Worked on the goose some more. Funny thought about my bird drawing. I remember in third or fourth grade making bird books. Probably traced the birds and copied the descriptions. All in pencil because god forbid the kid had an ink pen. She might be lethal then. Evidently the bird affair is a long standing one with me.
Funny the things you forget til something jogs your memory. The jog was an old paper my brother wrote about the brown thrasher the Ga state bird. It was in a bag of papers my mom saved for him that I need to mail to him along with his less than stellar report cards. His daughters will enjoy those. I for one would have loved to see my dads.
The goose before i worked on jt some more. You know i think the neck is too short. Odd. I watch geese alot. I should know better. This was not deliberate like the neck of the heron. Hmm the things u dont notice when u r in the heat of drawing.
Drawings are all done w watercolor, Caran dache neocolor ii,some prismacolor art sticks in an 8×10” stillman and birn alpha. NO PENCIL drawings aka direct painting. All done with a watercolor base first.
I have alot of trouble telling the difference in these two birds when they come to the feeder. So do others. Alot of people identify them both as flickers. Like my mom a bird nut if there ever was one. These two birds sure did get cute. Except for the ink smear. No idea where that came from. In my dreams they would all be as good as this crow. Something to strive for right?!!
Anyway enough birdie thoughts. Nite note Margaret xoxoxo
I ran across Sandi, a terribly charming Nashville TN artist, when I subscribed to her substack An Artists life a few weeks ago. I am kind of hooked on her entertaining youtube feed. She talks about everything from art supplies to art books and how to lake the most art possible. I could spend entirely too much money with her helpful tips. Oops. Been trying to swear off art supply buying.
Having fun playing in my big 8×10” Stillman and Birn alpha. Watched a youtube by Sandi Hester who said leave everything set up so all you have to do is sit down and draw something. So I did. Something i had been meaning to do anyway. She suggested drawing birds from a book but i have so many pics on my phone I don’t need to. Somehow I discovered that they are NOT Canadian Geese but actually Canada Geese. Too late. I had already written the name. Sigh. Anyway this is done with all that leftover watercolor from pouring and Caran dache neocolor II. Oh and Moltow paint markers. A true mixed media bird.
Was just thinking of the diff in these two birds and WHY did i like the heron best? I drew the goose with caran dache and sprayed it to wet the color. I used the watercolor in the background with a big Chinese brush wet on wet with cobalt and indigo. Smack smack and it was done.
The egret was painted first with the cad yellow light indigo and raw sienna. The water is cobalt. I let the bird dry and then drew on it with the neocolor ii. Too much fun. The grass is neocolor ii and prismacolor art sticks. The water. I got the tipples by folding a kleenex w a knife edge dragging it croswise in the paint. It lifts it and leaves a wave. Hmm or is it a reflection?!!🧐🧐🧐
And i drew a Great Blue Heron who hangs out on our river bank eating I have no idea what. This is also done with that same endless watercolor, neocolor ii and prismacolor art sticks. And yes hes my fav. I did use my artistic license and shorten its neck so it would fit on the page. Hmm maybe I will do this one again on watercolor paper and slap her in a frame.
All in one day today wore the golfers out and me too. More golf than i want to watch in one day but i persevered to the end.First page done w my noodler pen. I thought changing pens might improve them. Nope. Done w my uniball micropen. And not as much fun to smear as the noodler.
Tired from too much Easter -lotsa cooking dinner for my son and his family. Zzzzznite nite margaret xoxoxox
Bear one of our feral cats. i actually drew him with the Noodler first but forgot to take a pic. Since I have all this paint leftover from pouring i decided to use it. Made Black w mostly indigo and some raw sienna and cad red. I maybe using these colors for quite a while. Still plenty of paint. I used a dip pen w masking fluid to do his whiskers. works great. Painted the background. Then i drew all the leaves in. Margaret who had been up since 5 am and is ready for bed. Xoxoxoxo
I finally broke down and cleaned my beloved old noodlers. Thats all I used to draw with. No Lamys ever. I like the Noodlers because the nib acts alot like a dip pen. They make much mode interesting lines than my Lamys do. HOWEVER they can be annoying. They quit right in the moddle of a hot sketching session. They Drip ink. They cover your hands with ink. But today i soldiered on.
Heres the link to clean your pen. Try it u will be so glad you did!! Now to clean my hmm 7 or 8 Lamys. My pilot my kwecko my two fudes. I never realized the paper lint could stop the pens up.
