About a week ago, I hurt my back. I pulled a muscle at the base of my shoulder blade towards the middle of my back. I’ve been unable to sit up for much of the week, let alone draw.
This afternoon, I discovered I could sit and draw, and so I took the opportunity to work on my slightly rusty hand-eye coordination and fine motor control skills. Just over half an hour of blissful drawing before the soreness started to return, telling me I had nearly over done it.
Wednesday is the week’s halfway point, and the day I start to draw this week’s colouring page for Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group members.
I was awake early, the air was cool-ish, and starting to draw this week’s page and film it seemed a very sensible idea before the day warmed up.
Here in the UK, we have amber weather warnings for very high temperatures for the next few days. Not quite as high as a couple of weeks back, but too high for me to be comfortable. So, I aim to get as much done as possible before I have to either nap or retire to cooler parts of the house with sketchbook and pens! And probably fall asleep even then.
Anyways, my thoughts for this week’s colouring page were to create four smaller panels, each of which would make a lovely greetings card or postcard once coloured. I like pages that can be used in other ways, though I don’t create them often enough.
Phew, what a day! First, I focused on getting some of the final templates for “Fanciful Birds” done. I have just two left to do tomorrow.
After several hours working at a computer screen, I needed some time working with pen and paper. So, I continued with this page from my hand-lettering sketchbook.
I started this page yesterday and completed the ‘e’ and ‘f’ in today’s YouTube video.
The ‘e’ is completed in a dusty blue Chameleon fineliner pen. For the ‘f’ I used a rusty brown Staedtler Triplus fineliner.
I’m not at all fussed on the lilac ‘e’ on the top line. I much prefer either black or the more vintage, muted tones. That seems to be a bit of a theme with a lot of my art.
It was lovely and relaxing to just draw for the pleasure of drawing, and it was really comforting to return to this kind of intricate, abstract, patterned kind of art too.
Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button to view on YouTube itself (and help the algorithm!).
I’ve now finished this drawing by adding two organic motifs, both fairly simple.
With the trailing flowers or leaves or stones, the hardest part is arranging them to look like they’re trailing and remembering to decrease the size towards the point.
The other motif, a stack of small seeds on a stem, is easy enough to draw.
After doing this, I thought it needed some colour to bring the motifs to life. So, I dug out some of the Neocolour IIs I’d used for the background and used them a bit like watercolour paints. I scribbled a little of each Neocolor II on my plastic palette, added water, and painted.
I’m not entirely sure about my efforts with adding colour – this is where it can all go wrong for me. Part of me knows I’d most likely be better off if I were to add shadow and texture using pens.
I did use some metallic watercolours to add some sparkle here and there too.
One thing I did notice is that I was glad I tried not to paint over the black lines. The pigment ink in Micron pens is usually waterproof, but, as the Necolor IIs are wax-based and coat the surface of the paper, the pigment doesn’t sink fully into the paper and so water will move the ink.
It’s not a problem, now I’m aware of this. Oh, it also means erasers will lift some of the ink as well as pencil lines. Again, just something to be aware of.
One other thing I did was to cut the paper down to frame the design a bit better. In my clumsy way, I managed to cut it just across the tip of one of the trailing thingies. So, no border around that area.
I will keep going with adding colour and see where it leads me, hopefully not into a disaster! Still, if that happens, it’s only a bit of time, ink, paper and colour and the design can be used as inspiration for the next one. Important lessons about the Necolor IIs are being learned, which is, perhaps, the most important thing.
On the weekend, I like to do an artwork of some kind using some of the pattern or motif variations that I’ve developed in the week. This week, the seed pods and flowers just needed to be used in some way.
I thought of lettering the word ‘peace’ but decided on using the peace symbol as the focal point instead. Being born in the early 1960s, I do remember hippies, flower power and the peace movement, so popping plenty of flowers and foliage around the symbol seemed the right thing to do.
The seed pods fit in well, and the song ‘Sowing the seeds of love’ by Tears for Fears came to my mind too. so doubly fitting the message of peace.
Naturally, there are some hearts hidden in there too! And the plumptious moonberry blueberries too, adding some delicious goodness too.
The green background was a tad serendipitous. Partway through the drawing, I remembered that green is symbolic of peace and harmony, among other things. Rather fitting!
I’ve only got the skeleton of the design done. I’ve yet to decide on how to add colour, shadow and/or texture. So, I’m taking a bit of a break from it for my mind to mull things over subconsciously. I think I’d better scan the page before I do anything more to it though! Things tend to go awry when I start to add colour etc.
May each day of this year have many moments of peace and contentment, happiness and love, and fond memories too. May you also have all that you need. Wishing each of you the very best for the next 365 days, and beyond.
I finished drawing this Entangled-Doodleworlds template this morning (and videoed the process too).
It’s full of whimsy and cuteness, patterns and critters, plants and other items. I always enjoy drawing templates like this, ones that have little stories in them (or so I discovered yesterday while videoing!).
The nicest thing, however, is that there are lots of areas, so it’s easy to choose one place, one arch, one motif to colour if you don’t have much time or are just overwhelmed by the overall task. This way, you get the satisfaction of completing one part of the design – whether it be a tiny heart, or one of the little worlds under the arches.
I enjoyed adding colour to just a few sections today. It’s always a good thing for me to work with Clip Studio Paint regularly so I can become familiar with the tools, and to learn new ways of working with it.
I always look forward to seeing how people use colour to bring my templates to life.
Here’s today’s video. It’s over an hour long … just a little warning!
Yesterday, I set up a poll in the group so members could vote on options or make suggestions for this week’s template. As you can see, a mandala with a hallowe’en theme, including cats and spider webs, is the result. Of course, there’s some drunken skulls – no party hats this week!
As I created this digitally, I didn’t film the process. I do have, however, a short vlog where I show the uncoloured template and a couple of other pieces of art and waffle on a bit!
As October has progressed, my weekly coloring templates (or coloring pages if you prefer!) have grown increasingly spooky. All in a cute and whimsical way, of course! It is now only 10 days away from Hallowe’en after all!
I’m particularly fond of my potion bottles and the drunken party skulls. Colour really does bring the line drawing to life.
I fell quite ill yesterday afternoon, digestive issues once again. I’m feeling better this morning, but still a goodly way from being ticketty boo.
I’ve yet to sort out my sketchbook page for today’s tangle pattern for Inktober Tangles 2021. I’ll do that once I’ve finished the social media stuff and had a mug of tea.
This tangle, with it’s use of heavy lines for shadow/dimension is just up my street. Or so I thought. I ended up experimenting with how the thicker lines can change whether the layer appears to be growing up from or digging down into the page.
I enjoyed varying the inny or outy nature of each layer in the pattern, but I’m not entirely sure I’ve got the shadow and highlight right for the innies!
I’m going to put it down to sheer tiredness. I had a poor night’s sleep again. I’ve been up since before 5am and I’ve done nearly a day’s work already, and I still have more to do. But first I really do need to go sleep for a while. I’m just about falling asleep at my desk.
Angela Porter 