Day 973 St Patrick’s Day in Augusta

March 20, 2017Leave a comment

We had an Urban Sketchers of Augusta meet up at Artus to draw the St Patrick’s day parade Friday. Fun time with Sandy from Artus and AC who fell in love w my Lamy EF that I lent him and sweet Katie Padgett.
These guys were enjoying some Guinness in front of Soy Noodle House and watching the parade go by. Architecture is a little wonky because I was standing on the sidewalk looking around the mob that passed by. Some of them would just stand in front of me. Eeek.

Whiskey Bar still needs paint. These two are on 280# Arches cold press. Oops cut off their legs.

A great pirate ship passed by. I taught AC and Katie that u don’t have to draw everyone you see but can add people from different floats to the one you are working on. Who will know!? Just you.

One float was full of an adorable group of older women from St Johns Towers a retirement home. I forgot to draw the crowd in front darn it because I was so enthralled with the old truck and the ladies.

These two are in my Stillman and Birn Alpha which is almost full.

All are drawn with my Lamy Safari. Painted w Ted Nuttalls transparent palette.

Ttyl class in Aiken.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 970 Avenging Angel

March 17, 20174 Comments

Happy St Patrick’s Day!! Time to wear the green.

Mixed media 15×22. 140# Kilimanjaro watercolor paper.

Got up at five am and started working on a not too great watercolor of Ilaina. The heads too small. And her beautiful long hair was pinned up.

I started journaling while listening to Robert Holden on Hay House. He’s the happiness guru. Good way to start your day.

Then I stamped her and collaged her. The wings were scraps that just fell next to her shoulders. That’s a sign isn’t it that she wanted to be an angel?!

Next came the paint. On her eyes. Added hair. Scribbled on her with my Prismacolor art sticks. Bytw I went for the black one and ended up with the dark blue one.

This angel wants what she wants. Then I added the red Prismacolor. Didn’t want her too precious as angels can be.

More paint. More scribbling. Back and forth. Scribbled on her face with a 4B pencil both writing and defining her face.

BOOM She was done. At least for now. She might decide differently.

Ttyl. Off to the parade. 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 966 coloring in my coloring book

March 13, 2017March 15, 2017Leave a comment

I drew these two guys last Thursday as part of my #oneweek100people2017 as they pushed and shoved the heavy scaffold into place that would allow them to hang the new Augusta State Univeristy sign four stories up in the air.
I have two say these guys were working very hard and were as good as having dancers to draw with their interesting poses. This is the first page I drew.

Here is page two. Drawn with my Lamy Safari with Lexington grey ink in my Stillman and Birn Alpha.

You can see the scaffold better in this painting. Drawing three of the big event. They almost had shoved it into place when I drew this.

UPDATE: And a week later they are still working on top of the building. It’s very cold today. Hope the finish before it goes down to 24 tomorrow. Who turned off Spring?

Here’s the original sketch. I painted these after I got home. Colors used Quin coral, gold,burnt orange. Cerulean and hematite geeen on windows with ultramarine and burnt umber shadows. The building is Quin coral and burnt umber. Their jackets are Lemon yellow and hematite green. The sign is ultramarine and mineral purple.

I have a giclee quality printer that I am finally getting set up for print making. It’s been in the garage for quite a few years because it’s about two feet long and takes up the whole desk but no more.

It’s hooked up and it works. I was told it might not. New cartridges cleaned the print heads and it looks like we are in business.

Hurrah!!

Will let you know when I start making prints. Soon. I promise.

Ttyl

Margaret xoxox

Day 949 OOPPPs

February 25, 2017February 25, 2017Leave a comment

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 937 Its Saturday

February 11, 2017February 11, 2017Leave a comment

Sarah 24×30″ Acrylic alla prima.

Her last modeling session before she moves to Los Angelos this week. We will miss her. She had such a sweet pensive look today. Maybe she was thinking about her big move. LA is a long way from Augusta Ga.

The painting. Was done in an hour or so. I liked it when I left. Now I am not so sure but that’s life isn’t it?! Took a while and several restarts to decide how to paint her but after that it was easy. I turned the panel one way and then the other. Finally painted her vertically.

She was in such a nice position with her legs extend I wished I had a big square to paint her on but oh well only a rectangle.

Colors used titanium white pyrrole red and nickel azo gold for skin. Highlights are primary yellow mixed with the skin color. Shadows are Winsor purple added to the same mix.

I used some thalo blue and that’s all the colors.

Here she is at first break. Forty minutes.

Last session I drew this large ink drawing of Sarah on a piece of mat board. It’s Sarah’s goodby present. Took about 15 minutes.

Oops I forgot her hand and left leg. Oh well.

Drawn with my Pentel brush pen and I bled the ink with a wet Winsor Newton flat fake mongoose brush for shading.

