Day 902 Mahjong Ladies and a guy

January 8, 2017Leave a comment

Trying to fill up the last few pages of my Stillman and Birn zeta sketchbook. Drawn with my Lamy Safari filled with Lexington Grey ink.
Stopped by Higher Grounds cafe to look for a book and found multiple tables of Mahjong filling the cafe.

Irresistible. I sat down to draw them. I don’t think any of them ever noticed me sitting a few feet away sketching them. They were very involved in their games.

Oddly enough they had been there the day before when I played bridge there with my friends. I am now wondering if they are there everyday. Will have to drop by and see.

This old man was also irresistible. He was sitting there reading something and enjoying his coffee. Clemson orange shirt. A lot of that lately. Championship game tomorrow nite.

Painting. Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Been adding slot of purple to the quin sienna in the backgrounds. And my painting with my Richeson #12 mop. Keeps me from getting too picky.

I resisted the urge to splatter. Think the guy could use some don’t you?!

Have a great Sunday. Stay warm.

Margaret xoxoxo who thinks it’s time to shed her flannel jammies don’t you?!

Day 899 – Some More Urban Sketching

January 6, 2017Leave a comment

I pass this cute diner every day twice a day on the way to class at USC Aiken or on Saturdays when I go to life modeling. I am always on a mission to get to Aiken on time or to get home and let the dogs out so I never have stopped to eat there. I hear the pies are great. They decorate it up for fall. Lots of pumpkins corn stalks and roosters. There’s even an old ford truck that gets strung with garlands of fall leaves. I didn’t draw it. I ran out of space.

Here are the brushes I use. The bottom is my fav a sable Da Vinci 10 but the tree and the sky were painted with a Richeson mop. A 12 that I bought at cheap joes two years ago. Very difficult to get any detail with it which is good in tree foliage. The tree branches and trunk were painted by a big goats hair dagger brush that I got at Sam Flaxs a couple of weeks ago. Very long and loopy designed for sign painters. So far I can only get it to paint lines – Straight and curved ones. Practice right?

And I love this sassy rooster sculpture out on the highway in front of the cafe. I need to draw him with a brush pen on a sunny day. School starts Monday so will passing the charming fellow again several times a week. Maybe one day on the way home again soon.

Stillman and birn Mixed media Zeta with a pilot Carbon pen. Really fine point.

Colors used. Quin gold. Cerulean, ultramarine, burnt umber, Quin burnt orange, pyrrole red, cad orange, hematite green, peacock for the sky. And a bit of American Journey Andrews blue a turquoise that I added to my pallet lately.

Homework done. Done. Had to make myself do this one and I love doing calligraphy just not fond of the word hate. Used my pentel brush pen -heavy lines- a Noodler Konrad – fine black lines – and a red tombow for hate. Oh a light Gray tombow for shading in love.
That’s all folks. Got to do my homework for sketchbookskool. Did I say I am behind because I went sketching Mahjong ladies at a local cafe after yoga today when I should have been doing my homework.

A bientot Margaret xoxox

Day 882 Don’t Break the Painting!

December 7, 2016December 7, 2016Leave a comment

Photo #3 Finally looks like Al our favorite art professor. He makes quips like

Don’t Break the painting to have to fix it …because my students always tell me they will do it later and they never do.

And of course I broke this one. I used gouache partly because Al likes it better than watercolor but also because the sketch was terrible. The face was too fat the eyes were off and at the wrong angle. All the black around it is where I corrected it and colored over the background.

This is a not quite done pic. I take pics with my phone sometimes to see how it’s coming. I also sent it to a couple of friends who critiqued him. Face too fat and not enough top of the head. I only added a fraction of an inch and it really helped it look like him.

The gouache was a lot of fun but I need a bigger tube of white. I am going thru it like potato chips.

A few more Al-isms or painting according to Al.

Nail it by doing prep work. The sketch and underpainting are fright before you start final painting.
Warms and cools make a happy painting-Complimentary Pairs.
Brush strokes – bigger the better. Use house painting brushes and paint it in one pass.
Same intensity of two complimentaries make them pop.
Change blue use thalo sometimes.

Thick paint makes it closer glazes farther away
Texture brush strokes
People are stingy about their paint.
A really great painter pays attention to the corners and edges not just the middle.

Thanks for looking in.

Margaret whose sleepy.

Day 839 Progress!

