Day 35 Breakout

Well just a ride to Walmart and back for a drive by pickup. People all over the place. Old people with NO masks buying “essentials” like ferns and palm trees(the houseplant kind!!)😵😵😂

Another sketch of my corner. No idea how I twisted the table like that but oh well. And the red chair is a bit off but the red in the drawing is fun. Maybe a bother go round tomorrow.

Another day of messy pens. Found my twisbee in the pen drawer. I thought hmm not used that in awhile. It leaked everywhere necessitating a ledger patch. It seemed to travel around the page. Sigh.

I “fixed this sketch. Used an old ledger from dads business years ago to cover up the smeared ink.

Margaret who needs to call her mom so ttyl. Xoxoxo

Day 33 Lemonade

Is what you get when you paint over a nonpermanent ink pen. I forgot I went over the letters with a pilot varsity pen which is NOT apermanent. 😫😫😫

I do have plans to fix this so stay tuned. Sometimes they don’t get done in one day.

Zoe actually held her pose for me because she was giving me the jrt stare which means she wants something. And I wasn’t giving it to her aka outside Now. She really wanted to go out and bark at her nemesis two very tall Pointers the neighbor dogs.

I thought coloring the background red was a good idea. It was too pale so I had to keep coloring it and then I added orange which helped.

But these do look better colored. ESP like the jrt head colored orange too.

Margaret ready to watch some comedy on tv to be happy. Xoxoxo

Day 30 Recipes

These are always fun to do but the squares got really wonky on me today. I decided I would only draw things I could see on the coffee table. Yes it’s quite the mess. But I do like these little snap shots.

Started writing down recipes. Still have two more to do but got sidetracked talking to mom for TWO hours. She said her arm got tired. Both arms. Well she is 94!! 🤔🤔

Did I post this yesterday?! It’s time people it’s time. Hmm oh wait it’s always time right now isn’t it?!

Margaret Xoxoxox

Day 26

And I thought it was Day 27 hmmm

This am with Koosje. Draw your shoes up close. I actually painted this but no photo and I hate to disturb Zoe whose snoozing in my lap. Micro Uniball Lamy Safari stillman and birn Alpha.

She’s had an exhausting day today. Went for a ride around. No human contact don’t worry.

And colored pencils with Danny at noon. I drew my Nikon. Waiting for a sunny afternoon to take some bird photos. Had to wash the sliding windows too.

Used three or four pencils. Blue orange yellow and red. No five. Purple too. Fun technique. Wild coloring.

And this was waiting for me in the mail box. Woohoo. Bought my pirate queen Comtesse Chloe Le Chat: Corsair Extrodinaire from Juliana Coles who posted them on Facebook. Love the words too. “In Times like this the Heroine takes her place. Batten the hatches. Fly the Colors!! ” perfect for the pandemic.

And look at all the swag that came with it. I might love her – the cat and Juliana. 🤗 Chloe is now in quarantine airing out for a few days but I can admire her every time I walk by her on the kitchen counter near the hall door.

Woohoo.

Margaret watching Maine cabin masters. Batten the hatches!! Fly the colors!!xoxoxo

Shhh. Don’t tell the teachers.

Done I think but I have been known to be wrong. I actually measured her eyes dropping verticals and horizontals with a long ruler. Something I never do. Shhh. Don’t tell the teachers.

I also softened the right edge of her face using a nylon round. Tough brush. Scrub scrub scrub and it keeps its point. You could have cut an apple with that razor sharp edge.

Oh I softened her top lip. Why you say?! Keeps it from looking cut and pasted. if you don’t soften the edge of the upper lip it looks cut and pasted on.

She doesn’t look quite so much like she would eat you for dinner. All that softening of edges helped with the ferocious look.

Saturday. Eeek. Tilted eye and nasty background that doesn’t coordinate on both sides.

Back to that right annoying eye. Actually used some white gouache mixed with a dab of quin gold to pick out the highlights.

Oh and those three dots on her eyelashes – all gouache mixed with quin gold!!

Margaret watching the election returns. Xoxoxo

Neither rain nor sleet nor hail

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

Day 2108 Rachel remembered

Saucing it up at Dr Sketchys a few years ago. I carried these around in the hold of my car to give to her and kept forgetting them. I finally gave them to her family today at a memorial at Le Chat.

