Day 437 – Sacred Heart

September 20, 2015September 20, 2015Leave a comment

A beautiful old deconsecrated Catholic Church in downtown Augusta. Supposedly it even has a ghost in one of the bell towers.

It’s hard to get a clear view of the entire front of the church. Trees have been planted that block the view so I only drew the top.

I knew the sketch had problems when it was drawn but painted it anyway. Painted with my Isabey mop #2. No control over it and should have changed to a sable to even up the towers. Oh well. I think it might be my Rouen cathedral to paint over and over.

From Wikipedia

It was built by Jesuit priests and its first service was on December 2, 1900. The church had been in Augusta for 70 years, until it closed in 1971 due to modern suburban advancements. While the building was vacant, it endured much vandalism and was near destruction.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[1]
In 1987, the Knox Foundation renovated the building and opened as a vibrant center of the city for cultural events. The building now host events such as wine festivals, choral concerts, and Christmas events. It is one of the best examples of redeveloping downtown Augusta.

More Sacred Heart tomorrow. The inside!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx whose actually reading a book instead of drawing or painting.

Day430- Food Food Food!!!

September 12, 2015Leave a comment

We ate at Taj of India the other day. I actually liked the sexond sketxh best til I painted them. Guess which one I like best now?!!funny how things change. I had trouble with my pentel brush running on this paper so I never painted the cerulean around the name of the restaurant. I read somewhere recently that the Pentel brush pen will sometimes run on certain paper. Guess I hit the jackpot on this one. Strathmore mixed media paper. Usually it behaves but I do have two brush pens. I may have used the Kuretake with carbon platinum black on the second one. No runny problems on it. You have to love that carbon platinum black. NEVER runs.

My favorite dish was mine. The chicken tiki Marsala. It was painted with cad red then Quin gold. Last I added touches of green apatite to the bowl. Lots of wet on wet. The same colors were used on the kuchumba just watery. Quin gold and Inathridone on the rice. I actually used most of the same colors on all the dishes just in different variety.

Having never been to Taj of India before I was hoping for an exotic interior. But no. Gold walls with one lonely wall hanging and an alcove. However there was a birthday party in progress having a good time. The odd waiter who had hair like a rasta was added for some variety. His hair and huge beard were red and black. Very odd. He was a really sweet guy and kept the water glasses full. Good idea since the food was spicy. Not a spicy food eater.

Skin tone – Quin red and yellow ochre. Burnt sienna for shadows sometimes with a touch of cerulean.

Greys and darks. Made with Cerulean and burnt umber or burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Test them for a great variety of greys blacks and Browns.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 428 Busy as a bee

September 11, 2015September 11, 20152 Comments

Day 1 at the dog park. I hated this one but now I think I like it because of all the people and all the dogs.

The seat on the right was completely misdrawn. And I tried to correct it. I had run out of room for the people OPPS.

This group is my favorite part. Lots of dogs, lots of people. I sit in my car in the parking lot and try to catch the people and dogs before they move. I used a Noodler Creaper pen and de artrementis document brown ink.

The bench was painted with Daniel smith green apatite which granulates and Inathradone with a touch of burnt umber. All painted wet on wet. The bushes were painted like the background in Monday’s post though I didn’t take as long.

I did this one today. There was only one dog in the whole park!? And three people. Wonder where the other dogs were.

These were drawn yesterday or the day before. The tall guy stood there right until I started to draw him and then he walked off. Same thing happened with the lady. Before that they had a BIG conversation.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 426 Costco

September 8, 20152 Comments

Last week I sat in the corner at Costco’ s cafe area drawing the lunch crowd. There’s one table that has a 180 view and SCORE. I hid behind my purse.

I really like the way the wall of boxes turned out in the background. And the way most of the people turned out. I actually painted out one guy whose drawing went astray. Can you find him!?

It was also hard getting all the bodies with legs as they came and went.

Next time I will draw something easy like my polish sausage and the drink.

This should be a fun place for urban sketching. Or at least getting pics of the roustabouts working. Check their webpage for when they visit near you.

Thanks for reading. Class tomorrow. Busy day!!

Margaret xxx

Day 425 -a Tutorial – That bacKgRouD

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015Leave a comment

Ilenia Kilimanjaro #140 cold pressed 22×30 -for sale email me at m c m h u n t @ me.c o m of you need her.

Or how many ways can you spell disaster?! Disasters are hard to fix when you paint with watercolor but sometimes you can if you are patient.

Yesterday I said I would post how I did the backgrounds on these two paintings of Ilenia. It involves ALOT of water and dripping paint.
Ilenia Fabriano #140 cold pressed 12x 18-for sale email me at m c m h u n t @ me.c o m of you need her.

