I really enjoyed drawing this tiny tile this morning. I love the soft, muted green tones of the paper and the the way the Inktense pencils I used to add colour, shade and light work so well with it. The bright white touches of a Sakura Soufflé pen shine so bright against everything else.
The paper is a 6cm x 6cm (approx. 2.4″ x 2.4″) piece of grey-green ClaireFontaine PaintON mixed media paper.
My first step was to draw a single cell, or fragment, of the Zentangle pattern Well. and I added a variation to that pattern. To fill in the sections created, I used the tangle patterns Purk and B’tweed.
This will eventually be one of my little Random Acts of Kindness cards, once I work out what message to put on the back and whether I’m going to hand letter it or print it out. I have not practiced my hand lettering much lately, and I think it shows. But maybe I’m just being overly harsh on myself, I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that I love creating these tiny drawings as much as I do my larger ones. I love the cuteness of the size very much.
Purk is a Zentangle pattern, and today it appears, to begin with, in a leaf shape.
I managed to fill in half my sketchbook page with variations. I’m sure there are other variations to be discovered, but just not yet. My mind is ticking over slowly with ideas today. I’m really brain-foggy at the moment and I don’t know why. Perimenopause, not sleeping well, something else? I dunno. But I’ll return to this fragment later today.
In today’s video I start by taking a look back on the past week of the Fragments of Your Imagination Challenge, #FYIC2022, along with some of my recently completed artworks. Then, I share how I worked on variations of Purk.
This morning, I was in the mood to do a bit of tangling/zentangling. I used a random tangle pattern generator to choose the main pattern for my design and it threw ‘Purk’ at me.
Yesterday, I spent some time creating some backgrounds digitally. So, I decided to use one of those and to tangle digitally too. This is the result.
It took me a lot longer to finish than if I’d drawn with pen on paper. Mainly because I spent time adding shading and highlights to the image. That let me play around with different kinds of layers and brush effects yet again. Bit by bit I’m learning how I can make them work for me.
I need a break from this for a while. But I can see how I need to add more shadow/depth to the background patterns.
So, Angela, how’re you doing today?
I’ve suddenly come over all tired. My sleep is all over the place. Despite me feeling content, there’s still a deep seated anxiety about the pandemic and how life is at the moment. That anxiety is draining me emotionally. I feel emotionally out of sorts today, even though I can still feel that contented touchstone inside me.
I’m surprised I settled to do some drawing this morning. Yesterday, I had trouble settling to anything to the point I was going to throw out my yarn stash. Whatever I’ve tried in terms of knitting or crochet has just frustrated the heck out of me rather than settled me down.
I found myself swearing at my phone yesterday as it pinged with alerts. I’ve now put my phone on silent. I will check in on messages etc in a short while, but they are going to be silenced until I am no longer getting so angry I’m swearing and shouting at the phone. I’ve never done that before and it’s a sign of how much on edge I am, even though I feel content.
Yesterday and today I’ve not known what to do with myself. I’ve not felt that way for a long while for such an extended period of time. There was a time when I’d be like this for days or months. I’ve not often felt this way in the past year or two as my healing from cPTSD has really kicked in.
Still, I will be kind to myself about this as these are unusual times; unfamiliar with increased fear, anxiety and uncertainty. The last day or two my usual coping strategies haven’t helped me to distance myself from the overwhelming pervasiveness of constant news and articles, posts and memes about the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s not just a break from my phone I need; it’s a break from the news and views too. A retreat from the world and everything is needed. For a while at least.
Angela Porter 