Chatty Drawing

Please click the ‘Watch on YouTube’ box, if you’d be so kind.

After several hours adding colour to a drawing, I needed a change of pace and activity. So, some entangled art was just the ticket. With a pen. And paper.

I really did enjoy adding colour to the cover drawing for the next colouring book after Adorable Dogs. I do love working digitally. But, there’s only so many hours I can do of it, or any one activity really, before my brain turns to mush.

I now have mushy brains. Between my ears, not as some weird delicacy. Worth having them though. The cover is complete!

A Zentangle Bookmark-sized Card | #ArtForTheCreativeSoul

Having fun today, combining drawing and cardmaking! Zentangle inspired drawing of course.

This card is 2½” x 7″ in size, and the paper I drew on is a 2½” x 6″ piece of Canson Imagine paper.

I chose to use Sandswirl and Holly tangle patterns in the design. After all, they were my tangle pattern and fragment of the week! Plus a couple of other bits and bobs – flowers, crystals, a bit of mooka and a sprinkling of flux.

I did make a boo-boo though. I didn’t let the silver ink dry long enough before I used an eraser. I checked that it was touch-dry, but it wasn’t eraser-dry. Ho hum, dash and darn it!

I used the same metallic silver to draw a border and add a little bit of embellishment. The embellishment is under my fingers, duh!

The sketchy diagram to the right are the dimensions for making an envelope for the card. Red means cut out, blue add glue.

Of course I made a video for this, and you can see it by following this link. (It’s a new link – I managed to re-upload yesterday’s video as today’s one. Duh go me! It seems to be one of them days…)

Template Thursyay!

It’s that time of the week again! Template Thursyay is here once more! Yay indeed!

This week it’s a mandala design. I love mandalas and like to put my own twist and style on them. This one is no exception. Typically ‘Angela’ or ‘Entangled’ in feel.

The template is available to members of Angela Porter’s Colouring Book Fans Facebook group.

Draw with me … A Zentangle Inspired Bookmark | #TimeForTheCreativeSoul

It’s been a lovely day today. I’ve spent time drawing, which is always a pleasure and relaxing to boot! I had a lovely long phone chat with a pal too, partway through filming. But it was lovely to chat!

I’ve decided that on Saturdays, I’ll focus on arty projects that could be useful or gifted. All about taking time out not just to feed my creative soul, but to share that with others.

A bookmark seemed a good idea for today. It’s a relatively small project. Useful too! I’ll laminate this when I’m happy with it. I already have a recipient in mind.

Of course I’ve scanned the drawing in and I’ll be using it to practice adding shadow, colour, highlights/lowlights digitally.

There’ll be no social media posts from me tomorrow – I have a day with many pleasant online events. I’ll be back on Monday for sure!

Oh, before I forget, here’s today’s video.

Template Thursday! 10 Feb 2022

Another Thursday, another colouring template (or colouring page) for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group.

It’s another Doodleworlds meets Zentangle/Entangled kind of mashup. I have so much fun drawing these at the moment. I really do need a good dose of whimsy and cuteness in my arty life at this time. This fills the bill for sure.

I’ve not had much time today to do a lot of colouring. So, I’ve just added some flat colours. Should I get around to colouring this one in my usual way, I’ll post the results.

I had planned to do a page with two illustrations, each slightly smaller than A5 in size. That just didn’t happen. Yesterday and today have had some unexpected events, all good. So fast and dirty colouring was just the ticket.

I have been drawing this template for YouTube. Today’s instalment is below.

Template Thursyay!

Each week during the pandemic, I’ve created a colouring template or (colouring page if you prefer ;-)) for the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group members.

This week’s template is an entangled Zentangle meets Doodleworlds mash-up! I had a lot of fun drawing this one. Doodleworlds characters always have me smiling. Mind you, drawing intricate designs always makes me smile too!

03 and 01 Unipin pens on Canson Imagine mixed media paper. Colour added digitally using Clip Studio Paint.

Template Thursday…on a Wednesday? A sneak peek at this week’s colouring template

I started work on this week’s colouring page last night. So, this morning I drew a bit more and filmed it. You can see the video by clicking on this link.

I’d started off in an organic Entangled, Zentangle fashion but decided I’d really like to include some cuteness and whimsy in the design. So, enter Doodleworlds through a crack in the space-time continuum. Or maybe just in one corner of the page, for now.

Of course, the template in the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans Facebook group won’t be available until tomorrow, but there’s no harm in having a sneak peek, is there?

Happy Lunar New Year!

Today marks the Lunar New Year celebrated in China and other Asian nations. It is the year of the Tiger.

I thought I’d draw a design based on some of the symbols associated with the New Year celebrations held by Chinese and Asian communities worldwide.

To start, I used various Distress Inks – fossilised amber, ripe persimmon, spiced marmalade and aged mahogany – to colour a 14cm x 14cm (5.5″ x 5.5″) piece of Canson Imagine mixed media paper. Tigery colours!

After marking my border guides in pencil, I drew in the outer border of stylised plum blossoms.

Next, a layer of coins, all with the square hole characteristic of Chinese coinage, but many with imaginative patterns within.

I then realised I hadn’t put a tiger anywhere! So, I popped a cute and whimsical tiger head at the centre, all smiling and happy.

Finally, as far as drawing was concerned, I put some bamboo overlapping in a Zentangle Hollibaugh manner to fill the space.

Then it was time to tackle adding colour. The part that always vexes me. I used watercolour pencils in this instance. I discovered I liked working in a loose, just let the paint and water do what they will, kind of way. I got some interesting textures and patterns, particularly in the spaces between the bamboo.

I’m not entirely sure this was all a good idea, mind you. Part of me really wishes I’d drawn this on plain paper, or maybe coloured paper, but left the colour at that. Some shading.

And I’ve just realised that I haven’t really done any shading in this design! It would be awkward now as I’ve added gold and white gel pens to the design. Oh well.

I’m not all that happy with this drawing. I may spend some time doing a version of it, but on plain white paper. Just to see the difference.

There’s always something to learn from each drawing that is done. Always. However, I don’t always learn those lessons, such as how I feel I struggle with colour when it’s traditional media or the importance of contrast/shadow to bring depth and dimension to a design.

I definitely need to make a list of things to consider when drawing in my commonplace book.

Delicately dirtying the paper…again!

And sometimes a bit heavy-handedly!

I woke this morning with an idea to create a frame for an art quote using some fo the fragment variations from the Fragments of Your Imagination Challenge. So I did. And here it is.

Some bits of the frame are a tad clunky, but overall I think it’s good enough.

The quote from Ruskin about art is one of my favourites. I don’t set out to create art with any kind of message that may change how people view aspects of the world/society we live in. I don’t set out to record my observations on life, to tell a story. My art is personal to me as I create drawings that contain patterns, line-shapes, motifs that make me smile inwardly. If I make any one other person smile, then my art has done it’s job.

I get a lot of pleasure, contentment, and peace from drawing. And I hope that comes across in my art. I want to draw designs that are pretty, interesting, intricate. Drawings that you have to stop and look carefully at to see all the different things within them.

Template Thursday…on a Wednesday? Nope, just a sneak peek!

It’s quite a bit sneak peek as it’s the whole template, with some colour added!

Abstract. Entangled. Zentangle Inspired Art. Putting into practice some of the fragments that have evolved during the Fragments of Your Imagination Challenge hosted by the 7F5RChallenge facebook group.

The colouring template won’t be available itself until tomorrow – to the members of the Angela Porter’s Coloring Book Fans facebook group.