Hard to catch her to draw her. She’s usually hiding on her ultracomfy big bed her favorite spot by the window. The only thing that brings her around is hopes of food – a bowl to lick or a puppy snack.

She was hopeful when I caught her yesterday and drew her on the last blank page in my sketchbook. Bean soup must have smelled good to her. Just what a flabrador wants right?

Been using my Noodler Ahab pen for the last few days. Gives a completely different look than a Lamy. The line is more like a dip pen and can be thick and thin.

Written with an Ahab. A Lamy could never write this.

I personally think they are great for a calligraphic line but they can be quite annoying. Leaking seems to be their specialty. I have bought brand new ones from Goulet Pen that wouldn’t even hold the ink. It was literally pouring out into my palm. They told me I needed to buy parts to fix my brand new pen. Now I only buy them from Amazon where I can return them. Some of the Ahabs have an odd smell. That said I love they hold a ton of ink and I like their big fat size rather cigar shaped.

I also have several Konrads which are more expensive and usually are better pens. But the one that poured ink was a Konrad. A cheaper one. I have never had problems with the $40 ones. That said I NEVER have problems like that with my lamys EVER.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette.

Margaret off to Aiken today and I hope dr Sketchy tonite. Xoxoxo #Labrador #lab #blackdog #ink #watercolor #stillmanandbirn #noodlerahab #noodlersink #gottadraw #sketching #dogsofinstagram #augusta #atlanta

BMW R1200 drawn at the dealership. I think I have painted everything in my Stillman and Birn Beta that I can possibly paint today. All 92 pages are full. Hurrah. And painted. I think I have painted or update 15 pages today stopping only long enough to eat a quick lunch and feed the dogs.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls palette plus cerulean and green gold. I am now ready for a nap.

My socks. The heel is turned. Maybe I can make the toe tonite. Not wild about the color but my feet will enjoy the Madeline Tosh sock and I shouldn’t have to darn it. Tough yarn.

Margaret who is going to clean up eat dinner and take a nap or finish knitting her sock. Xoxoxox

#sketchbook #ink #watercolor #tednuttall #motorcycle #stillmanandbirn #urbansketch #urbansketchers #bikes #stillmanandbirn #dailydrawingjournal #artjournal #journal

Finally finished my yupo sketch and I really like it a lot.

Macy 20×30″ Yupo. For Sale!! Watercolor, Gouache, 6b lead and a bit of Caran d’ache neocolor ii

She went a lot faster than last weeks. Maybe I have learned some things from the other one?!

What I have learned about yupo.

• Paint flat on a table not vertically. Paint won’t stick to it.
• Add a tiny bit of dish soap to the water.
• Easy to lift color from with a clean wet brush or wet the area you want to wipe out and wipe with a Kleenex. Damp Kleenex works too.
• The lead works as a dam keeping the paint from flowing. Even repels it.
• Makes lovely puddles of unexpected colors.
• You can not control it.
• Never ends up like you thought it would. More so than a regular watercolor which also does its own thing.
• Gouache blends right in.
• You can drop in color on small things like lips and eyebrows one drop at a time and it will run together as one unified color.

I successfully erased the heavy lead lines on her fore arm after it was painted. Then I repainted it. The eraser acted as a resist and made a highlight on her arm. The lighter area is where I erased.

Go try yupo you might like it!!

Yupo Fun!! Macy Yupo 24×30” #forsale! #yupo #watercolor #lead #gouache #lifemodeling #nude #albeyer #usca #aiken #augusta #georgia #southcarolina #art #artist #drawing #sketching #dailydrawing

The results from yesterday’s drawing group at USCAiken under the leadership of Al Beyer. The first six are mine. The rest are friends.

Macy watercolor gouache caran d’ache neocolor ii and 6 B lead on illustration board.

First break. Pretty horrifying.

Wet paint does terrible things to the Blick Bristol. It has no finish and acts like a sponge.

I like her better than I did. In fact I like her a lot now.

That cheek is wet. It dries a lot lighter. Thank goodness. I do have to say I much prefer the Strathmore illustration paper that I thought I brought but was home on my table. Oops. The blick paper gets a wet edge on the colors like the papers wicking it which I think it is.

After she dried before I painted a little more last nite. I think I still need to add some more blue to the left side. What was I thinking. In an hour and a half you only think so much right?! Sometimes the time flies too fast.

Here she is again done.

I actually did two. This is much bigger on Yupo-24×30″. And needs finishing. Today I hope but I have a couple of commissions I should work on.

