Sketchbook / Journal Pages

Sakura white, metallic and starlight gelly roll pens in a black Sakura journal/sketchbook. I had a lovely few hours last night, sat in bed, settling down for a good sleep.

What you can’t see in the photos is how the matt white and shiny blue/green inks create interesting weirdness visually. By weirdness, I mean a strange kind of 3D effect that I can’t put into words. That was totally unexpected.

I haven’t decided what to do with these pages yet. Will I fill them in completely with colour/pattern, or will I leave the pages as they are. If I leave them as they are then they can be used for journaling, writing, and I quite like that idea to be honest. As the writing is likely to be very personal, I’m not likely to share that, but maybe I’ll mock something up digitally, see for myself what it’s like and then decide.

And with that last sentence, I may scan these in and use them as templates for a digital journal, which would then take away my worries about making a mess of the page by writing on it!

Of course, they’d work quite nicely as frames for quotes too.

Too many possibilities!

Whatever I decide to do – and it may be all of these things – there is something satisfying about working with shimmer and shine and the contrast with the matt white ink on black. The sparkle and shine makes my arty soul rather happy.

Just a note on the black Sakura sketchbook / notebook /journal. I like it! It has a LOT of pages in it of acid-free, sturdy enough, smooth paper.

Monogram B – another version

©Angela Porter 2018

This version is totally digital. I used the pen and ink drawn version to re-draw the design in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, making use of a glitter texture.

I think I got my head around how to do this, and colour the images in and I’m kind of pleased with it, though I’d like a bit more of a highlight/shadow on the glitter bits. That will take some thought and experiments as to how to achieve that, but for now my head is overloaded with working in layers and with digital art techniques I’ve barely used before.

I’m pleased with how it looks rather medieval in style – medieval drawn using modern technology. This version doesn’t even exist in physical form, which is crazy!

I have no idea how this would print out as, say, a book mark or note card. As it’s a fairly high resolution file on my computer it would print as a photograph. Of course, there wouldn’t be any real glittery sparkle and shine.

Yes, I’m fairly pleased with this and for myself for figuring it out how to do it, though there’s lots of improvements that could be made.

I think I’d like finer ‘glitter’ on the texture background I used – that’s just a matter of creating another tiled image via GiMP. However, until I do something I never quite know how it’s going to work out, nor do I know if it’s going to be a good idea.

It certainly satisfies a part of me that likes glitter and sparkle and shiny things.

All I have to do now is try to remember how I did this so that I can repeat it in the future, if I’m so inclined.

I am waiting for some metallic inks to be delivered today, so no doubt I’ll be drawing with them on paper.

Sunday, sunday

Angela Porter 13 May 2018Another floral wreath card, hand drawn on watercolour paper, coloured using the Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens with a water-brush.  I added some Gold Sakura Gellyroll highlights, as well as some sparkly crystals in red, amber, and two shades of green.

Not my usual kind of colour combination, and I’m not at all sure I’m happy with it.

The design would make a pretty bujo spread or month cover, just enough space in the middle for a title.

Trying to find those #weekendvibes.

Dream Big

Angela Porter Dream Big Dangle 4 April 2018

Today’s small dangle design.  Lots of shimmer and sparkle on this one, though it’s not photographed all that well, mounted on a 5″x7″ card blank.

Let me know if you’d like to see a printable digital download of the design available in my Etsy shop, Artwyrd.

A Dangle A Day, my upcoming book, is available for pre-order now.

Give Away!

Heart Card by Angela Porter

This card is 6″ x 6″.  The design is on watercolour paper and it glitters and glimmers with gold embossing, sparkling spots and patterns. The central heart and the outer layer are raised and shiny, thanks to the use of Ranger’s Glossy Accents. The green, pink, red and purple colours were added using Tim Holtz’s Distress inks, also from Ranger, with a waterbrush, and all relate to love, peace and harmony.  The design is mounted on a craft paper card and comes with a plain envelope.

If you pop over to my facebook page then you can enter a free draw to win this card!  I will draw the winner at random at 8pm UK time (GMT) on Tuesday 10th February.

Good luck!