Category: Art

Day 903- I had to

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Paint Calvin the guy who showed up for me to draw Friday. In the rain playing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.”

 47 degrees rain and I was out there with him drawing him. Which of us was crazier. 

Stillman and Birn mixed Media zeta journal Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 

Here it is before I drew it. 

Sketchbook School homework. Fill a page up with doodles using various pens and pencils. 

Here are the six pens and pencils I used to make the marks with. I have to day I thought this was a dumb assignment but really enjoyed the 15-20 minutes it took to draw this. 

Made me feel like Picasso or maybe Matisse. 

Try it I bet you will like it too. 


River Bend sunset out my back door tonite. So bright it lit the den up which was how I noticed it. I was too busy blogging to look. Oops. 

Ttyl 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 902 Mahjong Ladies and a guy 

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Trying to fill up the last few pages of my Stillman and Birn zeta sketchbook. Drawn with my Lamy Safari filled with Lexington Grey ink. 
Stopped by Higher Grounds cafe to look for a book and found multiple tables of Mahjong filling the cafe. 

Irresistible. I sat down to draw them. I don’t think any of them ever noticed me sitting a few feet away sketching them. They were very involved in their games. 

Oddly enough they had been there the day before when I played bridge there with my friends. I am now wondering if they are there everyday. Will have to drop by and see. 

This old man was also irresistible. He was sitting there reading something and enjoying his coffee. Clemson orange shirt. A lot of that lately.  Championship game tomorrow nite. 

Painting. Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Been adding slot of purple to the quin sienna in the backgrounds. And my painting with my Richeson #12 mop. Keeps me from getting too picky. 

I resisted the urge to splatter. Think the guy could use some don’t you?! 

Have a great Sunday. Stay warm. 

Margaret xoxoxo who thinks it’s time to shed her flannel jammies don’t you?! 

Day 901 And you thought it was Saturday 

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Didn’t make it to life modeling due to snowmaggeddon that never happened. We were told to stay off the roads. I didn’t fancy an early morning 60 mile drive on icy roads. But wait no ice no snow. Sigh. 

I was going to draw the old railroad trestle downtown but could not get near it on the wet rainy day we had yesterday. I drove around to be sure I couldn’t get near it and draw in my car. 

I realized I could park and draw this old church that way. 

St Paul’s is one of the oldest churches in Augusta and is built on the site of old Fort Augusta. It has a great old cemetery which I wasn’t drawing in the rain. Lol. 

This is drawn with my pentel brush pen and my noodler Konrad embellished with a grey and a black tombow which I wet down with a water loaded synthetic brush to let it run. 

Splattered with the inky rinse water. Think it adds to the pic giving a raindrop effect. 

This is how the sketch looked when I left downtown. Can’t decide which one I like better. 

Thanks for checking by. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 900 Augusta Ga 

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Home of James Brown. Yesterday I had wanted to draw a musician live and thought where the heck will I find one of those?! 

Met a friend downtown at New Moon Cafe and as I was leaving guess what happened. A saxophone player started playing OUTSIDE!! Hurrah!! 

So I sat out on this cold rainy day with Calvin and drew him. He was thrilled when he saw it. I also gave him a nice tip. 

I asked him why he was out in 47 degree weather in the rain playing. He said he had gotten the notion that he needed to play “Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head” downtown today. So he did. 

Here’s Calvin before I added the scratchy lines with my noodler Konrad. I think the thin lines really added to the energy of this sketch. He tended to stand still when he played so not much action to draw. 

I used my Pentel Brush pen and Noodler Konrad. Tried to use a thick sharpie but it bled thru the heavy pages of the mixed media S&B zeta. So I did not keep using it. 

I may paint this. I haven’t decided.  

The quote on the top right is a quip from my friend Marsha over our breakfast at New Moon Cafe this am. Yummy but FaTTeNinNG!!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Margaret in rainy Georgialina xoxoxox

Day 899 – Some More Urban Sketching

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I pass this cute diner every day twice a day on the way to class at USC Aiken or on Saturdays when I go to life modeling. I am always on a mission to get to Aiken on time or to get home and let the dogs out so I never have stopped to eat there. I hear the pies are great. They decorate it up for fall. Lots of pumpkins corn stalks and roosters. There’s even an old ford truck that gets strung with garlands of fall leaves. I didn’t draw it. I ran out of space. 

Here are the brushes I use. The bottom is my fav a sable Da Vinci 10 but the  tree and the sky were painted with a Richeson mop. A 12 that I bought at cheap joes two years ago. Very difficult to get any detail with it which is good in tree foliage. The tree branches and trunk were painted by a big goats hair dagger brush that I got at Sam Flaxs a couple of weeks ago. Very long and loopy  designed for sign painters. So far I can only get it to paint lines – Straight and curved ones. Practice right?

