#InkTober2017 6th ~ Love – is all you need!

I’ve not really ‘done’ a Zentangle before.  I’ve dabbled and kind of began drawing one, but begin is as far as it ever got.  Words were said, such as:  “I can’t quite understand the joy of this…”  and ….  “.. it’s pretty … but … I’m not sure I’m cut out for it.”.  And that’s as far as my venture into this unknown thing got.

So when I was trying to think of something to draw for a daily drawing #InkTober2017 and Zentangling popped into my head, I should have wondered why.

What was I thinking?  I know that a Zentangle looks like a quick bit of doodling, but I’m here to tell all those of you who haven’t tried their hand at this form of artwork, that it’s anything but quick.  Of course, it would have been a couple of hours shorter had I not began by measuring it out, cutting the right size of paper and got to the drawing of ‘V’ (I’d already drawn and coloured L and O – I didn’t want to lean on any artwork and dirty it, so thought I’d colour it in one letter at a time) …  and it was after I began to draw the letter V that a slow dawning realisation came about that although I’d measured out correctly the size of the letters, I’d forgotten to add in the space between the letters which I’d require, so I had to start aaalllll over AGAIN!  Grrrr!

To be honest I’m not sure if it’s the planning and sketching out which takes the time, or the then drawing and colouring, but the whole lot adds up to a lot of work. It’s harder than it looks and I now have a new-found respect for anyone who does this as their chosen form of art.  Seriously so.

Anyhoo …  I didn’t get to post a photo yesterday for Inktober 5th so I’m missing a day, but I’m sure I won’t be expelled for it.  So this colourful bit of Zentangled Art is my #InkTober 6th inking.

When I look at it, now that it’s done, I can’t help feeling that maybe this type of Artwork is this modern ages version of Illuminated Manuscript.

I kind of planned it out in pencil before hand, but then added the loops and coils and danglings and curly bits, twirly bits, hearts, dots etc etc, as I inked the words using a Zig Memory System Ink Pen by Kuretake.  Everything was drawn out in that pen.  From thin to thick lines – all the black you see is that one pen.

All the colour on the other hand comes from ‘Kuretake Clean Color, Real Brush’ Ink Pens.  Try as I might I cannot find a better pen than these to colour with ink.  They blend so, so beautifully, and with so little effort on my part.  And clean up is so easy.  If you (for example) use a bright yellow pen against a deep red one and get a dirty brush (nib)  you simply do a tiny scribble on a scrap of paper and the pen is clean again.  VOILA!

Well … that’s my  #InkTober 6th offering which was missing.

Now the observant among you will notice that there was something missing from today.  I’ll give the unobservant a clue:  Today is Friday.

Ding  Ding  Ding  Ding  Ding.

Yup …  there was no Friday Post.  There is a very good reason for that.  A very good reason indeed.  And when I think of it I’ll let you know.

No … actually, to be serious.  The truth is …  [hangs head, looks down at toes and kicks imaginary dirt around with the toe of her shoes] . . .   I er, umm … well … it’s like this … . . . .   I  [cough] …  I fell asleep in the chair and when I woke up I went straight to bed and forgot that I had a date with you.  I’m sorry.  I shall feel guilty for ages about it.  Well … for a moment or two anyway.  I shall make up for it by inviting you all round for coffee and cakes next week.

Until then …

Have a truly wonderful weekend.  May you find something to smile about;  find something to do which you enjoy;  and …. don’t forget to put your feet up at some stage and just watch what’s going on outside … even if nothing appears to be going on outside.  Just keep watching.  Something is bound to happen – even if it’s just a bird flying past; a squirrel running up a tree or a cloud floating by.

Sending love ~

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InkTober 3rd 2017

InkTober caused me a moment today.  I began with an idea in mind and started to draw it ….  kind of liked it … but not enough.  So I scrapped it and decided on something different instead. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Its like knitting … and getting eight rows in then realising that you made a mistake on row 2 so having to pull it all back and re-knit. grrrr!

So anyhoo ...  this is what I ended up painting….

#InkTober2017

 

… but .. that’s not everything …

The photo above was taken with the desk lamp as lighting, but the next photo is taken with the flash on the camera …  and it shows you what the photo above can’t….   that I broke open the Kuretake, Gansai Tambi Starry paints (watercolours) – for just the one colour – White Gold, – so that I could use a teeny tiny bit around the edges of the moon, and onto the clouds.  And this next photo, taken with the flash, shows you the difference that this one colour can make …

#InkTober2017

 

It just gives the moon and clouds a more magical feeling.  Slightly more depth.  And … well, I just had-ta!  lol.

