Day 450 – Inktober

October 3, 2015October 2, 20152 Comments

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

Day 449 – it’s a ViRuS

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015Leave a comment

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

Day 448 – A Few More Arts in the Hearts

October 1, 2015Leave a comment

How could I resist sketching this stylish lady who was really enjoying the Adam Harris Thompson groups music?! Such a great hat and her stance was super.

I am pretty sure it’s the same hat that Frankie aka Lillie Tomlin wore in the netflixs series Frankie and Grace. If not it’s a twin sister of Frankie’s hat.

This guy has the most interesting face almost skeletal. He was so thin. Also irresistible to my pen. I later found him in photos posted of the eighth street stage.

These are the original sketches.

You can see the red ink that had been on my Noodler Konrad bleeding thru in this sketch. Have all the sketches a weird red cast after they were painted. Oh well. Hey we’re such great sketches.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 447 Kerchoo

September 30, 2015September 30, 2015Leave a comment

Undoubtably the best time to sketch my grandson is when he’s watching Disney. He becomes almost immobile occasionally moving his body but mostly staring at the screen.

These were drawn in my Aquabee sketchbook with my Lamy fine point loaded with Carbon Platinum Black ink. I have been meaning to paint them as soon as my cold clears up. Hiking in the rain in the WNC Blue Ridge is not conducive to good health. Kerchoo!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 447 Kerchoo

September 30, 2015Leave a comment

Undoubtably the best time to sketch by grandson is when he’s watching Disney. He becomes almost immobile occasionally moving his body but mostly staring at the screen.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

September 29, 2015Leave a comment

A recent challenge to paint an acrylic self portrait in Fauvism style using a snake of complimentary colors with impasto brush strokes. Impasto is thick paint which can show the method of application. In this case a hog bristle brush.

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it.

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are

Strong colors but no black
Colored lines but not everywhere
The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected
Melting lines
Thick paint
White off Canvas shows thru
Not a lot of detail
Faces done roughly

We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using a complimentary color(red) to the green background.

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use. All the above colors were made from those three colors.

After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange.

Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot of the original red lines showing thru.

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

September 29, 2015Leave a comment

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it.

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are

Strong colors but no black
Colored lines but not everywhere
The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected
Melting lines
Thick paint
White off Canvas shows thru
Not a lot of detail
Faces done roughly

We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using a complimentary color(red) to the green background.

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use. All the above colors were made from those three colors.

After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange.

Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot of the original red lines showing thru.

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 445 – a few more arts in the hearts

September 28, 2015Leave a comment

Love these two guys. The first guy was actually a walk off and I drew the rest of him after he did. He was just a cool looking guy in his African mud cloth vest and his rakish hat.

I also loved the look of this guy – an audience member. He sat not far from where we were drawing. About broke my neck while drawing him. He was such a dignified guy. Thanks goodness he didn’t catch me craning my next at him.

Skin tones burnt sienna and Quinn gold with some cerulean and cobalt.

The backgrounds. I heard you wondering how they were done. Just lots of layers of thin color. Some of the colors used were cad red light, alizarin, cobalt blue, Daniel smith piemonite(which is lovely combined with cobalt), Quin gold and probably yellow ochre.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 444 Hanging a Show

September 28, 2015Leave a comment

A Friend forgot she signed up for a show at our favorite cafe. And she knew someone with lots of art stockpiled so she asked me to do the show. We spent all day today wrapping and hanging and pricing the show. Took ALL day. Thank goodness it is done.

Sorry the photos are so bad but it’s a rainy day and the lighting in the Bean is not the best. I also drank TWO cups of expresso to keep caffeinated and climbing up that ladder to hang paintings.

If I climbed it once I know I climbed it 30 times!!!

There’s a wide range of art- all shapes and sizes and all prices. The strips are also for sale ranging in price from $150 -$295 for the longest one. It’s almost 100 inches long. That’s only $2.95 an inch lol!!

So why is it hung like wash on a line?! WHY NOT?! We thought it would be fun. And what could be more arty than hanging art with binders clips of every shape and size.

Some come on out and buy some art for Christmas presents or just because!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 443 Some Audience

September 26, 20152 Comments

These two guys were leaning on a nearby wall chillin and watchin the show. You know i drew them.

I also loved these ladies chatting away against the same wall. The old downtown Woolworths building. Are there any woolworths still?! I don’t think so.
The lady with the balloons actually caught me and asked very sweetly to show me what I had been doing. She loved that I had been drawing them even though it had problems.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx