Collage

Create with me | Collage and Zentangle Patterns

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Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button. Cheers!

This was a lot of fun to do earlier today. Before I filmed my process and thoughts, I made some collage papers using Paper Artsy Fresco paints, which are chalky, soft acrylic paints. I remembered I had some in my stash after watching a video about collaging by Art With Em. I suspect I have other acrylic paints somewhere, but the Paper Artsy paints were the ones I liked – they dry quickly, the opaque ones act like a coloured gesso, and they have nice flat, ‘soft’ surfaces which you can write/draw on.

Next, I made some A6 (approx 4″ x 6″) background panels. I added colour with Distress Inks and used a stencil to add some background patterns.

Creating a collage ‘cluster’ was my next step. So, as well as using a torn piece of one of the Paper Artsy papers, I used some digital papers and a quote I’d printed.

The quote didn’t stand out on the damask patterned paper, so I used some Inca Gold Alchemy Was from Imagination crafts to add a sheer layer of gold. When the light hits the gold just right, that’s what you see. Otherwise, the pattern is partly hidden by a dull, gold-brown. I quite like the ghostly look of the print on the paper this way.

As I put this three-layer ‘cluster’ onto the background, I didn’t like the blue-green against the yellow-green of the background panel. So, I used the Inca Gold Alchemy Wax to colour the area behind the panel. And that felt so much better!

Next, I drew some Zentangle style patterns above and below this central collage cluster. To do this, I used olive green and rusty brown Arteza Inkonic fineliners. With the leaves on the Fleavy pattern, I used a damp brush to kind of fill them in with some of the colour. Then, I wanted to bleach out parts of the panels with water splatters. A paper towel picked up the water with some of the ink – pen and Distress- and I ended up with a ghostly kind of pattern. I did the same with the rusty patterns, one of which is the Zentangle pattern Tripoli.

I wanted to add some Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink to replace some that had been lifted off. Then, to finish it off, I splattered little drops of gold watercolour .

This is so different for me, yet I like it. I know that I’m in my early days exploring and experimenting with this kind of technique. One thing I really do want to do is practice, practice, practice and develop a hand lettering style that will work well with this.

Don’t compare. I create differently because I am different.

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In today’s video on YouTube, I draw the leafy and berry-loaded kind of tangle pattern with Arteza Inkonic pens. Then, I use a brush and water to dissolve, move and blend the ink to give a watercolour feel to the pattern. Finally, I splatter water over the drawing to bleach the Inkonic ink as well as the background Distress Ink.

Away from the camera, I added a phrase that I’d printed out on some digital, vintage lined paper. I didn’t want to wreck this one with my clumsy hand lettering!

I’m quietly fairly happy with this particular artwork. I have never really felt comfortable drawing in colour. But, blending the inks with water and the softer, almost painterly look I find I really like. That has really, really surprised me! I even quite like the collaged papers. I can even say that this is now done, though I do have a bit of an urge to splatter some gold paint on it. I will reel in that urge and it will pass.

Start of a new page in my lettering sketchbook

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Again, I woke before 5am today, even though I didn’t go to sleep until nearly midnight. This is getting ridiculous!

What else to do until I’m either ready to sleep again or give up on sleep and start my day proper? Oh, art of course!

So, I decided to divide a page up in my lettering sketchbook. Then, I coloured the vertical sections with distress inks. The colour themes from left to right are blue, pink and green, with bits of crossover.

Next step? Collage some papers to create areas for hand lettering to go. That squared paper needs to be toned back a bit – white gesso will be just the ticket!

Then, I did some hand lettering and added some patterns. I thought I’d use some fineliners – Inktonic Pens from Arteza to be exact. the collaged paper does like to soak the ink up when just the edge of the pen nib touches it.

Fineliners are not my favourite pens to colour in with. But, they usually have water-soluble ink in them. So, on the lower panel, I used a damp brush to move the ink around to even out the colour.

On the upper panel, I splattered some water on it and used a paper towel to lift the water up. That created a nice splatter pattern. Then I had a thought, “What would happen if I sprayed water on it, lightly and used a paper towel to pick the water up?” I lost the pretty water-bleached spatter patterns. But, some of that ink really bled into the edge of the collaged paper. That was unexpected and rather interesting.

So, some more interesting experiments with this idea I’m working with.

Oh, the letters of lacuna had colour added with a deep indigo Inktense pencil, brush and water.

