Day 730 – Happy Birthday Blog!!!

June 30, 20162 Comments

Happy Birthday Blog!!! Caran d’ache neocolor II on Kilimanjaro 5×7″

Absolutely THRILLED to say TWO years of posting daily. I started out just trying to post daily for 50 days. I think I made it!! 😊👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Start of an Abstract iii 26×40 Arches 280# elephant sheet

Have a couple of watercolors ready to paint. I really need to get with it but …..

So what else is up??? Plotting a trip to somewhere -probably France or China.

Travelzoo had some great deals. $1800 for 14 days in China including air fare may be hard to pass up.

But then there’s a seven day deal in France 4-5 days in Paris, museum passes hop on hop off bus, then off to the French country side around Dijon driving ourselves. Thinking that could be an adventure to remember.

Raisin full sheet watercolor Fabriano Hot Press just started
And thinking about a repeat of the Paris – Normandy Viking Cruise. You say why?! So I can draw Paris, Vernon, Auvers, Normandy and Rouen without being hustled everywhere nonstop while being pampered on the ship. Not bad.

Never touching a suitcase has its appeals.

It’s running $1900 including airfare. The southern leg thru Provence is also dirt cheap now.

So many possibilities. Which will it be. In the meantime heading to the mountains and Key West while we decide.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret dreaming of foreign lands instead of painting. Xxx

Day 711 and then

June 9, 2016June 8, 2016Leave a comment

There were more.

Sweet Mary our backdoor neighbor and our new bff.

Donna. She’s much prettier than this sketch of her.

Once again these were painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. The notes were colored with Winsor Newton watercolor markers, a caran d’ache watercolor pencil and a Daniel Smith watercolor crayon

Thanks for checking by.
Margaret xxx

Day 696 – Memories

May 25, 2016Leave a comment

Best thing about a travel journal is the memories when you look back through it.

Raisin and I shared some awesome deserts and a free shot of Jameson’s is always welcome!!

This was a pretty great strawberry shortcake at Calhouns on the Tennessee River. The view was fabulous. Will post it when I get done painting it! Riverside is a wonderful place to eat especially when it’s a different river than the one i live on.

The lines on this page are made with a Wonsor Newton watercolor markers and a Daniel Smith watercolor crayon that I got at Jerrys Artarama during the demo.

I color with them – draw lines -and then release them with water which let’s them bleed where they want to go. A really fun effect.
And I started this last nite. Forgot to eat dinner. Must be fun right?! Hmm 🤔 full sheet arches 300# 22 x 30″ eeekkkkk

Thanks for checking by.

More Knoxville fun to come.

Margaret xxx

Day 329 – Urban Sketching

June 2, 2015Leave a comment

in Columbia at Nonnahs on Gervais.

The view of the restaurant from our table. Delicious awesome from scratch biscuits made with the famous SC flour Adluh and great chicken salad on a bed of mixed greens with artichoke hearts and lots of iced tea. Deliciousness.

I had hoped some more victims I mean patrons would come in but all there were walked by on the sidewalk after I drew the buildings. OPPS!

Noodler Konrad with Lexington Grey ink and Caran d’ache.

The zigzags of color are applied after the base color dries. I think it gives a little Zing to the sketch.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 328 – Quick Dog Sketches

June 1, 2015Leave a comment

The Watch Dogs aka Pits on guard

Happy June!! Can hardly believe it’s amer again!

After one false start this one went very well. The two dogs were guarding the house while strangers were getting giveaways on Craigslist off the porch.

They will sit still barking their heads off for what seems like hours. This sketch took at most ten minutes and perhaps ten to color it. Quick and dirty. It was done with my Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with carbon platinum plus. The ink should not have run. Maybe I will make this mixed media when I get home by adding a piece of ledger paper over the lettering on the right.

Tips aka How I did it. Colored with Caran d’ache watercolor crayons wet with a waterbrush. The brindle pitty was a problem as usual with his tiger striped coat. I started with the same colors as the fawn pit bull Livia. Then I added black to Bear. I wet it down hitting it here and there with the waterbrush. If I had brushed the water on it it would have blurred the colors.

The blinds were done by coloring with a burnt umber crayon and washing the blinds with it. Then letting the wash dry and drawing new lines on the blinds with the burnt umber crayon.

I had thought about getting my fine mister out and spraying it allowing the colors to run. Glad I didn’t. I really do like this sketch. The mister spray effect is totally unpredictable.

This is the first attempt at drawing them. A contour sketch that didn’t have room for all of Bear the pit on the left or all of Livias tail or the chair. Sometimes it’s just easier to start over.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx

Day 320 – only 45 days til it’s a YeAr!!

May 25, 20153 Comments

Oh my the goal is getting so close. I will be in Key West I think then so look south for skyrockets. Lol. The year long odyssey can almost see the finish line.

What’s for dinner? Caran d’ache, brush pen 8.5 x 11″
Memorial Day a day for families getting together to eat. So I drew my dinner yesterday. Haven’t done that in a month.

The first time I thought it was finished. Scribbling red and orange around the border to frame it. Also scribbling random colors on the various objects like the knife.

A fast fun sketch with caran d’ache in my sketchbook. They are a lot of fun. You can use them as crayons or you can hit them with a waterbrush and turn them into watercolor. They are a touch opaque if you color too heavily. Also great fun to spray with a fine mist and let them drip drip drip. All those juicy colors sliding down the paper and mingling into mini rainbows. Really a must try.

