Day 2113 Court reporter time!!

July 24, 2019July 24, 20193 Comments

Best thing about congressional hearings is getting to draw the talking heads. My dear friend Ruth Pearl and I would LOVE to be court reporters of any needs us. Too much fun. Will share a couple of hers with you after I ask her.

Page 5&6

AND I finished this hahnemuhle journal. Now I can go back to stillman and birn. The hahnemuhle hated the tombow markers. When I tried to brush them out the paper peeled. WHAT?!!

And the spine is totally broken and falling apart. Last time that happened was when I first used Stillman and Birn. They sent me a stack of four to replace that one book. WHAT was I thinking changing even if it was to try out a nice non plastic covered journal. Sigh.

Page 1&2

Tombows. Always fun not as messy as watercolors BUT I think I will paint the other two pages I drew today. 11 heads all together.

Have to say he’s DIFFICULT to draw. Not sure why.

One tip. You can draw these guys in 5-10 min. If u start where he’s looking right and don’t finish wait. Sooner or later he will resume the same position and you can finish. Try it – it’s a lot of fun. That’s how I did the big one. Every time Schiff or Nunez questioned him I worked on the big one some more.

Page 3&4

Page three. Especially like the one on the bottom right.

Ink ones are my Lamy Ef a sweet writing pen with noodler brown ink.

Margaret who might have to listen to more news. Xoxoxox

Day 2089 Chelsea

June 11, 2019July 27, 20193 Comments

15×22″ Spent two and a half hours chasing Chelsea as she would turn from full frontal to the right. As soon as she relaxed a little she would loose the pose because she was twisted in her seat.

First break. NO pencil. 😵😵😵Rough block in on Co fluid watercolor paper. 140#. The paper is really a bargain for great paper. Six full sheets for $24 on amazon. Always dries just about flat no matter how soppy wet I get it. Second break not making a lot of progress. Adding more darks and the blouse. Lack of progress I think that was due to the continually rotating head. No excuse for that left eye. But an easy fix on this hp. Most hot press would not let you move it at all. One shot and you are done. Last break. That left eye shoot me. But I brought it around. Add more darks to the hair which was ultramarine and burnt umber or van dyke brown. Also I didn’t want to get the shadows dark since that would age her. She has quite a very young face. Deep shadows age people in portraits especially babies. For now. I have a to do to her list. May or may not do them. BYTW her blouse was painted in two shots with my size 16 Cheap Joes sable. First was a glaze of very watery cerulean and burnt sienna. Then after it was dry lines of the black hair mix.

Colors used Quin gold French yellow ochre burnt sienna burnt umber ultramarine cerulean vandyke brown. A hint ifocad red light

Margaret ready for a nap. Xoxoxox

Day 2063 The Carolina Wren

May 14, 2019May 14, 20195 Comments

Wasn’t going to do this today. I have a friend who needs cheering up so this postcard is flying off to the friend tomorrow.

And of course it’s drawn from my favorite photo I took last week.

Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro cp 140# derwent inktense pencils and Charles Reid palette colors. The strawberry is dotted with gouache mixed with cad yellow light. Strawberry is cad red light burnt sienna and a mixed neutral tint.

Wren mostly yellow ochre burnt sienna and burnt umber with dabs of mixed neutral tint on the eye and legs.

Margaret who is going to eat a salad for dinner. Xoxoxox

Day 2054

May 4, 20191 Comment

Stones at Parafugel Spain on the Mediterranean. Did I go?! NOPE from a photo of Vlads. I didn’t even like the photo just couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to paint that I had a photo of. Sketch on 140 lb cp rough Fabriano.

Sky wash. Cerulean w a dab of MIXED neutral tint. NOT about a tube of neutral tint but a mix of burnt sienna indigo and dioxzine purple.

I blotted the clouds w Kleenex and dabbed in some of the neutral tint for shadows.

Warm wash over all the rocks.

Moving along with step 2- 50 color/50 water. Really hate it. Especially rocks in middle foreground.

And here’s how I left it. Green tree in background IS distracting guess I will fogk it up. Rofl. Manana.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox Up early in search of THE photo.

Day 1073 Its Saturday

July 1, 2017Leave a comment

Sweet Emily! 18×24″ What happens when you use a two inch flat brush on Bristol!!

Charles reid watercolor hand held palette which put my hand to sleep. #allaprima #nude #lifemodel #watercolor #aquarelle #aquarellepainting #pencil #pencildrawing #lostedges #emily

1″&2″ Cheap Joes Golden Fleece Flat brush and #10 Da Vinci and that’s it.

Tip: curling thinner paper. To get it to lie flat, paint it w water on the back and it will flatten out.

First break 40 min.

Painted on strathmore Bristol 100# which is like hot press paper but cheaper.

Wash of DS Quin coral and yellow ochre w some cerulean and burnt sienna. Background, hair, drapes burnt umber ultramarine

Drapes Aurelion, Winsor Yellow, Quin Gold w burnt umber ultramarine darks

4B and 6B pencils

The crowd was thin today. So not many paintings. A lot of people on vacation but I do love to paint Emily!!

