Pencils4tea live from Milan Italy

September 2, 2023September 2, 20231 Comment

Miss Marcia 3 min.
Always a lovely look to a watercolor of her.

14 live Sketches in an hour! 😳 @pencils4tea Thanks Ilairia and Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Italia aka Italy!! Always fun and challenging.

@Drawingisfree on instagram starts up again. More face drawing fun live from Paris for 1 hr at noon EST. Zoom Link in her bio on instagram. Pencils 4 tea will not meet next week. 😭😭😭 I really think these events have improved my sketching and loosened up my watercolors.

Highly recommend trying it. U dont have to share them and they will get better the more times you do it.

Our hostess Ilairia in Milan Italy 6 min.

Used 1 paint brush a 3/8” Princeton dagger brush. My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil.

Ruth in Chattanooga 2 min
my frequent partner in art adventures for the last 12 years.

Wc Colors used DS quin burnt orange and quin rose, Cheap joes(cj) andrews Turquoise, cj yellow ochre, cj burnt umber, cj cerulean, cj cobalt , cj alizarin, and cj hookers green, Lukas Cad Yellow, m graham cobalt and ultramarine watercolors, 5×8” superaquabee sketchbook

Meg McCurtain 2:36 min.
Such a lovely long neck. In my next life I am asking for one!

Rone Prinz 3:45 min
Lovely puffy curly white hair and daisies my fav flower

Raphael 4:39 min
Really should have turned the book sideways to get his hand in. Oh well.

Molly 3:14 min
I finished her up afterwards because i knew three min was not enough to paint her lovely scarf.

Sarah Brunell 1 plus min.
Not enough tine of course. I took a deep breath and drew her. Then painted when we were done.

The weather here is beautiful after Idalia blew by. Sky is as clear as a bell. Cooled off from the brutal 100 degree days to 64 lows and highs of 85. Fabulous weather.

Margaret xoxoxoxo as usual ready to put her feet up!

pencils4tea today

August 17, 2023Leave a comment

Just 13 live Sketches in an hour! Positively relaxing. 😳 @pencils4tea Thanks Jane and Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from the Uk!! Always fun and challenging.

My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil. 9×6” Superaquabee sketchbook

Can’t decide if i like the quin gold roughly brushed on before painting or not.

Jane our leader today. Oops too heavy w the quin rose.

Marsha. Always like the way hers turn out too.

Susan. That hair. Should have been wispier.

Anna of the piercing blue eyes and a nimbus of white har which i never quite get right.

Beautiful Ilaria. wish i had do e a better job

Jude. It was good to know we made it to 2:45. 😂

Michaela another one i didnt do justice to her beauty.

Beautiful Daniella. Always has something of interest to paint.

Sweet Ursula. A challenge to draw in a few min. I did cheat and paint a bit after

Margaret ready for a nap xoxoxo

Day 93! Zoey

August 11, 2023Leave a comment

Day 93! Zoey A sweet selfie! Ready for a party!

Quin rose, quin burnt sienna, ultramarine all the usual skin colors. Quin rose. Cobalt shadows

Andrews turquoise and yellow ochre left background. Other side is cerulean and burnt sienna.

Burnt sienna and ultramarine for the dress. Makes a more vibrant brown than just burnt umber. Ivory black hair, cobalt shadows.

9×12” superaquabee sketchbook.

Thanks, Judith @jyportraitchallenge and Zoey @zoeykriegmont

Margaret tared again after painting four portraits today. #Knockingthemout! xoxoxo

Thursday is @pencils4tea day

August 11, 2023August 11, 20232 Comments

Link @pencils4tea in her bio On ig. Every TH at 1 pm EST in the US.

@pencils4tea Thanks Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Dundee Scotland!! Always fun and challenging.

Anna w a hale brush . Her hair is white.

Michelle from California w a handful of butterflies

My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil. Superaquabee sketchbook

Flesh Daniel Smith quin burnt sienna and MGraham quin rose. Blue shadows mostly cerulean and some cobalt and Andrew’s turquoise. Brown burnt umber and ultramarine to make black. Greys whatever blue brown mud i had sometimes adding ivory black.

