Mydnyght Rose's Crafty Site

I keep forgetting to post my "artwork" (I use the term loosely) on this blog, despite promising myself to update it more regularly.
I treated myself to the new 12.9" iPad Pro + pencil a few weeks ago, so have been doing quite a lot of digital tangling, exploring possibilities. That's not to say I have abandoned pen and paper - that will never happen; the recent order of a 250ml bottle of Rotring ink should be proof enough. Yes, I know most people use Micron pens, but I do like my Isographs.

And now for some more traditional work.

For some reason I have taken to creating dotwork pictures in the iOS Procreate app. I'm finding them fairly calming to do.

I'm making progress with using iOrnament (see previous post). Now I'm getting to grips with making some designs myself,

which I then load into Pigment so I can colour them in (this requires a subscription to Pigment).

As someone who spent their childhood colouring in the Altair pads, using an app based on various symmetries to create designs really appeals to me. I'm sure someone with decent skills could make some spectacular designs using this process!

I came across a blog post today which mentioned an iPad app that sounded really interesting, so I took a look. It was part of a bundle, so I bought both apps: iOrnament and ioCrafter.
I've only had a quick play, but so far it looks like great fun, especially with the ability to create gifs and videos from the designs I create. Unfortunately I can't add video here, but I did put it on Instagram

I am trying to get to grips with Procreate, for all my digital needs! I have done some Zentangles using it, particularly since I got an iPad Pro and Pencil. I have watched some online tutorials and have been playing around with making my own brushes. I have been moderately successful in making a calligraphy one that I like, plus a pen with an architect grind, which is nice for lettering.

This is a birthday card I made recently using some of my newly-acquired skills. It's not perfect, but I'm fairly happy with the 3D effect on the button and the "happy birthday" stamp that I created as a brush. It took me a while, but I had fun making it.

I downloaded Pigment when it first came out, but stayed with the free tier, as I thought the subscription was rather overpriced for the use I would get out of it. Just recently, however, it was on offer for, I think, £30 for a year, so I subscribed. I am enjoying it, though possibly mainly as a form of therapy after a recent bereavement. But, hey,whatever gets me through the day…

One of the features I like is the option to import a design to work on. I tried importing some scans of the old Altair designs, but they didn't work very well. Then I tried importing some of the designs Ben Kwok did for the Ornation Creation Facebook group and these were detected by the app really well.

Here are a couple I have done. The dragon is one of the Pigment designs and the mandala is one of Ben's.

Hot off the hook!

Finished a baby blanket, which I'm giving to my hairdresser tomorrow, as she is going off on maternity leave soon.

I used this pattern which is based on a blanket seen in the TV series "Call The Midwife". It's easy to do and not too lacy. Whilst lacy is pretty, it could be a bit risky for little fingers and toes.

Once I had finished I decided the blanket was too plain, so I made some hearts
and flowers and stitched them on. I hope she likes it.

A couple more designs that I feel worked ok. Metallic gel pens and uni-pin fine markera.

A couple of recent Zentangle drawings. I have set up a little grab-and-go Zentangle kit; three Micron pens, some multi-pens or gel pens, depending on my mood; a pencil; putty eraser and cotton buds for shading. All these are stored in a Nock Sinclair along with a Nock notebook and the Moleskine pocket notebook I'm doing the drawings in. The notebooks are a handy size, although not much use with fountain pens, so I have decided to put them to this use. I'm sure more photos will follow…

After completing the log cabin blanket, I decided to use up the leftover wool, so I came up with the idea of a lap blanket; not too large, just big enough to cover a lap when sitting in the lounge, to keep out any wintry drafts.

I used the Granny Stripe pattern from Lucy's wonderful blog.

I edged the blanket with Lucy's Spot-On Edging although I added additional rows to my edging.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with the result, although I'm now going to give my wrists and thumbs a rest from the crochet hook for a while.