Selfie time

Eeekkk. Tyvek selfie 18×24″ Dr Ph Martin Hydrous Watercolor.

Taking a class with Myrna Wackov. Check the link her fascinating website and blog. Quite interesting all self portraits on strange surfaces. Today was tyvek a plastic material that houses are wrapped with – that white outer layer before the siding goes on. Yes you can use watercolor on it.

She had us sketch a selfie three Times using contour drawings.

Photos were taken by reversing iPhoto and using a timer delay. Then looking down at the phone. Always a scary proposition. Try it for some whacky selfies.

Then we drew it with a needle nosed bottle on the tyvek w well Karen and I used diluted burnt sienna Dr PH Martin watercolor. It disappears leaving no lines.

Then we added watery Dr PH Martin watercolor. I actually drew with the end of my perla paint brush dipped into the watery dark hair paint to get the thin lines. I also used my Isabey squirrel mops. Did my Charles Reid splatters. Turning it into a soppy mess.

Myrna uses all kinds of things to paint and draw with – sharpened chop sticks coffee stirrers mop strings even tampex. Yes you read that right!!

One last thing about this wonderful product. You can wipe it off while wet. You can even use the Kleenex used to wipe out to stamp color elsewhere. Strange stuff tyvek. Also what post office mailers are made of.

Margaret exhausted Xoxoxox

Day 2116 Court reporter part deux

These were such fun to color with the tombows whilst I watched tv last night. Four tombows flesh green and two blues one of which was light. The other was so dark I could use the blue on my brush for shadows.

Think the color improved him greatly.

Page two colored. Just used two tombows flesh and a wierd green. Then added water to the green. You never know what will happen with tombows. Sometimes good sometimes not.

This is before. I think it too was improved by color even though it’s simpler.

These are my friend Ruth Pearls. You can follow her on Instagram at Britpeach She used Derwent watercolor pencils and a copic market.

Her second one. I think the bottom sketch somehow is perfect of Mueller. Such expression.

Margaret who wants to finish her book called. The Irressistible Blueberry Bakeshop and café. I think I have gone Blueberry crazy baking too many blueberry pound cakes. I discovered I am NOT a lover of big wads of cooked blueberry. However I have friends that LOVE it.

Day 1114 one more Starbucks.

These two guys were just chatting away in Chinese or Korean. Could have been Japanese for all I know. Their conversation was very animated. The guy on the right actually noticed I was drawing. He was really sweet and asked me if I had finished before he left.

Strathmore 400 sketchbook Lamy Safari Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus Daniel smiths piemonite.

Margaret who had a busy day xoxoxo

Day 1096 Those Dogs

Last page in this sketchbook. Hurrah. So I decided to draw another page of Zoe.

Zoe is always up for a modeling job. She's cheap. She works for treats! She is NOT good at holding a pose. Her ears are always listening. Rotating line radar to see what you are doing.

I really like the way this head turned out. Both the sketch and the watercolor.

This is my second favorite head. I was drawing fast.

I still had not filled up my pens and reached into my purse to see what I had. Pulled out a 6B Charcoal pencil and drew with it.

After I painted her I set the charcoal with fixative. So far it seems to not be smearing. Cross your fingers.

Strathmore 400 sketchbook. Colors used. Quin burnt sienna cerulean cobalt Andrews Turquoise.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1095 My Flabrador

My sweet flabrador Honey. She's fat as a butterball. She's very fond of food especially bread and cookies. Pumpkin pie. NEVER Leave any on the counter if you want to eat it later.

Yesterday drawing at Starbucks all my pens were empty. Huh. Four of them. So I drew with pencil. Today yet to fill them tried a 6B charcoal a la Alex Powers. It loved this Stillman and Birn Alpha. Unlike the pencil it does not repel watercolor.

There's actually a screwed up pen sketch hidden on the left of my grandson.

Labs are hard to paint. The highlights are almost blue. I slapped combos of mixed burnt umber and ultramarine in the dark areas and bled out the edges w clean water for the highlights. Shadows are cerulean and Quin burnt sienna.

Ttyl Margaret who had another busy day xoxoxo

Day 1073 Its Saturday

Sweet Emily! 18×24″ What happens when you use a two inch flat brush on Bristol!! 

Charles reid watercolor hand held palette which put my hand to sleep. #allaprima #nude #lifemodel #watercolor #aquarelle #aquarellepainting #pencil #pencildrawing #lostedges #emily 

1″&2″ Cheap Joes Golden Fleece Flat brush and #10 Da Vinci and that’s it. 

Tip: curling thinner paper. To get it to lie flat, paint it w water on the back and it will flatten out. 

First break 40 min. 

Painted on strathmore Bristol 100# which is like hot press paper but cheaper. 

