Month: June 2015

Day 347 – Key West Dreaming

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 We are off to Key West for fun and sketching in a few weeks. I know we are going to be eating at a lot of great restaurants. 
  

Key West A sunny place for shady people!!

El Meson de Pepe. Lots of atmosphere but the margaritas were weak and the conch fritters rubber.     

Blue Heaven aptly named.  The food is amazing. Atmosphere funky with loads of chickens who beg. 

  

My review of Blue Heaven. A definite we shall return. 

 

The double page spread. 

 
If being wrapped in palms is cozy the Bistro on Duval is a must.  Food was ok. Great waitress.  Great atmosphere. Killer deserts. 

Watercolor and ink in a moleskine landscape watercolor book. 

Hopefully more tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx 

Day 346 – Goat time! 

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  since taking Sketchbookskool classes online. Highly recommend them!! I have foud that I love to draw animals and people. I could have spent the whole day at the zoo drawing the animals and the people. 

This was drawn with my Noodler Creaper Ahab in my spiral bound Stillman and Birn Zeta. A lovely book great paper that dries flat even with a lot of washes. Now if you want a paper that dries very flat this one is for you. I normally use small binders clips to hold my sketchbook paper down as I paint because I have yet to find one that does not curl when you wet it. The most important thing is does it dry flat and I can say YES Stillman and Birn Zeta does. My  Stillman and Birn alpha which is much thinner paper does NOT ever dry flat. Most annoying since the Super Delixe Bee does. Both the Alpha and the Bee are the same weight paper. Hmm.  

 

Before splattering. 

 Back to the goats. The only thing I did different than usual was to splatter the left goat with white gouache using an old toothbrush. Why?! The goat is a kind of roan color peppered with white.  Hard to Dow I th watercolor. I could have used masking fluid but this is just a sketch so I opted for splattering. More fun than masking fluid anyway.  

That’s it for today. It’s Henry and Livia time in Decatur!! 

Thanks for reading!! 

Margaret ️xxx 

Day 345 – That Paper!!

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 Gets five Gold stars in my book. 

 as I said yesterday I bought a landscape tablet of Aquabee Super Deluxe paper when I was at Binders at Ponce Market in April. Great store!! How often have you had an art store manager ask you what you would like to see carried in their store?! Told her a class with Charles Reid. I hope I hope!! 

  
Anyway I had read in David Millards great watercolor books about Super Deluxe Bee sketchbooks.  These books are 140 pages each just packed with information on watercolor. The price can not be beat. $4 or less on Amazon. Why do you ask?! The books are from the early 80s. The author died in 2002. Sadly I can’t take a class from him. He is big on sketchbooks big lots of tips on drawing crowds and buildings. The man knows sketchbooks. His favorites took all the water I threw at them and flattened out when I was done. Rare in a 93lb paper. And reasonably priced.  Amazon has the big 11×14 listed for $22 and full price is $25 for a 100 pages!! I am stopping by Cityart in Columbia on my way to Charleston to pick up an 11×14 for Dr Sketchys  and a smaller one to take to Key West in July. And maybe a tube or two of paint. Last week Randy the owner had Holbein paint half price. Why didn’t I order some?!  Cityart is the store that Charles Reid  and Mary White use to supply their classes. Great store down in the Vista. They also have a great website and shopping is almost overnite and so reasonable. 

  
I drew this last April in my super deluxe bee 6×12 landscape book with my Kuretake brush pen from an overlook in Gatlinburg. Never quite got around to painting it. I was too tired from all the running around. The brush own had loved the smooth paper.  Would the watercolor?! Despite what Millard said I am always a sceptic. And as Roz Stendhal says one thing you can count on is that paper will change. His books are 30 years old. 

Thank goodness he was right. I lost count of the washes I threw at this paper. Big watery wet washes layer after layer. While the paper buckled a little as I painted it was almost perfectly flat when it dried!!!  Hallelujah. A 93# paper that dries flat and doesn’t cost a fortune?! 

TIP!!! Bytw I started  the lower hills with a wash of light yellow Aureolin for the trees and gradually darkened it with very watery layers of red for the red oaks in the spring and darker greens and blues and mineral purple. Really like using the mineral purple as a dark. Using lots of layers of this colors let me keep the colors transparent. Aka didn’t make MuD!! Sky is a couple of layers of cerulean.

 
This is another sketch from the same overlook up in the Gatlinburg bypass. I meant to fill in the town but never did.  It started raining. It rained a lot the week we were in Gatlinburg.  And the pen ran out of ink. My kuretake converter holds a drop of ink. I swear. I did later find cartridges of platinum carbon black that fitted it so now I am good to go. 

