That’s right, Doodleworlds, the colouring book, is now available on Amazon.com as well as the other Amazon websites, so now all the lovely, wonderful colourists who love my work can join in with the fun of this book!
colouring book
Doodleworlds Coloring Book
Doodleworlds is now available through Amazon.co.uk
For some reason it’s not quite there at Amazon.com; there are some third party sellers offering the book for purchase at around double the price I’ve set. I trust the book will be live on Amazon.com in the next day or few.
In a shortwhile, a pdf version of the book is available via Etsy – perfect for colorists who love to print on paper or other substrates that is suitable for their favourite medium.
It contains 40 whimsical, fun, details coloring templates, where the creatures that inhabit the Doodleworlds journey through different landscapes. It is quintessentially Angela in style, quite intricate, busy, but cute and a little different to my previous books.
Anyone of any age who enjoys colouring in the more detailed designs will love this. Also, the imaginative and ‘doodly’ nature of the artwork means you can let yourself go and just have fun with colour!
There is a facebook fan group – Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans – which you can join and share your coloured work with other colorists who love my work.
Of course, you can also share your work directly with me via my facebook page – Angela Porter Illustrator, or on Instagram where you can tag me as AngelaPorterIllustrator.
I’d love to see how you bring the denizens and realms of the Doodleworlds to life with colour.
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14th October 2017 Update
New Book and a Competition!
I’ve spent time working on a few more DoodleWorlds colouring templates for a book I’m going to self-publish, most probably in November 2017.
I’ve gone ‘old school’ on these – pen and paper – simply because drawing on the screen was starting to irritate me just a bit. Also, a change is as good as a rest for sure!
The coloured artwork on the covers is going to be provided by the winners of a competition running on both the facebook group Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans and the Colorist app.
So, if you fancy having a go at colouring in the template to be found in either the facebook group on on the Colorist app, then head on over there – closing date is midnight on Hallowe’en.
Here’s a sneaky peek at one of the new templates for the book. I used my Chameleon Pens to colour this one in.
Vida Collection
I’ve added some new items to my Vida Collection, typically ‘Angela’ style abstract art focusing on line and colour. The collection includes scarves, tops, wraps, leggings, bags, jewellery, cushions/pillows and tapestries.
Later today I’ll be adding new leather products to the collection, including passport holders and baggage tags.
Time to Change Wales and World Mental Health Day 2017
Although I didn’t do anything in particular on Tuesday 10th October 2017 for World Mental Health Day (other than re-tweet and re-post relevant articles that is), I did do an anti-stigma talk on Thursday 12th October 2017.
I delivered my talk and story to a group of front-line police officers who were receiving training. It seemed to go well and be received well. I’ve not read the feedback forms though, nor am I likely to, as even if 99% of them are positive, the 1% that may not be all the positive or says I made no change is the one that I’ll focus on and will end up worrying and fretting and being hard on myself…
What did surprise me was how anxious I was when I woke and on my way to, during and after my talk, far more than I’ve been before.
Gnawing stomach, shaky, hypervigilant, cold sweaty palms, unable to speak in order…
I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to be like that, or that was how I lived every day of my life for many, many years while I was still a teacher.
Well, not quite like that – it was worse back then, a lot worse!
Echoes of it reminds me of how far I’ve come, how much better I am now.
Of course, after the talk and driving and getting home, I had the post-anxiety ‘crash’ where I felt shaky, wobbly, my eyesight was still very acute, and a headachy tiredness grew.
A huge mug of tea, a couple of Jaffa Cakes, and an afternoon sleep with cat cuddles saw me a bit better in the evening, but I was still emotionally drained. So, I too it easy, ordered a take-away, though I didn’t have much of an appetite.
Friday I was still a little wobbly, but today I feel more like myself again.
Art always helps me calm and ground, so that has been my therapy, and will continue to be so I’m sure.
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Autumn is on the way!
