Day 910 – Hours of Marks Making

January 16, 2017Leave a comment

Happy MLK Day dear readers!! A holiday is always a good day for lots of drawing and painting.

Spent three hours last nite drawing this old rice paddy down the street from my house which is built on an old antebellum rice plantation. No idea how many pens I used. Also scratched the wild rice tops with my xacto knife. At least I assume that’s what they are.

The assignment was to make a variety of marks. And I tried to add a variety of tones and not relie on lines. Have you ever tried drawing weeds and trees without line. Not easy.

Stillman and birn Zeta. I know I used my Noodler Konrad, both pentel brush pens, my carbon platinum pen and my Lamy Safari and a white pentel gel pen. They each make such different lines both in weight of line and style of line. Even the two pentel pens are very different from each other.

A detail for those who don’t like to click on the big pic.

And a few words from MLK himself. Words to live by in a daily basis too.
Ttyl off to draw.

Margaret xoxox

Day 909 A bit more of Key West

January 15, 2017Leave a comment

Been meaning to finish this for a while. Today I did it. A compilation of two of our tours the Historic Inn Tour and the Christmas Trolley Light Tour which was our fav. $15. A bargain.

Still have three more spreads to finish. Guess it’s time. Anyone know a publisher who needs a Key West book?!

The tools.

Hmm painted with my smaller #2 Richeson mop and my #10 Da Vinci Sable. And mostly I used the mop.

Tips on The Christmas tree. Leave a lot of white. First layer is quin gold. Then I added hematite green and a bit of hookers green and ultramarine blue. Did the palm the same way.

Last I used a white pentel gel pen to add white lines and lights to the trolley. And anywhere else I wanted a bit of white. It doesn’t show when u use it but it does show in photos. Strange but true.

Off to sketch the park in black and white. Wonder how many pens I will use?!

Ttyl

Enjoy your Sunday

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 907 Still sneezing but

January 14, 20172 Comments

I know it’s allergies. Drawing more fabric!

The pens I used in my Stillman and Birn Zeta. Notice my nice yellow pencil from Cheap Joes. I got it when I took a class there or was it in an order from there? Joe always includes a little giftie with your orders. The sweetest mentally challenged young man packs all the gifties. His only job and he loves doing it. If you take a class at Cheap Joes you get to tour the warehouse where Joe introduced us to this special young man.

The quilts I used for my patterns. My Jack Russell Zoe is my art assistant in charge of quilt testing.

Ttyl

Margaret xoxox

Day 899 – Some More Urban Sketching

January 6, 2017Leave a comment

I pass this cute diner every day twice a day on the way to class at USC Aiken or on Saturdays when I go to life modeling. I am always on a mission to get to Aiken on time or to get home and let the dogs out so I never have stopped to eat there. I hear the pies are great. They decorate it up for fall. Lots of pumpkins corn stalks and roosters. There’s even an old ford truck that gets strung with garlands of fall leaves. I didn’t draw it. I ran out of space.

Here are the brushes I use. The bottom is my fav a sable Da Vinci 10 but the tree and the sky were painted with a Richeson mop. A 12 that I bought at cheap joes two years ago. Very difficult to get any detail with it which is good in tree foliage. The tree branches and trunk were painted by a big goats hair dagger brush that I got at Sam Flaxs a couple of weeks ago. Very long and loopy designed for sign painters. So far I can only get it to paint lines – Straight and curved ones. Practice right?

And I love this sassy rooster sculpture out on the highway in front of the cafe. I need to draw him with a brush pen on a sunny day. School starts Monday so will passing the charming fellow again several times a week. Maybe one day on the way home again soon.

Stillman and birn Mixed media Zeta with a pilot Carbon pen. Really fine point.

Colors used. Quin gold. Cerulean, ultramarine, burnt umber, Quin burnt orange, pyrrole red, cad orange, hematite green, peacock for the sky. And a bit of American Journey Andrews blue a turquoise that I added to my pallet lately.

Homework done. Done. Had to make myself do this one and I love doing calligraphy just not fond of the word hate. Used my pentel brush pen -heavy lines- a Noodler Konrad – fine black lines – and a red tombow for hate. Oh a light Gray tombow for shading in love.
That’s all folks. Got to do my homework for sketchbookskool. Did I say I am behind because I went sketching Mahjong ladies at a local cafe after yoga today when I should have been doing my homework.

A bientot Margaret xoxox

Day 628 – Costco Love!

March 21, 2016Leave a comment

Urban sketching at Costco. And NO I did not eat a hotdog when I drew this. I usually do though. Probably good snacks this day whxib everybody knows are calorie free right?!

I did hide in the corner behind my purse which is of course big enough to carry my sketchbook and pants.

