digitalartist

Entangled 22 Dec ’20

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I’ve been drawing this over the past couple of days, little by little. The drawing is now done and it’s time to add shadow and highlight.

I like the colours I’m using for this, though I’m not too crazy about the slapdash way they seem to have been applied. That’s a function of me trying to alter digital brush settings to get the texture I like. I’ll get there, maybe when I’m more awake and with it. I’ve had a very disturbed night’s sleep and have been up since stupid o’clock.

Anyways, I have so many of these kinds of drawings to complete with shadow/highlight, yet I keep drawing more and more! The lure of pen and paper is irresistable at times; they’re also a lot more portable than the Surface Studio! I like drawing mandala’s digitally. I’m happy to ink in sketches digitally.But when I try to darw like this digitally, I lose all sense of proportion and perspective. I have no idea why that is. Perhaps because it’s all too easy to zoom in to work on an area. I don’t know.

As hard as I try to create pen brushes that mimic the way pens draw on paper, the lines look too perfect. I’m still working out what is the best way for me to work and I keep circling the idea of using both traditional drawing with digital wizardry. I really am unsure as to what I’m doing is ‘right’. It’s like I need to give myself permission to work this way, to reassure myself it’s art so it’s fine to work however I want.

What I do know is that I will eventually work it out. I will.

Friday Mandala

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Arty stuff.

This morning, I felt the need to draw a mandala. So I did.

Intricate, detailed drawing, with one of my favourite colour combinations that remind me of verdigris on copper. Just what I needed this morning as I gradually work myself into a creative mood. So it’s time to turn my attention to work for Entangled Starry Skies. Once I get a fresh mug of Yorkshire Tea that is.

Insomnia, again.

I didn’t sleep too well last night. I woke and drew for a while as I waited to become drowsy enough to fall back to sleep. I’m still not really with it at this time, but I’ve been focused enough over the past few hours to complete this mandala.

I now have some more weird, anthropomorphic intuitive drawings to work with in the coming weeks. Just not today.

Media used.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro is still my art app of choice, along with my Surface Studio.

Entangled Assemblage #02

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Arty musings and fun facts

I woke well before dawn. As it was rather chilly in the house (heating hadn’t kicked in yet), I sat in bed drawing. White gel pen on black paper. The above, after some digital wizardry, is the result of that.

It has a very Meso-american feel to it with plenty of my favourite curves, spirals, circles and other patterns and motifs. It’s meant to be entirely abstract, but we’ll all see things in it. The ability of our minds to see patterns and familiar items in the purely abstract is called pareidolia. It is a perfectly normal aspect of being human.

Interestingly, apophenia is the tendency seek meaningful connections in random things, such as in gambling.

Some Friday facts there!

Sunshiny day

It’s a dry day with some sunshine today, so my spirits are lifted somewhat. I may take a break from arty work for a while to go for a walk. It’s likely to be chilly and brisk out there – my weather app tells me it’s 4ºC in the outside world, which equates to almost ‘brr’! I’ll see how I feel after showering and so on.

Entangled Starry Skies Progress

I’m getting along well with Entangled Starry Skies and want to continue with the progress being made. I have 21 out of the 31 templates required, but I always do some extra so there’s a choice for the templates in the book. I do have a tendency to become fixated on an idea and so can end up with templates that are too similar. That’s something I need to bear in mind going forward.

As well as creating new templates, I do have some editing to do on a couple of the ones submitted so far based on feedback from the editorial team. This is where digital art really helps hugely and saves so much time as I rarely have to re-draw a template.

I appreciate the feedback from the editorial team. It helps me gain some perspective as well as ideas for new avenues to explore within the theme of the book – and that helps to break me out of the tunnel vision I can get myself locked into. Note how a lot of my art is Meso-American in feel at the moment.

Slowtember 2020

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I decided to do Slowtember. I like having prompts to challenge me, take me a little outside of my usual style. However, Inktober can be a bit full on with daily prompts. Slowtember gives that breathing space, and I can work it in around my other commitments.

Thanks to @megaelod on twitter for the idea and prompts!

So, the first prompt was a choice betwixt pothos and chill. I decided to combine them! I like foliage, and the word gives me a chance to try out some hand drawn typography/hand lettering.

I sketched the quite stylised design on dot grid paper, inked it with Unipin pens and then scanned it in. after some digital clean up and slight adjustments, I added some simple colour and shadow.

You’d think adding simple colour would be easy, yes? Nope! Choosing the right greens wasn’t easy for me. And then there was the typography. I lost count of how many times I tried different ways to colour the letters. Eventually I decided enough was enough and the gradient I had was good enough.

As I think now, after breakfast and some mocha, I could’ve done the word as a flower pot, or used it to add shadow to a flower pot. Maybe I’ll give that a go for the next prompt (monstera and water).

Complex drawings are my stock in trade. Going simple and stylised is not quite so easy! Still, it was fun to do, a bit frustrating at times, but the result is perhaps good enough, though I’m not sure about that.

Capsules, Pods and Seeds

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©Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

I had a very fitful night’s sleep (or non-sleep) last night. So, around 5:30am I decided to get up and ‘art’.

I finished off the watercolour of some seed capsules.

I’m really, really happy with this watercolour illustration, with an unusual color palette for me. I smile when I look at it! I decided to use a 0.5mm HB pencil to add heavier lines to the more shadowed parts, as well as a little bit of subtle line to help give the pods some volume. It’s difficult to see on the image.

I am so happy I drew a ‘window’ on the paper to draw within. I’m never happy drawing without a frame to keep within and the edge of the paper just never feels right for me. I also like the way that it feels like you’re looking through a window and that it’s OK to cut things off (apart from one cheeky leaf that I just had to have overlying the frame!).

There may be a bit too much white space above the seed capsules, I don’t know for sure. It’s so unusual for me to leave space around the various elements in a design that it feels a bit weird. However, I do like the space in this illustration.

Once I finished the watercolour, I turned my attention to drawing more capsules, pods and seeds in my A4 sketchbook. I completed two pages of small drawings, one of which you can see in the background.

Unusually for me, I drew in pencil. I’d usually use pen straight away. I have no idea what that is about, but it was a pleasant and soothing experience for me. I now have plenty of sketches I can use to create more watercolour paintings from, small ones as I really enjoy working on a small scale. Creating my own little treasures, complete with some precious, metallic details.

Painting little treasures will have to wait though. My eyelids are becoming leaden with a need to sleep. This frustrates me as I had things I wanted to get done today, things that need focus and concentration. So, I’ll soon be back in the land of nod.

Fading

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Fading © Angela Porter | Artwyrd.com

I wanted to try out an idea I had, and it’s worked out fine, I think. Mind you, I’m not thinking well today – I’m experiencing an ‘introvert hangover’ from being in a large group of people last night. I come across as quite an extrovert to people, but that is a well practiced mask and to keep it up is rather exhausting. It’s also tiring to be around people with all the noise, various emotions, and just the number of people there.

I have a couple of things that I need to get done this afternoon, and I also need to take care of myself and this ‘hangover’ of a headache and tiredness. I really need a good amount of alone and self-caring time. Maybe when I get home this evening I’ll manage to do that.

Anyways, the arty idea I had has ended up as a rather ghostly, faded design, which actually describes how I feel at the moment.

I like the softness of both the contrast but also of the lines that form the mandala. I do have a bit of a thing for grungy backgrounds at the moment. The texture really appeals to me and I like the contrast between the more orderly mandala designs and the chaotic grungy-ness.