Wash of DS Quin coral and yellow ochre w some cerulean and burnt sienna. Background, hair, drapes  burnt umber ultramarine 

Drapes Aurelion, Winsor Yellow, Quin Gold w burnt umber ultramarine darks

4B and 6B pencils 

The crowd was thin today. So not many paintings. A lot of people on vacation but I do love to paint Emily!! 

Drew Murphys acrylic. The quips were flying between us. One of the things we paint for.  I told him his was a little grey this time. Usually they are bright and vivid.  

Fred the dentist. Oops he left early. 

Als lovely huge oil. Amazing what he gets done in two hours.  This is four by 3 FEET


Rachel who’s only been painting anyear or so but she draws at every meeting. Drawing practice gets the job done!  You WILL improve. Like anything else you want to do well you have to practice. ALOT!!!

Margaret who has a dog and a mill to paint. Oh and a couple of cars and some rubber duckies. Thanks for stopping by.  Xoxoxoxo 

Day 1068 Fathers Day at Pine Lake 


It actually poured on us before we left so not a bright sunny day BUT who wants a swimming hole with no sun?!
 

One thing about painting you can make it sunny or overcast. 

Pine Lake is the smallest town in Georgia with a population of less than 800 and used to be a weekend escape place for Buckhead elite when all the roads were dirt. 

The lake is the center of the town with charming cottages and small houses built on the surrounding small hills. 

Painted with my Ted Nuttall transparent palette plus green apatite in the trees and grasses. 

Happy Sunday!  

Margaret xoxoxox   

Day 1061 -how many more?! And a beach party!!

Still quite a few!!! 🤗We have no shortage of talking heads in this country. They offer great drawing practice. If you can pause your tv it even takes the pressure off of trying to draw them quickly. 

And all they do is talk. And talk and talk. 

And pass a lot of laws that half the country don’t like no matter which side you are on making the other half is unhappy! 

The Decatur Businesses Beach Party in downtown Decatur on the square. Ponce de Leon became a giant beach!!  Free beach buckets, beach balls and balloons oh and washable tattoos for all!! 

An amazing stilt walker. The kids had no idea how he could be that tall! Several people on top of each other was their best guess. 

And there he goes legging it down the block or should I say stilting down the block?!


And a rare shot of the old Decatur Courthouse with sun on its face. It usually sits in the shade. Bytw this is now an art gallery. 

Off to play with my grandkids. Hugs!! 

Day 1053 – Politics 

Hard to avoid it today. It’s all over the tv the radio Facebook twitter. I don’t know about you but the last few days have been riveting. THIS IS WATERGATE!! 14×20 Mixed Media 

Enough to get Rachel Maddow back from her sick bed where she had been for almost two weeks.  

I got the brilliant idea to do this one on arches #140 cold press. BIG a mistake. Hard to write on with any ink pen or marker I had.  

I finally picked up a Japanese brush pen I thought had permanent ink. I tested it on a scrap of paper.  It didn’t run. 

Fast forward to all the heavy lines in this sketch are done with that brush pen especially on Dan Coats. 

When I started painting him he turned into a gray runny mess. This was supposed to be a watercolor.  EEEKKKK.  

I dug into my mixed media art supply grove. Caran d’ache Neocolor ii to the rescue. I started coloring. I lightened him up. The only person that didn’t have some runs was Comey. 😳

A lot of the letters ran. The names!! Eeeekkk. On this rough paper there was no clean edge. Tried a grease pencil which works great in my sketchbooks. NOPE TOO rough. 

Got out a white gel pen on the letters.  Better!! Got out a paint pen. Even better. More outlining with the Lamy Safari. 

Done. Whew. Not what I had in mind BUT finally pleased with it. 

Margaret planning another but it will be on hot press paper. Xoxoxo the news is calling. 

Day 1001 One day at a time. 

Another day another post. If I quit now I am back to day one. Onward.  One day at a time. 

Trying to catch up my Book of the Night journal the online class I am doing with Juliana Coles as teacher. 


The assignment from the week I was in Charlotte is very long and involved. Though I took notes in it I did this page wrong. Oops.  

It now looks like this.  


But I keep trying to figure out how to use the other figures. This option orrrr


This one.  The added paper collage is old citrasolv National Geographics I did several years ago.  I have quite a stack. 

The bottom layer of this page is purple tape painted black. Then journaled on with white gel pen. Never have the news on while journaling. And then a haunted forest added. I had to turn off the news and the first song on was The Night With a Thousand Eyes.  Perfect.  Then I added the eyes.  


Here it is when I started this morning.  

Prisma art sticks Caran dache Neocolor ii white paint pen. 

Two more pages to finish.  Eek. Will post the correctly done page tomorrow. Stay tuned.  

Margaret xoxoxo