She was quite the Burlesque dancer. At today’s memorial at Le Chat we got to see old burlesque with Dirty South YouTube’s of some of her performances and outtakes from the movie Old Man of the Rocks she and her daughter made a couple of years ago.

Marian the Librarian from her favorite musical the Music Man. Her fans were many and her talents were legion. Her grandpa called her Marian the librarian.

Vamping for the Dr Sketchys crowd. Not my greatest sketches but they are now owned by her family. I hope they enjoy them.

Pentel brush pen superaquabee sketchbook caran d’ache neocolor ii. Tomboy markers.

Margaret tucked in for the night Xoxoxox

Day 988 Wow 13 more days

Til the big 1000!! 

Since 13 is a mystics number surrounded by bad luck impending done a journal page on palm reading seems like an appropriate post.   The assignement this week was to completely cover a two page spread with masking tape. Then study a palm reading chart and react to that. I am not exactly a girl who believes in palm Reading so this was a little difficult for me. 

I pondered the assignment of reading your palms for 4-5 days. Then I did all these pages in less than an hour.  I was flipping thru the old Bazaar magazine looking for images to collage on another page and found the red headlines. I thought perfect. I glued them on. The grey was a scrap from ripping out collage items for the other page. Perfect color. 


I literally pulled a couple of pieces of somerset collage paper out of this heap and traced my hands and glued them down quickly.  Then I started scribbling with Prismacolor artstiks and gel pens. 

Next I stamped some old Teesha Moore stamps that I had for years and never used. I still had the third page blank. I lettered with the paint pen and drew some arrows. Then it popped into my head to do an X-ray hand for the scar page-write down all your scars-because some scars are visible but some you can only see in an X-ray. Still have to journal those. 

This is a WIP. It will change. I got some transparent purple ink to paint on it just not had time. And I have a list of things to still try out. Here are what I brain stormed. 

Yellow gold aura. Lightening bolts

Light green on x ray hand thalo blue thinned on background

Outline letters in yellow? 

Green glow 

Heart Malagra

Anyway time to get going. Busy day. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 949 OOPPPs

Slated to appear on the local dr Sketchys page as the logo I think it’s the logo. Well will let you know!!


Went to Dirty South Burlesque at Le Chat Noir and almost forgot to blog tonite.  OOPPS. On the up side is I have NOT laughed so hard since….well I don’t know when. It was so FUNNY!! 
This is the cast at the finale. 

And then everyone dances. But I had to take pics. 

More of the dancing and 

Yes more. Lol

Did I say I have one at least free tickets to this at least three times and never gone. Well as I told Princess Augusta NO MORE!! I will be using them!!!

While we are on the subject of Chat Noir here are the rest of the dr Sketchys sketches. 

All but the last one are done with a Pentel brush pen, whisky painters box with Winsor newton watercolors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral in a super aquabee 11×14″ tablet. 
She was leaning on an exercise ball which I turned into the Chat Noir cat. Lettering in this one is done with a noodler Konrad. 

This was a challenge to turn the exercise ball she sat on into a cat. 

Turn her into a margaritas ad. I really wanted to put her on a glass but I didn’t have enough room.

Add a tropical animal. I turned her into Jane because I was tired of drawing her bikini. 

We had to draw her three times. Which is all I did. I never did the challenge. Oops. 


The End Fini Caput Finished drawn with caran Dache neocolor ii which were sprayed with a mister and allowed to drip. 

Gooodnite.  Tomorrow’s saturday. You know what that means!! 

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox whose off to bed. Well as soon as the dog comes in. 

Day 948 Dr Sketchys part 1


Last nite was Dr Sketchys at Chat Noir one of my favorite times of the month. This is one of my favs of the ten or so sketches I did last nite.  I did not feel like dealing with her legs which were very heavy so I swathed her in a gossamer white gown and called her Cleopatra complete with a deadly snake. 

All sketches done with my Whiskey painter watercolor pallette loaded with Windsor newton WC and one lone Daniel Smith Quin coral and painted in a super aquabee tablet with a Pentel brush pen. 


A warm up doodle with my Noodler brush pen and a Noodler Konrad with sepia ink. 

2 minute sketch.  Pentel brush pen. 

2 minute sketch. Pentel brush pen

2 minute sketch. Pentel brush pen


Five minute sketch. Pentel brush pen. Tombow marker.  

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow. 

Margaret off to Aiken for an art show opening. Xoxoxo