Template Thursday and Inktober Tangles Day 7

Taking part in Inktober Tangles 2021 is spilling over into this week’s coloring page for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. The result is a rather geometric design which has a very tiled floor or stained glass feel to it. The quadrants could be coloured in separate colour schemes to, say, represent the four seasons, four favourite colours … well anything really. I’ve just completed one quadrant as an example.

The tangle pattern for today is ‘Morisseau’ by Cheryl Moore CZT. I’ve included it, and a couple of other tangle patterns, in my typically entangled artwork to the right. I’ve started to add colour in rusty browns and oranges with blues. The brighter colours are Ecoline Brush pens. The more muted areas are Graphitint pencils with a damp brush. I think I prefer the Graphitint areas. They have a much more aged, vintage, weathered feel to them.

Template Thursday

It’s that time of the week once again!

If you’d like to print and colour this template, then pop along to the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group. It’s free to join and the template is free to members, with just a few sensible Terms and Conditions of use to follow.

This week, it’s a rather typically Angela Entangled style template. There’s lots of larger spaces that are perfect for you to add patterns or textures.

Template drawn with Unipin pens on A4 cartridge paper.
Colour and texture added digitally.

Zentangle-style drawings.

Two drawings today, both done over the night as I couldn’t sleep as I really wasn’t at all well.

The larger one is a Zentangle ‘cartouche’. The central floral image is from one of Tim Holtz’s Ephemera packs. The paper is natural coloured mixed media paper by ClaireFontaine. I used a mixture of black, gold and rusty-red pens to draw the frame around the image. To add colour and shadow I used a mixture of pastel and graphite pencils, along with some tortillons. The design is approx. 12.5cm x 16cm (approx 3″ x 5″).

The smaller design is approx. 13cm x 8.5cm (3.3″ x 5.2″) in size. The paper is a piece of Medioevalis paper by Fabriano. This is lovely soft, gently textured paper that has a high cotton content. It’s easily damaged by the use of tortillons, however. So, I did add some shadows with a graphite pencil, but then added colour with Inktense pencils, brush and water. The paper really works well with wet media it seems. To draw the design I used a black fineliner, a brush pen and white and gold gelly roll pens.

I saw the ideas of cartouches, as a decorative frame around writing or image, and Zentangle designs on a youtube video and wanted to try it out. I decided to do that in the dark depths of the night when I wasn’t able to sleep. I may very well experiment with this idea as time goes on – particularly using drawings of my own as the focal point. I’ll see how it goes.

Monday Mandala

Monday is mandala day! I never tire of creating mandalas, Angela style. It’s always a really lovely way to spend Monday morning and some of the afternoon.

This weeks is a combination of some organic patterns with quite geometric designs. There’s some Zentangle patterns in the design for sure.I’ve used a vintage colour palette once again.

I haven’t used any black outlines for this mandala. I’m not sure which way I prefer – black line drawing or not. Drop me a comment to let me know which you prefer.

Template Thursday

This week, my template for members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group is a typically entangled one – full of Zentangle-style patterns, arches, a few flowers and organic motifs added, but mainly purely abstract. Great fun to add colour to!

This template was one I had doubts about whether it was ‘right’ or ‘good enough’. It wasn’t until I added colour to it that I realised it was just fine. I’ve chosen, yet again, quite a vintage colour palette, with a couple of brighter spots here and there.

This often happens to me. I’m really not happy with a drawing, but then I add colour and it magically transforms into something that I’m quite happy with. The colour is the flesh on the line-work skeleton. It’s quite magical!

The template is free to members of the facebook group, and you’d be made most welcome as a member should you wish to colour this template, or many others that are available there.

Monday Mandala

Mandalas are so much fun to do. In this one are lots of zentangle patterns – can you spot them?

Soft blues and greens play against the coppery tones used in the structure of the mandala. Soft, yet not washed out with plenty of contrast betwixt the highlights and shadows. I’m actually really happy with the color palette I’ve used here, as well as some subtle texture patterns that may not be visible on this smaller, lower resolution image.

What I do like is the light, almost lacy feel to the outermost ring.

A lovely way to spend a few hours on a Monday morning. Indeed, I got so engrossed in this that I’ve not had breakfast yet and it’s gone midday!

Weekend Tangles

One drawing I’m working on and three Zentangle tiles that are complete.

TheA4 drawing is very much full of contrast and drama, very ‘graphic’ in nature. It’s not finished yet, but I’ll get there with it for sure.

The smaller tiles are rather geometric in nature with repeating patterns. I find drawing this kind of art soothing and pleasing too. I also enjoy the combination of the vintage brown tones with the black and grey. They just seem to work so well together.

I turned to work on the smaller ’tiles’ as I was feeling a tad overwhelmed last night. I really do find smaller pieces of art help me to settle back down. The repetitive nature of the patterns is soothing in itself.

I seem to be constantly circling around and returning to Zentangle – watching YouTube videos, looking at artwork online, and creating my own. I’ve been thinking about becoming a CZT – a certified zentangle teacher. I’m dithering about it, and I don’t know why that is. It’ll sort itself out I’m sure.

Entangled Art – almost finished!

It is almost finished too. I’m dithering about the un-shaded arcs, and whether gold and /or white gel pens need to be used to add small accents and highlights. I can also see places where colour/shading is needed. However, there is no rush for it to be done!

The paper is 12″ x 9″, so I can’t scan it in one image. It’s Daler-Rowney Murano paper for chalk pastels and coloured pencils. So, as well as having fun just filling the page with shapes and patterns, I took the opportunity to try different kinds of pencils to add colour, shadow and highlight. I certainly enjoyed experimenting with gel pens and various kinds of pencils to create this drawing.

It looks a lot better in the photo than in real life, even with the weird banded light on the photo.

Template Thursday

A spring-themed template this week, and a challenge, over on the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.

The challenge is a month long and I’ve asked the members to hold off posting their completed templates until 31st March so they can all be posted together. I thought it would be fun to do that way.

Anyway, the challenge is to use a limited colour palette plus black and white to colour this week’s template, or any other flowery template for the 31st March. I’ve chosen some springtime colours. It’s going to be interesting to see how different people use the colours to complete this challenge.

Monday Mandala

Yet again, a lovely way to start a Monday. Mandalas are always a pleasure to draw/paint/create. I particularly love creating them digitally for many reasons, not least is the opportunity to experiment and learn new skills. It removes the worry of making a ‘mistake’ on paper and either having to start again or try to make that ‘mistake’ a part of the work. Often, that ‘mistake’ will be worked into the drawing, but not always and if I know it’s there, it bothers me, even if no one else can see it. The perfectionist in me gets a tad upset at it.

Having said that, there are a couple of things I’m not happy with in this mandala, but I can live with them.

One thing I do like is the colour palette of copper/bronze colours and that steely blue-grey. Vintage colours seem to be my thing at the moment for sure.