Category: Daily drawing

Day 1067 Its Saturday 

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Andrea was our model today. This is largish 18×24 largely painted alla prima which means first strike. I came prepared to draw and paint  in a smaller sketchbook a 10×18 Superaquabee. 

I liked the pose so much decided to go bigger. So first break I ran around getting larger paper together. George Dawnay gave me a piece of 90# Bristol paper to start over on.  Thank goodness. 

All I had were my waterbrushes which would NOT begin to cover that big piece of paper. Robert kindly loaned me his wonderful winsor Newton Series 7 brushes.  They are now on my I need list!!

It was like painting on a thinner piece of hot press paper. 

Al actually said it looked like a watercolor should. Be still my heart. 

This was after the second break. I only painted on this about an hour. It needs more work on the background or not. We shall see. 

The pencil sketch went much faster the second time around. 

I washed her with cad yellow and cad red mixed. Then I used mostly Quin magenta and inathrodone blue on her for the shadows. A bit of Quin coral for cheeks. Hair Quin sienna Quin burnt sienna and inathrodone blue. 

This was the smaller version I did in my  10×18 Superaquabee which loves watercolor. I never quite finished this one. 


George Delaunays exquisite pastel. LOVE the feet. He’s a very energetic sketcher. Stepping back and forth to and from the easel as he works. 


Drew Murphys large acrylic. He’s also energetic but in his use of brush sticks.  Always like his work. 


Al Beyer. A huge painting. Love the fabric drape. Always lovely paintings. 


Iliana’s lovely oil. Rather Gauginish I think.  


Tom Needham’s elegant watercolor done in washes. 


Fred still emulating Mondigliani!! 

Day 1064 Comissions 

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A problem when you are suppose to paint the same thing twice. Eeekkk this is the second one. Thinking it could use a few more greys in the center!?  

This is the first one. I drew my friend Monica who giving her talk at the DuPont Planetarium at  Ruth Patrick Science Center, USC Aiken. She really does a terrific job. 

Kids come from all South Carolina to visit the Science Center and see the Planetarium. 

It took me a while just to figure out how to transfer this  identically to a piece of 300# lb watercolor. 

I traced the original. 

Transferred it with Saral. 


Traced over it with a pencil. 


Traced over it with my Lamy Safari. 

And the. I tried to remember how I painted it. The whirlpool vortex was not easy to ain’t the first time let alone another time. Eeekk.  


Finally it was time to splatter the night sky with white gouache stars. Be sure to use a stiff toothbrush.  I got a soft one first. Oops. Worked much better with a nice stiff toothbrush. 

Touched up the Whirlpool Vortex again. And calling it done. I hope! 

Painted with lamp black, burnt umber , Ultramarine Blue, alizarin, aureolin yellow, and some Joe’s turquoise. 

Margaret who has another commission to get done. Xoxoxox

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

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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 1059 – How many did I draw?

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12 I think. As my friend Ruth pointed out I probably spent at most five minutes drawing each person since they only spent ten minutes taking.  

I will say they took longer to color than five minutes. I spent the last two days coloring them in the evening. 

My friend Dee asked me why in a gen cent Target notebook. I didn’t want to look back in a sketchbook and see some if these faces. 

Bytw I did get out a sketchbook for the next time I get the urge to document this madness. 


And people love to look thru my sketchbooks.

 

This sketch of Susan is the worst one I think. She’s much more attractive than the drawing. Chalking it to I had to warm up! 

I do think they look better colored  which I find odd because I love ink sketches. 

Colored with my Prismacolor art sticks. Thick juicy color like their colored pencils but cover a lot of area quickly.  The scribbles are grease pencils. And or a 6B pencil. 

Off to Atlanta. Stand by for more. 

Margaret documenting this madness one hearing at a time. Xoxoxo 

Day 1057 – Those Sta Wet sponges – A Cheaper Way!?

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If you have a sta wet palette I bet you have one of those EXPENSIVE yellow sponges in them. 

Occasionally my palette gets infested with mold. Yuck. And I need a change. I clean it out with bleach to kill the molds but then I reuse that same old sponge. 

