I realized I had not posted the original painted sketch of the Cotton Exchange. This building is pretty complicated as only an old Victorian gothic revival building can be. Off hand it reminds me of drawing Notre Dame

or the Cathedral in Rouen that Monet painted 28 odd times. I couldn’t draw the whole building because the Christmas Market wrapped the front of the church on the Plaza. Drawn standing in theRuue de Gros Horlage in the rain. Drawn in a drizzle St MacClou in Rouen perhaps my favorite a wedding cake of a Gothic Church. All have lots of details to keep you busy drawing.

St Pierre in Montmartre tucked up near Sacre Couer

English de Ranville drawn in the rain. It rains a lot in France when I am trying to draw a church or a cathedral.

Saint Sauvers in Les Andelys drawn leaning on a building across the street in the morning sun.

Inside Saint Sauverers sitting in a nice rush seat chair. So France.

I do have an affection for Gothic and Catholic Churches. All started by going to mass at Sacred Heart which Catholic friends when I spent the night or maybe because my dad went to Notre Dame where he met mom or maybe it’s because most of my dads family are all Irish Catholics??

Colors used quin coral with a bit of quin sienna serpentine green cerulean quin sienna.

And there are probably more churches in other sketchbooks.

Margaret xoxoxo

#augusta #france #montmartre #notredame #paris #lesandelys #rouen #sketching #drawing #dailydrawing #watercolor #aquarelle #mostholytrinity #georgia #ink #canson #urbansketch

Yesterday my daughter in law Nelie picked a bunch of spring flowers like dogwood and jasmine and arranged them in charming bouquets in jars and vases around the house.

I drew the one in the living room. Painted it trying to remember what Charles Reid my guru watercolor painter said. Soften edges negative painting. I don’t know if I succeeded but I like this painting a lot.

Colors used cerulean quin coral cad orange pyrrole red quin sienna green gold thalo blue alizarin and quin magenta.

Drawn with Lamy Ef in stillman and birn alpha.

And this one of tiny dog wood blooms in some small tall bottles. Love the stems.

Colors used cerulean quin sienna green gold thalo blue alizarin and quin magenta.

Margaret packing up shortly xoxoxo

#flowers #stillmanandbirn #ink #eastatlanta #atlanta #spring #bouquet #watercolor #charlesreid #aquarelle #sketching #dailydrawing

Definitely bunny time. This guys going to be hopping out the door soon to deliver eggs.

And this guy is not quite finished. He hasn’t told me what he wants to say yet. Any suggestions on that?!! Hopefully I will finish him before Easter or maybe he’s not an Easter bunny?!! This one is on 300lb Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro watercolor paper and will be for sale when he gets finished.

Margaret xoxoxoxo

#rabbits #birds #FORSALE #forsale #animals #easter #watercolor #watercolorpainting #ink #stillmanandbirn #whimsy #fantasy #stamps #gossip #bff #bestfriends

#kilimanjaro #cheapjoes #augusta #art #painting #ink #whimsy #artforsale #drawing #georgia

These are about 8×10 on 300 # Kilimanjaro watercolor paper and FOR SALE. This guy is one of my all time favorites. I used the Bob Burridge color wheel to pick out his four main colors. Purple was the main color with yellow accents.

FOR SALE. And this little guy is just sweet. A sort of green penguin. Main color is green with accent color of orange.

These are based on some Monroe NC sidewalk cracks my New friend Sherry B sent me. We took the Kim Johnson class together in Charlotte and Sherry is a lot of fun.

Off to the American Crafts Council Show. Should be wonderful. It’s a high end juried craft show that travels the US.

Margaret xoxoxox

#penguin #birds #FORSALE #forsale #animals #birds #watercolor #watercolorpainting #ink #stillmanandbirn #whimsy #fantasy #stamps #gossip #bff #bestfriends

#kilimanjaro #cheapjoes

Finally got the sketch of the band Greg and Jeff at Mellow Mushroom painted. And again late posting.

Here the ink sketch. Used alizarin cobalt quin gold quin sienna burnt umber ultramarine blue serpentine green cerulean. Could I paint without cerulean?! Cerulean jeans.

Anyway gotta run. Hugs Margaret xoxoxo

After I drew the church I thought the church steeple would make a perfect double page spread if I just drew a long tall piece of it. Of course I got off to a bit or Rocky start.

This is now the downtown Catholic Church. First painting.

The church used to be called St Patrick’s before it was combined the Sacred Heart Parish to become Holy Trinity. Sacred Heart is the public’s gain since it’s now available for all kinds of events from weddings to art shows to garden shows or a luncheon.

The whole double page was coated with a light quin gold. Holy Trinity painted with cerulean mineral violet cobalt and quin sienna on the building shadows roof. Tree is hookers and quin gold and burnt sienna. Also burnt umber and ultramarine marine. Splatters with those last colors and some mineral violet. Sky is manganese blue coated twice with cobalt near the church roof.

today I put in a new keyless front door lock. It worked great. You notice anything odd about it?! I put it in upside down. Now I have to take it apart and start over. 🤪

Margaret who is done for the day.

