line drawing

Zentangle and Early Celtic Art Inspired Drawing

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Click on this link to view this design’s Draw With Me YouTube video.

I very much enjoyed drawing this design. It all began with a bit of chance. I grabbed my notebook full of motifs and patterns and opened it randomly. On the pages were some Early Celtic Art patterns dating back to the Iron Age. So, I started at the top left with one of these and let the rest of the design flow intuitively. Some patterns and practices were inspired by Zentangle principles. Oh, I did include some motifs inspired by the work of Yellena James.

I love Early Celtic (La Tene) art. It’s full of swirls and spirals and asymmetry too. It just intrigues me so much. Of course, I really enjoy drawing these kinds of non-representational designs very much.

Next, this design will need colour/shade/highlight somehow. I don’t know whether to use Inktense pencils or chalk pastel pencils. Either would work on the paper I used – ClaireFontaine’s PaintON mixed media paper.

I used 0.5 and 0.3 Unipin Fine Line pens from Uniball. The paper measures approx 4″ x 5.5″ (10cm x 14cm).

Entangled Drawing Practice

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I’ve been slowly working on this drawing over several days. Little by little, it’s been finished and brought to life with colour.

I’m not quite finished yet; I’m still adding white dots as highlights! That’ll take me a goodly amount of time, no doubt.

Slowly is the correct description of my ability to work, slowly and a little at a time with breaks in between. This muscle healing process is very slow and I’m really learning I can’t push myself too hard. But I really do feel I’m making some kind of progress, which is all that matters.

Drawing Practice | 20 Nov 22

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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.

I did film my drawing practice (view it here on YouTube).

I’ve so missed drawing in the past several days, and I am looking forward to building up my stamina for drawing as my muscles heal in the coming days.

I want to thank you for sticking with me through this lean period of posts.

A Fun and Whimsical Entangled Garden – #ComeDrawWithMe

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I had a lovely time drawing this little garden this morning. It includes some of my favourite things – round Romanesque-inspired arches and some Romanesque patterns, zentangle tangle patterns, crystals, flowers, mushrooms and frondage.

Naturally, I filmed this, and a #ComeDrawWithMe or #DrawWithMe video is available on YouTube.

TWISBI ECO fountain pens with medium, fine and extra-fine nibs were my drawing tools of choice. An approx. 11cm x 17cm (4.3″ x 7″) piece of Ohuhu marker paper was my drawing surface. To add some shading, I used a set of three grey-green Arteza Everblend alcohol markers. Finally, a white 08 Sakura GellyRoll pen was used to add dots of white as highlights.

I have to remember not to use Dokumentus Ink, which fills my TWISBI pens, with alcohol markers; they can pick up some of the ink and spread it around. I must remember that Copic Multiliners or fineliners such as Sakura Pigma Microns, Uni Unipins, or Emotts are perfect for alcohol markers.

I do like the monochrome nature of the shading so far. I’d be intrigued to digitally scan it and add a coloured layer. Maybe when I’ve finished it, I’ll try that.

Flowy Op-Art Pattern – Draw With Me video tutorial.

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In today’s YouTube drawing tutorial video, I show how I draw this pattern/design which is very reminiscent of Op-Art. It was a bit of a tricky one to figure out, but I got there! And once figured out it’s not that difficult to draw, honest!

I also show how this pattern can fill any kind of space in the video. I do hope you’ll have a look and give this pattern a go yourself.

Whimsical Flowers – Creating Variations

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Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button to view in Youtube. Cheers!

Flowers are things I really enjoy drawing, particularly whimsical and stylised ones. So, today I drew a few for a drawing tutorial YouTube video.

“Slowpoke” Inktober Tangles 2022, Day 18

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Click on this link to watch the accompanying video tutorial for Slowpoke on YouTube

Slowpoke, by Cris Letourneau CZT, looks complicated, but it’s actually quite simple to draw, one step at a time! The fun comes in adding embellishments, which I did with a gold Uniball Signo gel pen. The central coloured panel with Slowpoke on is the only part that I did during today’s video on YouTube.

I coloured the paper with various Distress Inks before I started to draw. In person, the colours aren’t so garish, honest!

Around the panel with Slowpoke on, I’ve added a border of stylised flowers and leaves, all in a very Arts and Crafts Movement style. I need to fill out a couple of areas a little more, but I quite like the simplicity of the coloured panel with the black and white and rather dense border around it.

#Inktober #InktoberTangles2022, Day 9 “Sumu”

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Click on this link to watch the accompanying YouTube drawing tutorial for ‘Sumu’.

Suma (to the bottom and left of the drawing) is a lovely, lovely pattern, deconstructed by Lin Chiu CZT. It very much reminds me of Medieval manuscripts and architectural sculpture. So, it was a given that I’d love it, just like Tomàs Padrós’ “Snack” in Day 8 of the Inktober Tangles 2022 challenge.

Although Lin Chiu has given many possible variations, just as Tomàs did for Snack, I kept it simple, repeating the basic form around the bottom and left of the Heartfully ‘rug’. It also had to have that architectural, sculptured, carved ‘feel’ to it. Not sure I’ve quite managed it, but it’ll do!

My design is looking a bit higgledy-piggledy at the moment; I’m just going to trust the process and see how it works out at the end of Inktober.

Inktober Tangles 2022 – Day 8 – “Snack” by Tomàs Padrós CZT

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Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button.

Snack is a lovely pattern and Tomàs Padrós CZT has created a great step out for it, which includes lots of suggestions and variations.

I have to say, it is a motif I’m familiar with, probably early Celtic art or architecture. It was great fun for me to draw, and in keeping with my rather higgldy-piggldy arrangement I chose to use it in that way. As a nod to the architectural origins of this pattern, to me anyway, I’ve worked with shadow and highlight to practically ‘scuplt each ‘snack’ element. I particularly like the ‘half snack’ versions; again, they are familiar to me but not connected to Zentangle, and there’s nowt wrong with that at all!