Autumn is nigh and it’s a lot more glorious because…
September has arrived at long last, along with the promise of the fiery blaze of glory that is autumn in a few weeks time.
Cooler mornings and evenings along with warm enough days, the quality of sunlight is softer, more golden too.
I really love this time of year, it’s my favourite!
Even more so that I no longer have the long fear/anxiety of returning to school as a teacher.
I don’t miss teaching one little bit! I miss friends I had. I miss the more social interaction I had and the fun and laughter I had with colleagues and pupils. What I don’t really miss is the constant fear, anxiety, worry, stress, pressure, bad attitudes, poor behaviour and constantly being looked at and assessed. All the things that led me to some very dark places that I found difficult to get out of. No, it’s not ‘I don’t really miss’ these things – I really don’t miss these things, though I still get moments anxiety verging on panic when memories of various situations arise from the depths of my subconscious.
Arty pursuits
I’ve finished all the black and white line art for Eerily Entangled – my latest colouring book for Dover Publications. I have two more to colour in for the book, but I’ll wait to see what my editor and her design team would like me to colour – there are so very many, if not all, I’d love to colour!
As well as this, I’ve spent quite a bit of time starting to organise my ‘pattern library’. It’s something I like to do when I’m too tired to do anything else, when I’m feeling down and need a comforting not challenging activity, and when I’m lacking in inspiration; sometimes the patterns bring the inspiration I’m searching for, sometimes they just allow stuff to well up to the surface of my subconscious mind where my conscious mind can grab them and make use of them.
As a change of focus, I decided to draw some autumn themed mandalas, the one at the top of this blog entry being the first.
I’m a bit rusty at creating them after focusing on other things for a while, but the skills soon come back, often with new ideas or twists to old ideas, as well as new skills learned by my use of Autodesk Sketchbook Pro with my Microsoft Surface Book, which I used to create this mandala.
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By the sea, more about digital art
At the end of this month, a new colouring book by myself is due out. It’s called ‘By The Sea’ and is one in the Escapes series of books from Dover Publications Inc..
Above, is one of the templates from the book, along with my work in progress based on it.
I’m using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on my Microsoft Surface Book to do the colouring/drawing. It’s taking me a long time to do; if I’d used my Chameleon pens, it would’ve been all done a couple of days ago! However, it’s all a process of learning and exploring, working with different brushes and so on. Working in layers is a revelation to me, and I love the glowing colours I can get.
Working ‘outside the lines’, or even totally ignoring the lines’ is something very new for me to do, and I’m very uncertain about the results I’m getting.
I know from past experience with different traditional media such as oil or acrylic paints, I really don’t get the hang of them. I also don’t like the smell or texture of them. Watercolours are fine as long as I don’t try to get fancy with them and just colour areas in then work on top with pens and pencils…
Digital art is opening up my horizons…and shaking me out of those old, comfortable ways.
I make lots of ‘mistakes’ in colour choice. I make lots of ‘mistakes’ in using the different brushes and textures and blending. I end up unhappy with what I’ve done for example, I’ve tried four or five times to add the wiggly seaweed strands to the bottom right of my coloured area, and I’ve been unhappy with the five times I’ve done that.
What I do know is, that I’m not going to screw my work up and chuck it. The beauty of being able to work in layers means it’s easy to remove what you’re not happy with and re-do it.
The other side of this coin is that it’s really difficult for me to know when to stop fussing and fiddling with things! I sometimes end up erasing work I’ve done as I’ve gone too far and can’t undo it, and the only way to go is to start that section over again.
This is all fascinating for me, as well as frustrating, and can lead to me being hard on myself.
Backing off from it isn’t an option. Where I get very frustrated with traditional media when I try to add colour in a way I’d like it to be there, a lot of that is taken away from me as I use digital methods.
I have a lot to learn, a lot to explore, but the more I do, the more I’m determined to acquire myself a Microsoft Surface Studio.
Angela Porter 