Day 740 – painting started

July 12, 2016Leave a comment

And a redo

Bear Country in Pigeon Forge.

I was sitting at the gas station and looked up to see this. Such great colors and people. You know I had to draw it.
Ivy Rose Wedding Chapel on the E Parkway Gatlinburg TN

A bit of a redo. Darkened it a lot. Gave more contrast to the white chapel. I really need to practice painting greenery. I do think it looks better than it did.

Here it is before.

But no more double page spreads in the Prius. What was I thinking.

Finally found the three foot plus strip that I drew near the Newfound Gap Overlook but this is looking toward Tennessee. The Gap is at the NC/TN state line.

Looking toward NC.

Here’s a closeup of the strip. I am going to practice painting more trees and mountains before I paint this.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent pallette.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 480 – one day till

November 3, 20152 Comments

Lift off. My suitcase is packed and I have plenty of room for art supplies. When I went to key west I actually needed more sketchbooks. Not this time!!

So why am I taking to sketch with?!! I know u r dying to know!!!

My two small palettes. Been painting with them and they really have all the colors you need. The whiskey painters palette has all the basic Winsor Newton colors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral which I love for skin tones and two ceruleans because I use it A lot!!

The cotman is full of quinacridones and a couple of paints that should be in the Whiskey painters palette the yellow and Thalo blue.
Paint brushes. Taking the good ones since I have room and just in case. Most of them are Isabey sables including the mops but the big sable is my cheap Joes legend which I love. Curious to see how much the Isabeys cost in France the land of their birth. They are made in Brittany and are Charles Reid’s favorite brush. I wouldn’t mind another one or two.

Back up colors in case I run they the ones in the palettes.

Pens loaded mostly with Platinum Carbon Black. Top to bottom Kuretake Brush Pen, Black pitt pen Fine, pentrl brush pen, sepia pitt pen Fine, two Noodler Konrads (one has Deartementis document brown ink in it) Platinum Carbon pen, and two of my favorite pens the Noodler Creaper ahab.

I am taking these with me in case I want to paint as I sketch. I usually paint when I get home because I hate to make my sister Jan wait while I paint. Bad enough that she waits while I sketch.

Lots of ink and cartridges.

Lots of paper. The two hand made sketchbooks have Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro, 3 strathmore mixed media sketchbooks(my current fav) a tablet of Fabriano squarely 149# cold press, some Canson post cards and some Strathmore 500 watercolor cards oh and a stack of accordion folded Stonehenge paper to draw strings of people and maybe a chicken or two on?!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret who is taking clothes I her suitcase and backpack too!!

Day 388 and then there were more chickens!!!

July 31, 20152 Comments

Key West Post office chickens. $150 app 8x 40″

Sorry about the cropping. My iPhone refused to let me crop it closer.

These were drawn at the post office while I sat on the steps of a lawyers office. The chicks got really friendly. But the two roosters were vigilant as usual!

I tried to paint them loosely with a large paint brush a #12 Cheap Joes Legend.

I also tried to let the colors blend on the page unless I did some negative painting. When I do negative painting I usually paint the light color and let it dry. Then I add the darker colors.

Colors used burnt sienna and Quin gold. Cad red and vermilion for the comb. Inathradone blue and viridian green for the tails. Burnt umber added to make a black.

The chicks were painted with Winsor yellow Quin gold burnt sienna and burnt umber.

A dab of white gel pen on the eyes for sparkle.

I splattered its with Inathradone and burnt umber.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 387 – too many chickens

July 31, 20152 Comments

I may be growing tired of painting Key West chickens. I painted quite a few today. All of them were painted wet on wet.

Thought we all needed a joke on Thursday. This is actually one of the court house chickens I drew while walking around one afternoon. There are more courthouse and post office chickens and wild life center chickens. Too many chickens lol.

Here’s another court house chicken who was near a homeless guy who was laying in the sidewalk on Whitehead enjoyingy the shade of a palm tree.

The Palm was first painted Winsor yellow then green apatite and finally cobalt with dabs of cad red.

The chickens are painted with Quin red orange Quin gold Quin red Inathridone blue and viridian green.

Thanks for reading.

Better paintings tomorrow nite.

Thanks for reading.

Day 387 – too many chickens

July 31, 20152 Comments

I may be growing tired of painting chickens. I painted quite a few today.

Here’s another court house chicken who was near a homeless guy who was laying in the sidewalk on Whitehead enjoyingy the shade of a palm tree.

The Palm was first painted Winsor yellow then green apatite and finally cobalt with dabs of cad red.

The chickens are painted with Quin red orange Quin gold Quin red Inathridone blue and viridian green.

Thanks for reading.

Better paintings tomorrow nite.

Thanks for reading.

Day 382 Key West Food Tour – A Commission

July 26, 2015Leave a comment

I drew this in my sketch book after we went on the Key West Food Tour. The tour director Analise had to have one for herself so I spent a couple of days tweaking the small one and painting it.

She was tickled pink with it. I am sure it will be framed shortly and gracing her office walls soon!
Let me know if you need me to do one for your business! Or your town!!

What you do with all those maps and ephemera you pick up on your trip. Draw on them!!

Yesterday was our last full day in Key West. We are packing to leave now. It was also the culmination of the Hemingway Days – the Pamplona bull race key west style and the winner of the Heningway Look alike contest is announced.

The guy on the left , Pat, won the contest lady eat. All the guys with the red ribbon and medal are previous winners. There were 175 entrants this year. Mostly old guys with big white beards. As my friend Siobhan quipped Key West is where Santa goes in the summer!! Lol   A rowdy crowd follows the papas around the block.

We also went to the Audubon House. His paintings there are gorgeous as are the gardens.

Out the Audubon house window to the Customs house. We included a tour of it on our SEVEN Mile GUT it out tour. Next year we are doing the hemingway five K. lol. Going into training NOW!!

Incredible philodendrons and pothos we grow as house plants tower fifty feet high in the yard.

My favorite plant in the garden.

A lobster plant. I think.

The ginger plant beautiful and smell heavenly.

Orchids hang off the trees.

and banana plants abound.

Stay tuned for more Key West tomorrow.
Thanks for reading
Margaret xxx

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 311 – Finished Accordion Book

May 16, 20154 Comments

Hard to take good pics of these. It’s about 80″ long. Sorry they are crooked. The paper is Stonehenge print paper I think. Cream colored. Lovely paper. You can actually paint on both sides which I did because I had filled up the front at Pops Under the Stars. It was so much fun drawing that I kept on drawing and filled up the back.

So here are close ups of the front.

I started this in Gatlingburg. Only got two people done. Oops! I drew the first lady while waiting for my mom who is the second lady.

Love the lady to the right so much I drew her three times.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 307 – Reportage Accordion Style

May 12, 20154 Comments

Maestro Z

Drawing the conductor Maestro Z at Pops under the Stars was so much fun I wished I had brought an empty accordion book. This is just half of one. It would be fun to do a ballerina like this.

Detail 1

The blacks were made with Inathridone blue and burnt umber. Grey on the jacket is cerulean and burnt sienna or cobalt and burnt sienna.

Detail 2

The background is Quin gold and Quin red painted on with my big Isabey squirrel mop and allowed to blend when they were wet. I think I might cover up Maestro Z and splatter this strip.

Detail 3
Drawing this was so much fun I drew ten pages of these in my sketchbook. Will post them tomorrow.