Category: art journal

Day 988 Wow 13 more days

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Til the big 1000!! 

Since 13 is a mystics number surrounded by bad luck impending done a journal page on palm reading seems like an appropriate post.   The assignement this week was to completely cover a two page spread with masking tape. Then study a palm reading chart and react to that. I am not exactly a girl who believes in palm Reading so this was a little difficult for me. 

I pondered the assignment of reading your palms for 4-5 days. Then I did all these pages in less than an hour.  I was flipping thru the old Bazaar magazine looking for images to collage on another page and found the red headlines. I thought perfect. I glued them on. The grey was a scrap from ripping out collage items for the other page. Perfect color. 


I literally pulled a couple of pieces of somerset collage paper out of this heap and traced my hands and glued them down quickly.  Then I started scribbling with Prismacolor artstiks and gel pens. 

Next I stamped some old Teesha Moore stamps that I had for years and never used. I still had the third page blank. I lettered with the paint pen and drew some arrows. Then it popped into my head to do an X-ray hand for the scar page-write down all your scars-because some scars are visible but some you can only see in an X-ray. Still have to journal those. 

This is a WIP. It will change. I got some transparent purple ink to paint on it just not had time. And I have a list of things to still try out. Here are what I brain stormed. 

Yellow gold aura. Lightening bolts

Light green on x ray hand thalo blue thinned on background

Outline letters in yellow? 

Green glow 

Heart Malagra

Anyway time to get going. Busy day. 

Margaret xoxoxo

A bit of fluff or?! 

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Really enjoying making these pages in my reclaimed Saks catalog – from my sons recycle bin. You can’t tell but there’s actual journaling under this page. 

This is the first one I did. 

I forgot to take photos of the process but it started out journaled on and then white and green and finally blue acrylic paint. 

The cover 

One of the pages in process. 

Then I added collage elements. And Prismacolor art sticks and neocolor ii and hmm white paint pen. Some stamping. You name it it gets done to these pages. One of the things that makes it fun. 

Go sign up for Juliana Coles awesome Book of the night class. 

I think I like the graffiti like aspect of these pages. I do love to look at some interesting graffiti. I actually left this at life modeling in the art studio Saturday and nobody decided they needed it more than I did. Hmmm does that mean it was respected or they hated it. 

Ttyl Margaret off to charlotte for a class in wc. Let the fun begin. 

Day 985 Some Rachel time

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A good way to start a Monday!


This ones a little busy but it was a busy day on Thursday. For that matter so was Friday. 

Oddly I noticed Rachel looks a little tired in this sketch. If I hadn’t deleted it I would go back and look at it to see if she was. Those kinds of things turn up in sketches even if you don’t notice them while you are watching. 


I actually think I might like this better unpainted. Oh well. As you can tell the news continues to astound me. The spy novel keeps building and building. 

As Chuck Lorre posted after Big Bang “our best hope to save the day is an eighty year old slab of beef jerky from Arizona(McCain) and his trusty sidekick Scarlett O’Hara(Lindsey Graham)!!


Off to bed. Ttyl. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 984 Alex and Willie

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Every Sunday I watch CBS SUnday Morning. My fav bits on it are the partsabout  artists or singers people stuff. And this show is crammed with them. Alex was on this am talking about his 45 impersonations. Hard to resist sketching him. He morphed into 45. The mans definitely making me political!! 

The background was Quin gold but not enough contrast w the head. Like the orange one better. After all he is the Orange One”

Have always loved Willie and meant to just draw him. He just popped onto the page. What’s not to love about an 84 year old who says “we woke up and we are still not dead!”??

Think they are done. Maybe. Trying to resist the urge to scribble on them in the background with a soft dark pencils. So many quotable quotes from them both.  

Painted on 280# Arches Cold Press with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus cerulean, hematite and cheap Joes Andrews Turquoise. Pen pentel brush pen. 

Ttyl Going to try my hand at horses today. 

Margaret taking a walk in the park today too. 

Day 982 Last Nite!

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After several disastrous sketches I knew I could handle our beautiful Asian model when I did this watercolor in ten minutes or so. 

All sketches are 11×14 in a Super Aquabee tablet. Love that paper. Painted with my whisky painter box loaded with WN and Daniel  Smith Quin coral and an old Cotman palette loaded with every quinacridone I own plus thalo blue and green black and white gouache. Painted with a pentel waterbrush. 


These are all two minute sketches. Some of these will probably be altered. And most are pretty awful. As in EEEKKK I Don’t feel good and I can’t draw a thing tonite. This one was the worst. 


