Yesterday’s coloring template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group all coloured and shaded. I used Chameleon alcohol markers to add the colour and some shading. I also used a graphite pencil and a tortillon to darken the shading and add shadow to the lighter areas. It’s turned out OK.
Here’s just some of the smaller pieces of art I’ve done over the past week or so. They’re all entangled, zentangle, zentangle inspired. The biggest is 9″x9″, the smallest around 3.5″x3.5″ in size.
All have been fun to created, but I’m really not sure about colour choices, the backgrounds colours of the papers I used and so on.
I have yet more in the pile created over the past two or three weeks! They’ve been comforting to do, even if I’ve doubted myself with them and what I was doing. That’s often the case when my emotions are all over the place, as they still are to some extent.
All I know is that though it is bitterly cold outside, the sun is shining and I really do need to go for a walk, take in some fresh air, and blow some cobwebs from my mind. Well, that’s my plan. It may change once I’ve showered and so on!
… is a dangerous creature.
Another entangled/zentangle style drawing. 21cm x 21cm square piece of Claire-Fontaine Paint-on mixed media paper coloured with rusty hinge distress ink (I think). Drawing done with a mixture of 03 Uniball Unipin and 01 Sakura Micron pens. Shading is in the process of being added with a deep red-violet Carbothello pastel pencil and a blending stump.
I think I’ll need to use a darker colour to really bring out the edges of layers as well and to help to separate each area of the design. I also have a hankering to add some gold to this one. I may or may not act on that very tempting idea though. I have a way to go yet before I decide on the final embellishments. White may win out!
This mixed media paper really holds on to the pastel pencil; it’s really difficult to blend out. However, that also gives an interesting finish and stops me from blending it out so much everything looks the same!
This was lovely to do, as art usually is for me. It’s quite different for me and it doesn’t seem to flow as well. Perhaps that’s simply because it didn’t feel like it was flowing as I was drawing it. I started with the large motif of three weird seeds and the ribbon border wrapped partly around it. Not something I would usually do and I think it threw me a little. But it’s done now, and I just keep reminding myself every drawing is an experiment. it’s only some time, paper and ink, so if thing’s don’t work out, nothing much is wasted and new lessons are gained along the way.
These are two drawings I’ve been working on over the past three or so days. The whole page is A4 in size.
To draw them, I’ve been using Pilot Kakuno fountain pens with black ink. To add shadow and colour I’m using a mixture of Stabilo Carbothello, Daler-Rowney Artist’s Drawing and Prismacolor Ebony pencils. Along with some paper tortillons to blend the colour out. I’m also keeping the colour palette pretty limited – graphite black, two green Carbothello and Sanguine and Sepia Drawing pencils.
It’s fun to draw with a fountain pen. It’s also a lot of fun to use graphite and colour to bring depth and dimension to the drawing on paper rather than digitally for a change. I like to work both digitally and traditionally. Art is art!
I suspect the rest of the day is going to be filled with artsy pursuits, including finishing adding colour to these drawings.
We had snow overnight and the air is filled with a white fog too. Even though the layer of snow is just a couple of centimetres thick, it’s enough for me to want to stay inside. Snow is pretty to look at, but my sense of balance means it’s safest for me to stay cwtched up in the warm!
I was without broadband from early Thursday morning until late yesterday afternoon. Hence the reason why this is late and I’ve not posted for a couple of days.
I did have internet access via my mobile phone and I used a mobile-hotspot so I could get online on my ‘puter. But, even on 4G, it was a tad slow on uploading and I have no idea if it would have coped with Zoom.
So, after a couple of meetings since it has been fixed, I’ve been able to finally scan and partly colour and post this week’s coloring template for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.
This week it’s another typically ‘Angela’ entangled style of drawing. I used a Sakura Pigma Sensei 04 pen and A4 Bristol paper to draw this. After scanning, I added the background and some shadow and highlight.
It was one of those nights. I woke way too early feeling way too hot, even though the windows were open in the Welsh Winter. Hot flashes, again. So, the only thing to do was to draw until I was cool enough to get back to sleep. That took until nearly 8 am, GMT.
These are the little drawings I completed during my insomniac hours. My Sakura Pigma Sensei 04 pen is nearly done – either the nib is too worn to work properly or the ink is mostly gone, I’m not entirely sure which. I know I have a heavy hand with pens and tend to wreck them before all the ink has gone.
Anyway, I witter. I’m still trying to figure out how to add words into my drawings. I’m not entirely sure I’m being successful in this. No doubt I’ll keep on trying though!
These were drawn on A4 acid-free cartridge paper in one of my current sketchbooks. I added the background colour digitally.
This is a page from one of my A4 sketchbooks. Six small drawings, a couple I’ve shown before, the rest are new. Some tweaks here and there as well.
All drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron or Sensei pens on white acid-free cartridge paper. The background has been added digitally.
No shadow or highlight on these, yet.
This week’s coloring template for members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Books Fans facebook group is a typically “Angela” style mandala. It’s quite abstract, entangled, a bit zentangle-like.
What isn’t typical is, perhaps, the colour palette. I chose the colours rather intuitively, letting my emotions guide me. I started with cool, calming blues and greens in the centre. All the colours are quite soft and gentle, until I got to the outside border where I used brighter yellows and oranges and complementary blues and purples. The brighter colours appeared as my anxiety ebbed and the clouds parted to let some sunshine through.
I had a weird night’s sleep with both hot flashes and disturbing dreams. I often feel out of sorts for a long while after such dreams and they may be the source of my anxiety. I’m feeling calmer now though. Art has worked it’s magic, and the intermittent sunshine is helping.
I think it’s forecast to be cloudy with sunny breaks for the rest of the daylight hours, so I may very well get myself out for a walk in a short while.
I realised that I haven’t drawn a mandala in quite a while. So, that’s what I did! Intricate, geometric and organic repeating patterns. It was a pleasure to do.
I’m quite happy with the highlights and shadows on this one, and keeping it all monochrome works for me today as well. A calm and soothing green – just what I need today as I’m still recovering from the stress from earlier in the week.
Tools – Microsoft Surface Slim Pen, Microsoft Surface Studio, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
I took a 6″ square Strathmore artist’s tile and coloured it with Distress Inks. Next, I used Sakura Pigma Sensei 04 and Pigma Micron 01 pens to draw the design. Finally I added some graphite shadows.
This zentangle inspired drawing contains the Zibu symbol for ‘nurture’. Nurture is all about growth and expansion which involves encouraging, nourishing, protecting and caring.
I certainly need to care for myself today. For the past few days anxiety gradually increased as I got closer to meeting my accountant to hand over my paperwork. I was left exhausted after the essential business trip to meet her in a car park to do this. I’m still feeling exhausted, fuzzy headed, and not with it today.
Nurturing myself was an important lesson to learn through EMDR therapy. It’s not an easy lesson for any of us to learn, but it is essential. It’s not just about taking care of the basic needs, it’s about the whole of your being.
Yesterday, this involved quiet time with art, or just sitting and being, and some comforting, as well as nourishing, food. An early night was in order.
My nights sleep was broken and I’m still feeling the effects of the post-stress come-down. But these will pass as the cortisol and other stress hormones gradually leave my body.
On the good side, I was up to creating the cover for the next colouring book after Entangled Starry Skies. So, if the sketch is approved, I can get to inking and colouring it over the next couple of days.
Art is the Adventure 