October 25, 2016October 26, 2016Leave a comment

Today at 2:30. Have French class today so I left on time for once…maybe the first time ever.Its cropped a bit to small. BUT I and everyone else that I paint with like it alot.

Instructions from todays critique..DO NOT loose the sketchy lines as I paint AND to organize the chaos of the shadows…whatever that means…I guess it will be revealed!! I HOPE!

Last Wednesday afternoon at the end of painting session. I will be glad when Friday gets here and I am done with my diet journal…I think at least one of my followers will be too!!

The photo that I am working from in downtown Brevard last month.

TTYL

Margaret off to parlez vous français.

Day 757 Saturday

July 30, 2016August 1, 20163 Comments

Already again.

Always amazes me the variety and quality of the work done in only an hour and a half of painting.

Ilania acrylic

24×30 Really like the way she turned out. Tried to include her hands. Sometimes I think the acrylic is like trying to paint with butter cream. Detail is not easy.

Also love the way her face turned out. I used very few brush strokes but the ones I used worked.

Ruth Pearls Inktense and charcoal. Lovely job. You can follow her at Britpeach on Instagram if she’s public now.

Drew Murphey Acrylic 24×30 Gorgeous job!

Conte Crayon. Awesome Job. I wish I knew his name. He does lovely work. And the circles he adds are an interesting touch.

CA s oil. I teased him he had made her monumental like a thirties WPA painter.

Cathe Dennis a dreamy oil. Her paintings are so soft and ethereal.

Fred Bs out there acrylic. We joked he let out her Bete Noir.

Tom Needhams acrylic. This is an underpainting. He ran out of time before he got a chance to add the flesh tone. It is almost done.

Rachel Millers lovely pencil sketch.

Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

#lifemodel #nude #ilania #aiken #usc #ink #sketching #art #drawing #painting #allaprima #acrylic #augusta #atlanta #ink #maggieinsc #artist #dailydrawing #love #entertainment #portrait #life

Day 733 – more Saturday paintings and

July 3, 20162 Comments

Sketches. Some of the work yesterday was just exquisite.

Al Beyers. Oil – This is huge. 3’x4′ easy. And he painted it in less than two hours! The man’s a wonder.

Drew Murphey’s acrylic 24×30. Always love Drew’s work. And the colors. What a great sense of color!! And so loose!!

A kid next to me drew this. It’s just lovely. I hate I don’t know his name.

Nor do I know the name of the lady who drew this great pastel.

And last Fred’s. Always interesting post impressionistic work.

Thanks for looking.

Margaret xxx

Day 731 Another Year?!

July 1, 2016July 2, 2016Leave a comment

Who knows?! Maybe.

Emily acrylic 24×30″

A face lift!! Remember I only painted in her perhaps an hour and half Saturday. This is a big painting. 24x 30″ in acrylic

I worked a bit on Emilys face yesterday. Especially the mouth and ear. And did more negative painting around the head.

Here’s her head when I started. Not much of an ear. Lips and Bridge of nose off. Hair to light and brown. Ear flat. I could go on.

Emily acrylic 24×30″

Here’s the whole painting now. Worked a bit on the hands – highlight and shadows – and the breasts. She reminds me of a Van Gogh- one of the women he painted Madame somebody.

Emily Saturday
Colors : Golden Nickel Azo gold and green gold. Liquitex Titanium white flesh pyrrole and cad red light.

Day 729 – looking good

June 29, 2016June 30, 2016Leave a comment

Worked quite a bit on Raisins face today. Thank goodness I slimmed her down. I still need to work on refining her face.

Here’s the whole painting.

Last week. Eekkk

My lab wants petting. Got to go.

M xxx

Day 728 – That Abstract

June 28, 2016June 27, 2016Leave a comment

Abstract 2 – 22×30 For Sale

Is done. A friend said it looked like a flower unfurling and the more I look at it I think she’s right.

I added one thick black squiggly line on to this painting that is in the first picture. Can you find it? I think it makes a big difference.

Most of the squiggly lines are strips of paper colored with caran d’ache watercolor crayons though some of the black ones are done with Pitt pen which are India ink markers.

This was painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette and black.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 727 – A Hmm

June 27, 2016June 27, 201610 Comments

But off to opthamologist to see if I have a retinal tear so this is all you get today. Maybe I need some glasses because drawing this statue of James Brown on Broad Street was NOT my finest hour.

Once again I used Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus Daniel smiths green apatite. Love that for trees. The tree tops were sponged with a sea sponge.