Oh, I did use a pencil to write out the letters and position them, and I still made a pig’s ear of the ‘And still I rise”. Sheesh! Perhaps I’m being way too critical of my own lettering and what is there. I focus on all the imperfections I perceive, rather than taking a step back and trying to see what I’ve drawn and lettered through someone else’s eyes.

Time for tea and breakfast it is, I think.

Adding Color WIP

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Link to today’s vlog on YouTube.

Yesterday, I added pieces of paper coloured with either Distress Ink or Distress Oxide to pages in one of my sketchbooks. These pages had been previously coloured with Distress Inks.

I wasn’t at all sure that what I was doing was a great idea. So, I decided to add patterns to one page using a micro Uniball Eye pen. I still wasn’t sure, but a bit more confident in my idea. So, I started to add colour to see if that would make me happier with what I was doing.

To add colour, I started with some Tombow Dual brush pens in rather vintage, autumnal colours that work well with the background.

As the Distress Ink tends to alter the properties of the paper, I thought I’d try the Ecoline Brush pens. And, they were so much easier to blend out with a waterbrush. Actually, the Distress Ink makes it much easier to blend the Tombow Dual Brush pen ink out too.

So, I’m quite happy with the result. Now, I can complete the drawing and finish up adding colour. And I look forward to working on the other pages in the sketchbook too.

#DYICAD 2020 #ICAD2020 Day 03 “Album”

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This index card #ICAD2020 #DYICAD2020 was a bit of fun to create.

I used a mixture of Distress Oxide inks to colour the 6″ x 4″ index card. The colours I used were Old Paper, Bundlesd Sage, Dried Marigold and Chipped Sapphire. I built the background up in two layers, with chipped sapphire lightly dragged across the texture that the spray of water from the first background created. A final spray of water, a dab with some paper towel to leave some bleached areas and the background was done.

I decided I’d go with the typography theme today, so hand-lettered monograms for each letter. I used pieces of Canson XL Bristol paper coloured either with Distress Inks or Distress Oxide inks. After spraying the paper with water, I squished some cling film onto the surface to create abstract patterns in the colour.

Anyway, I used 06 and 03 Sakura Pigma Sensei pens to draw the monograms. Once I was happy with the designs, I edged the monograms with Ground Espresso Distress Ink. Then, I glued them to some brown-ish card, and cut them out with a border. I edged the brown paper mat with Ground Espresso Distress ink.

I then set to adding pattern and colour with Paul Rubens metallic watercolour set. Tiny dots and highlights were sparingly added to the monograms. Then, I used the same 01 brush to draw patterns around each monogram in colours that picked up the background colours of the monograms.

My final step was to edge the index card with Ground Espresso Distress Ink.

This was a perfect little project to practice my hand lettering as well as trying out the Paul Rubens paints. It was also good practice at using a fine brush to draw patterns. I do think a finer brush would’ve worked better.

The scan hasn’t picked up the sparkly, shimmery gorgeousness of the metallic paints.

This was a really nice way to come round after I’d slept off yesterday’s migraine-y stress-come-down headache. It was a small project that I didn’t feel overwhelmed by and there was no pressure on me for it to be perfect, as would be the case for my contracts for coloring books. So, it helped me calm and settle and find that sense of contentment, for a while at least.

Journal – pages 4 to 7

Angela Porter3 Comments

Over the past day or so, I’ve done some work on my journal and have pages 4 to 7 mostly complete. I’ve included lots of pockets to slip paper or artwork or other surprises into. I’ve also used some artwork I created as ephemera and embellishments.

Page 4 – top left.

This page has three pockets. One made by adhering two pages together, with a thumb notch punched out. Another is made from a sheet of tracing paper. The third is behind one of my signature entangled drawings; it’s a fairly secret pocket, unless I add something that peeks out from it.

I coloured the reverse of the drawing with Distress Inks as I didn’t know how they’d react with the pen drawing. Then, I adhered the tracing paper to some old book paper, and then adhered this to the tracing paper pocket, applying glue along three sides to create the pocket.

Once the glue was dry, I added some zentangle style patterns to the tissue paper pocket, just for fun. I used one of the Chameleon Fineliner pens to do this, using a colour that went well with the colours I’d used to ink the paper.

Page 5 – bottom left.

Page 5 is a little bit bigger than half the width of a page. I folded up the bottom of the page and adhered it along the edges to make a tuck-in. I punched out the thumb notch with a circle paper punch.

