Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. I recently purchased Tangle Studio Stefanie’s video tutorial of Baroque Scrollwork. It has been the best resource I have ever found for learning how to draw Ornamental Scrolls. I’m going to share my finished tile with you today.
Now before we go any further – I have a disclaimer I’d like to share. I have recently signed up to be an Affiliate for Amazon Australia. It means that I get a small percentage from the sale of anything you may purchase through links I use in my blog. Just want you to know before we get into today’s post.
The Expressive Bits
What inspired me to create these Ornamental Scrolls?
I’ve had a longing to draw Ornamental Scrolls for a very long time. Check out these images from Inktober 2015 – it’s where I focused on “Ornamental Scrolls” daily for the month of October.
I chose this kind of focus as I really wanted to be able to draw them! Practice is what I thought I needed, so I committed to practicing every day in the hope I’d “get it”…….
You can see I never really “got it”. I wound up with these leafy, flowy looking things that didn’t curl and scroll like an Ornamental Scroll should. So I mean it when I say I’ve wanted to learn to draw scrolls for ages!
Then in 2021, along comes Stefanie Van Leeuwen of TangleStudioStefanie. Stefanie holds classes on Baroque Scrollwork and sells video tutorials through her website. I find it difficult to attend live classes when you live in different time zones, so the option to purchase video tutorials had me sold!
What techniques did I use for the Ornamental Scrolls and why?
Silly question, but it’s one I always ask… I used Stefanie Van Leeuwen’s techniques. As I said at the start of this blog post, TangleStudioStefanie’s teaching has been the best resource I have ever found for learning how to draw Ornamental Scrolls.
If you want to know the technique, sign up to her class or purchase the video tutorials as I did.
What does it mean in terms of my artistic work as a whole?
It means I finally did it!!! To have a goal, or something you long to do, and never give up on achieving it is very empowering!
It makes you feel like you can achieve anything! Stefanie doesn’t know my history, she doesn’t know how much I wanted to draw Ornamental Scrolls, but she has been the person to bring it to fruition.
Creating must be done in community. We need each other to empower us. To believe we can achieve things by creating alone is not practical.
When the Lord was creating the Heavens and the Earth, he was doing so in community with his Son and the Holy Spirit.
“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.””
Genesis 1:26 NLT (Emphasis mine)
If the Lord never created alone, then neither will I.
How can you take this idea and be more Expressive?
Have you got a community around you? A group of like minded people who can spurn you on and empower you creatively? If not, I’d encourage you to try and find them.
This is one of the best things you can do for yourself creatively. Other people inspire us, encourage us, correct us, teach us, lead us and ultimately empower us to do better. We need community around us.
If you’re struggling to find a community of like minded folk, feel free to begin with me. Follow me on Instagram or Facebook and you can build from there. I love my online like minded friends and I’d love to have you join us.
The Factual Bits
The materials used
- Zentangle Zendala Tile
- Finetec Gold watercolours
- Derwent Inktense in blue
- Signo Uniball Gel Pens in black and white
- Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils in varying colours
- Grey Copic Markers in W4, W5 and W7
How big is the Ornamental Scrolls tile?
It is 117mm in diameter.
Want to be more Expressive?
Join the Expressive’s List to begin to learn ways you can start to express yourself creatively. With the Lord there are no moulds or limits, just possibilities, and the promise of unearthing who you were created to be.
Expressive Subscribers receive an email each month that contains creative inspiration and ideas, links to helpful resources and a month’s worth of journal prompts to stimulate creative expression. These prompts are a great way of learning to express yourself when you’ve never really tried it before. Fill in your details below to sign up.
Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!
Bless you my friend
Chrissie xx
