Day 582 – A little reworking

February 14, 2016February 14, 2016Leave a comment

Don’t forget to leave a comment for the 600 days drawing. Hmm is that a pun?!
I decided that all that green blue I had painted on her was awful looking so I started painting.

That raccoon look was NOT good. Edges needed softening ALOT.

I added a lot of burnt sienna for shadows and some nickel azo gold with pyrrole red and white for flesh tone. I also added a dark grey with sand in it to the background and then washed it with a thinned white.

And softened edges. In case you don’t know. What that means it means that the edges are blurred aka softened like around her mouth and her eye.

At the last minute I realized her tight shoulder was too high so I took about half an inch of the top and a bit off the side to round it some more.

For the moment she’s done but you never know. Sometimes when you look at them you realize more work is required.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx who needs a nap.

Day 470 – More Art Show

October 23, 2015Leave a comment

From the state fair

Miss Sarah – Anne Hightower Patterson – Professional Purchase Award

Mark Conraddy

Spirit Filled – Lois Hall

Drews Starbucks painting

Old Buddies – Ann Annrich

Hydrangea in Silver – Carol Sue Roberts

Window Shopping – Jane Popiel
Old Post Office Restaurant, Edisto – ToddBaxter

Young charmer – Ann Annrich

The Kings Cafe – Sally Donovan

Missed the artists name. Sorry!

These next two are amateur division.

Missed the artists name. Sorry! You know I am going to love a Jack Russell. And two is even better than one!!!

Josephine Camel – Jayne Holland Love this camel. What a great face!!
Ceramic or mixed Media. Not sure which!!!

Rose the Dragonfly Slayer – Diane Gilbert

Things she carried – Wayne Thornley

Another of the great sandcastles. I wonder how they keep the sand stuck together??!

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx

Day 468 – I WON I WON I WON!!!

October 21, 201514 Comments

I won an award in the professional class at the South Carolina State Fair Fine Arts show and a CHECK!!! Very exciting.

The SC state fair is a big deal and the top prize in the Fine Arts is $2000 with thousands of dollars of prizes. There are thousands of art entries. So many they fill up an enormous football field sized shed.

NO idea what I won or which one won but I am thrilled!! I did try googling to see if a list was on the net but NO.
TEA TIME

This is entry #1. She’s for sale Bytw. If she’s not bought at the state fair.

Inscrutable also for sale!

Stand by I will let you know which one was the winner. Hope to go to Columbia tomorrow to find out if my cold keeps improving.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 420 – Meet Me at the Rocket!

September 2, 20154 Comments

Inscrutable Half Sheet 300 # Fabriano

Why at the Rocket?!
The South Carolina State Fair Art Show in Columbia, SC is a BIG statewide event in South Carolina. And everybody meets at The Rocket, an old missile named Columbia donated to the state.

The Best in Show Professional prize is $2000!! And there are thousands more in prize money!! The paintings are my entries. I will be happy if they sell because droves of people attend the fair daily.

Tea Time 11×15″ 300# Fabriano

Artists from all over the state enter and the competition is fierce. There are so many entries that they fill up half a huge butler building. There are at least 1000 paintings in the show. Some are outstanding some are beginners and there is everything in between. The good the bad and the ugly.
I intend to sketch there. Anyone want to meet me at the Rocket?! Lots of animals of all kinds to sketch. Roz Stendahl of Roz Woundup blog (http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/) would be jealous!! She sketches at the Minnesota State Fair every year and organizes a huge sketch crawl.

BYTW if you go don’t miss the huge sand sculpture that are two – three stories tall. They are pretty amazing. Here are a couple of them. http://scfairgrounds.com/fair/special-attractions/sand-sculpture.php and http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2014/10/11/state-fair-sand-sculpture-still-a-work-in-progress/17118097/

Another page for your drawing pleasure.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 346 – Goat time!

June 20, 2015Leave a comment

since taking Sketchbookskool classes online. Highly recommend them!! I have foud that I love to draw animals and people. I could have spent the whole day at the zoo drawing the animals and the people.

This was drawn with my Noodler Creaper Ahab in my spiral bound Stillman and Birn Zeta. A lovely book great paper that dries flat even with a lot of washes. Now if you want a paper that dries very flat this one is for you. I normally use small binders clips to hold my sketchbook paper down as I paint because I have yet to find one that does not curl when you wet it. The most important thing is does it dry flat and I can say YES Stillman and Birn Zeta does. My Stillman and Birn alpha which is much thinner paper does NOT ever dry flat. Most annoying since the Super Delixe Bee does. Both the Alpha and the Bee are the same weight paper. Hmm.

Before splattering.

Back to the goats. The only thing I did different than usual was to splatter the left goat with white gouache using an old toothbrush. Why?! The goat is a kind of roan color peppered with white. Hard to Dow I th watercolor. I could have used masking fluid but this is just a sketch so I opted for splattering. More fun than masking fluid anyway.

That’s it for today. It’s Henry and Livia time in Decatur!!

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 345 – That Paper!!

June 19, 2015Leave a comment

Gets five Gold stars in my book.

as I said yesterday I bought a landscape tablet of Aquabee Super Deluxe paper when I was at Binders at Ponce Market in April. Great store!! How often have you had an art store manager ask you what you would like to see carried in their store?! Told her a class with Charles Reid. I hope I hope!!