I decorated the tuck in with flower art at that I created myself. I also added some zentangle style patterns in between the flowers. I used Chameleon Fineliner pens, this time using a red and orange to get a gradient.

Page 6 – top right.

Again, a page that is a little more than half the width.

The drawing was done in gold ink on tracing paper. I used Distress Oxide inks to colour the reverse of the tracing paper before adhering it to some old book paper. The text and diagrams on the book page shows through faintly, as it does with the drawing on page 5.

Page 7 – bottom right.

This page just has a flower painting I created along with old book paper that have been collaged onto the journal page.

You can see the thumb notch on the edge of the page, showing I created a pocket by adhering two pages in the journal together.

Next steps…

None of the pages are fully completed. I’d like to add quotes or meaningful words or phrases. Some pages have gaps where I can add ephemera or pockets and so on. There’s certainly many spaces on the pages where I can draw patterns and designs.

I’m going to let the pages rest for a while as I turn my attention to other things today.

I’ve been feeling a bit ‘off’ or ‘meh’ in the last couple or so days. I’m finding it hard to settle to work of any kind. That I’ve been able to focus on getting some little bits and bobs done for the journal shows I’m feeling a bit more focused than of late.

Sketchbook / Art Journal

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©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

I woke at around 4:30am again today and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I got up, made tea, and did some work on my art journal / sketchbook.

Making Distressed Paper

I spent a good two or three hours making the papers you can see to the left. I used the following:

  • printer and layout paper, cut to A6 in size (UK size)
  • Distress Oxide Inks
  • 5″ x 7 ” Gelli plate
  • small Brayer roller
  • water in a spray bottle
  • heat tool
  • craft mat
  • pieces of cut and dry foam
  • metallic inks and paints

For some of the pieces, I brayered the Distress Oxides onto a Gelli plate and then pulled the print onto a piece of paper. For others, I used the Brayer to apply the ink to the paper. I also used the black side of a piece of cut and dry foam to apply ink to some of the papers.

I sprayed the papers with water to activiate the Distress Oxide, and used the heat tool to dry them. After doing this, I crumpled up a lot of the papers and then used the brayer to flatten them out. Both of these techniques resulted in textured paper. So, I used the cut and dry foam and some Distress Oxide ink to lightly brush the paper to help to accentuate that texture.

Finally I used cut and dry foam to brush metallic paint or ink over the paper to add some shimmer and shine. I used some textured cut and dry foam to add patterns too.

I now have quite a stash of very distressed papers to use in my art journal in the future.

Both the printer paper and the layout paper are much thinner than I would usually use for such a task. The light spritz of water on each, however, created a lovely, bumpy texture. They were also easy to crumple up, adding that kind of leathery texture.

The subtle shine that the gold metallic ink gave is rather lovely, though I do like the bright, shiny gold of some paint I found in my stash.

I can see me using these papers for collage, for making pockets/envelopes and other bits and bobs for a journal, and no doubt for other things I’ve not yet thought of.

Storing my custom papers.

I realised the papers I’ve made over the past couple of weeks have been piling up and I really needed to do something that would let me find them easily. So, the quickest and easiest solution was to use A4 poly-pockets and a ring binder, both of which I had to hand! That certainly has let me have a tidier desk, and I’ll be able to find the papers easily too.

Art journal pages.

I also finished up the two pages shown to the right. I attached inchies, to fill in some gaps.

I used simple paper hinges to attach the ATC cards on page seen in the bottom image. If I ever wish to remove them to swap/share/gift, then I can remove them easily. That simple solution has relieved my anxiety about adhering them permanently into the sketchbook!

I’ve also folded some squared paper, used distress inks to colour the edges and folds, and put them in the vellum pockets I’d made earlier, all ready for me to journal on. Unusually for me, I made use of some washi tape to embellish the pockets.

I’ve also noticed that I’m very ‘regimented’ about how I put things in my art journal. I much prefer carefully cut paper to torn edges most of the time. Everything needs to be arranged ‘just so’ with me. Just as it is with my line-art – precise and neat. I suppose it’s another example of me expressing my personality through my art.

So, Angela, how are you today?

I’m exhausted. I’m practically falling asleep as I type this; that’s what happens when I wake up at stupid o’clock once again. I’m now officially overtired! I may try to get back to sleep soon; I do have work I need to do today!