It was a big crowd today. People were even sitting on the floor. Oh it’s good to be young. They were rewarded with Happy buttons for their floor positions.

Al Beyer’s beautiful very large oil 3×4′. A great expression.

Jeremy’s beautiful conte crayon sketch.

Kathe’s wispy sketch. Love the wispiness of it. Conte crayon.

Here it is before the background.

Tom Needham’s beautiful watercolor. Background is Daniel Smith Quin coral.

Marilyn Hartley’s lovely pencil charcoal and ink sketch. Wispy was in today. She really did a great face on this one. Looks just like Sarah.

Another of Kathe Dennis’ lovely sketches charcoal this time.

AC Daniels great oil though for some reason he later wiped out her leg.

Coachs charcoal. Always a great job. And interesting.

Rachel’s branching out. Pastel on arches.

Fred still in his Mondigliani mood.

Dawns sweet face of Sarah.

Last but not least our lovely Iliana’s painting. Great colors. Wonderful face.

And that’s it for today. There were More that got away without a photo.
Ttyl

Margaret ready for a longggg nap. Xoxoxo who sold TEN paintings last nite. Hurrah!!! And the show has a month to go!!!

Day 932 – Al Beyer

February 6, 2017February 7, 2017Leave a comment

I drew this during art history lecture last Wednesday. Not meant to look like him exactly just the essence and to take notes on the lecture about how to compose a painting and be sure you get all the parts in perspective. When people are added the heads have to line up on your sight line or they will appear to float. Check out John Salimen, another great art teacher. He’s a master at composing from photos with many national and international art awards. His new coffee table book is just gorgeous.

His DVD on urban landscapes explains how to compose a picture from several photos.

Painted with my tiny whiskey painter palette loaded with Windsor newton travel Paullette colors. Refilled with Daniel Smith using the same colors plus DS quin coral.

A bientot Happy Mondayoff to class I go.

Margaret xoxox

Day 928 Getting Squirrely

February 2, 2017Leave a comment

The back porch squirrels and their antics are always fun to sketch. A ready model. Cheap. Will work for bird seed anywhere anytime anyplace. And of course I like to imagine what they are thinking as they gobble. Really need to name them Oreck and Dyson or Hoover. Miele?!

Drawn with a Lamy Safari in a Stillman and Birn Zeta mixed media.

Colors. Background Quinn gold squirrels cerulean Piemonte ultramarine. Splattered with Quin sienna or burnt orange.

Have a go at the squirrels. The back porch birds are fun to draw too. Use some gestures. It doesn’t have to look just like a particular squirrel it just had to look like a squirrel – the way they hold their food and hunch up over thier paws or spread their tails. Fun stuff.

Ttyl

Margaret off to look downtown and see what there is to sketch in this 72 degree day of sunshine. Xoxoxo

Day 927 Inner Bean again

February 1, 2017February 1, 20172 Comments

But I was drawing lunch not drawing the restaurant. First piece of cake from Inner Bean in months. I used to eat cake there a lot. Not since I have lost 30 lb.

Worst thing about drawing your food is that you can’t eat it til you draw it. I got

The delicious strawberry cake first. Before the salad. And I was hungry. I resisted. Did I say Inner Bean is famous for its cake? They won Best Cake in Augusta recently. The cake is Just THE best.

Ttyl

Margaret with a busy week. Getting ready for My solo show next week. Xoxox

Day 925 the rest of the pile

January 30, 2017Leave a comment

Notice how this painting started as a gesture sketch after I measured.

So did this one. In Two minutes gesture is about all you can do.

Day 924 Gesture sketches

January 29, 2017Leave a comment

A gesture sketch is done looking at a person usually but I got annoyed with the way mine are going and decided to draw the dogs with gestures.

I think I drew these Tuesday and they were great practice for Dr Sketchys. Here are the rest of them. I really want to draw dancers this way.

Esmeralda is the top left. Quasimodo, Frollo, and Esmeralda bottom right and left.

These were all drawn while I was watching Notre Dame de Paris on YouTube. A lot of dramatic gestures good for drawing.

So how do you draw a gesture sketch!? I used a brush pen on these. No drag! It lets you draw quickly. Gesture sketches are quick – a few lines to capture the gesture.

Why practice gesture sketches so you can mail sketches at Dr Sketchys or when you are out and about drawing people on the go. It really does help.
Here’s a pile of them.

The first one I did. Eekkk.

Dancers well NO. But they were suppose to be.

More dancers. Not the greatest but better.

And a few more dancers. I like these better today than when I drew them. The feet kept disappearing when I froze tyhe video to draw the dancers or they zipped off into artistic shadows. Visually great to look at but makes drawing HARD!!