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Inktober 2018 – Day 7 – “Exhausted”

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Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 7 - Exhausted

Exhausted is how I feel today, so the prompt is very apt!

I woke with a migraine-type headache, and it’s only recently begun to lift, after quite a few Anadin Extras (it’s ok – I kept within the recommended dose!).

Headaches like this leave me exhausted afterwards; it’s only a good sleep that helps to remove the last remaining vestiges of them. Maybe I’ll nap in a while.

What hasn’t helped is yet another day of hammer-drilling next door. I’d’ve gone out if (a) I could see to drive properly and (b) I wasn’t expecting a delivery of a new printer.

My Epson printer died on me on Friday. Terminally died on me. It’s not been used that much. It has been used for scanning more than printing, but it just refused to work, no matter what I did.

I wasn’t very happy with it. The ink jet thingies didn’t work well after a while and I got streaks in the printing – no matter how often I cleaned them. I only ever used genuine Epson ink cartridges.

The scanner was really slow too.

So, I’ve returned to a Brother printer; this time a mono laser printer, and it arrived today and I managed to set it up relatively easily.

So, my Inktober drawing for today is above. I drew it on paper with a black Papermate Ink Joy gel pen. I scanned it in (didn’t check the settings so bits of top and left are cut off).

Then I threw it into Autodesk Sketchbook pro to change the colour to one that looks more washed out and exhausted, just how I feel – blue and grey and pale at the moment.

I wanted to add colour to the hand-lettering, but the headache means I couldn’t be arsed to do so at the moment.

My drawing skills aren’t brilliant on this one. The headache has affected my vision a tad as well as giving me slightly wobbly fingers. As the headache goes, all will be well again – and it’s nowt to be worried about; I get these headaches from time to time and I’ve not had one for more than a month now I think.

So, once I’ve finished this post, I’ll be off to make the great restorative – a good mug of Yorkshire tea! I think I may be able to face a little something to eat too, which could help too to lift some of the exhausted feeling.

Inktober 2018 – Day 5 ‘Chicken’ and Day 6 ‘Drooling’

Angela Porter

Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 5 - ChickenAngela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 6 - Drooling

Day 5 – Chicken

Chicken, I mean, chicken?!? Really? the best I could come up with were some cute, cuddly, doodle chooks, along with some eggs and feathers to decorate the hand-lettered ‘chicken’.

Oh, and I made it another dangle design. (A Dangle A Day is available for preorders).

I used Sakura Pigma Micron and Uniball Unipin pens to draw the design. I drew everything directly in ink, though I did add some pencil guidelines to make sure the letters were on the level and roughly the same height.

To add colour I used Copic markers. I added some highlights of gold using a Sakura Metallic Gelly Roll. Oh, and I added some white highlights using a Sakura Souffle pen.

It’s worked out ok…

Day 6 – Drooling

Drooling, dribbling just said ‘monsters’ to me, and as the only monsters I draw are cutesy ones this is what I came up with. Some of the monsters are dribbling/drooling, but the page most definitely is drooling from the top.

I started by colouring the paper with Distress Inks and an ink blending tool. I wanted it to look grungy and old.

Next, I started by drawing the border, then the drooling pattern at the top of the page, and added stippling for shadow.

After that, I started drawing from the bottom up, starting with some weird alien plants.

Sakura Pigma Micron and Uniball Unipin pens were used for the drawing.

After the outlines were drawn, I used the same pens to add shadows and patterns to the design. I followed this up with a white Uniball Signo pen to add the white highlights.

All caught up

These two mean I’ve caught up with the Inktober 2018 challenge! They have taken me a few hours of my Saturday morning to do, but it’s been a pleasurable time for sure.

Inktober – Day 3 “Roasted”

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Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 3 - Roasted

It’s taken me a good 2 or 3 hours to create this one!

The ‘roasted’ element is the background colour scheme. I created the roasting hot background with Distress Inks on Daler-Rowney mixed media paper (3″x7″).

I then used Ohto Graphic Liner pens to draw the design and added gold and white highlights to some of the design elements.

I like this one; the colours are what make it for me!

#inktober2018 #inktober

Inktober 2018, Day 2 – Tranquil

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Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 2 - Tranquil

Working on catching up with Inktober daily prompts.

For tranquil it had to be a mandala in calming shades of blue.

This one I did digitally; it still has taken me nearly 2 hours of work to complete. Mind you, if I’d done it traditionally it would most likely have taken me all day!

I used my Surface pen, Surface Studio and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I made use of the symmetry tool in Autodesk Sketchbook, but I didn’t use any smoothing/predictive lines. So, it was a lot like drawing with traditional pens and fineliners – the only aid I made use of was that symmetry tool.

This was drawn on one layer, though I did use a lower layer with guidelines in for the symmetry lines.

Not only does it look tranquil to me, it was a very calming process to draw this.

#Inktober2018

Inktober 2018 Day 1 – Poisonous

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Angela Porter Inktober 2018 Day 1-Poisonous

My first offering for Inktober 2018.

I went with one of my favourite things to draw – fungi, in this case poisonous ones. I also added a few seeds, foliage and petals.

Drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron 05 and Uniball Unipin 0.2 pens on Daler-Rowney mixed media paper. I used cool grey Copic markers to add shading.

Oh, I cut the paper to 4″ x 4″ in the hope it would make relatively short projects for me; this took nearly 2 hours to draw/shade!

