Once i switched to the Pentel brush pen life improved. Or maybe it was Bill Karp singing Frank Sinatra?! His 100th birthday. Frank’s not Bills!!!
This is my favorite sketch of Bill. A good stance. Shoes look good and a good hand. Score!!
I kept trying to draw Bills hand. He waved them around a lot. I. Perpetual motion.
Finally a good hand though I made him a little fat. Oops sorry Bill!!
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
And a good excuse to add to the Inktober sketches. Best of Augusta is the restaurants and musicians who were voted best in the Augusta Magazine and is held annually in Sacred Heart- the old Catholic Church I drew about a month ago.
I drew at least a dozen sketches last nite. These are two of the audience members. 
A lady in the audience enjoying the music. I loved her Hair and the hat. Done with my Pentel brush pen.
The shading was smeared because using just the black ink would be too dark. Think she would be fun to paint but I am getting way behind on the painting. 😳
This man was in the queue to get beer. Then he sat down right behind me. 😜 I drew him with my new Noodler Creaper ahab but was having problems. So after a few sketches I switched to the Pentel brush pen and my drawings were much better.
Sacred Heart
Inside Sacred Heart
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Zoe curled up next to me on the sofa watching Super Soul Sunday.
Pentel brush pen Superaquabee tablet and some smearing of ink. She was mostly in shadows.
A week of RUNNING!! Off I go. Hope I finish my Diebenkorn today. 😋
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Zoe Pentel brush pen in Superaquabee tablet
It’s not easy to draw an all white FLUFFY Jack Russel with black ink. Her fur is very wispy with a Mohawk down her back and bushy eyebrows. Impossible to draw those bushy white eyebrows with black ink. Zoe is a broken coat which means she has long hair AND short hair. An extra challenge.
Then there is her muzzle with black nose and lips and white hair with dots and a greyish cast. 😜 another inky challenge!!
So I started shading which was done by smearing ink with my fingers before it dried completely. The ink is permanent so if you wait to long it won’t move on most paper.
A redraw with my other non waterproof Pentel brush pens could be fun but we are off to the Magnolia cemetery ghost walk one of the most haunted spots in Augusta GA and the Hispanic festival. Hoping for lots of opportunities for sketching and photos for paintings!! And NO rain.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Today is my Dad’s 93rd birthday!! I drew this quick sketch of him but he wiggled a lot. He also didn’t fee well.
Anyway. HaPPy BiRtHdAy Dad!! Here’s to many more.
Thanks for reading!
Margaret xxx
Still watching the river!! Hoping everyone is staying high and dry during this monsoon.
Inktober 5 – Ladies at the Bean loved this group as they sat and chatted away a rainy morning. Hmm well I think the lady on the left is great but the lady on the right is not bad either. Lol
The left lady had the greatest expressions and was birdlike in the tilt of her head.
Drawn with my Noodler Konrad and Platinum Carbon Black ink.
Jan – love the wet and wet colors in the quilt which is cobalt cerulean Winsor yellow and Quin gold. Skin muddied Quin coral and yellow ochre. Hair burnt sienna and inathradone.
The Yakker or is it The Smoker?! Can u find her cigarette??? How she managed to keep that cigarette in her mouth while she talked like crazy I have NO idea. She was so entertaining to watch. She was larger than life in every way from her huge purse to her ample proportions.
Skin is burnt sienna or Quin sienna. Not sure which. Quin red shirt. Hair is inathradone and burnt umber. Cigarette is white gouache.
Henry – background Quin gold. Sofa Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange – skin Quin coral and French yellow ochre
Got the nasty virus still that half of the people in Augusta seem to have but forced myself to paint some in my coloring book aka my ink sketches.
About Henry sketch. Really like the way the darks make his legs pop and take shape. My favorite of the ones I painted yesterday.
Inktober day 4 – Forgot to take a pic of the black and white sketch. Oops.
Random customer at the inner bean sitting less than three Feet from me. So absorbed in her phone she didn’t notice I was drawing her.
Drawn with Noodler Konrad and carbon platinum black ink.
Hair – burnt sienna Quin burnt orange. Shirt cobalt and inathradone. Skin Quin coral and yellow ochre. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna. 
A reindeer head that was over the cabin fireplace last weekend. Why a reindeer in the western North Carolina mountains?! NO idea! A friend told me he was a moose but we decided he was a reindeer probably from Norway or Sweden. Along way from home.
Quin gold and burnt sienna wall. Same with the splatters. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna. Piemonite and cobalt used in the shadows.
Out my back door. Glad to report the Savannah is still units riverbanks!!
Thanks for looking!! Back to watching the BIG Flood in nearby Columbia and Charleston and glad Augusta dogged the bullet.
Stay safe and dry my chickadees!
Margaret glued to WIS Columbia. Nope no football here!!