Another plus for this paper. I just realized that the Pentel brush ink supposedly permanent but so often runny in my Stillman and Birn zeta did not run on this paper when I went back over the lettering and decided to add yet another wash. Hurrah. 
Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who needs to get packing!!!xxx

Day 344 practicing Palm trees.  

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  Besame Mucho, Key West 

Been painting all day.  Color me exhausted. Stayed up til 2 am reading. Three paintings today. Trying out different paper. 

The first two went so well decided to proactive my nemesis palm trees and the other one BuShEs😜. If u r going to paint in Key West u better be able do a decent Palm.  

How to paint a descent Palm. I usually loose my lights. I painted the Palm area first with a light yellow. And then did negative painting in blue greens Inathridone blue and even Quin red and mineral Violet. I did a simile thing with the trees behind the house. But did I do it with the bushes?!  NoPe!!

  Lifting. Have had a super deluxe bee sketchbook for a while.  I bought it because a great watercolor book  I have More Joy of Watercolor by David Lyle Millard($4 on amazon!!!)  said it was great for watercolor. He’s right. It is.  You can lift off color so easily. Found myself doing that over and over. It likes washes. And it’s not exorbitant in price because the paper is fairly thin 93 

Super paper. I did one earlier today on it with wash after wash. It’s now just about flat. Something I can’t say about other popular sketchbook papers of simile weight. 

   I lifted the light green Palm fronds on the right middle of the tree below. It was too easy. They are repainted light green in the photo below. 

  
I got the Palm but what happened to the bushes. Did I say I love white gouache?! When all else fails gouache it. I do hope one day to get where I never touch that stuff but in the meantime I need stock in it. 
  I also lifted the bushes. And the guys left arm. This paper lifts clean as a whistle. It’s smooth as a baby’s bottom so would be great for colored pencils. If u check the seal it says it works with all medias. Guess I shall try it out. No pastels though. Messy.  

And then I painted the bushes TOO dark again. Sigh. 

Color me tired. Thanks for reading. More about Super Deluxe Bee Aquabee sketch paper soon. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret ️xxx 

Day 343 -Urban Sketching

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  Couldn’t resist drawing at the beauty salon today while I waited. Actually fun to draw except I didn’t quite finish before it was my turn. I filled the gap with the sign on the left. 

My favorite part is the toes of the girl in the chair. Drawing the reflections in the mirror was interesting. A lot of complicated shapes what were not in my sight line like the shelves full of towels. 

You probably know feb colors I used by now BUT if u don’t. Blacks burnt umber and inanthradone blue. You could use ultramarine instead. Wall color yellow ochre and cerulean. Shadows mineral Violet and cerulean. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 343 – Lorikeets

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As perhaps you know I enjoy sketching birds. I drew the lorikeets from a shady spot while I waited for my family to show up at the zoo. For $2 you got a cup of nectar to feed them. 

  Oddly I like the double page spread as long as he pages are separated. I think it’s because there are six birds. I like odd numbers in compositions. 
     

I drew the big bird first.  He was off. The beak too low the biggest error. The eye off. He should have looked like the one to the right. They were great fun to paint. Mixing and slapping greens around. Started with light yellow green.  Then added darker and darker greens and blues with bits of mineral Violet to the leaves and the birds. 

  
The left page. I added the tree trunks after I drew them as I did the leaves. I only drew the birds on site. It was fun making up the background as I went.  Really like the limbs which are Quin gold mineral Violet and Inathradone blue. They started out a grey of burnt umber and Inathradone blue.  How boring. Paint red them wet on wet. Sometimes with Quin gold and mineral Violet on the paint brush at the same time. 
 

Here’s the whole page. Just isn’t quite right. Oh well. Beaks are cad orange and Quin coral. Fun stuff to paint. I just wish I had drawn the red ones. Oh my goodness red from head to toe. How did I miss those.  

Day 342 – at the zoo

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I went to Riverbanks Zoo last Thursday with my extended family. While I was waiting I drew some of the animals and the carousel.  Finally gettin around to painting them. Today’s its the lion. All of the writing and sketching was done while I was at the zoo. 

The lions were chilling and I could hear them thinking dumb humans standing in the sun in the heat to see us. Like the lions I chose the shade.  

Tiring of the Orange and cerulean on journal pages I used  this Stephen Quiller book to find a different color combo. Thus getting the purple and gold combo.  Like the new look. Great book for color. Check it out. 