The apparent ‘bend’ on the left hand side of the painting, isn’t a wonky bit of water-colour paper, it’s actually how the paper dried.  I’ll bury it between the pages of a book, weighted down by a couple of book, and it will then magically become flat again.

The pens used to create this bit of Inktober Art are by Kuretake, apart from one Sakura Gelly Roll Ink Pen, in white, which I used to add some ‘moon shine’ hi-lights to the trees and parts of the landscape.Pen

So far I’m quite enjoying InkTober  . . .  it’s a bit like doodling, only trying a bit harder.  But I can see me getting tired of black a bit quickly.  But that might just be me wishing to break out and crack open the bottles of blue and brown ink which sit on the side of my desk.  I wonder if that would be against the rules.  I mean to say … it’s still ink, isn’t it?  I could rather go for a nice inky denim blue drawing.  Or a fabulous vintage looking brown bit of fun!

Ahhh .. I’ll be good as long as I can .. then I’ll break the rules and be naughty.  lol.

Thank you for coming for a visit and sharing your coffee moment with me.  I just LOVE seeing you here.  Blog land has turned out to be one of the nicest places on the web.  I’m not sure what I expected when I began The Cobweborium Emporium – certainly not being part of such a great community of bloggers who are truly amazing, and so very talented!  Cooks, Knitters, Writers, Bakers, Farmers, Artists in a variety of forms, and .. well just genuinely nice people.  I’m SO glad that I began this blog, for without it I wouldn’t ever have even known that you existed.  And that thought alone is SO painful to my heart, because I love knowing you.  Truly.

Thank you for being exactly who you are.  For who you are is  . . . perfect.  I tried you on and you fit perfectly, and I love you for it.

Have a truly great day out there!  Sending squidges ~ as always …

 

 

InktTober the 2nd ~ 2017

The second day of InkTober and I decided to go with another floral inky draw, but there was good reason for this.

I decided a couple of months ago that I should make an Art Journal.  I had no idea about what I should do to make one, but having had a look around the interweb I realised that there didn’t seem to be really any rules about it, so decided I’d make my art journal my own way.  And the reason why I decided to go with another floral inky drawing today – was so that the two facing pages of the art journal would have something in common.

Something that they could talk to each other about when the book was closed and on the shelf.  They would whisper to each other about things they knew about and they had a common language in order to do this.  … but ssshhhh…. don’t tell – because this is a secret!

So anyhoo –  …. this is what I did for day two of InkTober  .…  Firstly, I roughly pencilled my idea, then I inked the drawing so that it looked like this  …

. . .  thereby fulfilling the required rules for InkTober  … but … as you know, I can’t leave things like that.  I have to add a little colour to make things smile. . .  and since the first page of my new Art Journal was going to be the Inktober Daisy (from yesterday) . . .

. . .  then some happy colours were called for on this second page . . .

I had wondered whether to paint directly into my new journal (which wasn’t really new at all.  It was a book I’d had for a gazillion years but never used,  because . . . I didn’t want to spoil it.  yeah .. I can hear you laughing from here), or draw and paint onto watercolour paper and stick that into the journal.  I decided I’d try drawing and painting directly into the book, to see if it would work ok…  and it seemed to.  So once I’d snapped the photo above, I then felt free to ‘decorate’ ….

Gesso (white) was applied around the sprig of flowers, and once dry I sprayed some mica sprays, in 3 different colours from Lindy’s Stamp Gang, unfortunately the photographs don’t seem to pick up the mica which is held suspended in the liquid so I tried tipping and turning the book to try a capture the glimmer … this next photograph is probably my best shot.  It shows the mica the best on that lower blue flower . . .

. . .   Can you see the magical twinkle on the petals there?  Teeny tiny littl droplets of gold?   Looks like Fairy Dust!

While that was drying I got to work on the Daisy from the first day (yesterday) of the Inktober challenge.

I tore around the edges of the daisy and then fixed it in place.  Then carefully applied Gesso all around the page….  and once dry I treated the page to the same mix of Lindy’s Stamp Gang sprays and left them to dry.

Looking at the pages I knew I wasn’t finished with them  …  there is something calling to me, and I think I know what it is …. but for now, I’ll concentrate on Inktober and the pen and ink drawings …  when I’m not making a card or something, naturally!

