show through.
I will continue to work on the other design, it’s just going to take me a couple, or even a few, days to complete.
Art is the Adventure 