   
Used of the purple gold theme on the lioness page too.  She kept moving. I decided to full in the background with a journal page to remember he fun we all had at the zoo. 

Colors used. Yellow ochre Inathridone blue and. Mineral Violet. The lions main Quin burnt sienna burnt umber and the Inathradone blue and purple. 

Lots of layering of the colors.  Always fun to me. I love the way you can leave the lighter colors shining thru the darker ones. 

Gotta run.

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

DY 341 Snuggling and Drawing

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Zoe loves to snuggle. Drew this while we were watching CBS Sunday morning. Painted it while listening to Super Soul Sunday my two favorite shows. Noodler Creaper Ahab in my Stillman and Birn Alpha. Wish I had bought a zeta.  The paper buckles a lot with washes but will flatten out somewhat when the book is closed. Also the paper does not let you live color without some pilling. No book is perfect but S&B tries hard. 

Noodler creaper Ahab Carbon Black ink.  Greys – Cerulean and Quin Sienna on the blue side darker grey Quin Sienna and Inathridone blue. Red fur Quin Sienna and Burnt umber  w touches of Inathradone blue. Letters and border Quin red and cad orange. Background cerulean and Aureolin yellow. Scarf. Hmm all the above colors and mineral purple. Splattered with cerulean. 

TIP!! Paint brushes. Thought you might like to see  my favorite brushes, my kolinsky Isabeys. I have six now. – 2 4 6 8 and two big mops a 2 and an 8. They are Charles Reids favorite brushes. 

If you think your paintings are too tight get a big mop or the biggest paint brush u can afford. Though I want a huge 12 or 14 Isabey they are very pricey but I am happy with my cheap Joes kolinsky Legend which is a 12 for $65. 

Fealin Lin loves her Isabey mops. Lucky lady got hers off the reject table at Cheap Joes for $9 instead of the normal $65 ish.  

 Ink sketch stage. 

Used negative space to keep the legs and nose in proportion. That’s looking at the shapes that surround the object like the hole in the coffee cup handle aka the inside shape that Zoe’s legs form almost a square.  

 Zoe posing.

 And doing her favorite thing. Snuggling!! Couldn’t wait to paint this but hated dislodging her. Now she’s annoyed with me and staying in her bed.  Sigh. 
    Fur soresto flea collar regular collar. She is such a princess.  She loves to dress up. Newest scarf a triangle of amy butler fabric. 

TIP:  I love the bit of fur above the scarf. It’s done by painting lightly with grey.  Letting it dry and adding more greys and Blues on top letting each layer dry.

 The dark grey under the scarf is the Inathridone and Quin Sienna with dabs of mineral Violet added.  

 Details of furwith cerulean toothbrush splatter. 
   More fur and scarf  details. 
 Thanks for reading!!

Margaret and Zoe xxx 

Day 340 Life Modeling

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Ilena

Really pleased with the way this painting turned out. Ulema the model liked it too.  Done in an hour 40 minutes. 

Sometimes the stars align. I picked the perfect easel almost square onto her and not at her feet or her head like sometimes happens. Colors Quin Sienna Quin red mineral Violet Inathradone blue. Flesh is Quin coral and a touch of yellow ochre.   Hair is Quin Sienna Inathradone blue burnt umber. 

Ilena 

This is how Ilena looked after the first forty minute session. A fast pencil sketch. Unbelievably her head and body was almost the same size as her shoulders. Pays to measure. Started with bits of cerulean. 

   

After eighty minutes. I started getting brave and slapping on mineral Violet and Quin Sienna. 

 
I may go in and define her left eye some more otherwise she is done. The background may get some more painting. Not sure but NOT Ilena. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx  

Day 339 – Sgt. Wyatts Bar B Que

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Sgt Wyatts Barbecue is around the corner from one of my kids.  I keep thinking we need to stop. It’s so funky and charming it’s been on my to draw list for a while. It’s bright yellow and sags a lot. Smoke billows from the chimney. 

 I found this photo of the side fence when I was looking for more information about it.  I forgot to write on two signs and used artistic license after I found this photo on http://foodio54.com/restaurant/Atlanta-GA/20836/Wyatts-Diner. Evidently the food is really good. It’s moved up my list to try next time I am in East Atlanta. Most of the reviews are great. 

The old Chevrolet truck was at Flying Biscuit on Piedmont Ave. I think I need an old Chevy truck. Thought of fit with the funkiness of Sgt Wyatts building so I added it.  

Yellow is Aureolin yellow and yellow Ochre, grey my current fav Inathradone blue and burnt umber. Green roof was painted with a viridian green dulled with a burnt sienna. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx