Day 380 – Busy Day

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015Leave a comment

working on a commission. Got up so early to get a start I actually was worn out and took a nap in the bed. I always nap on the sofa IF I take a nap.

I was out at 6:45 taking photos of the dawn.

Then I actually cooked breakfast.

After that we were off to the Hemingway look alike contest at 9 at the Cypress House.

Very odd being surrounded by a bunch of white bearded guys.

They usually have about 75 entries.

You can look like a young Hemingway but most of the guys were older look alikes with white beards.

Lots of pics for painting bearded guys in hats now. Been wanting some since Fealin Lins class.

Last years winner. A funny guy. Not sure of his name. He got a medal which is the red ribbon hanging backwards around his neck.
Then I came home to get to working on the commission. Could not find my full sketchbook of Key West anywhere. I needed it to make a bigger painting of one of the sketches. Thank goodness I had good photos and got busy.

Took a break and went to eat at the Hogfosh grill. We were gonng to a shrimp place on stock island but atrip advisor review from two days ago said dogs were all over and eating at the table. We decided to got to HogFish were we knew what to expect.

Before we left we searched the trunk in the daylight and there was my sketchbook. Thanks goodness.

Here’s what I am working on.

Lots of details left to do. Hope Analise likes it. Thanks for reading.

Back to painting.

Ps if you want to paint the Hemingway look alikes feel free. They love posing!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 379 – Ice Cream!!

July 22, 20155 Comments

Ita summer time and it is warm outside!! Time to eat ice cream. With the help of yelp we discovered this tasty ice cream shop called Two Spoons.

They have all kinds of designer ice cream like toasted coconut and cinnamon bun vanilla ice cream. The strawberry has huge chunks in it. The waffle cone was incredible. So thin and crispy and light. Delectable.

Right on the main drag Roosevelt next to Five Guys. Also has a parking lot full of chickens that will pose for photos.

We also voted him most gorgeous Key West chicken. I took these today when I stopped by to feed him as I promised for earlier photos of him. He obliged. Have fun drawing him if you want!!

Most of the Key West roosters are russet and black. This is the only buff one we have seen. I did see one today with a few black and white feathers. I sketched a lot of chickens today.

All the chickens on Key West are federally protected. So they breed and multiply everywhere. These are in the USPS grounds living under a few big trees loaded with seed pods. After I drew them I put some fresh pods down on the ground for them to eat.
Back to the sketch. It’s about 48″ long done on Stonehenge paper. Lovely heavy stuff. With my Pentel brush pen that started to run out of ink. I know I need to add a few more chicks. The real question dear reader is should I paint them or leave them black and white?! What do you think?!

After sitting on a law offices steps to sketch these cuties and an almost three mile walk I went to a nearby starbucks on Duval for water and to chill out drawing people that walked by. Hard to get a site line on passer us. A lot of the people are combos.

Paint or not?!

So many pictures. About 9 am I did start the day urban sketching this awesome Art Deco aka South Beach style hotel the Pegasus on Duval and Southard. I meant to have it painted to share today but wandered the city and was worn out from all the walking in the heat.

Here’s a photo of The Pegasus if you want to have a go at it. Don’t you love the colors?!

Would love to see what u do with some of the photos.

Thanks for reading. Sofa time!!

Margaret xxx

Day 378 – a little Heaven – Blue Heaven

July 21, 20153 Comments

Blue Heaven is a wonderful funky restaurant on the corner of Petrona and Thomas.

Blue Heaven – the colors are so Key West – Sooner or later this will be a painting but If you want to paint it feel free.

It’s been various things over the years including the place Hemingway had cock fights and a bordello. Now it’s an open air restaurant where u done with chickens under feet. The food is wonderful which is why I drew their eggs Benedict with pink Key West shrimp.

A band jammed under an umbrella.
Eggs Benedict with pink Key West shrimp.

There’s even a chicken graveyard as well as an artist selling some great chicken paintings.

The wait for a table can be long unless you are there by 9am but they have plenty of chairs to wait in. Sometimes there’s a band. Sometimes there isn’t.
The view from our table. LOTS of shade.

A funny sign on our table.
Andy’s Cabana across the street on Petrona. The home of the most delicious fish taco I have ever eaten. Also owned by the people at Blur Heaven.

One of the iguanas at our condo. I call him Mango. He poses for me most days. I talk to him and tell him to hold still I just want to take his picture. He poses for me. He’s not always benevolent. A 7-8 yr old boy was chasing him and throwing twigs at him. Mango whipped him with his tail. He’s got a very long tail. He’s at least 4 feet long. OUCH!

