I love curvy, flowy, abstract patterns and the illusion of depth, volume, twisting, and bending space. And seed pods. And seeds. So lots of my favourite things in this design. I even snuck in a few spirals!
To add shade, I used three cool grey Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens. Though they haven’t blended smoothly, I’m quite happy with that. The design looks almost metallic as a result. In fact, I am happy with this design in its entirety. I could increase the contrast a bit more between the darkest shadowed areas and the white highlights. But I can always revisit that in my own time.
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.
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.
In today’s YouTube video, I started to draw the design on the right. While the video was uploading, I finished drawing it. Also, I drew some motifs on a separate piece of paper so I could practice using alcohol markers (Arteza EverBlend).
Colour combinations do vex me, continually. And they certainly do on this practice sheet! But it’s best I practice somewhere before adding colour to my completed drawing. But first I’ll scan that drawing in so if all else fails I can add colour digitally!
Either way, it’s been lovely to spend time drawing and adding colour just for the joy of it. It is far too warm to do anything else.
Please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button to view on YouTube itself (and help the algorithm!).
I’ve now finished this drawing by adding two organic motifs, both fairly simple.
With the trailing flowers or leaves or stones, the hardest part is arranging them to look like they’re trailing and remembering to decrease the size towards the point.
The other motif, a stack of small seeds on a stem, is easy enough to draw.
After doing this, I thought it needed some colour to bring the motifs to life. So, I dug out some of the Neocolour IIs I’d used for the background and used them a bit like watercolour paints. I scribbled a little of each Neocolor II on my plastic palette, added water, and painted.
I’m not entirely sure about my efforts with adding colour – this is where it can all go wrong for me. Part of me knows I’d most likely be better off if I were to add shadow and texture using pens.
I did use some metallic watercolours to add some sparkle here and there too.
One thing I did notice is that I was glad I tried not to paint over the black lines. The pigment ink in Micron pens is usually waterproof, but, as the Necolor IIs are wax-based and coat the surface of the paper, the pigment doesn’t sink fully into the paper and so water will move the ink.
It’s not a problem, now I’m aware of this. Oh, it also means erasers will lift some of the ink as well as pencil lines. Again, just something to be aware of.
One other thing I did was to cut the paper down to frame the design a bit better. In my clumsy way, I managed to cut it just across the tip of one of the trailing thingies. So, no border around that area.
I will keep going with adding colour and see where it leads me, hopefully not into a disaster! Still, if that happens, it’s only a bit of time, ink, paper and colour and the design can be used as inspiration for the next one. Important lessons about the Necolor IIs are being learned, which is, perhaps, the most important thing.
Hand-drawn typography. Stylised botanicals. Some of my favourite things to draw along with one of my core beliefs!
I’m not at all sure about my colour choices. I think I could’ve done the gradient rainbow first, then taken my palette from that to use with the outer border of botanica. It’ll be easy to sort out though. I added colour digitally, but drew the design with pen on paper.
I actually managed to keep some white space in the design! I may have slightly overdone the dottiness. I did mess up by trying to use the Derwent Drawing pencils to add some darker tones to the green ‘leaves’.
Overall, I think this is good enough to move on to the next project, which is likely to be Thursday’s coloring template.
It’s been nice to lose myself in some art for the sake of art. Especially as my emotional weather is still damp, dull and grey and making me doubt myself. It’s been an emotional rainy spell that’s been brewing for a while, and that’s why I’ve returned to the familiarity and comfort of my entangled art.
I always circle back to entangled art, regardless of my experiments with other media and styles and getting frustrated with colour!
My tricksy emotional weather is only exacerbating my frustrations with colour. I know I need to get the coloured plates done for the Whimsical Cats colouring book, but as I am at the moment I will only get myself into a right royal kerfuffle. So, it’s time to just enjoy drawing, maybe using some colour – time for monochrome colour schemes I think.
Yes, another WIP (work in progress). I’m fairly happy with the drawing, and I may re-draw it with less detail for this week’s coloring template. I’ll see how I get along.
This one is vexing me in terms of adding colour. I think that because elements of this are far less abstract my brain kicks into making things like life. I think I need to find a way to kick my brain into using shadow and light to bring dimension rather than focusing on colour.
This frustration may be because I’m feeling more than a little anxious and a bit like a startled rabbit. I have an appointment in a short while, and that means going into the world where there are people.
Design drawn on A4 heavyweight cartridge paper with Unipin pens. Background and colour added digitally.
This week, I decided to create a coloring page / template that is in the ‘Angela’ Entangled style, similar to yesterday’s artwork.
I made the motifs bigger and less patterned for the coloring template, however. To add colour to my version of the template I used a mixture of brown fineliners by Staedtler and Stabilo. Instead of solid colour, I used patterns and textures to add colour and complexity. I did use a pale grey fineliner to add details to the snowdrops and leaves, but the scanner didn’t pick it up. Ho hum.
After I’ve had lunch, I may return to the drawing to add shadows to bring out some dimension and depth. I’m not sure what medium I’ll use, though alcohol makers may be the best option, perhaps. I’ll see how I feel when I get to it.
Of course this is the template of the week for the members of the Angela Porter’s coloring book fans facebook group. And this week there’s a challenge to colour this template, or another of their choice, in a monochrome colour scheme.
If you’d like to print the template and join in with the challenge then just pop along to the group!
I’ve been working on this drawing for the past three or four days. I finally finished it this morning. Here’s a list of materials used: A4 Daler-Rowney Bristol Board Copic Multiliners (05, 025, 02) Sakura Pigma Micron (01) Various shades of brown Stabilo fineliners Grey and sepia Uniball Unipin fineliners
I’m finally becoming comfortable with leaving open spaces in my art, though I still do like a clear border/edge. The spaces give a lighter, more airy feel to the design. I’m learning that I don’t have to fill every available space with pattern. I think that is a good thing.
I’m also really enjoying using shades of brown to add patterns to the design, and some grey too.
If you’d like to know where I started this drawing, it was with the small arrangement of boxes just above the blueberry-ish berries just above the left of centre. Everything else grew out from there.
I think this one is finished, though as I look at it now, I want to use a white Gelly Roll pen to add dots in places. Also, the shadows need to be tad intensified around the motifs to give the illusion of depth. I may use alcohol markers – Chameleons or Copics – to do this as the Copic Multiliners are alcohol ink safe.
Waking at stupid o’clock meant drawing until I could go back to sleep. I got all the inking done for this particular drawing. Now, the colouring needs to be completed.
Materials: 21cm x 21 cm (8.25″ x 8.25″) piece of Claire Fontaine Paint-on mixed media paper – natural colour Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and a piece of cut and dry foam to distress/grungify the paper 03 and brush Uniball Unipin fineliner pens 01 Sakura Pigma Micron pen Staedtler Triplus fineliners Chameleon fineliners Water brush White Sakura Gelly Roll pen
Angela Porter 