Day 351 – Tomato Pie Time!!

June 24, 2015June 24, 20156 Comments

Nothing says summer like an heirloom tomato pie! I made two tomato pies today and since this recipe is frequently requested I decided to draw it.

I am going to take u thru it as the recipe evolved.

The pie fresh out of the oven. Lots of yellows, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cad red light, green apatite and dark neutrals.

The ink sketch. I usually pencil in a recipe to be sure I don’t run out of room for anything. Then I ink it.

I laid in a yellow wash first. And dropped bits of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, cad red light, green apatite and dark neutrals while the pie was still wet.

Line green background added and more dark neutral around for the pies edge inside the crust.

I added the cad red line because as usual I smeared the bottom edge into the white. Maybe one day I will learn to keep my band out of the paint. MaYbE!! I can only hope. I also added more dark neutral around the edge of the pie inside the crust fluting and wiped some of the purple under the leaves off. Too purple.

Listening to a thomas Schaller video yesterday. He said you could tell when a painting is done when u start telling yourself I need to do one more thing. I Reinked the letters after I thought I was done not sure I like them.

I also sponged on a little dark neutral to make the surface shadows and it’s done.

I found this recipe from a book called ‘Pon Top Edisto when I was looking for my copy. It’s a great cookbook. Some people add onions. A little or a lot. Cooked or not. Thought garlic might be a tasty addition. And grits would be oh so tasty or fresh corn on the cob.
Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

Day 349- Key West Finale

June 23, 2015Leave a comment

The scourge of Key West. Iguanas ravenously devour the landscape on Key West. I do love this watercolor though.

B.O.’s Fish Wagon a shady place on the corner of a parking lot made from an amazing collection of found junk. Awesome food!!

Delicioso what else can I say about B.O.’s Fish Wagon?!

Love the look of Bo’s.

Blue Heaven Garden

Was my favorite sketch before I colored it with my watercolor pencils. I know it’s getting a redo when we go.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 348- Key West Dreaming Part Two

June 23, 2015June 23, 2015Leave a comment

One of my favorite sketches. All things Key West. Chickens, motor scooters, Blue Heaven, palm tree, sea shells and a beachy drink. This was drawn in pencil and added to as inspiration hit starting with the scooter.

Zany celebrations abound in Key West. The dachshund parade which was around one square block followed by a chihuahua flash mob!! Next trip Hemongway look alike contest to celebrate his birthday. Can’t wait to sketch hairy old men and mustacheoed young men a la Hemingway.

Banyan trees fascinate me. One is so enormous there are shops inside it and a sidewalk.

A view down the street towards the Custom house I think. One of my fav sketches. Love that tall towering Palm.

A few more Key West sketches tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 348- Key West Dreaming Part Two

June 22, 2015June 22, 20152 Comments

Banyan trees fascinate me. One is so enormous there are shops inside it and a sidewalk.

A view down the street towards the Custom house I think. One of my fav sketches. Love that tall towering Palm.

A few more Key West sketches tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 347 – Key West Dreaming

June 21, 2015Leave a comment

We are off to Key West for fun and sketching in a few weeks. I know we are going to be eating at a lot of great restaurants.

Key West A sunny place for shady people!!

El Meson de Pepe. Lots of atmosphere but the margaritas were weak and the conch fritters rubber.

Blue Heaven aptly named. The food is amazing. Atmosphere funky with loads of chickens who beg.

My review of Blue Heaven. A definite we shall return.

The double page spread.

If being wrapped in palms is cozy the Bistro on Duval is a must. Food was ok. Great waitress. Great atmosphere. Killer deserts.

Watercolor and ink in a moleskine landscape watercolor book.

Hopefully more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 346 – Goat time!

June 20, 2015Leave a comment

since taking Sketchbookskool classes online. Highly recommend them!! I have foud that I love to draw animals and people. I could have spent the whole day at the zoo drawing the animals and the people.

This was drawn with my Noodler Creaper Ahab in my spiral bound Stillman and Birn Zeta. A lovely book great paper that dries flat even with a lot of washes. Now if you want a paper that dries very flat this one is for you. I normally use small binders clips to hold my sketchbook paper down as I paint because I have yet to find one that does not curl when you wet it. The most important thing is does it dry flat and I can say YES Stillman and Birn Zeta does. My Stillman and Birn alpha which is much thinner paper does NOT ever dry flat. Most annoying since the Super Delixe Bee does. Both the Alpha and the Bee are the same weight paper. Hmm.

Before splattering.

Back to the goats. The only thing I did different than usual was to splatter the left goat with white gouache using an old toothbrush. Why?! The goat is a kind of roan color peppered with white. Hard to Dow I th watercolor. I could have used masking fluid but this is just a sketch so I opted for splattering. More fun than masking fluid anyway.

That’s it for today. It’s Henry and Livia time in Decatur!!

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 345 – That Paper!!

June 19, 2015Leave a comment

Gets five Gold stars in my book.

as I said yesterday I bought a landscape tablet of Aquabee Super Deluxe paper when I was at Binders at Ponce Market in April. Great store!! How often have you had an art store manager ask you what you would like to see carried in their store?! Told her a class with Charles Reid. I hope I hope!!

