Palm tree time

April 18, 2023April 18, 2023Leave a comment

Busy day today. Lost the tall trunk of the palmetto tree darn it. Does that mean a do over?! Always interesting to draw or paint a palm. And a challenge.

The culprits and my antique strathmore 500 mixed media journal. Such lovely paper. only four spreads left in it now.

First go round. Sprinkling water on the neocolor ii Always loose the detail when u wet them. 🧐🧐😵 and I lost more details when I smeared it with a kleenex.

Redrawing details. So u add more color. Always fun to use the Neocolor in spots of water. you never know how it will turn out.

Getting there. Turned the trunk silver. They are NOT brown. 😵‍💫 Added some black and ultramarine to shadow areas to give the greens more definition.

And done. Well til I decide to mess with it some more.

Or these. If they were good enough for Picasso for whom they were invented good enough for me.

Don’t want to stop the tips on these up. Maybe another palm using these?! Winsor Newton watercolor markers.

Inktense blocks. Aways fun but not archival.

Prismacolor art sticks. A BIG fav of mine. Good for scribbling.

And then there is this pile. Not opened yet. The british unison landscape colors are just lovely and soft. Prismacolor pastels a little harder more like conte crayons. And opps another smaller pack of prismacolor artsticks.

The cats know how to end this day. Margaret. Xoxoxox

A history with birds

April 14, 2023April 14, 2023Leave a comment

Worked on the goose some more. Funny thought about my bird drawing. I remember in third or fourth grade making bird books. Probably traced the birds and copied the descriptions. All in pencil because god forbid the kid had an ink pen. She might be lethal then. Evidently the bird affair is a long standing one with me.

Funny the things you forget til something jogs your memory. The jog was an old paper my brother wrote about the brown thrasher the Ga state bird. It was in a bag of papers my mom saved for him that I need to mail to him along with his less than stellar report cards. His daughters will enjoy those. I for one would have loved to see my dads.

The goose before i worked on jt some more. You know i think the neck is too short. Odd. I watch geese alot. I should know better. This was not deliberate like the neck of the heron. Hmm the things u dont notice when u r in the heat of drawing.

Drawings are all done w watercolor, Caran dache neocolor ii,some prismacolor art sticks in an 8×10” stillman and birn alpha. NO PENCIL drawings aka direct painting. All done with a watercolor base first.

I have alot of trouble telling the difference in these two birds when they come to the feeder. So do others. Alot of people identify them both as flickers. Like my mom a bird nut if there ever was one. These two birds sure did get cute. Except for the ink smear. No idea where that came from.

In my dreams they would all be as good as this crow. Something to strive for right?!!

Anyway enough birdie thoughts. Nite note Margaret xoxoxo

Sandi Hester and some birds

April 13, 2023April 13, 20234 Comments

I ran across Sandi, a terribly charming Nashville TN artist, when I subscribed to her substack An Artists life a few weeks ago. I am kind of hooked on her entertaining youtube feed. She talks about everything from art supplies to art books and how to lake the most art possible. I could spend entirely too much money with her helpful tips. Oops. Been trying to swear off art supply buying.

Having fun playing in my big 8×10” Stillman and Birn alpha. Watched a youtube by Sandi Hester who said leave everything set up so all you have to do is sit down and draw something. So I did. Something i had been meaning to do anyway. She suggested drawing birds from a book but i have so many pics on my phone I don’t need to. Somehow I discovered that they are NOT Canadian Geese but actually Canada Geese. Too late. I had already written the name. Sigh.

Anyway this is done with all that leftover watercolor from pouring and Caran dache neocolor II. Oh and Moltow paint markers. A true mixed media bird.

Was just thinking of the diff in these two birds and WHY did i like the heron best? I drew the goose with caran dache and sprayed it to wet the color. I used the watercolor in the background with a big Chinese brush wet on wet with cobalt and indigo. Smack smack and it was done.