 

And I love this sassy rooster sculpture out on the highway in front of the cafe. I need to draw him with a brush pen on a sunny day. School starts Monday so will passing the charming fellow again several times a week. Maybe one day on the way home again soon. 

Stillman and birn Mixed media Zeta with a pilot Carbon pen. Really fine point. 

Colors used. Quin gold. Cerulean, ultramarine, burnt umber, Quin burnt orange, pyrrole red, cad orange, hematite green, peacock for the sky.  And a bit of American Journey Andrews blue a turquoise that I added to my pallet  lately. 

Homework done. Done. Had to make myself do this one and I love doing calligraphy just not fond of the word hate. Used my pentel brush pen -heavy lines- a Noodler Konrad – fine black lines – and a red tombow for hate. Oh a light Gray tombow for shading in love. 
That’s all folks. Got to do my homework for sketchbookskool. Did I say I am behind because I went sketching Mahjong ladies at a local cafe after yoga today when I should have been doing my homework. 

A bientot Margaret xoxox

Day 898 The Best Burgers 

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Are at Farmburgers in Decatur. Locally grown food to table restaurant on Ponce de Leon. I drew this with my Lamy Safari during g the end of rush hour.

 The guy in the foreground who was maybe a foot from me was so involved in his conversation that he never noticed me drawing him. 

The waitress did though. She loved it. 

Of course all the people were not where they are at the same time. I dropped in the foreground people adding the background and the people in line with menus after the foreground. 

Sometimes I mess up and do it the other way. That NEVER works out well. Oops. 

Remember FOREGROUND first then background. Ok?! 

Colors used same as yesterday. 


Today’s sketchbookskool installment. Draw an electric cord with a brush pen. I used my pentel brush pen. 

Not as easy as you would think. Really didn’t like it til I added the grey tombow shadows. 

Used a light grey tombow for the cord shadows. 

And splattered it with a bit of black watercolor paint. 

Both sketches are in Stillman and Birn zetas. 

Ttyl playing bridge today. NOT played inmore years than I care to think. Twenty maybe? 

Pray for me. 

Margaret who better get dressed.  xoxox

Day 897 More Urban Sketching or the Best Coffee in Georgia

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I drew this the other day when I met Nellie Brannan for coffee at the Dancing Goats in Decatur. It’s Decatur’s favorite coffee shop. Their coffee is sold in Augusta at Augusta’s favorite coffee shop the Inner Bean.  

I drew the brave people sitting out on the sidewalk in front of the dancing Goats as they walked thru the scene.  There was alot of coming and going. 

Colors used cerulean quin gold cad orange cad red hookers green ultramarine blue quin coral and marine blue.  Stillman and Birn zeta Lamy Safari Lexington Grey 

Sketchbookskool homework. Draw a still life with thick and thin lines. I used a tombow instead of a fine and a thick sharpie. 

I really didn’t like the line drawing so I got out a watercolor brush and some water and let the tombow bleed. Then I added some water to the shadows and picked up the grey to splatter it. Like it a lot better now. 

Thanks for checking by. 

Margaret xoxox 

Day 896- Happy New Years Again?! 

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Since it’s a Federal holiday and they even shifted the Rose Bowl Parade to today why not two Happy New Years wishes. I still have more Key West sketches but I finished this Atlanta sketch yesterday so thought I would “change it up” as some of my kids used to say. 

I dew this a Friday after I made a quick visit to  Sam Flaxs on Peachtree and I really like the way it turned out. 

I painted it with my water brushes and my two small travel palettes. One is full of Winsor and Newton colors plus Inathrodone and Quin coral. The other is full of a few leftovers from my old Windsor and Newton travel palette that broke like Thalo blue and green and black plus white gouache and eight various quinacridones from Daniel Smith including the Quin gold. 

Stillman and birn zeta with Lamy EF. Lexington Grey Ink. 

Not having enough to do I decided to join the sketchbookskool class a drawing a day lead by Veronica Lawlor who teaches I think at Pratt or Columbia in NYC. 

The directions were to draw a still life in a continuous line with a fine point sharpie. I couldn’t resist adding shadows oops.  And lettering is always irresistible to me. 

Since I still have Christmas up I decided to draw my collection of “misfit” snowmen and ladies. When Christmas is over I go to Tuesday Morning or TJ Max and get a deal on these who are usually missing an eye or a nose and I fix them. 

Now resisting the urge to paint it. 
Ttyl French class soon!! 

Margaret enjoying her new year. 

Day 882 Don’t Break the Painting! 

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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

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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!!