Anyway I had read in David Millards great watercolor books about Super Deluxe Bee sketchbooks. These books are 140 pages each just packed with information on watercolor. The price can not be beat. $4 or less on Amazon. Why do you ask?! The books are from the early 80s. The author died in 2002. Sadly I can’t take a class from him. He is big on sketchbooks big lots of tips on drawing crowds and buildings. The man knows sketchbooks. His favorites took all the water I threw at them and flattened out when I was done. Rare in a 93lb paper. And reasonably priced. Amazon has the big 11×14 listed for $22 and full price is $25 for a 100 pages!! I am stopping by Cityart in Columbia on my way to Charleston to pick up an 11×14 for Dr Sketchys and a smaller one to take to Key West in July. And maybe a tube or two of paint. Last week Randy the owner had Holbein paint half price. Why didn’t I order some?! Cityart is the store that Charles Reid and Mary White use to supply their classes. Great store down in the Vista. They also have a great website and shopping is almost overnite and so reasonable.

I drew this last April in my super deluxe bee 6×12 landscape book with my Kuretake brush pen from an overlook in Gatlinburg. Never quite got around to painting it. I was too tired from all the running around. The brush own had loved the smooth paper. Would the watercolor?! Despite what Millard said I am always a sceptic. And as Roz Stendhal says one thing you can count on is that paper will change. His books are 30 years old.

Thank goodness he was right. I lost count of the washes I threw at this paper. Big watery wet washes layer after layer. While the paper buckled a little as I painted it was almost perfectly flat when it dried!!! Hallelujah. A 93# paper that dries flat and doesn’t cost a fortune?!

TIP!!! Bytw I started the lower hills with a wash of light yellow Aureolin for the trees and gradually darkened it with very watery layers of red for the red oaks in the spring and darker greens and blues and mineral purple. Really like using the mineral purple as a dark. Using lots of layers of this colors let me keep the colors transparent. Aka didn’t make MuD!! Sky is a couple of layers of cerulean.

This is another sketch from the same overlook up in the Gatlinburg bypass. I meant to fill in the town but never did. It started raining. It rained a lot the week we were in Gatlinburg. And the pen ran out of ink. My kuretake converter holds a drop of ink. I swear. I did later find cartridges of platinum carbon black that fitted it so now I am good to go.

Another plus for this paper. I just realized that the Pentel brush ink supposedly permanent but so often runny in my Stillman and Birn zeta did not run on this paper when I went back over the lettering and decided to add yet another wash. Hurrah.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret who needs to get packing!!!xxx

Day 344 practicing Palm trees.

June 18, 2015Leave a comment

Besame Mucho, Key West

Been painting all day. Color me exhausted. Stayed up til 2 am reading. Three paintings today. Trying out different paper.

The first two went so well decided to proactive my nemesis palm trees and the other one BuShEs😜. If u r going to paint in Key West u better be able do a decent Palm.

How to paint a descent Palm. I usually loose my lights. I painted the Palm area first with a light yellow. And then did negative painting in blue greens Inathridone blue and even Quin red and mineral Violet. I did a simile thing with the trees behind the house. But did I do it with the bushes?! NoPe!!

Lifting. Have had a super deluxe bee sketchbook for a while. I bought it because a great watercolor book I have More Joy of Watercolor by David Lyle Millard($4 on amazon!!!) said it was great for watercolor. He’s right. It is. You can lift off color so easily. Found myself doing that over and over. It likes washes. And it’s not exorbitant in price because the paper is fairly thin 93

Super paper. I did one earlier today on it with wash after wash. It’s now just about flat. Something I can’t say about other popular sketchbook papers of simile weight.

I lifted the light green Palm fronds on the right middle of the tree below. It was too easy. They are repainted light green in the photo below.

I got the Palm but what happened to the bushes. Did I say I love white gouache?! When all else fails gouache it. I do hope one day to get where I never touch that stuff but in the meantime I need stock in it.
I also lifted the bushes. And the guys left arm. This paper lifts clean as a whistle. It’s smooth as a baby’s bottom so would be great for colored pencils. If u check the seal it says it works with all medias. Guess I shall try it out. No pastels though. Messy.

And then I painted the bushes TOO dark again. Sigh.

Color me tired. Thanks for reading. More about Super Deluxe Bee Aquabee sketch paper soon.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 343 -Urban Sketching

June 17, 2015June 17, 20152 Comments

Couldn’t resist drawing at the beauty salon today while I waited. Actually fun to draw except I didn’t quite finish before it was my turn. I filled the gap with the sign on the left.

My favorite part is the toes of the girl in the chair. Drawing the reflections in the mirror was interesting. A lot of complicated shapes what were not in my sight line like the shelves full of towels.

You probably know feb colors I used by now BUT if u don’t. Blacks burnt umber and inanthradone blue. You could use ultramarine instead. Wall color yellow ochre and cerulean. Shadows mineral Violet and cerulean.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 343 – Lorikeets

June 16, 20152 Comments

As perhaps you know I enjoy sketching birds. I drew the lorikeets from a shady spot while I waited for my family to show up at the zoo. For $2 you got a cup of nectar to feed them.

Oddly I like the double page spread as long as he pages are separated. I think it’s because there are six birds. I like odd numbers in compositions.

I drew the big bird first. He was off. The beak too low the biggest error. The eye off. He should have looked like the one to the right. They were great fun to paint. Mixing and slapping greens around. Started with light yellow green. Then added darker and darker greens and blues with bits of mineral Violet to the leaves and the birds.

The left page. I added the tree trunks after I drew them as I did the leaves. I only drew the birds on site. It was fun making up the background as I went. Really like the limbs which are Quin gold mineral Violet and Inathradone blue. They started out a grey of burnt umber and Inathradone blue. How boring. Paint red them wet on wet. Sometimes with Quin gold and mineral Violet on the paint brush at the same time.

Here’s the whole page. Just isn’t quite right. Oh well. Beaks are cad orange and Quin coral. Fun stuff to paint. I just wish I had drawn the red ones. Oh my goodness red from head to toe. How did I miss those.