The egret was painted first with the cad yellow light indigo and raw sienna. The water is cobalt. I let the bird dry and then drew on it with the neocolor ii. Too much fun. The grass is neocolor ii and prismacolor art sticks. The water. I got the tipples by folding a kleenex w a knife edge dragging it croswise in the paint. It lifts it and leaves a wave. Hmm or is it a reflection?!!🧐🧐🧐

And i drew a Great Blue Heron who hangs out on our river bank eating I have no idea what. This is also done with that same endless watercolor, neocolor ii and prismacolor art sticks. And yes hes my fav. I did use my artistic license and shorten its neck so it would fit on the page. Hmm maybe I will do this one again on watercolor paper and slap her in a frame.

Margaret xoxoxoxo

How to paint a nest

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023Leave a comment

My fav things splattering and slinging watercolor. Always fun. Colors used paynes grey, indigo, thalo blue, burnt umber,sodalite.

Mask the eggs first! I like pebeo masking fluid.

First adding masking! Not too sure abt flinging masking fluid. Could be dangerous! Just lay it down roughly and u will be good to go.

Spray it down w a big sprayer and add some color. Prussian blue and burnt umber. And some splatters!

More masking and more color! Careful not to go to dark.

Remove the masking And now to paint the eggs.

A lovely blue w some splatters and paint slinging with my cheap joes scrooogys loose goose aka a saber brush and shes done. Wonder what kind of bird will pop out?!

Margaret being lazy today but thinks it might be fun to have another run at a nest. We do love our birds. Xoxoxox

Things found and a black black

April 7, 20236 Comments

More or less clean but i found things i forgot i had while cleaning.

This lovely hand made sketchbook full of fabriano 140# hot press paper. Evidently they sell for big bucks on etsy. This one has a kid skin cover. A gifty from my son Ben and his lovely wife Nelie.

A Value finder. It loos well used hut it was lost so nope i do t use it. I should but never got the hang of it.

Red plastic similar to a value scale. Look thru it to see of u have enough darks or is it all mid tones like most paintings?!

Any guesses as to what this is? Something else i though i needed but dont use.

This is cool. A masking marker. Not lost and hopefully wont ever be lost. Love it!!

Azaleas are required this time of the year in Augusta Ga. You only have to watch the masters golf tournament to see them here.

Anyway a recipe for a good dark black. Alizarin viridian and indigo til its black. Works everytime. Good luck and happy painting. Margaret xoxoxoxox

A Cat in a Garden

April 6, 20234 Comments

Bear one of our feral cats. i actually drew him with the Noodler first but forgot to take a pic.

Since I have all this paint leftover from pouring i decided to use it. Made Black w mostly indigo and some raw sienna and cad red. I maybe using these colors for quite a while. Still plenty of paint.

I used a dip pen w masking fluid to do his whiskers. works great. Painted the background.

Then i drew all the leaves in. Margaret who had been up since 5 am and is ready for bed. Xoxoxoxo

Ready for a break!!

April 6, 2023April 6, 2023Leave a comment

Sketching in my strathmore mixed media. For some reason my ink did not dry. When i wet it w paint it smeared. Grrrr. Makes me want to toss the pens and the ink. Should not be doing that. Bytw red pen on bottom is straight. The bend in the fold makes it look like its not.

Drawing what i saw. Sometimes its quite a challenge to draw whats in front of you.

Sketch before i hit it with the watercolor

Raw Sienna background color. Annoying smears.

Telling the story. I actually journaled abt my busy day. Bytw i can get off the floor again easily since i have turned into a cleaning fool. I added the red pen because it needed something there. I drew it with the pen on the right.

Margaret done for the night! xoxoxox

My noodlers are clean!

April 5, 2023April 5, 20232 Comments

I finally broke down and cleaned my beloved old noodlers. Thats all I used to draw with. No Lamys ever. I like the Noodlers because the nib acts alot like a dip pen. They make much mode interesting lines than my Lamys do. HOWEVER they can be annoying. They quit right in the moddle of a hot sketching session. They Drip ink. They cover your hands with ink. But today i soldiered on.

Heres the link to clean your pen. Try it u will be so glad you did!! Now to clean my hmm 7 or 8 Lamys. My pilot my kwecko my two fudes. I never realized the paper lint could stop the pens up.