Category: Boone NC

Day 21

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Sketchbookskool drawing party. Draw a dollar Bill. Crumple it up. Hope for no breeze no fan stirring it and draw. First a bold thick pen for the outline and finer pens inside. I used a Lamy Safari and a Lamy Ef. Half the time the Lamy was upside down.

Then you draw till you are satisfied. I journaled all over the page writing over and over the same page with a soft pencil til you couldn’t read it. Always makes a lot of texture.

Painted with burnt sienna Andrews turquoise cad yellow for the green. Burnt sienna background. Add a favorite quote or two. This was one of Andrew Cuomos dads favorites. Evidently he liked anything by Churchill.

The Sketchbookskool Instagram drawing party. Didn’t draw it live but one day I will get up early enough to do it at 8 am😵😵. Draw your coffee mug and paint it with your leftover coffee. Fun and much easier to do than that darn dollar bill.

The mask filter

In the throws of mask making. All the parts assembled. Just a few seams left and I will have enough masks to cover all my kids nose and the grandkids.

This is the brand and type I used for the mask filter.

Four done and almost 17 finished. Filters ready to go into the cotton mask.

Two seams each and done. Hurrah.

Margaret Tahred. Haven’t knitted a stitch all week. Xoxoxox

Face masks and other things!! Aka BUSY!!

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From last weeks urban car sketching.

Spent yesterday starting to make masks because if they work for medical people they will protect the ones I love from the virus too.

Don’t believe for a minute you don’t need one when You go out.

Here’s the article!!

I am ripping up filtrete filters with merv 1900 -2200 rating which is really good for masks but u can also use hepa vacuum filters. Just try not to puncture them.

Other fabrics you can use for filters.

You can use duct tape and staples scotch tape masking tape to make the folded accordion style masks. And add ribbons or scraps of fabric for ties. Get creative. Masks patterns are all over the internet.

And no elastic!? Cut strips across your T-shirt’s width about an inch wide. Pull on each end of them. You get spaghetti t-shirt strips perfect for ties.

I made this large pile of ties in minutes. Hmm leftovers. I could tie tomato plants up with them. If I had tomato plants. 🤣😂

So get busy. Some glitter might be a good finish!!Two face masks for my son with bad asthma. Taken two days of ripping and cutting. One day of washing drying fabric. Omg! And I have 53 to make. 😖😖😖

Stay well!! Love you guys!

Margaret who will post art later today after I get the bread out of the oven.

Car Sketching Again!!

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Hoping you and yours are doing well. So far so good with all of mine. So here we will sit six feet apart for another month. It’s worth it if it saves even one life.

Never pays to grab a random black sketchbook without looking to see if it’s the right one. This one wasn’t. NOT fond of watercolor. And don’t make a mistake – it’s NOT coming off. No blotting lifting will do. Paper so thin it waffled badly.

This is the kind of sketchbook it is. Ink was fine but watercolor not so much. A birthday present supposedly ok for watercolor. How I mistook it for my black stillman and birn Alpha I will never know. The Alpha is covered with stickers. They look nothing alike.

Spent the day ripping apart filters to make facemasks only to find that I should have gotten the kind in the photo above. Ripping off all those gold plastic wires was tough on my hands. Six done. Still ok for masks but the one in the photo has about 6 times as much fabric. Will use it for my next go round because these will only make 25 or so.

And then there was the baking. Snickerdoodles yummm so crispy and buttery.

And easy no knead bread heading for the oven in an hour. Can’t wait. Usually it takes 18 hours on the counter but not this method.

Not much to see outside this morning. I was hoping doe a pretty sunrise instead it’s been overcast. Hmmm.

And that’s it from the river where the sun will set soon. Hmm still won’t be able to see it. First world problems right?! Xoxoxox

Margaret

Drawing with Danny

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Draw small squares all over your pages and then draw parts of items you can see. Can anyone find Zoe. She’s one of these.

It was actually quite interesting. Glad I had the big shelf across the end wall in my eye sight.

It took about 45 minutes to draw all these. And no Zoe is not on the second set. Next time will make it neater like the first set.

You freehand all those squares. One more behind. Draw a face with France Van Something.

Can you see the kayakers!?

They start at noon every week day. If u are on time it’s fun to comment with the other participants and Danny will answer as will Koosje at nine in sketchbookskool YouTube. If u missed one like I did they are still there. Just scroll thru The first five nothing minutes.

Here they are. One group slowly rowing upstream. The other hardly rowing racing south on the river towards the Atlantic. Well in 130 mules or so and a few dams.

A Charles Reid painting of Belize. Isn’t it awesome? And that palm!!! 🌞🌞🌞 Well what can I say?? The king of the splatter. Probably done in two hours or less. 🤔😳😳😳It’s for sale. Lovely painting.

Lamy Ef Brown Noodlers Ink and Micro Uniball Black Watercolor pencil Stillman and Birn Alpha. Brand new one. Hurrah.