#augusta #wetpaint #sketching #drawing #dailydrawing #watercolor #aquarelle #mostholytrinity #georgia #ink #canson #urbansketch

Out of town company. Eeekkk

Drawing the band Jeff & Shep at Mellow Mushroom. Been too busy painting other things like the alpaca and the roosters to have time to paint this. Oh and more of my whacky animals. I really need to do an updated post of them.

I did take a photo of the sketch and the band together but that seems to be missing from my phone. Hmmmm. Wonder how that happened.

I did paint the St Paul’s sketch that I did last Thursday. I actually love the shadow side of the steeple. I think I used cobalt and burnt sienna or quin sienna for the shadows. I have both siennas in the palette so hard to say which I used.

The sky is cerulean and manganese wet on wet. The roof is Daniel Smith serpentine green.

My current favorite man in my life. Lol.

Drawn with my lamy Ef in my stillman and birn alpha.

Margaret xoxoxox

Jeff &Shep . #mellowmushroom #augusta #Jeff&Shep#augustlandmarks #urbansketching #ink #usk #watercolor #aquarelle #stillmanandbirn #artonbroad #thecottonexchange #cottonexchange #dailydrawing #sketching

Key West Rooster Strip #2 8x 15 300 lb cp watercolor paper

If you ever told me I would be nuts about chickens and roosters enough to follow them around drawing and and later painting them I would have said who not me!!

Key West Rooster Strip #1 8x 15 300 lb cp watercolor paper

After several trips to Key West and and even more to the farm an old restored homestead at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park I LOVE chickens. So much fun attitude and not too hard to draw with a little practice.

So why did I paint two??? They are actually on the same piece of paper. I just flipped it over. Right after that I found a pile of 8″ strips.

Ok I painted two because I thought the first one got too dark and wasn’t loose enough. There’s a fine line you slide over in watercolor and it’s hard to come back. So I just flipped it over and started again.

The second one has brighter less muddy colors. The red is red and there are a lot whites which adds sparkle.

Cockscomb on first one. Muddy no least edges aka all the same value. I should lighten the edges by blotting the color off but since I painted him again I won’t.

Splattering the background with a soup of cerulean, mineral violet and sienna adding quin sienna and greens to tail. Cad red light for combs and face w drops of serpentine green. Colors used burnt and quin sienna quin gold cerulean burnt umber serpentine green mineral violet ultramarine blue.

#2

Tip of the Day

Reading back over my notes from Peggy Habits class last spring I ran across this factoid. The reason she uses M Graham which you can revive forever in the palette or on PAPER. Sits made with honey so easy to wet and rework compared to winsor newton or Daniel smith. I think Holbein is more M Graham.

That said I wrote this down and it never occurred to me that she meant it revived anywhere except on the palette til I reread it this morning. So sharing her tip with you all.

Of course Yupo is a different animal. Nothing works the same on Yupo.

Her other tip that’s a fav of mine right now is using a colors compliment will tone it down. Green will tone down red like I did with the first set of cockscombs. The dabs of serpentine green made it brown. Eeek. All that brown is from the addition of serpentine green. Oopsey.

Got to go vacuum and make the beds. Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxox

#keywestwildlifecenter #rooster #loose #watercolor #aquarelle #splash #keywest #charlotte #northcarolina #kimjohnson #nancycouick #splash #splatter #sketching #drawing #birds #chickens

Took a lot of pics of alpacas on Friday as well as ponies burros and goats in a nearby field. Usually I roar by then but Friday it was sunny they were right by the fence and I had a carload of veg from Earthfare to entice them. The burro picked right up on the fact that I was tossing carrots and cane on over. Then a pony or two. The goats never got interested but the polka dot alpaca eventually did.

This is the photo I used. Backlight with a glow.

The whole painting. May be a few changes like adding more shadow on neck and hmm darken the blue background a bit on the left.

The sketch w a 2h on Canson watercolor board which night me my new fav wc paper. It lifts color like a dream.

I did the eyes first because as Kim Johnson says If the eyes turn out wrong who cares about the rest of the painting?

Colors used are big puddles of cerulean burnt umber and sienna ultramarine blue and that DS Green Serpentine. LOVE that green. And LOTS of water!!!

Adding more color. First incoated his neck and body with a very thin layer of quin gold. Barely colored it. Let it dry.

I used a lot of cerulean and burnt umber on the neck and body as well as some mineral violet. And lots and lots of watery paint layers.

I added more green Manganese blue to the background letting a bead of blue form along the horizon. I also added blond of color and splats to it of very watery Manganese blue, mineral violet and burnt umber.

Last thing I did was lift color. I lifted the highlight in his eye right eye the nose spot and the spot on the left of his nose so easily. The highlight was done w a small 1/4″ filbert acrylic brush. The others were lifted by dampening and blotting w a Kleenex.

The Canson Watercolor Artboard lifts like a dream. I even masked some of his wisps with masking tape and lifted it w a Mr Clean Magic Eraser. I just cut off a wedge shaped chunk to use.

And here he is. Let me know if you want to buy him.

Hugs Margaret from rainy Georgia. Xoxoxo

#forsale #alpaca #watercolor #watercolorpainting #aquarelle #evans #georgia #augustaga #canson #painting #art