I’m not happy with some of the textural/shading black lines, especially on the underside of the turny-uppy ‘shrooms. This drawing really does, I think, need more colour!

I thought I’d try to stick to the original precepts of Inktober and work in black ink only, but then added shading with copics, and then feel colour is needed!

It’s a good start, and is helping me get back into the flow of drawing again.

I’ll be working on Day 2 – Tranquil, later on today, and I think I may create a mandala for that. Tempted with working digitally, but may do one on paper with pen … we’ll see on that one I think.

#Inktober

October’s Coloring Template

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Angela Porters Coloring Book Fans facebook group October 2018 small

It’s that time of the month again – the release of my ‘freebie’ coloring template in the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.

Autumn is my favourite time of year and Hallowe’en is my favourite ‘festival’. Not the dressing up or trick or treat and rowdiness, though I do appreciate the excitement that the little ones have about the spookiness and slight scariness that it all brings.

I just enjoy the atmosphere at this time of year that the darker nights and changing colours and falling leaves bring. It’s the time of year where I really appreciate candle light during the evenings, creating a cosier environment at home.

There’s a little more to it than that, but I can’t quite find the words for it at the moment.

Anyhoo, this whimsical, cute colouring template is available only to members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. It’s free to join. I create one template a month just for the members (sometimes I surprise them with a second one, and in the run up to Christmas I try to do a couple a week to help with de-stressing). Pop over and join a fair number of like-minded, friendly people.

October’s Bujo Spread

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Angela Porter October BuJo Spread 2018Can you believe it? September is just about all and over with. Time does seem to be flying by at the moment.

This was a really quick bujo spread due to me being away last week.

It’s also a very messily coloured one. I can tell I’ve barely wielded a pen in the last week! Talk about shaky and wobbly and lacking the fine skills I had.

Goes to show you gotta keep working it daily, even if it’s for a short while.

Mind you, I have new glasses and getting used to them is going to take a little while. For work, I have ‘occupational varifocals’. This means the lenses gradually change from intermediate distance at the top to reading distance at the bottom. I didn’t get to use them much last week, so it’s going to take a little while and some practice with them.

I also have varifocals of the usual kind (distance, intermediate and reading). They’re great if I’m sitting down and out sketching, or drawing, or knitting and watching TV. I find them a bit disconcerting for walking around and going up/down hills or stairs or twisty turny ways they cause me to feel a bit dizzy. I know my problem is that I have really good peripheral vision and there’s a part of the varifocal lens on the outside and innermost areas that causes fuzzy vision.

So, yesterday I took my favourite pairs of glasses which double up as sunglasses (they’re very cleverly designed to have removable polaroid lenses that look like they’re part of the glasses, which essentially they are) to have single vision distance lenses put in them so I can use them for walking around and driving. I can drive with the varifocals, but that fuzzy bit bothers me.

Anyways, I have a lot of practice to do with drawing in the next day or two before I return to my next Entangled Coloring book. I’m half-way through the templates and I have some lovely reference photos from my trip for the next ones, including some ideas inspired by Forbidden Corner, maybe.

Back to the BuJo spread. I drew the design on dot grid paper using Sakura Pigma Micron pens and coloured in with Chameleon pencils.

I like the design, not fussed on my colouring skills today that’s for sure.

What theme should I go with for November? Remembrance, bonfires, fireworks…feel free to leave suggestions!

Whimsical flowers 29 Sept 2018

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Angela Porter 29 Sept 2018

I’m home! Back in the land of reliable, fast internet. Even though I have things to do, I wanted to do a little artsy stuff after a few days with little artsy stuff. So, I coloured/textured this sweet little whimsical botanical design.

I saw a lot of landscapes, architecture and plants that caught my arty eye in my time oop t’Yorkshire Dales and it’s likely to take me a goodly long while to process it all – either in artwork or in words.

I do have a travelblog – Curious Stops and Tea Shops – for things to do with my journeys (and my pal Liz if she chooses to contribute to it) if you’d like to take a look and follow it. I suspect there’ll be more posts there in the coming days and weeks as I process my experiences and as Liz helps me to put names to places!

It’s been nice to spend sometime doing something arty, even if it is just a tiny image. No doubt I’ll do more.

For now, though, I have to get back into the routines of life back at home.

Tiny botanical tile 23 September 2018

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Angela Porter 23 September 2018

Yesterday, I had an enjoyable couple of hours drawing fairly cute designs that are 6cm x 6cm (approx. 2½” x 2½”).

I drew my little designs (twelve of them in total, and not all of them I’m all that fussed on at the moment) on Rhodia dot grid paper with a Uniball Unipin 05 pen. Then, I scanned them into the computer and did my usual magic to remove the dot grid and create a transparent background.

Finally, I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and a Microsoft Surface Pen, along with my Microsoft Surface Studio to colour the image.

I used various brushes and brush textures to achieve the colouring.

It’s really small, for me. A 6cm x 6cm size would look darling on a small greetings card or note card. I also think they’d make a lovely addition to a BuJo, Planner or Scrapbook page.

Autumn Equinox 2018

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Angela Porter Autumn Equinox 23 September 2018 coloured

I’m a day early as tomorrow is the Autumn Equinox (Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere), but here’s my mandala for this year’s equinox.

I’ve made the uncoloured template an exclusive ‘freebie’ for members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. Terms and conditions apply to it’s use, so please make sure you read them if you choose to wander over and join in.

Drawn and coloured in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro using a Microsoft Surface Pen and Microsoft Surface Studio.