Looking for something fun to do this holiday weekend in Atlanta?! These space ship like jungle gyms are in the courtyard of the High Art Museum free for the kid fun. Fun stuff!!

 All the kids who were off from school were having a ball on these. Lots of dads were in charge and even some grandpas. I love that. 

There’s also a large orange pig that I didn’t have room for in the sketch. 

For once my trees turned out. As in not overworked. I laid down a light layer  of quin gold and quin sienna. Let it dry then added more of those colors and some burnt sienna. And a dab of watery thalo green and cad yellow. 

Colors used. Quin gold cerulean ultramarine blue burnt umber and burnt sienna alizarin quin sienna thalo green and cad yellow.  and a grey tombow on the lettering. 

Ttyl 

Margaret xoxox 

Nope!!! 

No shopping going on here but maybe a large pot of soup and some Christmas cookie baking with the grandkids.

 I hope you are with your loved ones and relaxing and not hitting the stores. 

The denizens of Barnes and Noble which is packed with people on a frosty day. So much reading going on there.  As an ex reading teacher and media specialist I loved that. 

The lady was politely working away quietly talking into her earphone microphone unlike the lady sitting in front of me who was talking loudly on her phone. This lady just flew into the page. A piece of cake unlike the man. 

The man – well I loved his pose. And yes his leg is off. Foreshortened legs are always a challenge. And his right leg is just not right. Oh well. This was the first sketch of the day and sometimes they just don’t go well. You need to warm up. How you ask?! NO clue but you do need to. 

Colors used. Quin gold cerulean ultramarine blue burnt umber and burnt sienna alizarin and a blue tombow on the lettering. 

Ttyl 

Margaret xoxox

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I went people watching on Monday at the Barnes and Noble in Elmwood Shopping Center on Moreland. The Starbucks was packed with life models. 

People were actually reading. I don’t know why I don’t go more often because it’s a great place to find people to draw and photograph. 

I loved this guys pose as he read his paper. He sat so still as if chiseled in granite. 

Colors used. Quin gold cerulean ultramarine blue burnt umber and burnt sienna alizarin and a blue tombow on the lettering. 

Ttyl time to eat turkey!! 

Margaret hugging her grandkids. Xoxoxo

The other day at Barnes and Noble. Lots of eating and reading going on which leads me to Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful one. 

Colors used. Quin gold cerulean ultramarine blue burnt umber and burnt sienna alizarin and a blue tombow on the lettering.

Around our house the day before Thanksgiving is pie bake off day. Pumpkin pie and pecan pie and maybe a nice meat pie if my mom is around. She loves a good mince meat pie. 

Here are the recipes. I really need to draw these old tattered recipes of my mothers. 

Pumpkin piePecan pie. I know my mom has been using this exact recipe since the late fifties. Mom is a famous pie baker. Lots of pie stories in our family mostly having to do with cherry. 

My favorite pecan pie story is when my son Ben came home expecting to have his favorite pecan pie ready or to help chop the nuts for it. The oven had died. 

 On the eve of Thanksgiving off he VOLUNTARILY went to Walmart to buy a small convection oven. He climbed the heaps of preBlack Friday stock in all the aisles to claim his oven. It worked better and faster than the regular oven ever did. Thanksgiving was rescued.  

Ben

Ben and his new bride who are on their honeymoon in Rome Italy this week. NO Pie for him this Thanksgiving. Just rea Italian gelato! 

Ttyl off to Sapphire Valley for the bake off hopefully with a two year old and a four year old helping!!

Margaret who has to get the car packed soon. 

Grant my sons pit bull rescue.  He’s a sweety. Loved treats and pets and outside.  Did I say he’s a big boy with a massive head. Lucky he’s very gentle. A lot of puppy in Grant. 

Pentel techno pen  in strathmore mixed media journal. I used the pentel because my Konrad was running out of ink and because Grant is black and white I was not going to paint him.  Tge Pebtel pen runs a bit. 

