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 881 - James

December 6, 2016Leave a comment

Ok so another tv drawing. James Taylor was on CBS Morning News yesterday after being honored st the Kennedy Center. Always loved him so naturally I was tempted.

He’s a little long in the face but otherwise I really love him. The eyes are great.

Note to self. Take time to measure!!!

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent wc palette. Drawn with a pentel brush pen in a Beta Stillman and Birn mixed media journal.

This is Teds actual hand held palltette.

These are the actual colors he recommends for the most transparency. I just have to add a couple. Cerulean and a Daniel Smith quin coral. The coral makes great skin tone mixed with quin gold or quin sienna or red orange.

Thanks for checking in. Ttyl. Gotta draw another person but this time my own photo.

Margaret staying in after yoga and another exercise class at the Y today. A nap soon!!

Day 856 – Happy Veterans Day

November 12, 2016November 12, 2016Leave a comment

Once again I posted this yesterday on that OTHER website…sigh…

Somehow saying Happy Veterans Day seems like a conundrum to me because is not happy and people remembering it are sad.

That said I am sharing sketches of War Memorials I did in France last fall in Normandy at the sites of the Allied D Day Invasions 71 years ago.

The Canadian Cemetery at Beny sur Mer. It was odd to me that people to young to know the men buried there were crying over dead relatives.

That said I found myself doing the same thing as I shared a link to my dads historic battle of Foxhill at the Choisin Reservoir in 1950. PBS recently aired a riveting documentary about the week long battle. I had heard bits of the story but to actually see the 32 below conditions they fought in, the rugged almost arctic landscapes, the mass burials of the Marine dead,the frozen Chinese who were shot because the Marines had no other choice in this desperate time was a totally different experience.

The beautiful Canadian Juno Beach Museum shaped like a maple leaf on the beaches of La Manche, the Sleeve as the French call the English Channel. A stunning building wrapped in glowing aluminum with state of the art exhibits.

The Ranville Eglise next to another Canadian Cemetery in Caen Normandy France. The day was getting dark and somber threatening rain that afternoon.

The Pegasus Bridge Museum. Using gliders brave British paratroopers jumped behind Nazi lines BEFORE the Allied invasion forces landed on the Normandy beaches. I am sure many of them are now buried at the nearby Ranville Cemetery. They are immortalized in the movie The Longest Day.
Thanks for stopping by.

Margaret xoxox

Day 840 Almost a nightmare.

October 25, 2016October 25, 2016Leave a comment

The pen I used on this page was not one of my normal ones. THE INK LEAKED WHEN I TRIED TO PAINT THE PAGE with a light blue tombow pen. EEEKKK.

So I painted almost all the letters grey with water thinking I would stop there. I painted All but the numbers which is why the letters are a darker red. I blotted alot of the excess ink with kleenex and take out napkins.

When the numbers did behaved ok I decided to go back over the grey letters with the same red marker. And a dark red resulted…not the lite blue I had in mind BUT when catastrophe strikes you have to make lemonade right?

Then I colored the background with what I thought was a yellow marker…it was really orange…oh well …I wet it and lifted alot of it too with the kleenex heap which was growing.

Not bad but I will not be using that pen again unless I want the ink to run. Here’s a picture of the offending pen. Its a Japanese pen with a brush on one end and a really fine point on the other end.

I tried to go with the bleedy color. It occasionally got me into trouble as I colored and painted. So I blotted some more with the growing heap of kleenex!
I used tombow markers and a couple of caran d’ache neocolor ii crayons on this. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal a lovely crispy paper. Highly recommend this one or stillman and birns series. Great sketchbooks for watermedia.

Ttyl

Margaret off to the y for yoga!!😳xoxox

Day 756 Dr Sketchys ii

July 29, 2016August 1, 2016Leave a comment

Probably my favorite. Caran d’ache neocolor ii 5 minute sketch

My second fav. Her face was too small to do a good job with the blunt crayons.

Twenty minutes?! At least I got the legs right but maybe I should work on her disappearing hand.

Another Marion the Librarian tombow markers

And this is the ugly. Her eyes are way off. It was late and we left right after this so I am using that as an excuse!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

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Day 754 – Dr Sketchys tonite!!!

July 27, 2016July 27, 2016Leave a comment

A few random sketches from past Dr Sketchys!

Hurry you still have time to go. At Chat Noir downtown. 8th and Ellis. 7-10 pm

Cu there.

Costumes required Mermaid nite

Fawns

Double mermaids

She sells sea shells

FOzzie Bear

Tired Santa

Mobster and his moll

All sketches ink and tombow markers and a few with watercolor

Hurry you still have time to go. At Chat Noir downtown. 8th and Ellis. 7-10 pm. Cu there.

Day 747 a Bird

July 20, 201610 Comments

Probably my favorite bird at Parrot Mountain. I am a sucker for blues and this hyacinth parrot was just a beautiful deep blue. He’s the endangered bird in the movie Rio.

And yes his eyes and beak are a bright yellow.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Wet on wet and splatters after he dried.

Another sock done. I did this one in 24 hours and I exercised and cooked dinner too. Fasted sock ever. Crystal Palace mini Moochie yarn.

Thanks for reading n

Margaret xxx

Day 746 More GNSP

July 19, 20162 Comments

Mt Le Conte 8×10″ watercolor Strathmore 500 watercolor paper

Drawing Mt Le Conte from the Gatlinburg Bypass overlook.

Mt Le Conte in the Spring last year. 5×10″Aquabee supertablet Pentel brush pen.

From the same overlook but the other end of the car park. Odd how much of Gatlinburg you can see depending on where you park.

Once again Ted Nuttals transparent colors. The foreground grass was done by scratching wet paint with an old palette knife.

Back to madly knitting my freestyle socks.

Finished last nite.

Started this morning.

Day 745 GNSP

July 18, 2016Leave a comment

Old Evans Family Cemetery tucked away in the woods near the Great Smoky National Park Headquarters. The first sketch I did when I was leaving.

I drew so much it took me four hours to drive thirty miles. But the park is gorgeous anytime of the year and something gorgeous is around every turn whether it’s a mountain view, a quiet stream dashing over rocks or wildflower. Just a drive thru the tunnel of trees is enjoyable.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. A lot of splattering some negative painting.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 743 – Wild Plum Tea Room

July 15, 2016July 16, 2016Leave a comment

One of my favorite places to eat in Gatlinburg. delicious food. An amazing flourless chocolate torte. I do wish I had gone back and tried the alcoholic root beer float with their homemade vanilla ice cream especially now that I am back on Lo carb! 😏

We usually eat outside but since it was raining the deck with its umbrella covered tables was closed off.