Tip: when you take the grandchildren to the zoo you don’t want your bevy purse loaded with sketching stuff when you pick up a 45 lb kid to look at the snakes Be sure to take your over the shoulder sketch purse with sketching stuff and the other important thing MONEY for the gift shop train and carousel!! 😋

These people were drawn as we all stood in the return line. I love to buy stuff and bring it back to Costco. They ALWAYS take stuff bought there back no questions other than can I Have your members card please. I do LOVE Costco!!

Off to class. Need to go by Costco and fill up. Gas is always 20-25 cents cheaper!! And Booking a trip to Paris and maybe Lindon and Dublin via Iceland. No time to list colors but I did use the usual ones.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 605 Another Saturday

February 27, 2016Leave a comment

Ilania Acrylic 24 x 30ish”

Really liking today’s painting. This one is officially FOR SALE if she needs to come live at your house.

This was painted almost entirely by the world’s cheapest brushes. They shed. I had to remove several bristles off the painting. 🙄 And they don’t hold an edge. They are raggedy but they make some great bold lines in the paint.

Conversely I used some of the most expensive paint. All golden acrylic. Reason I say expensive is that I used Goldens Quin Nickel Azo Gold which was selling for $27.99 at Michaels the other day when I loaded up on white paint during their 40% off sale. Ouch!! Glad I have had a new bottle of it waiting for the old bottle to be empty.

Other colors it was painted with were ultramarine blue, pyrrole red, Zinc white and a smidge of burnt umber. The only resin I used Zinc white was because it was the first tube of white picked up but it could just as well have been titanium white.

White, pyrrole red and Quin nickel Azo gold make a great flesh color.

Here she is at second break after about an hour of painting. Those brushes cover a lot of ground FAST!! If I hadnt decided her face was a smidge to narrow she would have been done. I also didn’t like the shadow on the left arm.

Forty minutes of painting. Almost blocked in. Of course I had blocked her in four times at this point.

First time I had the canvas vertical. I couldn’t see her calves or feet so that was not going to work. I turned the board and started over.

Second time I decided I wanted her leg along the bottom of the canvas. Had to start over. 😁

Third time I didn’t quite get her to fill up the canvas. 😂

Fourth time I think I could have blocked her in with my eyes closed!!

That’s about it for today.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 601 – a few more sketches

February 24, 20163 Comments

What else?!There are only 22 of them.

I actually finished this one yesterday. I started it when he was flipping thru poses and abandoned it for a clean page. I finally gave up and begged him to hold the pose till I finished. And he did a super job doing just that!! Thanks James!!

Love the energy in the orange gouache do lines in the background.

Loved his 70s leisure suit look with his mint green shoes. The lady in black could hold a rock solid interesting pose. Neither of them moved which made for great sketching.

The golden girl could hold the most interesting poses. She’s actually painted with my beloved gold wink of Stella glitter pen and yellow ochre but sadly it does not show without bright lights.

And u know what that ledger paper means. The ink smeared. 😁

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 600 – Wet Paint

February 22, 2016February 29, 2016Leave a comment

Will be posting the winner and the prize in a couple of smears. Thanks for sticking with me thru 600 days of consecutive posting. I wonder how long I will go on?!

Did I forget to say that this little mixed media angel I did flew away to a new home aka she sold at Wet Paint. Hurrah!! She’s stitches scribbled glued bubble wrap printed and three d. Genuine Lutheran hymnal pages in the background. A lot of fun!

But not as much fun as drawing the models at wet paint.

Another James Bond model sketch. I really need to fix his hand and his foot. Maybe. I had a lot of fun looking up James Bond quotes to write on the JB sketches.

Beautiful model that could hold a rock solid pose. She’s wearing turquoise culottes with huge buttons. The half you can’t see is white. Harlequin style. She has lost had spectator pumps on. I had forgotten about them til I saw hers. I had a pair I loved. All tan leather so I painted those instead of the two tone ones she had on

Thanks for reading. Will post the winner in a couple of days. Class today.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 599 The Name is Bond

February 21, 2016Leave a comment

James Bond -6×10″ Arches Carnet de Voyage HOT Press

Lots of fun last night sketching at Wet Paint party at Sacred Heart Cultural Center.

The Vintage Olie models were styling James Bond movie fashion style. Lucky Ruth Pearl and I had a table right next to one of their six pedestals as they rotated around the audience.

I really liked this just as it is EXCEPT all my gooey only fingerprints all over it. Sigh. The light we were drawing in was terrible and my beloved Noodler was leaking as usual. Not conducive to clean drawings.

Misplaced my non leaky Noodler

Konrad. 😱

Background is gouache. Covers those ink prints!!

Wc Used Quin coral , French ochre, cerulean, burnt sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine blue.

More urban sketching coming!!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 594 – Is she done?!

February 16, 20163 Comments

The Party is Over -30×40″ Acrylic

I have been told to put my name on it. And some say it needs more tweaking. What do u think?!

I was told the roses were a little plain so I tweaked them some.
Here’s how they look now. Did I say I am NOT fond of painting roses?! They are such a problem but I like how these turned out.