Having more fun! This time a 20-sided icosohedron. And I’ve just noticed I lost the plot slightly in creating the montage above – the same image repeated, d’oh go me! First time I’ve ever done a photo montage though, so maybe I can be forgiven!
zentangle
Entangled in 3D…
I’ve had an idea rattling around the old brainbox for a while – to use 3D nets and entangle them to form a 3D entangled drawing.
Ok, the patterns don’t wrap around all of the edges, however, on all but one the patterns kind of match up even though they’re not the same.
I’ve not coloured or added shading to the drawing (which I scanned and printed out so I could keep the original for future use) as I just wanted to see if it was something that would work.
I think it does work. I suspect my yuletide decorations may be made from such things, with plenty of sparkle and glimmer! Not to mention the more spooky ones for Hallowe’en…
Fancy having some to colour and construct? Let me know!
Share this post
Autumnly Entangled 5 and 6
Making stamps and more Autumnly Entangled
Stamp Carving
I woke up the other morning, Thursday I think it was, and had the overwhelming desire to try my hand at carving stamps from rubber blocks again.
I enjoyed doing lino cuts when I was doing my A level in art over a decade ago, well apart from the way my finger and wrist joints would hurt after doing this. So, I thought I’d have a go with soft rubber, and above you can see the first of my efforts.
The weird flower was the first, and I’m not happy with it, though I think it would be fine as a background stamp in mixed media work, maybe.
The other circular stamps followed fairly quickly after that one, but the stylised thistle was one I did this morning. The white rubber discs are made by Essdee, and I used lino and stamp carving tools by the same company.
The leaf, heart and geometric patterns I carved this morning from a different kind of pink rubber: Speedy Carve from Speedball.
Both kinds of carving material were easy to work with, perhaps a little too soft for my liking, but only time will tell. The only other tools I used were a pencil to draw the designs on the stamp carving material and a craft knife to cut the Speedy Carve. Oh, and some sepia Archival Ink from Ranger, and an acrylic stamp block for the circular discs to adhere to while I stamped with them.
Autumnly Entangled
Two more, drawn on paper coloured with Distress Oxide inks, with highlights of white gel pen and metallic gel pens added. Also, the bottom one has had colour added using Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Pens from Kuretake and also some Prismacolour pencils.
I still have two more 10cm x 14cm sheets of coloured paper to draw on… so at least two more to come!
Share this post
Autumnly Entangled 1
I’ve had a busy couple of days with this and that and the other.
Yesterday and today it’s been learning about vector files, images, graphics and how to get my artwork done as that kind of file and to a maker so she can use them to laser etch her products – more about this when I have photos of the projects!
Lots of head scratching, googling, and finally settling on downloading a program that works in vector graphics. So, a lot of learning to do with that, but it’s easy, intuitive and makes a lot more sense than Adobe Illustrator; I chose Serif’s Affinity Designer. I don’t know if it is as sophisticated as Illustrator, but I can’t see me wanting to get to that kind of level – I love Autodesk Sketchbook Pro way too much for that!
Certainly a different skill set is needed, but I’ll get there as I usually do.
After all the time on the ‘puter, I had the need to return to traditional media, and the photo above is what I’ve spent my evening doing.
First, the paper (approx. 14cm x 21cm), along with a few other sheets, was coloured with distress oxide inks. Then I drew on it using a mixture of pens.
It was really nice to do, the colours of all the sheets are rather autumnal, and I’m looking forward to drawing on the others over the coming days.
Share this post
Playing with colour
I’ve been quiet around ‘tinternet for a couple of weeks – problems with my mood, instead of starting many new things I’ve been spending time organising a reference collection of my favourite patterns and designs of things like fungi and buildings and creatures and so on and its very much a work in progress! The process of going through the familiar and organising them is comforting to me …
I have done some new drawings for the Eerie project for Dover – not many left to do for the book, then the hard work is deciding which two I would like to colour in the most, always a problem.
Plans are afoot for a change in my online presence too … more as that happens!
The above images show one artwork I started last night and finished this morning. Most probably about 8 or 10 hours of work. Distress Oxides, Cosmic Shimmer watercolours and a Sakura Glaze pen were used. When light strikes the artwork at just the right angle, the metallics and iridescents bring the artwork to life; it’s like it lights up all by itself. A joyful feeling for sure as I look at it.
It was nice to work with colour and the more traditional media rather than digital art, though, yet again, I noticed how drawing with the Surface Pen on my Microsoft Surface Book are having an effect on my work on paper.
One thing I did enjoy was adding the sparkle and shimmer to the artwork, something I’ve not found out how to do digitally (or even if you can!).
So, I now have satisfied a need in me to work with colour and pen and I can turn my attention back to the illustrations for the Eerie book, and on to other things after that is done.
For today, I head off soon for counselling/EMDR, and to have my acrylic nails removed once again as they really do get in the way of me typing, art-ing, using my phone…and no doubt I’ll do some drawing while I have a late lunch between nail removing and counselling.
Share this post
Cirque-doodle
This is what I’ve done with one of the Distress Oxide coloured circles I blogged yesterday.
It’s essentially finished, though I may add a few metallic highlights, and maybe some drops of 3D Crystal Glaze.
The Distress Oxides give a lovely soft feel to the paper and it is lovely to draw on. The mixed media paper on it’s own is quite hard and bumpy and not a surface I enjoy working on with pen; the Distress Oxides and water spray have changed that.
I still have a few circles to draw on, but shortly I need to turn my attention back to things of an eerie nature.
Share this post
Today’s Entangled doodle
This is today’s little piece of art; it’s 14cm x 10cm, drawn on natural coloured mixed media paper from Claire Fontaine. I used a mixture of Sakura Micron and Uniball UniPin pens, along with a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen, a brown Kuretake Zig Clean Colour Brush Pen with a damp paint brush, and some dots of metallic copper paint.
Share this post
It’s Friday…
This week, I’ve been doing my best to get images drawn for the Eerie themed book. Various appointments and just generally feeling down and unwell have got in the way, and today hasn’t been much better.
I have spent sometime drawing a ‘DoodleWorlds’ image, which is sitting in a file on my computer to be re-drawn and so on.
The zentangle kind of thingy above is something I’ve done not too long ago. I drew the design using Sakura Micron pens and a white Sakura Gelly roll pen on natural coloured Mixed Media Paper from Claire Fontaine. The paper size is 10cmx14cm.
Last weekend, I created this bit of art work:
It was deviantART.com’s 17th Birthday and a challenge was set there. I wanted to have a go as it was a bit of a challenge, it let me try out new techniques/ides with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and my Surface Book and Surface Pen, but mostly it’s because deviantART is where various editors/publishers/artwork managers have found my art and engaged me to do work for them. That is the reason I was able to leave teaching, how I’m able to look after my mental health more, and to find a different way of life as well as being able to heal.
Thank you deviantART! And thank you everyone else who has believed in me, my work, and given me opportunities, even when I’ve not believed in myself, my ability, or the quality of my work. And thank you everyone who has bought the books and stamps and so on … I am so grateful.
Share this post
Happy Coloring Day 2017!
Have a wonderful day, and find even a few minutes to colour, relax, unwind and calm!
Here’s my finished version of my Coloring Day Template 2017. I’ve enjoyed colouring it, muchly, but now need to turn my attention back to drawing eerie lineart for Dover Publications.
Oh, I coloured it using my Microsoft Surface Pen and Microsoft Surface Book in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It took around 15 hours or so to complete, I think; I lost time while doing it!
Art is the Adventure 