Stay well. Hugs. Margaret xoxo

It’s passed

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Watercolor pencils, Stillman and Birn Alpha, Lamy Safari, Noodlers Eelskin Ink

More tv sketching. Always a good excuse to watch tv or a movie. The sketchbook is really getting full of these aka watching too much news.

I drew Nancy yesterday while I listened to her talk about the 2 trillion dollar bill passing Congress. 

Cad red light and a dark flesh colored pencil starts her off w cocoa brown shadows, hair. Alizarin and cad red light lips.

Adding flesh colors. And what’s with her fat face. Sigh. Gotta thin it down.

Thank goodness the bill is done. I hope it provides needed relief for everyone.

Thinned her face down QUITE a bit!

Maybe draw the Pope next. I do love that man.

Our my kitchen window this am. Spring is here. Check the pollen out on the deck floor. 😖

A quick sketch on an envelope I mailed to Augusta’s local hero Leonard Porkchop Zimmerman who donates stacks of his happy stickers and sometimes buttons to the world at makemehappy.com

I make him cookies – quite the sweet tooth our Porkchop has.

Margaret ready to put on her jammies. Xoxoxo Stay safe!!

Out my window

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At my house in solidarity with Italian Urban Sketchers that couldn’t get out and draw. Did I say drawn last Sat. Just painted today?! Summer coming fast along the river!!

Stillman and Birn Zeta uniball micro Watercolor

Margaret thinking abt zipping up a stack of face masks. Hmm if only I thought they would work. Sad times. Xoxoxo

Joya Steps up

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Edited with Waterlogue

Our model was late so Joya nimbly volunteered to model for our gesture sketch session.

The one minute poses. We tried to get her to pole dance but she said NOPE!!

More 1 min poses. She really did some interesting poses.

Three minute poses. We all loved drawing someone with clothes on. Especially the folds and wrinkles in them.

Five minute. I gave my sheaf of drawings to our model Joya. She quipped if I had known you were going to do that I would have given you( aka me) real paper(aka not newsprint).

Charcoal pencil.

Another one dumped into Waterlogue. Such athleticism!! The best she could do in the pole dancing category. 🤗

Margaret giggling at Young Sheldon. Xoxoxo

Neither rain nor sleet nor hail

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will keep us from gathering at USC Aiken to paint. The weather predicted today was terrible (tornadoes and torrential rain) but we soldiered on.

First break. An all over wash of quin gold some burnt sienna alizarin a touch of mineral violet.

Coming along more of the same colors.

When I left Aiken

Now. I keep losing the edge across her arm and thigh where the drippy background meets the body but really liking the background. I can lift the burnt umber off the skin.

I also lifted her shoulder about 1/2″ to make her body more in proportion with her head which is a touch too big.

Added some more darks to her face especially around the eyes and the chin.

Really like the background which is a combo of all the colors used plus cobalt. Nice swirly look made mostly by splattering wet on wet.

Will post her again after I lift the spillover on her body. Have to let it dry first.

Highlights mostly lifted out now.

My favorite bit. Andrews turquoise and yellow ochre stripes. Or was it burnt sienna

Margaret watching the Super Tuesday returns. Xoxoxo

Life modeling at USC Aiken

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After my Saturday disaster I really didn’t want to make the drive to Aiken but I got a nice painting so am glad I did.

First break. Funny how washed out she looks.

So how did I paint her?? The big question I got yesterday.

Most of the painting was done with a two inch flat black velvet. Finishing with my 10 Charles Reid da Vinci.

First up a wash of quin gold all over her. It just gives a nice glow to African Americans.

Then I judiciously started adding burnt sienna and burnt umber for shadows. A swish of cad orange on highlights on her back. Piling on Andrews turquoise as well as a small dab of ultramarine toward the end for shadows and cad red light on the highlights – ears, the tip of the nose and on the elbow.

The hair is burnt umber and ultramarine. Not sure why I left the divot on top of her head but will fix that sooner or later.

The cloth she is sitting on is burnt sienna and cad red light.

Margaret relieved she can still draw after Saturday.

Every Once in A While I amaze myself.

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Gypsy got in the Transparent Watercolor Show which is a National Show in Kenosha Wisconsin in June. Who cares if she wins?? Feel like I won the lottery with her just getting into the show. So excited got zero sleep last night.

The show is ranked with The American Watercolor Show and the National Watercolor Show.

The difference in the shows in TWS your painting has to be all transparent watercolor. Lots of things disqualify it. Too much pencil. Gouache. Not lifting all the masking fluid. All these things don’t disqualify you from the other two shows.

If the judges Kathleen Conover and Herman Pikel decide I get one of those nice juicy checks I will be heading to Wisconsin don’t you know. Lol.

I actually had to look on the map last nite to see where Kenosha was. Due north of Chicago. Should be lovely in June. We shall see.

Margaret whose in charge of book club tonite. Eeekk Xoxoxox