Heres my very fav red Noodler pen loaded w Carbon Platinum Black. This pen was my Valentines present to myself abt ten years ago. A shot out my windows of the trees i was drawing. Good to sit down after another day of endless cleaning. I even used glass cleaner on my table wiped paint splatters off the studio tv the iPad the brush holders. Heres where i was sitting drawing. see all my pouring cups?! Got to get back on that but company is coming. Found all kinds of things. Bet u don’t know what this is. I had to think abt it for a few minutes it had beens so long since i have seen it. Paint tube wringer for oils and acrylics. And lots of view finders and value gauges. Best of all half the 68” island is now empty. all organized in my storage in the studio. Hurrah! Beautiful evening on the river. Margaret putting her feet up for a well deserved rest. Xoxoxoxox
Our volunteer Sunflower continues to shoot skyward. I swear it grows 3 inches a day. Jack and the Beanstalk don’t have anything on it. Hopefully a sunflower on the opposite page. An old Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook I never filled up. Lovely paper but I abandoned it because it won’t lay flat which annoys me. Drawn w my original very first beloved coral Lamy Safari with carbon platinum black ink. Cleaning continues. Found these two old sketches of dear Erica from 2014. Goes to show you can improve if you draw enough. Legs far too short. 😵💫While she is long and very slim those tiny hands?! And once again foreshortened legs OFF. So keep those pencils sharpened and practice practice practice. Daily practice does work just like in tennis. Or should i say like golf since its Masters week here in Augusta Ga Ya gotta put the hours in. The cleaned and sorted cupboard. Way too many brand new sketchbooks. Who knew i had all of those?Sooty playing guard cat. No bird need eat. Clueless what he’s doing. And that’s the sunflower in front of him.
Love escape to the country and its variety of houses. Probably my fav show other than big bang. I get the urge to draw the beautiful countryside and the wonky odd ball charming houses and shops. i finally did. And probably will again since this one didnt turn out the way i wanted it too. And oopsey. How do they get the pronunciation Lem-stir out of the name Leominster? Go figure. I love the fields and Yorkshire the land of my ggggggrandmother Hartley takes my breath away. She lived just diwn the road from All Creatures Great and Small Skelldale House. Drawing the seagulls at the dam. They were plucking herring from the water. Rather like drawing gesture sketches but they never hold a pose for a second. The first pages. I think they got better. Sweet Daisy who is always a willing model snoozing on the back deck and especially appropriate for ink sketches since shes fifty shades of grey.
Stillman and birn alpha uniball micro pen pentel brush pen
Margaret who has taken way too much antihistamine today. 💤💤💤💤xoxoxoxo
Leans a little to the left but calling her done. I didn’t draw the line under her straight. Opps. The wind was blowing her feathers but not that hard lol. You will notice she looks straight in the next one. Just one little crooked line did that.
Evidently females are more grey than males. Thanks Mike. Took a while getting the right blue and fixing the whites. Yes i hauled out the gouache. Added thalo to the cobalt which perked her up. First round. She was too dull even for a female Round two fixing the beak and the eyes which required alot of fiddling. Still not right. Almost there but not blue enough. And done. Thalo and cobalt burnt sienna quin rose and cad yellow white gouache paynes grey.
Margaret back to her other painting. Involves blue bonnets and indian paintbrush Xoxoxoxo
Still not finished but clueless what to do to finish him. It will come sooner or later. He kept me awake last night thinking about him. Still no answers but thoughts if a bigger one on wc paper instead of in my journal. Delft Blue Derwent watercolor w Black Inktense and indanthrine, red, yellow and orange faber Castell watercolor pencils. So while i was thinking about number 1 number two came to visit. Pitt pen , Black Inktense pencil and red, yellow and orange faber Castell watercolor pencils. Guess I need to finish the fence hes standing on. When i left the neighborhood this am two random geese were crossing the road in front of me. Since i drive a prius they couldn’t hear me and they were oh so pokey i finally beeped at them. I could head one say to the other RUN BABY RUN! Did u know geese are mated for life pairs?!
The Messy Table i have been letting pile up in the den. Lamy EF, watercolor and inktense pencils and tombow markers and Strathmore mixed media sketchbook which used to be my go to sketchbook til i found Stillman and Birn. The paper is much heavier than the S and B alpha i normally use. 140 # cpColoredI painted the wc pencil with my winsor newton momarch psuedo mongoose 1/2” flat love the way it painted.
But it still needed something. Thr tombow greys did the trick i think. And then i cleared the table off.
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 