Gorgeous Alexandra 2:46 a failure she so lovely. Does not do her justice

I confess i spent another hour titivating these aka tweaking them. Added all the backgrounds and painted some of the people later always spending at most five min on them per person.

Lily and Angela Shannon –
5+ min LOVE this one!

Liz always a pleasure to paint 3:20 min. Love her top! 4 diff patterns on it.

Ursula from Germany who i chat w alot on ig. One of my favs 3:46. She might need a background. Only 1 i didn’t give one to.

Rafael- Il es Français and he looks like it!❤️ 3:30 min

Daniella 1:19 min i confess i drew the cat and painted her after it. I had just started the cat when it ended.

Maggie immensely tahred xoxoxox

Day 100. Hurrah I made it!

August 6, 2023August 6, 20236 Comments

She looks glorious under my ott light. She just glows.

Day 100! I thought this would be an awful painting but I really like her alot.

In the future i will be choosing the ones i want to do. Only problem is that i would never have chosen this one. Too many stripes on her face.

First wash and sketch. Almost forgot to take pics.

All those stripey shadows. I started w her hair then a coat of very light skin color. Let it dry and added the stripes working my way down. She just glows in person.

Shadows mostly ultramarine w quin burnt sienna and quin rose. Some of the stripes on the left are made with cerulean and the quin burnt orange and quin rose combo.

Quin rose and quin burnt sienna for the lips w a bit of ultramarine. Yellow ochre cerulean and quin burnt sienna for the hair. Quin gold and quin pink w cobalt in the background.

Sky is cerulean. Sea cerulean and Andrews turquoise w yellow ochre. First a wash of the three. Then i added in streaks of pure color.

Her sundress is cerulean and Andrew’s turquoise w ultramarine and a bit of the quin sienna for shadows.

Done. I could have softened alot of edges but didn’t. Too many to do them.

Bushes ultramarine yellow ochre sap green terre vert.

9×12” superaquabee sketchbook.

Thanks! Judith @jyportraitchallenge and @likaanwo

Margaret who will not be putting her feet up. The minions are coming to swim. Ages 7-3. So cute but soooo busy. Xoxoxoxo

Pencils4tea today

August 4, 2023August 4, 2023Leave a comment

A sketchbook throw-down but i drew in all of them today. The 3 annoying sketchbooks. Try juggling 3 books while madly drawing.

Two full sketchbooks. Waiting for amazon to deliver new ones. Will NEVER use three books again. What an aggravation!!

Robin 3:52 min. Another fav
More than ample time for this lovely pose.

Molly not long enough to do this fun pose justice and oh that circle of yellow tape. 🥴

16 live Sketches in an hour! 😳 @pencils4tea Thanks Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Dundee Scotland!! Always fun and challenging.

My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil. Superaquabee sketchbook

Barbara two min and we were done. I raced off to the dermatologist 😳

Out my back window after two hrs of rain. The egrets are starting to roost. Its August when the big birds show up. On the look out for a woodstork or two. The cormorants will be here soon.

Margaret def tired tonite. Xoxoxo

Drawing is free yesterday.

August 2, 2023Leave a comment

Chloe 6 min. Hurrah. We had lots of time. Hmm just noticed has three fingers. Oops

Almost forgot to post. Another zippy hour. 150 attendees across the world.

Of course we are all at loose ends since our fearless leader Chloe is going on hiatus for August vacation. Such a French thing to do.

Janice. 4:26 min
I was sad the top of her head did not make out screen. Such a great challenging pose. At least I got all her fingers lol.

Thanks for all the fun Chloe and our 12 models.

Michelle. 3:14 min.
That hair!! Loved it. I admit i did a screen shot so i could finish her great shirt

Hank 4:17 min
A tough draw for this zany pose. One eye shit and his mouth twisted. We marveled he held the pose so well.

Friends 5:40 min
These should be called double trouble. Tough to get it done in the time allotted but I did. I did paint the windows in later. Also tough taking a photo of it. The cobalt blue on the right face kept reading very dark and its not.

Shanna 3:59 min.
I know odd length of time. But its only the length of whatever song is playing. Another sweet quiet pose. And her wrap not enough time to do its bright colors justice.