Drew Murphys acrylic. The quips were flying between us. One of the things we paint for. I told him his was a little grey this time. Usually they are bright and vivid.

Fred the dentist. Oops he left early.

Als lovely huge oil. Amazing what he gets done in two hours. This is four by 3 FEET!

Rachel who’s only been painting anyear or so but she draws at every meeting. Drawing practice gets the job done! You WILL improve. Like anything else you want to do well you have to practice. ALOT!!!

Margaret who has a dog and a mill to paint. Oh and a couple of cars and some rubber duckies. Thanks for stopping by. Xoxoxoxo

Day 1068 Fathers Day at Pine Lake

June 25, 2017Leave a comment

It actually poured on us before we left so not a bright sunny day BUT who wants a swimming hole with no sun?!

One thing about painting you can make it sunny or overcast.

Pine Lake is the smallest town in Georgia with a population of less than 800 and used to be a weekend escape place for Buckhead elite when all the roads were dirt.

The lake is the center of the town with charming cottages and small houses built on the surrounding small hills.

Painted with my Ted Nuttall transparent palette plus green apatite in the trees and grasses.

Happy Sunday!

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1064 Comissions

June 21, 2017Leave a comment

A problem when you are suppose to paint the same thing twice. Eeekkk this is the second one. Thinking it could use a few more greys in the center!?

This is the first one. I drew my friend Monica who giving her talk at the DuPont Planetarium at Ruth Patrick Science Center, USC Aiken. She really does a terrific job.

Kids come from all South Carolina to visit the Science Center and see the Planetarium.

It took me a while just to figure out how to transfer this identically to a piece of 300# lb watercolor.

I traced the original.

Transferred it with Saral.

Traced over it with a pencil.

Traced over it with my Lamy Safari.

And the. I tried to remember how I painted it. The whirlpool vortex was not easy to ain’t the first time let alone another time. Eeekk.

Finally it was time to splatter the night sky with white gouache stars. Be sure to use a stiff toothbrush. I got a soft one first. Oops. Worked much better with a nice stiff toothbrush.

Touched up the Whirlpool Vortex again. And calling it done. I hope!

Painted with lamp black, burnt umber , Ultramarine Blue, alizarin, aureolin yellow, and some Joe’s turquoise.

Margaret who has another commission to get done. Xoxoxox

Day 1061 -how many more?! And a beach party!!

June 17, 2017June 17, 2017Leave a comment

Still quite a few!!! 🤗We have no shortage of talking heads in this country. They offer great drawing practice. If you can pause your tv it even takes the pressure off of trying to draw them quickly.

And all they do is talk. And talk and talk.

And pass a lot of laws that half the country don’t like no matter which side you are on making the other half is unhappy!

The Decatur Businesses Beach Party in downtown Decatur on the square. Ponce de Leon became a giant beach!! Free beach buckets, beach balls and balloons oh and washable tattoos for all!!

An amazing stilt walker. The kids had no idea how he could be that tall! Several people on top of each other was their best guess.

And there he goes legging it down the block or should I say stilting down the block?!

And a rare shot of the old Decatur Courthouse with sun on its face. It usually sits in the shade. Bytw this is now an art gallery.

Off to play with my grandkids. Hugs!!

Day 1057 – Those Sta Wet sponges – A Cheaper Way!?

June 13, 2017June 14, 20174 Comments

If you have a sta wet palette I bet you have one of those EXPENSIVE yellow sponges in them.

Occasionally my palette gets infested with mold. Yuck. And I need a change. I clean it out with bleach to kill the molds but then I reuse that same old sponge.

UPDATE: After I posted this I reposed you could sanitize sponges in the microwave just like you do for your kitchen sponge. Hopefully it would kill mold. Or maybe freezing it would. Of course at the cost of these sponges vs the coast of paint might as well toss it if mold grows and start fresh.

Today I realized that my Trader Joe’s sponges would work just as well and be cheaper at 2 for $2.59. They are 10×14 instead of $6.80 for one 12x 18″ Sta Wet sponge. Math is in favor of Trader Joe’s sponges.

Sta wet on left Trader Joe’s on right

I love these for wiping up counters, dripped watercolor. I usually have one on the floor and one on the sink. AND you can throw them in the washing machine or the dishwasher to clean them.

Bytw the Trader Joe’s sponge is slightly thicker too so would hold more moisture.

Going to be buying a couple more packs when I go to Atlanta this weekend. LOVE Trader Joe’s.

Margaret xoxox who loves saving $ on art supplies. Leaves more $$ for when I can’t save it on art supplies.

Day 994 – Peggy Habet’s class

April 11, 2017April 12, 2017Leave a comment

I drew Peggy several times during class. This was the last time and looks the most like her. Fourth time the charm. She was hard to draw with a long thin nose and a tiny face.

The nose kept overpowering her tiny face when I drew her. This was the first try. And then I painted her too dark so I scrubbed her a little to lighten her up. I did have fun stamping her name and embellishing the page with a watercolor pencil.