This is a lovely fragment, just like a blueberry! I enjoyed my morning arty wanderings, coddiwomple if you will, with this tangle as my starting point. It certainly led down some unusual paths that include flowers and seed pods, barnacles and sea anemones, borders and bling, and even a cupcake!
My work for Adorable Dogs, my latest coloring book for Creative Haven, is now finished. I’ll soon have to design the cover for the next book. But until then I’ll take a little time out to explore some things and maybe put together a book of mandalas.
But not today. Having to download all of the invoices from Amazon for the 2020-21 tax year, my mind is well and truly fried for a while! Anything to do with accounts tends to stress me out just a tad. Still, it’s done now. And I need to take some time to destress. Art is one way for me to do this. Art for calming, meditation, de-stressing. Just what I need. And another mug of tea!
Another lovely tangle pattern that I’m unfamiliar with – Chantara by Debbie New CZT.
It did take me quite a few attempts to understand this particular fragment and it’s construction. Then things fell into place. I did alter, slightly, the original shape so it was more symmetrical, but that helped me to come up with a few interesting variations.
Oh, DreamDex turned out to be a bit of a dream fragment for me. So many variations ended up reminding me of La Tene / Early Celtic / Anglo-Saxon designs, which are probably my most favourite of all.
Again, I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of the variations that are possible. But it’s a start!
Today, I’ve managed that. ‘Crystals’ is the prompt from the Inktober list. The tangle pattern for today is ‘Lunar Flux’ by Debbie New CZT.
I dug out a piece of paper coloured with Distress Inks from my stash of such paper. It’s a rather grungy kind of green, which appealed to me first thing this morning.
There were a number of times through the process where I wondered what on Earth I was doing and was going to give up. The first was when I started to dislike the coloured paper. The next was when I thought the pen work wasn’t looking too good, I didn’t have the space to add a third stem of lunar flux (I like groups of odd numbers). Finally, adding colour with the pastels felt like I was making a bad job worse.
I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m actually quite pleased with the finished drawing. There’s some volume to the elements, and a sense of layers too. The highlights and shadows really helped to lift the colours and the design.
It’s been a lovely, if a tad frustrating at times, way to spend a couple of hours this morning.
Yesterday evening, I spent some time playing around with the basic idea of Lunar Flux and came up with a sketchbook page full of variations. I’ll show this in tomorrow’s Sketchbook Saturday vlog.
For now, I’m going to get a fresh mug of mocha, and spend sometime drawing, making use of Lunar Flux. I’m still not feeling quite right after my upset tummy Wednesday and yesterday. I had a horrible night’s sleep, with two vivid nightmares that had me wrenching myself awake from them. I have no idea what caused them, but the unease and fear they provoked in me is lingering today, along with a sense of exhaustion too. So, self-care time is very much needed today for sure.
Angela Porter 