Day 411 -A Pelican

August 24, 201513 Comments

I drew this brown pelican when I was at the Key West Wildlife Center with my brush pen. Finally got around to painting him. If you wonder why he was at the center I noticed while sketching he was missing the upper bill. For lack of a way to exlain it better the part under where your nose would be. I noticed because I saw his tongue while I was drawing him. He was above my eye level.

Here is another pic oh him if you want to draw him. See the slit in his bill? The reason he lives at the center.
Since I drew this I have thought a lot about these poor birds doomed to live in cages forever because we polluted their world. Fishing line or a fish hook likely got his bill. Saddens me to thin that he will never get to soar on the currents or dive bomb for fish like he was supposed to do. Now he lives in a cage with another pelican.

All I am going to say is DONT throw ur trash in the water.

Colors used: Quin gold, cerulean, burnt sienna, and every blue I own for the water plus a little spring green and purple.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 410 – More of those chickens!!

August 23, 2015August 23, 20159 Comments

Courthouse Chickens Key West

Where else but in Key West would you find chickens at the courthouse?!

I drew these toward the end of our stay in Key West when I went on a sketchathon starting at the Key West Wildlife Center and ending at Higgs Beach sketching the people as they walked by in front of the car.

Fast sketching requires a good flowing pen – chickens birds and people don’t hold still for long!! I use my Noodler Craper Ahab or one of my two brush pens – the Kuretake or the Pentel. The first two are always loaded with Carbon Platinum Black ink which dries so rapidly. I frequently paint them later especially if the weather is extreme like in the tropical heat of key west.

I thought you might like to see the chickens before I painted them.

While in Key west I saw a lot of Chinese style brush work paintings of animals in one gallery on Duval. And decided to try it out on the long chicken strip. I liked it so much I did it on these pages too.

There are really only a few pure colors used on the chickens. Quin gold, Quin Sienna, Quin burnt orange, Inathradone, Quin red and alizarin period. All the colors were allowed to combine on the page. Painting was done with my large cheap joes legend #12 sable even the large splatters.

Tip: To make the splatters. Choose a color or two and make a soupy mix. Fillup a large brush and gently tap over the painting. Yes I have a toothbrush but I always get little splatters not big juicy ones with it.

Probably due to heat stroke I was imagining what the chickens might be thinking as I drew. What would I think if I were a courthouse chicken?! Look there goes another felon?! Wonder what they did?! Hope I win my case?!

Before I started drawing chickens I thought roosters were mean ready to attack you at any second like the ones we had as kids. When get are with the chicks and be a they are very different beasts. They are not aggressive. Feed them and they defer to the babies and hens to eat. They also stand vigil while the hen takes care of the babies. Who knew??!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 409 – Life modeling

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015Leave a comment

Having fun at dripping paint today because when things are not going well that’s when you get to have fun with the watercolor paint. You can’t ruin it if it’s already messed up.

A list of today’s problems:

Could not get myself together today to draw Erica.

My mechanical pencil had no lead. OPPS.

Borrowed a pencil from Tom. Sharpened off center so it ran out quickly.

Couldn’t find my glasses.

Maybe I needed to go back to bed and start again?! But I loved her pose today and the wicker chair so I kept slogging along at it.
Between all of that I got her roughed in without loosing a foot. The legs stayed where they belonged but what about those arms. They were both too short. Great thing about Fabriano. You can life color off with an old paint brush.

Notice how short HER right arm is in this pic? What was I thinking. Got my old oil paint brush out lifted the background and now her arm is better.

Had trouble getting her head right too. Charles Reid has a rule. Never make the head smaller than four inches. It’s just too difficult to paint if it is. But smart me drew a head that might be an inch and a half at most. It hd to be small to get the whole body in. Oh well. I won’t do that again.
She is done for today. That does not mean that tomorrow I might not get up and scrub her off the paper. Or change her in some way. But for now. DONE.

Oh wait. I think it needs a little turquoise.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 408 – A Commission

August 21, 2015Leave a comment

The Wedding – 15×22

I was recently honored to do this commission for a friends birthday- his long awaited wedding to his love.

They adored it. Said all their friends would be jealous.

The sketch with the first background wash added. Very light mix of colors.

I thought it was done at this long til a friend said darken the background so John on the right shows up better. Remember it’s all about the contrast!! Shadows have a lot of purples added for contrast as well as burnt sienna.

Colors used! Skin is yellow ochre and Quin coral. The Daniel Smith Quin coral akes a lovely glowy skin. The grey hair is stipples cerulean blue. Works great for stubbly hair.

That’s all I got for today. Have a lovely weekend. Life modeling tomorrow if all goes well!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaretxxx

Day 407 – Playtime

August 20, 2015Leave a comment

Loved the way the dads play with their kids now. And help out with them. Today we welcomed a new McCarthy Olivia June into the world. My nephew her dad Vince McCarthy is one of those great dads. This sketch is another great dad playing with his daughter on the beach at Garden City. Olivia will be playing here with her dad in a few years. The circle of a life.

As one of my first graders once told me that’s all I got for today. Large sinus headaches here. Back to sofa lounging. I even packed my gym bag and almost got there today Til the headache struck about two.