A key West Iguana tale. They are cold blooded animals. Occasionally it does get pretty cold in Key West. Iguana live in the trees. During one cold snap they started falling out of the trees. One of the locals decided to clean up the island and started throwing them in the back seat of his car. The car was warm. The iguanas woke up and tried to desperately claw their way out of his car. They also pooped in his car. The man was so shocked with his car load of wild wide awake iguanas that he wrecked his car. Poor guy got a ticket for wreck less driving!!

Moral of theses stories don’t mess with iguanas. Lol.

But if you want to paint Andys or Mango feel free.

One more chicken. This is a handsome one from Blue Heaven which is why I posted him. Happy chicken drawing!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 377 – and chickens

July 21, 2015July 21, 20154 Comments

I love drawing chickens. I NEVER used to understand WHY anyone would like painting drawing buying chicken paintings. Now I know. They are just fun to draw as are all birds. These are drawn with my Noodler creaper Ahab in my almost finished moleskine. Thank goodness.

I still really don’t like that paper!! The paint just seems to stick to the paper. You can not wash out the color. It just sticks. NO FUN!!

From now on I am sticking to Strathmore 500 mixed media paper or Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbooks. NO MORE moleskine watercolor books ever again. At least I only have one more page in that moleskine!! HURRAH!!
Here’s a picture for you to draw that I took at the Wildlife Center yesterday!!

I still have to go back and draw the egret pelicans hawk and various sea birds at the Wildlife Center.
I rounded the corner there and on the sidewalk was a HUGE white egret.

I guess we were both scared.

He flew off.

If you want to draw either the egret or the chickens feel free!!
Thanks for reading!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 376 Ibis!

July 19, 2015July 20, 2015Leave a comment

Yesterday we went on Lloyds Tropical Bike Tour. It was great fun but that’s for another day. He took us to the Key West Wildlife Center. They shelter a lot of injured birds a quite a few iguanas that run like crazy when you get near them.

Today I went back to sketch. The birds cooperated. Once again the iguanas didn’t.

I did this one entirely on site sta picnic table there. Watch out for the bird poo lol. The ibises were great. They loved to pose. Some of the younger ones would let you get quite close. The younger ones have brown heads or totally brown bodies. The ibises are painted with cerulean and raw sienna for shadows. Beaks are painted with cad red light and Winsor yellow. Legs same with a little cobalt blue added.

Background is green apatite, Inathradone blue, Winsor yellow, and a bit of cobalt.

Here’s the set up I used to paint this.

This one was painted at home. Te birds were shaded with cerulean and Quin good. Other colors are the same.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 375 – Food Tour part 2

July 18, 20152 Comments

The whole enchilada. Wanted to post before I pass out from a fun four mile bike ride with Lloyds Bike tour. Color me worn out. Lettering done with my pentelbrush pen and my noodler creaper Ahab.

Annlises logo. Can’t go wrong with her tour. Viking would be proud to say she did their tour!! Terrific local food and local color!! And Annelise worked hard to keep us hydrated. We each got our own fresh coconut to drink. Amazing!!

All the food was delicious but I fell I love with the fish taco at Andys cabana. I have eaten a lot of fish tacos lately and this one was perfection. I also drank coffee something I NEVER EVER do. Cuban coffee from El Siboneys could be my new energy drink.

We also learned about the history, architecture, the real estate market, and the flora and fauna. She does a super tour. A native of Key West she shares her huge amount of knowledge with her clients and if she doesn’t know she doesn’t mind telling you. Chances are good she does know!!

We also got a list of other restaurants tha specialize in local fresh caught seafood and fresh local veggies. So far we have eaten at two. Louies Backyard and Camilles. Fabulous food. Just fabulous. Great atmosphere. Can’t recommend either of them enough or the Food tour.

Annlise. She’s actually prettier than this wc.
The pages

Up close for your enjoyment.
More after I recover from fun with Lloyd!! He’s so funny and so knowledgeable.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 374 Key West Food Tour

July 17, 2015July 17, 2015Leave a comment

led by our fearless knowledgeable Annlise.

A very quick Pentel brush sketch done while we were enjoying our conch fritters with lime aioli sauce at Camilles. The fritters had just he right amount of hot. And a tall glass of ice water to keep us hydrated on our journey. Annlise is a font of info about all things Key West from the local food scene to the history and stories and even real estate pricing. You can not go wrong with her southernmost food tour.

Colors : cad red light, yellow ochre flesh, mineral Violet, cerulean, cobalt, Inathradone blue, alizarin, Burnt sienna, Andrews turquoise. Hair is Inathradone blue and burnt umber. Drawing done with Pentel brush pen.

More about the food tour tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 373 – Carolines and the Key West Ghost Hunt tour

July 16, 2015July 16, 2015Leave a comment

The best shrimp Bamboozled salad. Super wait staff. We were in a hurry to go on the Key West Ghost Hunting tour http://www.keywestghosthunt.com and they did everything they could to accommodate us and get us out the door on time.

