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

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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.

Adding colour to some whimsical flowers

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Click on this link to watch the video where I add colour to some of the whimsical flowers in my sketchbook.

I took a short break from social media over the last couple of days. I had other things that needed to be done, not least a trip out for brunch in a local cafe with a friend. That’s the first time in over two years I’ve eaten out!

I was highly anxious and stressed, but had a lovely time. The cafe was quiet, thankfully. The food and drink were delicious. It’s our new favourite cafe to go to, one that’s close to us both as we, like most people, are mindful of the cost of fuel at the moment.

The comedown from anxiety and stress leaves me exhausted, and unable to focus my mind. So, some simple colouring of my whimsical flowers sketchbook page from my last blog was just the thing I needed. Nothing to tax my mind. Sketchbook work is a place to experiment, practice, and enjoy the creative process with no pressure for anything to be perfect!

To add colour I used a mixture of Pentel Brush Sign and Tombow Dual Brush pens, along with a water brush. Both of these pens are filled with water-soluble inks and so work a bit like watercolours. I feel I have much more success with these media than I do watercolours, especially as the colours are so bright and vibrant – saturated I think the arty term is.

Just a bit of colour brings the line art to life. It’s its own kind of magic.

Draw With Me … Leaves

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Click on this link to see today’s YouTube “Leaves” drawing tutorial.

This morning was one where all I wanted to do was draw leaves and experiment with colour. So I did. And I videoed it and I invited you to watch and draw and colour along with me.

Whimsy was definitely needed too. So, whimsical leaves were drawn with a brush pen. Bold lines. Simple shapes and patterns. Plenty of space to add colour to each leaf.

Adding colour is a frustrating thing for me. More so with traditional media where you’re stuck with your colour choices. Digital colouring lets me play with colour a lot more, without the fear of making poor colour combination choices; it’s easy to change.

However, I’m aware that there are times when I want to add colour to sketchbook work. Times when only traditional media will do. And it’s time for me to experiment with them more often.

Today, I chose to use Derwent Colorsoft pencils along with a Caran d’Ache All Blender. Telling myself, and those who watch my videos, that as I’m working in a sketchbook, in my own imaginary world, I can use any colours I like. Also, there are no mistakes, just experiments that had unexpected outcomes that are sometimes not pleasant. But a sketchbook is the place to experiment, to try things out, to work out how to get a medium to work for you.

A sketchbook gives me permission to play around, try things out, have things not work out how I expected them to, to discover new things. After 20 years of really exploring my artistic side, only now has this realisation dawned on me. Yes, I can be a bit dim at times! But I eventually get there. Perhaps I wasn’t ready to understand and accept this before now. It seems that I am now.

The breakthrough has been taking the lettering course on Domestika. Encouragement to try different things out, not to worry if something doesn’t work, it may be useful in the future. Just keep going until something is good enough. Recognising that sometimes the unexpected outcome is just what is needed.

As well as becoming a bit more confident with lettering, these insights into the true power of a sketchbook have been a powerful lesson to learn.

Template Thursyay!

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Thursday is the day I gift a colouring template to the members of Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group. I know that not everyone uses Facebook, so I am working up the oompf to sort out a mailing list, so please bear with me while I do that.

This week, it’s a right feast of funky fungi, with some flowers and foliage thrown in for good measure. As far as I’m concerned, in my inner whimsical universe, all fungi are funkily coloured! And I had a lot of fun working with colour in this one, as well as a new brush or two in Clip Studio Paint.

Today’s Pattern Exploration Video

In today’s drawing tutorial video on YouTube, I take a look at Ansu by Lori Manoogian CZT. It’s a rather versatile tangle pattern that makes lovely flowers and foliage for sure.

You can view the video by clicking on this link.

Draw With Me … Mushrooms!

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Yesterday, I was working in my lettering sketchbook and came up with some letters embellished with mushrooms. That led to me having the idea to show you, step by step, how I draw some of my favourite mushroom motifs!

I absolutely love mushrooms. They’re fun and funky and the whimsical, fanciful, stylised versions here are simple to draw, one little pen stroke at a time. Why not have a go? Take a look at today’s ‘Draw With Me’ video tutorial on YouTube.

A flowery tangle pattern – Blomkoal by Maaike Terpstra CZT

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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.

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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!

Draw with me … A flower border

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There are never enough flowers in my life. I’ve really enjoyed drawing flowers (and seed pods) over the past couple of days. So, I thought I’d make use of one of the flower motifs from yesterday to create a border on a page edge in my sketchbook.

I like the graphic contrast of the black background and the flowers and foliage. It’s going to be a lovely page to make notes or record thoughts about whatever I’m drawing in my sketchbook at this time.

If you’d like to see how to draw this, and follow along with me, then please take a look at today’s video on YouTube.

A Seed Pod Design

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Well, what am I going to do with all the seed pod variations in my sketchbook? Well, create a drawing of course, including even more variations!

I also used a couple of Zentangle tangle patterns to add interest to the seed pods – between, purk, tipple and diva dance. The tangle Toodles created the foliage at the bottom of the page.

I had a lovely time this morning creating this design. I made use of a Tombow Fudenosuke, and black and brown 01 Micron pens.

It’s unusual that I use a second colour in my pen drawings, but today seemed a fine time to give it a go again.

I didn’t add shadow or colour to this drawing. Well, not this morning. I drew on marker paper so the ink does take a little longer to properly dry. I’m likely to use alcohol markers to fill this one with colour, and shadow, eventually. But not today.

If you’d like to follow how I drew this, step by step, then here’s the link to today’s YouTube video tutorial.

Draw with me … Part 2 of the Siros Zentangle Inspired bookmark. Also, a peek inside my lettering sketchbook.

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Please click on the ‘Watch on Youtube’ button to view this video on YouTube. It helps my stats. Cheers!

Today, I finish the bookmark with some subtle colour and shading. Indigo blue for a suggestion of water, and sepia for the shadows.

In the video, I also give you a peek inside my lettering sketchbook 🙂 I’m actually quite proud of some of the pages!