This was the background originally on last weeks painting. What was I thinking?!

Try lifting color next time you have a disaster. If it’s cold pressed paper you can lift the color. Some paper does it better than others. Fabriano does it best. The cheapest source of fabriano I have found is Cheap Joes. Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro also does a good job of lifting though not as good a job as Fabriano.

Don’t forget Hot Press papers will not lift at all. Worst ever including my beloved Fabriano. I once mixed up some hot press fabriano with my cold press and used it accidently. How many ways can you spell disaster?!

This is basically how I did the backgrounds in the pictures. You may have to repeat the steps. hookers green size 12 sable legend I had the same reaction to that hookers green in this weeks paintings background. What was I thinking. Even worse the green is staining so I had to use other colors to get rid of it.

Blotting off that Ick green.

So how to do that? First how I arrived at the background.

Adding more water to lift the paint.

More blotting with Kleenex. No puffs allowed. They have lanolin on them.

Adding yellow ochre to kill the green.

And a little burnt umber.

Splattering soupy burnt sienna with my Legend 12 sable.

The spatters melt out because the paint is wet.

Then I repeat the above steps blotting off color and adding more til I like it.

Now what did I do to get rid of this too dark color. I hit it with the spray bottle, let it sit a few minutes and started blotting it off with Kleenex or paper towel. It gets to be a drippy mess and it usually ends up on the floor.

And it ended like this. I did splatter the background again. I think the colts I used were alizarin, mineral Violet, burnt sienna, Inathradone blue and cobalt.

Ps don’t forget to wipe the drips off the floor before you track them everywhere.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 421 – A Little Urban Sketching

September 3, 20156 Comments

at Fitch and Fifth in Surrey Center in Augusta Ga. A room full of people and I am waiting to eat. What else would I do?!

Scenes like this really call my name to get out my Noodler Ahab or my brush pen and get busy drawing.

I do usually paint these later because I don’t want to impose on whoever I am with too much.

TIP: Oh. Almost forgot. The ledger strip down the side. Whenever you see that I can promise you there is something I really didn’t like about the sketch. In this case it was a waiter running a bill. Usually a figure on the side is nice but this one was not!! What to do?! Glue some ledger paper down and record our dinner.
Ps it was delicious. My trout was perfect. I forgot their five stars. Oops. Will fix that!!! Or maybe not. Really like it just the way it is.

And you thought the body was round?! Enjoy. One more page left!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

August 31, 2015August 30, 20151 Comment

I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling on it seems like a good idea. What do you think?!

This was sketched at the Inner Beab in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?! Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?!

Colors used. Almost every color I have !!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

August 31, 2015August 31, 2015Leave a comment

I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling about it seems like a good idea. What do you think?!

This was sketched at the Inner Bean in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?! Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?!

Colors used. Almost every color I have !!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 417 – a Dogs life!

August 30, 20156 Comments

Pouring rain here today and all but one of the dogs hate to go out in the rain.

This dog appeared on TV when I paused it. Decided it was a sign to paint him. No idea what kind of dog he is. A collie perhaps?!

Here’s the original sketch done with the Pentel brush pen. It’s good for quick sketching but takes some getting used to aka practice. Also some thinking is required before you sketch aka at what angle should the lines be drawn?!

Better to do one line than try to correct the permant ink lines. They will always show unless you do some creative painting.

The dog was painted with a cheap Joes size 12 Legend sable. Expensive but worth every penny. I use it a lot.

Colors used – most of my paint is Daniel Smith or Holbein. Quin gold and Quin Sienna for the fur. Quin red for the tongue with a touch of mineral Violet. Burnett umber and ultramarine blue for the darks. Cerulean in the shadows.
Sorry I forgot to post these yesterday so doubling up today.



Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 415 – Dr Sketchys Part 2

August 28, 20159 Comments

This is the one I won the Chat Noir t shirt for – the models favorite sketch. Though you can’t see it the cape is colored with a wink of Stella red glitter pen. Those wink of Stellas are always winners.

The next two are the same twenty minute pose. I got done early and started a second. I have NO idea why he is wearing that “hat”!! Background was done with two red tombow pens that I wet down and let run.

See above for this one. Actually drawn during the first part of the twenty minute pose but was annoyed because I didn’t have room for his foot so I started over.

Another stance with the same strange costume. Had fun journaling on this page. Princess Augusta thinks he looks like Fozzy Bear thus the name. The tattoo is my favorite part of this one. I stole Ruth’s inktense to draw it with. I always like drawing on wet paper with inktense for fun off beat effects.