More tomorrow. But you knew that.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 406 – the Pier

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015Leave a comment

The Pier at Garden City

This was sketched on the pier at Garden City. A very long pier. The late evening sun glinting off the boards was turning the dock to gold.

A bit of the pier

People were everywhere. Some sitting some walking enjoying the breezes others waiting to get weaves done in their hair. Who knew weaves were in demand on the piers of the Grand Strand?!

Put these together to see the whole pier.

And of course you guessed that gold is Quin gold. The people’s shadows were made with a soupy Inathradone and burnt umber mix that I let drip from the feet by propping the sketch book up. I added burnt sienna to some of the figures to give them a tan. Tans are big at the beach.

I seem to be into drips and splatters lately. I find the splatters are easier if I load a large brush like my #12 Legend sable brush with a soup of darker colors like blues and the Browns. Sometimes together sometimes separate.

Tip of the day!! Just remember splattering can make a BIG mess!! BeWaRe!!! It will go everywhere.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 405 – Hmm

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015Leave a comment

Pavilion Cafe at the Hammock Shoppes Pawleys Island.

I meant to practice some more Paris and France sketching but ended up getting a couple of traveling sketchbooks done to mail out tomorrow. Hurrah.

We had been wandering through all tech cute shops theat comprise the Hammock Shoppes on Highway 17 at Pawleys Island. I had no idea it had been here since the 1930s. I found my favorite clothing store ever Affordable Apparel (also on line at Affordable Apparel.com) and got some great coordinated clothes to pack for Paris.

This was actually drawn as we waited for our food. Several years ago I had the most awesome crab cake ever at the Hammock Shoppes. This one was delicious of lump crab meat of the earlier one. A great spot to eat in a large open pavilion with lots of interesting things to draw. Thank goodness the two couples showed up after we sat down so my drawing had lots of people in it.

Give it a go. A lot of fun drawing in restaurants and cafes. What would Toulouse Lautrec have had to draw of it were not for the people on the night clubs of Paris. Be brave and give it a whirl.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx still looking for anothe

Day 404 – Practice

August 17, 20154 Comments

Off to Paris and the Seine Rover Viking cruise in a few months.

Like the diligent students we were my sister and I are preparing in our own ways. We have been watching a lot of YouTube videos and Rick Steves videos of Paris and Normandy.

Usually I get a little bored with TV if I just sit and watchdog it was time to practice some urbansketching and work on my brush pen skills.

The brush pen requires diligence to use it well. Lately it has been frustrating me so time to practice.
I drew Sacre Couer – the highest point in Paris (I think) – from a YouTube video.

Also want to practice fast drawing and fast painting. While my sister is patient waiting while I sketch I don’t want to impose too much.

Colors used: Quin gold burnt sienna cerulean cobalt and a dash of purple.

Google earth is also a good place to try some urban sketching or the Linrary of Congress photos.

Anyway like the way these turned out. Get that brush pen out and get sketching.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 403 – Work in progress

August 16, 2015August 16, 2015Leave a comment

Mermaid House thank you card Finished

Thought u might like to see one in progress. I frequently take pics of my work as I go to check on values.

I also sometimes change the photo to black and white to check the values. I, like most people, usually need more darks to make the lights pop.

The first time I checked values and general do I like the way it’s going?!

Adding more darks to the palms. Love the palm on the right.

The sun was coming from the right in this early morning photo.

I lifted some color from the palms to make more lights.

This is what I used to lift some of the color. It’s an architect erasure shield and an old hog bristle paint brush of my dads. I did get a little carried away scrubbing the darks. Then I blotted them with Kleenex.

I decided the lifted spots looked to uniform and too stripey.

So I added a little green on some of the stripes as well as some cobalt blue for even more darks.

U can see that I taped down the paper.

This is some Stonehenge that I ripped the wrong size for a sketchbook. Stonehenge does well with watercolor. All my people strips are made from Stonehenge or Strathmore Mixed Media 500 paper.

Finished card

I added another wash of cerulean to darken the sky and make the very light house pop. Adding more darks under the porch roof and too all the rails and steps also made it pop more. Then I splattered it with Inathradone blue and burnt umber.

Contrast makes it pop. Not enough darks and it will be bland!!

Oh and I had to make an envelope. It’s a thank you note for the beach house owner for inviting my sis and I last weekend. I buy boxes of cards on sale for the envelopes especially after Christmas.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 402 Wishing I was

August 15, 2015Leave a comment

at the beach. I almost always do especially in the summer.

Saturday at Garden City

A little something I painted last weekend while managing to get a nice sunburn. I am always amazed at the sheer number of people on the beaches at Garden City and Myrtle Beach.

I am used to going to Edisto where there are fewer people on the beach. If someone is close as close as fifty feet to you the beach is full at Edisto. On the Grand Strand you hope you can find a square inch as the tide rises!!

Here it is in progress on the beach. The same group of ladies say and giggled nearby the whole weekend.

A crow stole the guy in the redshirts sunflower seeds when the guy got up to get in the water. You just never know what is happening on a beach. Too much to take it all in.

Here is the sketch done with my Noodler Creaper Ahab. Very loose and scribbly.