Tag: Pattern Exploration

Pattern Exploration – Kangular by Tomàs Padrós CZT

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, tangle pattern, YouTube, YouTube drawing tutorial, youtube video, ZentangleLeave a comment

After getting my daily quota of sketches done for the next Creative Haven book, I turned my attention to some sketchbook work. This time I chose to do a tangle pattern exploration of Kangular by Tomàs Padrós CZT.

I love all of Tomàs’ patterns, and Kangular is no exception! It’s a charming, geometrical pattern with lots of possibilities for variations. And there’s only a small number here.

Adding shading really brings volume to the individual fragments and overall pattern, as does the use of fairly high contrast.

I enjoyed my time with this pattern, and you can see my explorations in today’s YouTube video.

Draw With Me … Tangle Pattern Exploration of ‘Nova# by Beth Gaughan

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, sketchbook, tangle pattern, YouTube, youtube video, ZentangleLeave a comment

Click on this link to view the video of the tangle pattern exploration on YouTube.

It’s a funny old day today. I think I’ve overextended myself in exploring/experimenting with art. I just felt I needed a bit of ‘comfort art’ today. It’s like comfort eating, but healthier! Something familiar, not too taxing, soothing to the senses and mind. So, some pattern exploration fitted the bill!

The pattern I chose to look at is Nova by Beth Gaughan. It’s a lovely pattern but not one that I would ordinarily choose. Just challenging enough to make things interesting, but not so challenging that I get more and more disheartened with artwork.

It turns out that Nova was a good choice. There are some interesting variations to be explored for sure.

I hope you’ll come and join me in drawing these variations over on YouTube. This kind of exercise is good for getting the creative juices working, coming up with ideas in my sketchbook, and continuing to work with and understand how to vary tangle patterns. In turn, these things have an effect on my other art.

Zentangle Pattern “Huggins” Variations … Part 1?

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, sketchbook, tangle pattern, YouTube, YouTube drawing tutorial, youtube video, ZentangleLeave a comment

Click on this link to view today’s video.

One of my YouTube subscribers wondered what I could do with the Zentangle pattern Huggins. I think Linda’s exact words were ‘I’d like to see you take on Huggins’.

So I did. This page is as far as I’ve got for now, which is further than I got in the video. But what else is there to do while a video is uploading and processing?

Huggins is one of my favourite tangle patterns (there are many). It’s always fun to play around with varying the pattern, and it’s a very good one to add variations to!

Not my neatest drawing, but it is in a sketchbook. Sketchbooks are, sometimes, the place to get ideas down quickly as they come to you. And that’s exactly what I did in today’s video.

A flowery tangle pattern – Blomkoal by Maaike Terpstra CZT

On By Angela PorterIn Art, flowers, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, sketchbook, tangle pattern, ZentangleLeave a comment

Blomkoal, by Maaike Terpstra, is a tangle pattern totally new to me. It’s flowery and unusual, so I just had to do some pattern exploration!

A lovely hour was spent drawing, adding colour and trying out Distress Microglaze to bring out the colours.

If you’d like to draw along with me, find out more about the variations and so on, then here’s the link to today’s video on YouTube.

“Bilt” variations and a sketchbook page border.

On By Angela PorterIn Art, line art, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, sketchbook, YouTube, YouTube drawing tutorial, Zentangle, Zentangle InspiredLeave a comment
Please click on the ‘Watch on YouTube’ option.

Bilt, a tangle pattern deconstructed by Lisa Skeen, is one I’ve not used that I remember. It is, however, great fun to explore variations of!

In this video, I go through how to draw Bilt, one step at a time, and then look at some variations.

A bit of a change from flowers, but sometimes change is as good as a rest!

Motif Monday

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Drawing, line drawing, Motif Monday, pen drawing, sketchbook, Zentangle InspiredLeave a comment

Click on this link to see today’s video.

I love playing around with motifs, letting variations appear on my paper. So, having a day dedicated to exploring in such a way is, I think, a good idea for me!

Today, I chose two templates. One ‘seedling-y’, the other ‘coral-ish’. I ended up with this page (A5) full of possibilities and potential.

I worked in an A5 Arteza plain paper notebook rather than a sketchbook. I’m getting papers all over the place again. As much as I like the discbound sketchbooks I have, I just felt the time was right to dedicate a casebound book to my motif, tangle and fragment pursuits.

The paper reminds me of dot-grid notebook paper, without the dots. I didn’t expect it to work well with the washes of colour. However, as a sketchbook, it’ll be fine for me. The smooth surface of the paper is a pleasure to draw on. Also, I won’t wreck the nibs of my fineliner pens so quickly!

Oh, I also used a matt graphite pencil to add shadows – no tortillon or paper stump, just using pressure and/or layering to increase the depth of the shadow. I also worked with texture in the shadow in the blue seed-pod/sea anemone/round thing. That is something I want to look at a bit more going forward too.

#FragmentFriday – “Holly” by Linda Dawson

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Fragment Friday, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, youtube videoLeave a comment

Ah! Fragment variations! One of my favourite things to do just for fun!

Today, I chose the lovely tangle pattern ‘Holly’, by Linda Dawson, as the source of the initial fragment.

My coddiwomple through the variations let to some lovely variations. Some were definitely dead ends, and some just don’t work in a reticulum.

Each dead-end and ‘fail’ teaches something. To persevere. And to accept that playing around with variations means mistakes, yeuchy variations are going to result. This is what sketchbooks are for – to make mistakes, to try things out, to work out what does and what does not work. And more importantly, to help get over the fear of failure, of having a go.

Even the ‘fails’ can lead to fragments that are lovely and unexpected.

Also, it’s nice not to have the pressure to create finished and highly polished artwork. It’s always nice to draw just for the joy of drawing.

Of course, I created a video showing my exploration. You can view it by clicking on this link.

Tangle Tuesday – “Sandswirl” by Karry Heun

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, tangle pattern, Tangle Tuesday, YouTube, YouTube drawing tutorial, youtube video, ZentangleLeave a comment

Tuesdays are #TangleTuesday! This week I’ve chosen “Sandswirl” to draw and work out some variations with.

Sandswirl has long been a favourite tangle pattern of mine. I’ve never thought about exploring variations of it. I really enjoyed doing so!

When shadows are added, this tangle pattern becomes really dimensional in an interesting way.

I’ve never thought of using Sandswirl as a border before. This shows that all the time I’ve spent exploring patterns and fragments is paying off! I’d always thought of Sandswirl as a filler pattern. Today, I discovered otherwise.

If you’d like to see my explorations today, then here’s the link to today’s video on YouTube.

Fragment Friday! 11 Feb ’22

On By Angela PorterIn Art, Fragment Friday, Pattern Explorations, pen drawing, YouTube, Zentangle, Zentangle InspiredLeave a comment

I love alliteration! Back in the so-called ‘Dark Ages’, the time between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Battle of Hastings in 1066, alliteration was used for rhymes. One reason I’d love to learn to speak, write and read Anglo-Saxon.

I’ve decided to have a different alliterative social media theme for each day.

Fragment Friday was a natural choice. I absolutely enjoyed creating variations for each of the fragments in the “Fragments of Your Imagination Challenge” that ran through January. I miss doing these variations. So that led to this particular theme.

For my first Friday Fragment, I decided to use ‘Hearts’ as the theme. Today it’s not so much creating variations on a particular fragment but the use of a particular motif within each variation. Some of the variations are familiar fragments or tangle patterns. Others go off in surprising directions.

Of course I filmed the process (though not the addition of colour and shadow with marker pens). You can see the video by clicking on this link.