Watercolor splattered on with a 1” flat and 3/8 Saber brush over my cheap general charcoal pencil quin burnt orange, quin rose, manganese and ultramarine, burnt umber

My sweet friend Mike Gant my cohort and travel buddy in our watercolor journey. 5:40 min
Bytw her chin is pink NOT brownish as in the photo. Curse my iphone.

Katherine ? Min
A lovely interesting pose. Love the flip on her hair.

Chloe again 2.39 min
Her Sinead tribute. I dont know why I gave her a rose colored dress. She had on a dark figured dress.

Victoria 4 min
One of my favs. She had a great sweater on the exact color of my Cheap Joes Andrews Turquoise. Win!! Lovely grey and black softly curling hair.

Rachel 4 min
Another fav of mine. Great interesting short hair going grey. Glasses and interest clothes. I was hitting my stride to draw and paint all that in FOUR min.

Drawing is free yesterday.

August 2, 2023August 2, 2023Leave a comment

Almost forgot to post. Another zippy hour. 150 attendees across the world.

Of course we are all at loose ends since our fearless leader Chloe is going on hiatus for August vacation. Such a French thing to do.

Thanks for all the fun Chloe and our 12 models.

Watercolor splattered on with a 1” flat and 3/8 Saber brush over my cheap general charcoal pencil quin burnt orange, quin rose, manganese and ultramarine, burnt umber

Weird cloud out back last nite.
Margaret xoxoxo

@Pencils4tea & paper drifts!

August 1, 2023August 1, 20233 Comments

Marcia! A lady with the boxing gloves you never know what people w pose w @pencils4tea which was zoomed live from Dundee, Scotland.

We had 17 poses in the hour. I am surprised I made it through. Was like chasing a lure for an hour. Never quite catching it but yes i will be there next week of i have time. A challenge is thrown. 👍🏻

My friend Ruth. You can follow her @Britpeach on ig one of my two favs.

General Hb charcoal pencil and watercolor in a 6×9 superaquabee. Its almost full. Either going to have to draw smaller OR buy a big stack of them. Lasting abt 2-3 weeks with their 60 pages because u cant paint on the back because of the charcoal. Maybe forced to. Hmm.

Any suggestions???! In the meantime roaring thru paper. Right now i like it in sketchbooks so we aren’t buried under paper drifts.

Hmm too bad I cant draw on a roll of toilet paper. Rofl.

Sleuthing Susanna. Love her big eyes. I took three screen shots of the less than two minute poses and finished later. All 3 were all less than two minutes to draw which left no time to paint. Had to go back later and paint this one, Ruth and Miss Marple aka Anna.

Anna Marple as one of the artists called her. Each person had a theme song from a tv show or a movie. Hers was Miss Marple, my fav Agatha Christie series.

Karen and a yellow rose accompanied by Henry Mancini’s Charade. Maybe she just oeft one of the flower vendors along the Seine?? One of my fav movies-Audrey Hepburn and Carey Grant. Her clothes and Paris! Perfection.

Silvia. 2:30 minutes to draw her. Slapping the paint on. Always gives it an immediacy.

Serena love her grey hair piercing blue eyes. The tilt of her head.

Audrey. Theme song Summer Place. Sweet face.

Ellas blue white and red perfect for her Inspector Clouseau theme song. all she needs is a beret.

Out of Africa. Did not catch her name. That purple vase was a trial. Turned out ok. At least i kept the white paper for highlights.

Michelle. You never know what her pose will be. Always something zany. Laurel leaves to go with the Gladiator music??

Lou not Katherine. A great drawing. But darn the wrong name. My friend Ruths high school friend who lives in London. Gone With the Wind theme song.

A nice quiet pose for sketch number 17. Amelie theme.

Time to go paint. Behind on the portrait challenge. Number 100 approaching. Xoxoxoxo Maggie aka Margaret

Day 95 Scott

July 31, 2023Leave a comment

Drawingisfree_org today. 12 noon est 6 pm Paris France time. Last one til September! I am ready! Are you?!

Thought he was done yesterday in my hurry to go swimming but NOPE.

Day 95 Scott @onelifemodel. I did a bit of titivating(tweaking) to Scott. A fine line when titivating becomes too much. Wasn’t pleased w the final painting. Think he’s final now.