Anyway I had read in David Millards great watercolor books about Super Deluxe Bee sketchbooks. These books are 140 pages each just packed with information on watercolor. The price can not be beat. $4 or less on Amazon. Why do you ask?! The books are from the early 80s. The author died in 2002. Sadly I can’t take a class from him. He is big on sketchbooks big lots of tips on drawing crowds and buildings. The man knows sketchbooks. His favorites took all the water I threw at them and flattened out when I was done. Rare in a 93lb paper. And reasonably priced. Amazon has the big 11×14 listed for $22 and full price is $25 for a 100 pages!! I am stopping by Cityart in Columbia on my way to Charleston to pick up an 11×14 for Dr Sketchys and a smaller one to take to Key West in July. And maybe a tube or two of paint. Last week Randy the owner had Holbein paint half price. Why didn’t I order some?! Cityart is the store that Charles Reid and Mary White use to supply their classes. Great store down in the Vista. They also have a great website and shopping is almost overnite and so reasonable.

I drew this last April in my super deluxe bee 6×12 landscape book with my Kuretake brush pen from an overlook in Gatlinburg. Never quite got around to painting it. I was too tired from all the running around. The brush own had loved the smooth paper. Would the watercolor?! Despite what Millard said I am always a sceptic. And as Roz Stendhal says one thing you can count on is that paper will change. His books are 30 years old.

Thank goodness he was right. I lost count of the washes I threw at this paper. Big watery wet washes layer after layer. While the paper buckled a little as I painted it was almost perfectly flat when it dried!!! Hallelujah. A 93# paper that dries flat and doesn’t cost a fortune?!

TIP!!! Bytw I started the lower hills with a wash of light yellow Aureolin for the trees and gradually darkened it with very watery layers of red for the red oaks in the spring and darker greens and blues and mineral purple. Really like using the mineral purple as a dark. Using lots of layers of this colors let me keep the colors transparent. Aka didn’t make MuD!! Sky is a couple of layers of cerulean.

This is another sketch from the same overlook up in the Gatlinburg bypass. I meant to fill in the town but never did. It started raining. It rained a lot the week we were in Gatlinburg. And the pen ran out of ink. My kuretake converter holds a drop of ink. I swear. I did later find cartridges of platinum carbon black that fitted it so now I am good to go.

Another plus for this paper. I just realized that the Pentel brush ink supposedly permanent but so often runny in my Stillman and Birn zeta did not run on this paper when I went back over the lettering and decided to add yet another wash. Hurrah.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret who needs to get packing!!!xxx

Day 343 – Lorikeets

June 16, 20152 Comments

As perhaps you know I enjoy sketching birds. I drew the lorikeets from a shady spot while I waited for my family to show up at the zoo. For $2 you got a cup of nectar to feed them.

Oddly I like the double page spread as long as he pages are separated. I think it’s because there are six birds. I like odd numbers in compositions.

I drew the big bird first. He was off. The beak too low the biggest error. The eye off. He should have looked like the one to the right. They were great fun to paint. Mixing and slapping greens around. Started with light yellow green. Then added darker and darker greens and blues with bits of mineral Violet to the leaves and the birds.

The left page. I added the tree trunks after I drew them as I did the leaves. I only drew the birds on site. It was fun making up the background as I went. Really like the limbs which are Quin gold mineral Violet and Inathradone blue. They started out a grey of burnt umber and Inathradone blue. How boring. Paint red them wet on wet. Sometimes with Quin gold and mineral Violet on the paint brush at the same time.

Here’s the whole page. Just isn’t quite right. Oh well. Beaks are cad orange and Quin coral. Fun stuff to paint. I just wish I had drawn the red ones. Oh my goodness red from head to toe. How did I miss those.

Day 342 – at the zoo

June 15, 2015Leave a comment

I went to Riverbanks Zoo last Thursday with my extended family. While I was waiting I drew some of the animals and the carousel. Finally gettin around to painting them. Today’s its the lion. All of the writing and sketching was done while I was at the zoo.

The lions were chilling and I could hear them thinking dumb humans standing in the sun in the heat to see us. Like the lions I chose the shade.

Tiring of the Orange and cerulean on journal pages I used this Stephen Quiller book to find a different color combo. Thus getting the purple and gold combo. Like the new look. Great book for color. Check it out.

Used of the purple gold theme on the lioness page too. She kept moving. I decided to full in the background with a journal page to remember he fun we all had at the zoo.

Colors used. Yellow ochre Inathridone blue and. Mineral Violet. The lions main Quin burnt sienna burnt umber and the Inathradone blue and purple.

Lots of layering of the colors. Always fun to me. I love the way you can leave the lighter colors shining thru the darker ones.

Gotta run.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 332 – Those Darn Squirrels

June 5, 2015Leave a comment

On our day trip to Columbia SC Tuesday we stopped by City Art which is carries all the supplies for both Charels Reid and Mary White then we went to Nonnahs and last Mast General on Main Street ended we found this super SQUIRREL PROOF bird feeder.

Mast General Store an old fashioned general store on Main St. The original is in Valle Crucis near Boone NC.

The squirrels are gluttons for bird seed gobbling voraciously. This bird feeder is actually squirrel proof. They are now entertaining us trying to figure out how to get into it. The top locks on and the bar across the front licks the seed up when the weight of the squirrels sets it. LOVE it. They don’t. They are actually hanging out on the porch rails staring at it with occasional attach forays and leave soon after. Very entertaining to watch their consternation over the shut off food supply. And of course they sit there staring making them easy subjects to draw.

Colors used. Inked with my Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with platinum carbon black my go to ink. Greys cerulean and burnt sienna or Inathridone and Burnt umber for darker greys on squirrels. All done wet on wet. Bird feeder is vermilion and cad red medium. Same greys were used on the roof. Background is cerulean toothbrush splattered with Inathridone blue.

Thanks for reading.

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.