Adding some finishing touches with my Pentel brush pen or so I thought. The crayons always lighten the brush pen so a lot of times I go back over it when I am done with the caran d’ache.

So treat yourself to a pack of Neocolor ii Caran d’ache crayons. You can get as few as ten though I think 30 or so is better. More is always better right?!!

Thanks for reading!!!

Margaret💋

Day 299 – Silver Wyandottes

May 3, 2015May 3, 20156 Comments

aka chickens. More of the reason I drove across the mountains. Sketching chickens is THE most fun and I highly recommend giving it a go.

Silver Wyandottes are interesting looking chickens. With white diamond and a swirl of light feathers streaked with black around their heads.

Stillman and Birn Zeta with a Noodler Conrad Flex loaded with Lexington Grey ink. I am actually not sure if all these chickens were Silver Wyandottes but they are colored like they are.

The bottom left chicken was colored with a tombow pen. It’s fun to wet them and see them run. You can lift the colors. I thought it might be a good way to color these oddly colored birds. Actually I think the Tombow was a little strong for these chickens. Next I tried a black and an indigo inktense pencil. Things were going better. The blue softened the black. I drew a diamond pattern all over the hens bodies. Then I added white gouache after the inktense dried. The benefit of inktense is that once it dries its permanent and you can paint over it. White gouache was also used around the beaks and heads to eliminate dark grey lines I didn’t want especially on the big chicken on the right. That defined the face and beak better. The waddles and red bits on the head where colored with watercolor pencils- red yellow and orange! The background is 2 light blue watercolor pencils and a purple one for shadows. White gouache was brushed over the neck feathers to make them look fluffier.

My gift to you this Sunday is these chicken picture so you can join in the chicken sketching fun. At least these aren’t running anywhere. Have fun and I would love to see what you do with them.

Don’t forget to draw the silver Wyandotte earlier on this post.

Drawing chickens is like drawing bumpy triangles. The legs are two sticks with upside down trees on them.

More park sketches tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!!

Maggie XX

Day 296 – A few Barred Rocks

April 30, 20154 Comments

you know what those are. Chickens. They were so cute and fluffy. Eating constantly. I drove all the way across the Great Smoky National Park just to draw them. Over a huge mountain. I may be in love. There’s just something about these chickens that’s so appealing.

I hear you shaking your head. I used to do the same thing before I started drawing birds. If the cars were all Lapins fault the chickens are all Roz Stendahl’s fault. I want to go to the fair and draw more in the fall!!😳

These were actually drawn as the chickens ran around me at the Oconaluftee Farm. I should have drawn them with black or grey ink but for some reason I drew them with De Artrementis Brown in my Noodler standard flex.

It’s not a good idea to draw in the rain but I did that a lot the week I was in Gatlinburg because it rained almost daily. Thank goodness the ink dries quickly.

They were colored with my Caran d’Ache using the side of the flat end. I decided it was easier and quicker to use them than my watercolors though thinking back I don’t supposed it mattered that much.

I still have two more pages of chickens to color – silver wyandottes a much shyer chicken that ran any time anyone was near it and even worse to color than the barred rocks. I will probably use my watercolor pencils. But these will take a while to color!!

Silver Wyandottes

I also had fun journaling stray thoughts about the chickens as I drew them and later as I colored them.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I need some chickens.

Thanks for looking.

Day 283 – Cataract Falls Part 2

April 16, 2015Leave a comment

These waterfalls are hard to paint. The water doesn’t roar over the black rocks but it trickles. Today with all the rain we have had I bet it’s more than a trickle. All the creeks are roaring filled with water.

This is what it looked like when I left the falls. I did draw it on site. I think there was too much ink on the water to let the white show thru.

This is what it looked like after I added some white gouache. I think it was too thick. So I started to scratch it off.

And this is what it looks like for now. I think I would rather draw the people at the falls than that darn waterfall. But it is a gorgeous spot with an easy walk from the Sugarlands Visitor center.

Schminke gouache Noodler Creeper Ahab caran d’ache in my Stillman and Birn Zeta.

Thanks for looking.

Day 282 – Running out of ink!

April 14, 20153 Comments

and some more food sketching.

Brownie and chocolate chip ice cream desert at the Wild Plum Tea Room. I think I might be obsessed with food but it was delicious served on a sweet pink and white rose china plate including a doily.

I used my kuretake brush pen and a pitt pen plus caran d’ache.

Need to add something to the title. Maybe a plum because I didn’t space the lettering out enough.

A warning about the kuretake brush pen. I love it. I got a converter for it too but it runs out very quickly when doing a large sketch like this one with all the black line work. I think I refilled it three times in the process. My Pentel brush pen which I left back at home would still be full of ink. I guess it’s a small price to pay for being able to use platinum carbon black ink in a brush pen but it’s annoying to refill so frequently.

The other day I went out sketching and ran out of ink. It was especially great for sketching trees but I ran out before I could finish.

Now I have to drive back up the mountain and finish this. To make the scenario perfect I left my Pentel brush pen at home 234 miles away. Not fun to refill the pen with a bottle of ink in the car. Sigh!

Thanks for looking!!