Most of us were not pleased with our work yesterday. We blame it on Macy not being able to hold the pose. It’s a tough one to sit recline on your right arm for hours. It goes to sleep and her head kept getting lower. Oopsey.

Drew Murphy not happy with either of his though I do like his first one a lot. He said he’s going to crop the first one. What do you think?

Better?!! Don’t you love how easy it is to crop with a computer. No saw required. It’s painted on hardboard.

Al Baeyer huge oil. 3×4′ or so. Lovely.

Amy’s small oil. She was too my left and thrilled when I asked her if she thought Macy’s head was sagging. Sometimes it’s so slight it’s hard to tell but it really throws you off.

Dawn was to Amy’s left. Oil

Fred to my right acrylic. I kinda love this big thing. 2×30″

Tom Needham farther down in the right. Nice job Tom. Like this one A lot. Usually I tease him about his too long heads.

Bill oil 20×20 on board he’s come along way lately from muddy tiny oils a few months ago.

I should know his name but forgot it. He sat right in front of me. An engineer from Westinghouse.

Ilania who’s frequently a model was there painting today. Love her.

Tyrone’s pencil or charcoal I think.

Jim charcoal. Scribbles are fun.

Margaret whose going to cook some breakfast and pet Zoe who keeps giving me the eye like I need this and I need that.

Pay attention mom! Xoxoxo from Zoe and I!

#watercolor #watercolours #aquarelle #sketch #drawingforsale #nude #pencil #lead #strathmore #bristol #yupo #oil #art #lifemodeling #artist #uscaiken #albeyer #sketching #drawing #allaprima

Well WordPress burped and never losted this today. Was supposed to be posted this morning about 10 am EST. CRAZY WordPress.

Here’s the post. And now Zoe and Honey and I are off to bed. Nite nite!! I wonder how life modeling will go today. In the meantime last nights sketches.

Ink sketch last nite on the sofa while Zoe was curled up next to me. I actually like it cropped into a square better. Done with my Lamy Ef in my stillman and Birn sketchbook.

I did short dashy lines on her face to simulate fur. Lots of them!! I was afraid to do too many lines on her white fur or I would turn it dark instead of making hair texture with the Noodlers Eelskin Black ink in my pen.

Ipad sketch done w my finger. Not that this is a perfect sketch. I did it in a few minutes in Notes.

I knew I could do a sketch on it with my stylus in procreate but not in notes. She was just a sudden whim I had after listening to an online drawing video form Veronica Lawlor and Sketchbookskool from their Drawing a day class I took last year.

Fun stuff. I think you can do it on your iphone too and you can erase also.

Margaret in Aiken again for the day xoxoxo

WIP – Zoe snoozing again!!! Bat ears!! #zoe #warm #snuggle #jackrussell #crosshatching #jackrussellsofinstagram #jrt #watercolor #art #painting #cuteness #drawing #ink #LamyEf #lamysafari #lamy #dailydrawing #georgia #atlanta #terrier #rescuedog #stillmanandbirn

My friend Raisin got some of these for Christmas and was talking about how comfy they are.

We both get plantar facitis in our feet so if Raisin says hey are great I listen. She’s the one who saved my sore foot recommending Chacos for my plantar facitis lasted two years off and on. The Chacos fixed it the minute I put them on. So I got some Glerups.

I drew them on the last double page In My sketchbook. And journaled a bit about them my darned wool socks and Raisin.

Ps they are everything Raisin said they were. So warm and comfy.

This is the first page in my sketchbook and the reason I drew the Glerups like I did to finish the book.

This is the second double spread. Notice a theme going here?!!

They are colored with my prismacolor art sticks and a bit of caran d’ache neocolor ii watercolor crayons.

Drawn with one of my Lamys. The feet are drawn with my pentel brush pen. Hmm might go back and add some to this Glerups.

PS I joke that Raisin is always spending my money. She’s good at influencing me. Love Raisin. So much fun.

Margaret off to Aiken for a photo shoot and to hang out with the jockeys at the race track. Xoxoxo #Glerups #prismacolor #pentelbrush #ink #carand’acheneocolorii #stillmanandbirn #raisin #Chacos #aiken #lamy ##georgia #augusta

WIP

Dancing in the Streets -30×40″ -Finally getting the blocking in done. So far it’s taken about 6 hours. Needless to say there is a lot left to do on this painting. Virtually nothing is finished.

Colors used so far quin red, nickel azo gold, white, Black, green gold, burnt umber, Liquitex flesh, ultramarine and pthalo blue. All

Paints are either golden or Liquitex.

