Or not, depending on my mood
Sometimes I can’t decide whether to colour in using coloured pencils or gel pens, so I’ll combine both in the same design. I like the creative way the flat vibrancy of the gel pens complements the softer, more subtle shading tones of the coloured pencils 🙂
It’s funny how several things sometimes just come together seamlessly to create a blog post. Today’s Fandango’s One Word Challenge:Tribal merged in my mind with a quote I read on someone else’s blog the other day (apologies, can’t remember who!) that said:
‘Your vibe attracts your tribe’
And of course it’s the beginning of the month so we have a new Escapist Colouring Club link-up too.
So I decided this morning to create myself an A4 sized doodle quote page to colour in and share. Once I’d finished drawing my outline I was trying (rather unsuccessfully) to take a photograph of it before I started colouring it in, and my husband suggested scanning it and creating a cleaner digital copy instead – good idea!
I’m actually quite pleased with how it’s turned out 🙂
Yesterday I was occupied by an octet of octopi.
I spent much of the day resting and colouring in, enjoying watching the design fill up as I went round and round, building it up in layers. I love the intricacies of lines and spaces and shapes, of how it all comes together in the end to create something pretty to look at.
I’m feeling loads better today – still coughing but the sneezing has stopped, so I’m definitely on the mend!
I figured now was as good a time as any to do some more fiddly colouring in – so I’ve made a start on this octet of octopi plus other undersea items and individuals. It’s probably going to take ages to do, but it’s certainly keeping me engrossed for now and I’m having fun.
I automatically picked up the bright neon orange gel pen to begin with – not a very subtle colour but I realise I was probably channeling Hank from ‘Finding Dory’. With six grandchildren I’ve watched this movie (and also the original, ‘Finding Nemo’) more times than I care to remember! 🙂
So this week’s smile from me comes courtesy of spending quality time colouring in while I’m feeling under the weather, and also of having six very good reasons for watching (and thoroughly enjoying) children-oriented family movies so often – what’s not to smile about in that? 🙂
I really love the process of colouring in mandala designs, and I always seem to do it the same way.
I choose a colour – whichever most takes my fancy at the time – and start in the middle. I move outwards in a circular layering-one-colour-at-a-time way, rotating the page as I go, with no fixed plan of where I’m going to go with it all. So I begin, and with each colour layer outwards the look and feel of my design changes. And so with each new layer I decide – does it need a light or dark colour next? Muted or bright? Similar or opposite?
Which colours I choose to use in any one design depends on so much – on my mood, on what colours are running low (so these would necessarily be used more sparingly), maybe even on the weather or time of day, because both affect the natural light available. But whatever the reason for choosing a particular set of colours, my method remains the same – start in the middle, and work outwards 🙂
‘Colour is a power which directly influences the soul’
Wassily Kandinsky
I wonder sometimes why I love being surrounded with colour so much, and frequently the answer that comes most often straight to mind is ‘Because your internal life is so grey’. I choose to colour my world in bright and strong and vibrant hues, almost proving a point to myself that yes, I can do colour, while inside I regularly feel nothing more than shrouded in a subdued, moody monochrome.
Depression does not provide a sunny-day-colour internal landscape, nor even allow for a veiled silvery sheen like muted moonlight in a clear night sky. Instead it smears my soul with thick, sticky mud, soaks my very fabric with foul, clouded misery until the sheer weight drags me down and I feel chilled to the bone, infused with a deadly damp that refuses to warm my sad, aching heart.
But I refuse to be beaten. And so I keep trying hard to bring colour to my life on the outside, in the hope that some of it may seep inward slightly, brightening the edges my dark dull mood…
One Liner Wednesday & JusJoJan 22