As far as me being under the weather goes…

Well, I still have a sensitive digestive system and I feel nauseous from time to time. I did wake with a bit of a headache today, but that could just be lack of sleep, as is the tiredness I feel. I have eaten and my tummy doesn’t seem to be objecting as it has done. This all makes me hopeful that I’m almost over this bout illness. I was really quite grumpy about it yesterday, and I’m entirely sure I’m not grumpy today!

Other than that, emotionally I’m doing just fine. The sunshine helps with my mood for sure, as did being able to hear the bird song as the world was slowly waking up this morning.

Sketchbook Saturday

Angela Porter1 Comment
Sketchbook Saturday 2 May 2020 ©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

I am enjoying working a little either on my sketchbook-journal or preparing bits and bobs for it each day.

The main thing I wanted to do this morning was to get some little word tags prepared and in use.

I created a list of words I’d like to add to bits and bobs of art. I copied the list, using different fonts, then printed out an A4 sheet of the words. I made a second sheet using different words and different fonts. Then, I cut the sheets up into smaller pieces for storage.

Then, I realised I’d need to create a storage space for them in my sketchbook and thought an envelope would be the easiest way. I do have some commercially produced envelopes, but I thought it was time to use my We’R’Memory Keepers envelope punch board for a more custom size.

I cut an 8″ x 8″ piece of ordinary printer paper. I coloured the paper with distress oxide inks (old paper, tea dye and dried marigold) and then made an envelope that measures 3.5″ x 6″.

I then realised I needed a way to keep the envelope closed. I could tuck the flap inside the envelope, but as I used copy paper I didn’t know how durable it would be. So, I came up with the idea of having a little pocket to tuck the corner of the flap into. And that meant I could cut out “words” from one of the lists and add it to the little pocket.

Before I did that, I aged the edges of the label with Distress Ink. Next, I glued it to a an old book page and cut it out with a border of text. That layer was also edged with Distress Ink, then it was added to the pocket. I used a metallic Gelly Roll pen to draw around the label.

On the page, you can see some small drawings I’ve done over the past couple of days.

On the left of the page are three ATC cards (2.5″ x 3.5″) made from a piece of mixed media paper coloured with the same Distress Oxide Inks.

On the right, is a larger artwork, an experiment and exploration of what I could do. I collaged some Distress Oxide coloured pieces of paper on to the background. I added metallic gold and copper paint to some of the pieces, and also to create patterns behind them. I drew little designs too, including a Dangle Design from one.

I’m not all that happy with the ‘explore’ card. There are bits I like, and other bits where I think I messed up. I think if I’d left it with the gold patterning on the background and just some simple patterns on some of the collaged rectangles, maybe some gold paint on the smaller ones, then it would’ve worked out better.

I think I’m going to make a vellum envelope or pocket to store the ATC cards in. Vellum in translucent and so will provide a tantalising glimpse of the card(s) safely stored within.

The ‘explore’ card will be placed into the sketchbook, with notes and reflections about it. It’s one that will be a learning experience more than anything else.

Mixed media wip

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davI’ve been working on a mixed media piece and this is as far as I’ve got.  It needs a focal image or quote or something.  I just don’t know what to add…

Feel free to make suggestions!

As it’s #supplysaturday to create this I’ve used :

  • Distress oxide inks from Ranger
  • Paper Artsy Fresco paints
  • Distress inks
  • Stencils
  • Gold paint from Cosmic Shimmer
  • Texture paste and gold acrylic paint
  • Perfect pearls and water spray

Mixed media 25 Feb 2018

Angela Porter2 Comments

Angela Porter mixed media 25Feb2018

I’ve been hard at work on my ‘A Dangle A Day’ book and felt I needed a break from the computer screen.  As much as I love working digitally, I believe it does the soul good to work in different ways from time to time.  A change is as good as a rest, it is said, and also a change can get the creative juices flowing!

A trip to Hobbycraft in Newport, Gwent, yesterday had me buying some A4 Daler-Rowney Mixed Media boards.

These are 1.4mm thick and sturdy board forms of their mixed media paper.  The board did warp when I added tissue paper with matt medium, and it’s still a little wobbly today.

The pictures shows how far I’ve got for now.  I’m letting the little drops of copper and golden glitter dry as I take a break from it to decide if I need to do any more to it.

The image I drew and then coloured using Distress Inks.

I’ve enjoyed getting a little inky, painty and messy for a change.