First session I painted without the picture. OOOPS. So everything was slightly off.

I could make a LONG list of what’s off about this painting. Everything from the perspective to the length of legs and feet. Shoulders. Especially the guy with the pink shirt. Yuck.

And I could go on.

Here’s the picture it’s based on. I may or may not add all the people in the background. Seems illogical not to have them in the background but you never know. I can add them or wipe them out. Not decided.

Dancing at the Chat 3’x3′ acrylic is off to a show in McCormick. This is the one that got me noticed by WordPress back around the end of November. Right around my birthday.

Looking Down 3’x4′-acrylic is also going to the show. Based on a picture I took at a Ponce City Market last year.

Heres the picture.

Excitement!! Finishing up a Stillman and Birn Beta sketchbook. New one got here from Amazon yesterday.

Anyway that’s it for today.

Margaret whose sitting at the Toyota dealership waiting for her hubcap replacement. Xoxoxo

WIP Dancing in the Streets(30×40) at Arts in the Heart. Blocking in almost done. #acrylic #acrylicpainting #urbansketch #golden #liquitex #dancing #peoplescreative #augusta #artsintheheart #artsintheheartofaugusta

When you draw most days there are days things don’t go well. She’s actually much cuter than this sketch.

I was trying to draw my granddaughter Livia practicing her coloring. She’s just three so it involves a lot of concentration on her part. When she gets up in the morning her hair looks like a haystack with it going every which way and hanging over her face.

This is my attempt to capture that event and journal about it. The crazy hair and the coloring. She was working so hard on staying in the lines all the whole carrying on a conversation about the coloring and what she wanted to do that day. Go to the “maquarium” aka the Atlanta Aquarium.

I had a lot of trouble getting her little face to show and her hair to look wild. I eventually got out a few of my Neocolor ii crayons to color her.

I also added some of their coloring pages because I didn’t want them to get lost. And I journaled a bit of her conversation on the page. She was also enthralled with the lights at the “mechanical” aka Botanical Gardens.

Margaret off to Aiken to paint today. Schools back in session xoxoxo

I really like this painting and the original sketch of Lucy dog my kids brindle pit mix. She loves to lie around supervising the kids aka keeping an eye on them.

I used Ted Nuttall transparent palette plus Daniel Smith pimonite which makes great purples combined with cobalt blue.

The green in the background is quin cold and peacock blue.

Need to write something on the right side of the page but still haven’t figured out what. Thinking hashtags but might not like that. Hmmm.

Margaret whose off to do fun stuff like get a new hubcap on her Prius. Ooooooo.

Xoxoxo

Sweet Lucy Dog #decaturdog #dekalbrescue #dog #dogsofinstagram #atlanta#watercolor #ink #stillmanandbirn #pittie #pitbull #pitbullsofinstagram #brindlepitbull #brindle #nannydog

After all. I spent most of the day working on this watercolor on Yupo. I took the photo with my iPad because my phone was making her so dark. She’s still a little yellow which she’s not.

And I gave her an eyebrow lift in seconds. Too bad it’s not that easy in real life. All you need is a wet paintbrush and Kleenex to dab at it.

Ilana about 20×30″ watercolor on yupo with a dash of dish detergent to make the paint stick to the “paper” – one of the things I learned on YouTube. The detergent makes the paint stick.

This was what she looked like about 11:30 this am.

Colors used:cerulean, peacock blue, cobalt, and ultramarine blue. Nickel azo gold, quin sienna and burnt umber.

Besides fighting with the yupo I had to fight with my iPhone. The pictures were too dark once again.

This was taken with my phone. Grrr.

Yupo problems.

• It’s like chasing wet rainbow puddles of color. They float around and do what they want.
• Color lifts when you try to add more color. Oops.
• Impossible to get the salt off of it. It sticks. Nothing else does but the salt does. Hmmmm.
• Softening edges. Hard hard to do. The best I could do was wipe off some of the darker color.
• You can lift it back to white with clean water and a clean paint brush when you make mistakes.
• Likes blotting with Kleenex but you knew that.
• It scratches. I am sure it’s easy to damage it after all that painting. I hope it doesn’t happen.

Margaret who is off to a meeting.

#yupo #watercolor #lifemodel #ilania #uscaiken #usca #augusta #augustaga #ilaina #watercolor #watercolours #aquarelle #sketch #drawingforsale #nude #pencil #lead #art #artist #albeyer # #drawing