UPDATE: After I posted this I reposed you could sanitize sponges in the microwave just like you do for your kitchen sponge. Hopefully it would kill mold. Or maybe freezing it would. Of course at the cost of these sponges vs the coast of paint might as well toss it if mold grows and start fresh.  

Today I realized that my Trader Joe’s sponges would work just as well and be cheaper at 2 for $2.59. They are 10×14 instead of $6.80 for one 12x 18″ Sta Wet sponge. Math is in favor of Trader Joe’s sponges. 


Sta wet on left Trader Joe’s on right 

I love these for wiping up counters, dripped watercolor. I usually have one on the floor and one on the sink. AND you can throw them in the washing machine or the dishwasher to clean them. 

Bytw the Trader Joe’s sponge is slightly thicker too so would hold more moisture. 

Going to be buying a couple more packs when I go to Atlanta this weekend. LOVE Trader  Joe’s. 

Margaret xoxox who loves saving $ on art supplies. Leaves more $$ for when I can’t save it on art supplies. 

Day 1055 -It’s Saturday!! 

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It’s Saturday and Miss Emily is our model. 

Slathering the paint on like cake icing. Lots of impasto. A little hippy and busty?! I moved that right arm at least three times. Scrapped it off and started over again and again and again.  

At the first break. 4o minutes in.  

Kathe playing with my caran dache neocolor ii and some charcoal. 

Not sure who drew this. 

Fred Mr Mondigliani Baker. A Fred funny today. Asked Dr Fred what do you call a liar a sociopath?!  He said a Billionaire re our president. Thought that was great. 

Jeremy’s. Gorgeousness 

Al Beyer’s huge oil 

Coaches great charcoal. 

And that’s all folks. Still contemplating St comeys halo. 

Ttyl Margaret. Xoxoxo 

Day 1053 – Politics 

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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 1052 – Take a Hike Mr President Key West #3

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Found a few more that I hadn’t posted. The Shark cruise. Guess they won’t be around. No clean water. It’s already pretty bad in the Gulf. 

All this would be underwater. 

And this fun whacky restaurant on the waterfront. 

And my favorite wacky restaurant Blue Heaven.  Such delicious food and awesome chickens.  never tire of the crazy chickens in Key West. 

And my other favorite spot Louie’s backyard eatting on the water enjoying delicious Caribbean breezes. All gone with global warming. 

Sad that it would disappear. 

My sis in law who doesn’t believe in global warming would be very said at Key Wests submergence beneath the waters. Here favorite spot in the world. 

One of my favorites too. 

Busy day. Off I go. Setting up for a flower painting. If only they stay alive long enough. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1049 Happy Birthday Ben

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Today is my son Bens birthday. I have drawn him quite a bit and his dogs even more. And of course his adopted hometown Atlanta. 

Hanging out at Little Five Points. 

Going to Weddings! 

Binge watching Netflix!

Waiting for breakfast. 

Video game player. 

The Broken Arm 

LIvie his Pitt bull 

And Bear the stray that showed up on his porch. 

Bear

LIvie

Bear

Ttyl Party time. 

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1046 – Let’s Make A French Omelette!

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Ever since I read Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a child I have been in love with the notion of all things French and especially the quintessiantal French food – the omelette. 

But I never could figure out how they made that neat rolled omelette. 

Watching Jacques Pepins American Master show on PBS I thought YOUTUBE!! 

Sure enough. There he was teaching how to cook an omelette. 

Omelette Number 1 of course I had to draw it to commemorate the occasion. 

First mistake I had been making was not using the right pan so I got it a big 10-12″ round edged skillet that was coated w the green coating that releases easily. 

And I hadn’t been using the spatula to scrape around the edges as I cooked. Who knew? 

And I stuffed mine. Trying to eat those greens and I had to have some Cheddar cheese. 

The most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I swear. Not so pretty but amazing. 


Omelette 2 Today. 

Prettier shape but too brown. 

Anyway colors used to paint  it. Cad yellow light, cerulean, yellow ochre, green apatite and sap green for the plate, Ultramarine Blue and burnt umber for the shadow. 

TIP: Splattered with palette mess left from painting. Has to be really soupy to splatter. Use more water than you think. And I just use a large paint brush in this case my 10 Da Vinci. I also painted this with the same paint brush. 

Margaret xoxoxo