Henry – background Quin gold. Sofa Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange – skin Quin coral and French yellow ochre
Got the nasty virus still that half of the people in Augusta seem to have but forced myself to paint some in my coloring book aka my ink sketches.
About Henry sketch. Really like the way the darks make his legs pop and take shape. My favorite of the ones I painted yesterday.
Inktober day 4 – random customer at the inner bean sitting less than three Feet from me. So absorbed in her phone she didn’t notice I was drawing her.
Drawn with Noodler Konrad and carbon platinum black ink.
Hair – burnt sienna Quin burnt orange. Shirt cobalt and inathradone. Skin Quin coral and yellow ochre. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna.
A reindeer head that was over the cabin fireplace last weekend. Why a reindeer in the western North Carolina mountains?! NO idea! A friend told me he was a moose but we decided he was a reindeer probably from Norway or Sweden. Along way from home.
Quin gold and burnt sienna wall. Same with the splatters. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna. Piemonite and cobalt used in the shadows.
Out my back door. Glad to report the Savannah is still units riverbanks!!
Thanks for looking!! Back to watching the BIG Flood in nearby Columbia and Charleston and glad Augusta dogged the bullet.
Stay safe and dry my chickadees!
Margaret glued to WIS Columbia. Nope no football here!!
All I can say is WOW!!!! 450 days of consecutive daily blogging. And I didn’t think I would make thirty.
Jan DAY 1
Noodler Konrad pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet
Decided to really drove myself nuts and participate in Inktober. Aka posting an inksketch daily for the month of October. I tend to do art everyday anyway so it’s not a big stretch just to do ink sketches all month. Takes the pressure off doing watercolors too lol though I bet I end up painting some of them.
Old Man at Panera Day 2
Carbon platinum pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet
Not happy with this sketch. This guy was in his eighties. Lots of wrinkles. Eyes set deeply in his head. He was busy giving someone his power of attorney. The things you learn when you sit and quietly draw while people yammer on about their lives on their phones.
If I had taken a photo of him I would have redrawn him. Although the carbon platinum pen has a very fine point I don’t think it gives you the range of lines that the noodlers do. And it was hard to do any fine shading on his small face.
The Smoker Day 3
Noodler Konrad pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet
What a character! A lot off wild waving of her hands with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, bright pink shirt orange overdyed black hair. I had to draw her.
Notes about drawing
All my sketches are drawn from live people not pictures unlike my finished big watercolors which are usually drawn from photos. I think it gives the drawings more life. And people that know art can actually tell they are from real life as we say.
Drawings are more successful if I lay down one line and don’t fiddle with it. Original line is usually the best.
Been practicing life drawing almost daily for a year.
Faces often easier to leave them out because that’s usually where I screw up a sketch like the old man. The heads need to be fairly large to draw a good face.
Start drawing from the shoulders and add the head- the attention getters. Then the rest of the body.
Favorite pens :
My star pens are any Noodler pen. I have several and love their flex nib. These were done with my Konrad because my big ahab is leaking. I am going to redo the rings in the ahab. It’s hard to beat because it holds loads of ink and is cheap at $23 at http://www.gouletpens.com
I am also fond of my Lamy Vista fine point and the Carbon Platinum pen.
Brush Pens Pentel and Kuretake. The Kuretake is an elegant Japanese pen. And very reasonable at $20ish.
INK hands down favorite is the ultra waterproof Carbon Platinum Black from Goulet pens. DO NOT BUY IT FROM AMAZON. The ink there looks like goulets but runs like crazy. I use CPB in my Kuretake too. It’s the reason I bought the Kuretake. The Pentel is a great brush but sometimes the ink just is not waterproof.
Other inks I like a lot are the super waterproof De artementis DOCUMENT brown and Noodlers Lexington Grey. Also from Goulet.
I have a Bottle of Noodlers Eelskin which is supposed to be waterproof it isn’t for me.
Smooth paper is a must for ink sketches. Favorites are superaquabee, Stonehenge or other Bristol and strathmore Mixed media 500 and Stillman and Birn Alpha. All but the S&B Alpha do well with watercolor too.
Ok my chickadees that’s enough for today. Hope you haven’t caught this virus half the world seems to have in Augusta Ga.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Henry
Carbon platinum pen, superaquabee sketchbook
That half of Augusta seems to have including myself and my sister Jan who lives at my house. Sneezed and dripped our brains out. I hope you all my sweet chickadees do not have it but it’s also not a terrible virus to have. You just don’t feel up to par.
Reindeer head at the house we stayed in last weekend. I didn’t know the lives in Western North Carolina!!😳
And it’s still raining. Was hoping to go downtown tomorrow for more band sketching BUT I think hurricane Joaquin will make that a wash. Hoping it doesn’t.
Anyway that’s it for today. Tomorrow find out about the pens and ink I love and the paper too.
Thanks for reading! Stay healthy and dry!!!
Margaretxxx
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 