I drew him twice because I thought the head was just too large on this sketch. 

Noodler Konrad in strathmore mixed media journal. 

Off to the High to meet a friend from high school …actually we went to Junior High, high school and college together. Our last names were McCarthy and McCorkle so alphabetically we always sat together in any class we shared. 

Ttyl

Margaret xoxox

Brunch at Cafe Lily in Decatur.

 Atlanta is loaded with people to draw and delicious food to eat. Cafe Lily is no exception. I met my college friend Patsy Cain there yesterday for a petite dejeuner. The most amazing Greek Omelet ever and polenta from heaven. Think the richest creamiest grits ever. 

Colors used quin gold and burnt sienna for trees. Umbrellas cerulean and burnt sienna. Quin gold and a green Daniel smith primateks on table cloth and bushes. Ultramarine blue and burnt umber for blacks. Brown hair burnt sienna and umber. 

Sketchbook Stillman and Birn Beta. Lovely cold pressed paper that lets you lift color so easily. 
Off in search of people to draw and photograph. 
Margaret xoxoxo

Babysitting the dogs in Atlanta.Some dogs are just interesting to draw and Livia is. Livia my sons pitbull lies around striking elegant poses.

Drawn in my Strathmore watercolor 400 journal.

Here’s one I haven’t finished yet. Livia walked off no doubt to bark at someone walking down the street.  This house should have a sign “Pitbull Dog Patrol!”   The thing about a dog is that usually sooner or later they strike the same pose so if you are patient and wait she will get back in the same position.

I do love drawing animals. I bought this book for $5 at Sam Flaxs yesterday on their sales table upstairs. She bases her funky animal sketches on sidewalk cracks so something else to look for when I go out people watching today.

About my new  Stillman and Birn Mixed Media Journal.  WHY am I excited about it?

My two favorite sketchbooks because of their paper are the Stillman and Birn Zeta and Beta series books and the Strathmore 500 Mixed Media Journals. Lovely crispy paper that loves ink and watercolor. .

Usually my biggest problem is that neither of them ever lay flat when open like the moleskines do. Sadly Moleskine has been outsourced to China and now has really nasty paper in them. Frequently I end up with the Strathmore because I like them both equally and I can get it with a coupon and a hefty discount at Michaels.

HOWEVER the new Stillman and Birn SOFTCOVER Mixed Media journals  lays pancake flat when opened and the round corners should be good in my purse. Square ones tend to get bent.

I was so thrilled to find how flat it lay that I went back into Sam Flaxs and bought two more on the spot. You can’t buy them in Augusta.

So why does that curve bother me you ask?

The wc Strathmore and the hardcover Stillman and Birn books always have a lot of curve in them. Hard to take a pic of and terrible on a scanner unless you stand and flatten the book with extra pressure. Sometimes even if you do lean on the book to flatten it as you scan frequently the offending sketchbooks have  a curved line if you draw across the pages. Not good.
Off to the Atlanta races. Brunch at Cafe Lily with a college friend.
Margaret xoxox opening that oyster

My next big painting and auditioning photos as well as taking how many since yesterday 300 of them?!

So far this is the winner. 

Power went out today So a bit late. 

Ttyl

Margaret who might really be on vacation 

Drawn from the boat. I like this one much better than yesterday’s post though it took just as long to draw and paint. Five hours or so. The colors are more transparent.  Not so heavy. 

The water is the Seine River at Conflans which is about twenty miles outside Paris. It’s a retirement community because it’s much cheaper than Paris but nearby. The bateaux are all alon the shore line and is called the Retirement Community because they are full of retirees.  

I used Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Plus cerulean   Just can’t give up cerulean!   

Restocking the used up  colors  Monday at Binders. They sell Holbein Daniel Smith and Winsor Newton watercolors. 

Ttyl. Off to play with my grandkids! 

Margaret with Atlanta for her oyster. Trip to the High Museum on Tuesday. Excitement.