The items used in the creation of the little sprig of flowers are:

• a Kuretake Zig Memory System Ink Pen in size 005;
• and the colouring pens all came from a selection of Kuretake Clean Color, Real Brushes Pens,
• and finally – a selection of 3 different colours of bottles of Lindy’s Stamp Gang, Starburst Shimmer Sprays.

As always, please be assured that I am not employed by either of these companies, nor do I receive any payments in money or products in order to promote any products for the companies concerned, I’m simply sharing what works for me.  (Of course, if Kuretake or Lindy’s Stamp Gang want to offer me some products to try, I’d be more than happy to try them and report on my findings.  Who am I kidding?  They don’t read my blog for goodness sake! lol).

Thank you so much for coming, and before I go . . .  may I just take this opportunity of welcoming some new followers to the Cobweborium Emporium blog.  I won’t name names but rest assured that I will recognise you if you comment at all, and can promise that you’ll always receive a reply.

Thanks to these new followers WordPress sent me a congratulations a few days ago telling me that I now have over 500 followers. Now considering that I don’t ‘do’ the Facebook thing and I have no family followers (no seriously.. I really don’t.  Only three members of my family know I even keep a blog!), I think that 500 people is quite an achievement .  So I mentally gave myself both a high-five and ate a cake! ( …. well, it was my unbirthday!)

So a big HELLO to the lovely new people reading.  Thank you for clicking to follow and joining us all here.

I wish you all a blessed rest of your Monday.  May Tuesday bring you smiles, warmth and a few laughs along the way. 

 

The #InkTober 2017 Initiative.

A couple of weeks ago I read about something called Inktober from a fabulously talented fellow blogger.  She talked about Inktober and gave a link, [Inktober Link – will open in another web page for you] so I went to have a look.

In 2009, Illustrator Jake Parker set out to refine his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits.  That year, for the month of October, he challenged himself to create a drawing every day using only ink-based products.  After watching how his technique evolved, Jake decided to dedicate every October to his passion for ink drawing – and “InkTober” was born.  Since then, InkTober has grown into a worldwide movement with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.

Jake says on his blog that anyone can join in the fun.  You don’t have to be a fully paid up member of anything, nor wait to be invited.  You just pick up your ink pen and draw!  You might not call yourself an artist … but once you pick up your pen and draw … YOU ARE AN ARTIST!

The ‘rules’ are:

You don’t have to do it every day.  You can do it daily if you wish, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just post once a week. What ever you decide, just be consistent with it. InkTober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.

So … now it’s my turn! 

I roughly pencilled out my drawing first then using my Kuretake Zig Millenium (005 size) in Pure Black (this pen is recommended for drawing and scrapbooking) I drew a Daisy.

But … me being me, I couldn’t leave it there, and I had to add a little colour so … this is what happened:

The pens used in this drawing/picture are all made by Kuretake, and the colouring pens used are called Clean Colour, Real Brush pens.

The colours used are:

• Flesh
• Gray Tint
• Yellow
• Bright Yellow
• Mid Green
• Pale Green

I bought a full set of these pens after seeing them demonstrated.  I’m not a colourist by nature, I’m a painter – and because of that I have a real problem making colourists colouring pens behave in the way I want them to.  But … I’m finding these Clean Colour pens to be outstanding.  There is no need to use those special blending pens which I’ve found you need to use with some other artists colourist pens.  These just know exactly what you want them to do and do it – as if by magic.   And clean up is moments.

So …  now you know what InkTober is about … how do you fancy joining me on a bit of drawing this month?  You don’t have to be Picasso, Dali, or Degas.  You just have to be able to pick up and pen and draw anything you want to.  Boxes, triangles, trains, fish, mouse, sheep, a flower, … anything.

Please ….  come and join me in the journey with a pen.  Any journey is way better when you have a friend to hold hands with.

NB – Although I’ve sung the praises of Kuretake pens, please know that I receive nothing by way of a gift or monies or payment of any sort or description.  I simply tell you what works for me and what I’m impressed with.  I don’t work for Kuretake or represent them in any way.  (It might be a dream, wish or even on my bucket list. But it’s only on a post it note pinned to the wall of my brain.  lol)

Please consider having a ‘go’ at this.  It’s all just a bit of fun and you’re not competing with anyone, and there’s no prize.  It’s just a few minutes of fun every day, while you’re having a coffee.  Do it.  Take a photo and simply post it on your blog!

Happy October, by the way!  WHITE RABBITS!

Have a blessed rest of your day.