Better.  I decided to give up my go to Dr Sketchys pen the Pentel Brush pen and use a Noodler Konrad. Life improved.  I always think it’s interesting how a change of pen can improve your drawing skills when they aren’t going well. 

Next We had a challenge to turn her into a fox. Evidently her stage name is Foxy. As some of you know I like to draw chickens. Follow them around at Key West to draw them or sit and watch them and sketch them. Never thought chickens could be so much fun but they are. 

Really like the sketchiness of her body and legs in this one. 

Ttyl another busy day. Haircut picking up paintings and back to aiken for a reception for a friends show.  

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 980 A few of those 100 people 

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Painting the Farmhaus people 

And a few of my tv sketches. Really liking the background colors. A lot different than my usual cerulean. Sometimes it pays to get outta the box you are in. 

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 

Book club tonite. If you haven’t read When Breathe Becomes Air by Paul Kalanathi do. Don’t know when a book has made me cry more. So poignant. Wonderful book.

Book club tonite. Off I go. Xoxoxo Margaret.  

Day 979 -21 Days left

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Till 1000. The goal is nigh! 

Taking an online class in extreme journaling with Julianna Coles. All my questing for a book at goodwill, salvation army, thrift stores and in the garage where I found a forgotten stack of books I found the perfect book in my son’s recycle bin in Atlanta. It’s a heavy thick very slick Saks sales ad. Since it was trash I didn’t feel bad about altering it. It also had some nice photos of women in it. 

Despite babysitting the grandchildren single handedly, lecturing to middle schoolers about art quilts aka show n tell and driving about four hundred miles I bounced out of bed to start the monster mash process this morning. 


I worked on the cover since I did not like the big script Saks on the cover. 

Oddest thing happened when I opened a huge old Bartletts to cut out poetry. I don’t think I even turned a page. It opened to a page that held a poem about “locking all your heart aches inside” and “hide it in your trunk” “will hide all your failures””will rise to meet you yet” and of course I cut them out and glued them on.  


I don’t think it’s quite done the more I look at them. Bout maybe they are never done? They will tell me. Lots of fun.  Go sign up.  

 

The first double page spread. Thinking it’s still too busy. 

I painted stamped collages scribbled and painted and lettered and I could go on but it’s time for French. Acrylic paint caran dache neocolonial ii prismacolor paintstiks paint marker. 

The books about the size of a piece of printer paper. Can’t wait for the next chapter. 

Margaret xoxoxo #julianacoles 

Day 977 So what’s up?!

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If I were home I would be heading to the Steeple Chases the second leg of the Triple Crown today with my friend Kathe.  Oh well. Instead I am babysitting my grandkids which will be a lot of fun too. They are so sweet. 

The Two Year Old Harness Races Aiken SC 

I really think this is two pictures. I drew it leaving against the fence on the far left. The people on the right were a few feet from me. The guy on the left down the rails. I filled in with people who wandered by. That caused the problem with this drawing. The ladies in the middle are far too short. 

It looks great cropped like this. 


And not bad like this. I mean those ladies could be kids right?! Or the guys on the left really tall?! Hmmmm. 

Going to blame it on Kathe I had to hide to fill in the middle. She started bragging about my drawing. Eeekk. Not what you want when you are drawing people and they want to look. NOT if you have political sketches in your book too. Double eek. 

Andy way drawn in a Stillman and Birn Alpha with a Lamy Safari. 

Ted Nuttalls transparent Palette. 

Ttyl time to babysit. Pray for me! 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 976 Time for some News

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Been obsesssed with the news as many other Americans have and I take notes and draw the talking heads. Monday I was almost late to class listening to Comey FBI director talk about their investigation into the Presidents claims against Obama which of course as most people knew even before the testimony were completely unfounded. 

His other bomb  shell  was that the FBI has been investigating the Trumps campaigned connections to the Russians since July.  And I am keeping track of what they are saying and how it’s interlocked. 


It’s just all to incredible. 

About the picture. I had a few problems with Comeys face. His eyes and mouth should be parallel. They weren’t. I fixed him by adding a dark left corner to his mouth which raised it slightly. 

The purple brown on his face is Daniel smiths piemonite. Love that color. Makes delicious darks combined with blues too. And stays transparent. 

I think I nailed Schiff. 

Most of the red is a grease pencil. SO much fun. Loved them. Got a box of 5-6different  colors on Amazon.  It’s like a crayon on steroids. 

Otherwise the colors are Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus piemonite on their faces for shadows. 

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo Where’s my Dick Blick 40% off coupon?? Heading that way today. Art store shopping!!