The view from our table. It was contour sketched in ink in a hurry because we had less than an hour to eat and get to our tour.

Then we were off to the Key West Ghost Tours. http://www.keywestghosthunt.com

Our starting point at Kelly’s.

Jan ready for the tour.

This is our guide Michael in front of the Cosgrove House. Michael did a super job guiding us on our ghost hunt.
One of the tour members holding an L-rod which supposedly finds ghosts.

These houses are on Eaton Street where the nanny hung herself after accidently poisoning the two children in her charge. They both died. The sparkly lights are supposedly orbs or spirits.

There are more orbs in this photo but the wierd eat thing is the fish shaped blotch to the left of the door on the left house. It was not there when I went back the next day to look but it was in both photos that I took simultaneously of the houses.

The orbs also moved around though the photos were taken one after the other. And the black blotch is in both photos. No idea why. Believe what you want.

The episcopal church supposedly haunted by Captain Fleming who donated the land to the church.

Another orb in front of the cemetery.

In the old Scottish Mason meeting room on Eaton which is supposed to be the most haunted street in Key West. I thought this was a huge orb till I realized that it was Michaels flashlight lol.

It was a lot of fun and a great price point $20 with the code on their webpage. We both recommend it highly!!

Day 372 Hog Fish Grill

July 15, 2015July 16, 20152 Comments

Yum. They do a great hogfish taco. No idea if their other food is good because that’s what we always get. Just like we always sit out on the dockside.

This is the 180 view from our table. Still in the awful moleskine. Only a few pages left. Thank goodness. Then back to my super bee.

I think I ended up with two separate paintings though they are the whole view from where I sat. A great shot down the wharf from where I sat and then out into the marina. Also where I was sitting.

Wanted to add a note about the color.
The green is Daniel Smith green apatite a granulating primatek. Love the way it granulates.

I added Quin gold to it to simulate sunshine on the tree and darkened it for the fir with Inathradone blue. The palms are down with it too. Yellowed with Winsor yellow a transparent yellow.

The marina side from our table. Colors cerulean Yellow ochre mineral Violet burnt sienna and burnt umber to make the greys. The sky got way to dark. This paper just seems to suck the color and not let you add water to it to make it sheer. Most annoying.

Here’s the whole double page spread. This really is what we saw from our table when we looked to my left. The reason we always try to sit here even though it’s Hotter out there on the deck. They do have huge fans to cool you down. Thanks goodness.

I hear from a local, Pam Hobbs of hobbsart2015.com that their shrimp tacos are divine as well as their calamari topped Caesar salad.

Off to watch the sunset. Thanks for reading.

Day 371

July 14, 20154 Comments

a year and 6 days of consecutive daily blogging. Not easy when u r on vacation!!

My sis in law while we waited for the concierge so we could book some tours. Right now we are going on the ghost your Tonite and the food tour Thursday.

Lettering done with my Noodler Creaper Ahab and Carbon Black Ink in my moleskine Wc sketchbook.

Colors either Holbein or Daniel Smith. Ultramarine blue and burnt umber in the chair with yellow for the couchins. Cerulean and burnt sienna for the magazine, shorts, light, the table and the background all done wet on wet. The light is burnt umber, Quin gold, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.

The blouse is cerulean and Winsor yellow which is a transparent yellow.

Skin Quin coral and yellow ochre. This usually makes a really pretty skin tone but NOT on this darned paper.

Ok next up. Rant about that moleskine I am trying to finish. So skip it if you don’t want to hear me froth.

Wishing I had brought another sketchbook. Really LOATHING the moleskine Wc sketchbook. It acts like Hotpress paper. Very annoying. Colors act oddly on it. Thinking of ordering an S&b zeta or a strathmore ASAP from amazon.

There is a Ben Franklins here BUT no hard bound sketchbooks. Great clerk there. We chatted for a while about art quilts and sketching.

Don’t ask me how many new clean sketchbooks I have at home. At least four! Groan. Oh well. They keep.

I don’t know what it is about this paper but I DO NOT LIKE IT. NO more moleskines for me. At least til they start making them here again and improve the paper. I used to love them. Makes me sad when a product changes so radically. Greed will get you!!

Last nites sunset. First one is in the moleskine. The colors just don’t look so bright and clear as in the next one which

Is on a lovely piece of Strathmore 500 watercolor paper. GREAT stuff. Love it!!! All the usual colors with the addition of cheap joes Andrews blue, Holbein mineral Violet, and DS Orange which is transparent. Oh and any red I thought would work. Can u see how this one flies compared to the one done in the moleskine?!