Category: Isabey

Day 583 – Eglise Sainte-Sauveurs

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In Les Andelys. 10″ x 16″ 

This was drawn leaning on an old building across the narrow street. Very hard to get a good view. Hard to draw in a floppy sketch book with nowhere to put the book but hey how often do you get a chance to draw a church built in 1198-1202 a very short period for such a huge building. 

Because of the short building period it’s very cohesive in its early gothic design unlike most of the churches and cathedrals which took two or three HUNDRED years to build. 

  

This lovely gothic Eglise aka church sits in the heart of the small river town Les Andelys, Richard the Lionhearted’s stronghold on the Seine. A small park or market square sits beside it where the citizens could promenade under the trees and enjoy the weather. 

Originally I painted it a little too grey so I perked it up with a very diluted wash of Winsor yellow and hits of Quin gold. 

Most of the churches and cathedrals are really not grey but the color of limestone which is yellower. The grime of centuries has turned them grey.

A bit of history. Richard the Lionhearted would not allow the town of Les Andelys to be built til his Chateau Gaillard was built. What the king wants the king gets right?!  Another interesting bit of history. Most French churches are topped with a crowing rooster. 

More about the church at http://lesandelys.com/church/

Colors used. Winsor yellow background. Stone cerulean French ochre and burnt sienna. Inathrodone blue and burnt umber shadows. 
Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 480 – one day till

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Lift off. My suitcase is packed and I have plenty of room for art supplies. When I went to key west I actually needed more sketchbooks. Not this time!! 

So why am I taking to sketch with?!! I know u r dying to know!!! 

  

 My two small palettes.  Been painting with them and they really have all the colors you need. The whiskey painters palette has all the basic Winsor Newton colors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral which I love for skin tones and two ceruleans because I use it A lot!!

The cotman is full of quinacridones and a couple of paints that should be in the Whiskey painters palette the yellow and Thalo blue. 
Paint brushes. Taking the good ones since I have room and just in case. Most of them are Isabey sables including the mops but the big sable is my cheap Joes legend which I love. Curious to see how much the Isabeys cost in France the land of their birth. They are made in Brittany and are Charles Reid’s  favorite brush. I wouldn’t mind another one or two. 

 

 Back up colors in case I run they the ones in the palettes. 

     

Pens loaded mostly with Platinum Carbon Black. Top to bottom Kuretake Brush Pen, Black pitt pen Fine, pentrl brush pen, sepia pitt pen Fine, two Noodler Konrads (one has Deartementis document brown ink in it) Platinum Carbon pen, and two of my favorite pens the Noodler Creaper  ahab.

   
I am taking these with me in case I want to paint as I sketch. I usually paint when I get home because I hate to make my sister Jan wait while I paint. Bad enough that she waits while I sketch. 

  Lots of ink and cartridges. 

 
Lots of paper. The two hand made sketchbooks have Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro, 3 strathmore mixed media sketchbooks(my current fav) a tablet of Fabriano squarely 149# cold press, some Canson post cards and some Strathmore 500 watercolor cards oh and a stack of accordion folded Stonehenge paper to draw strings of people and maybe a chicken or two on?! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who is taking clothes I her suitcase and backpack too!! 

Day 445 – a few more arts in the hearts 

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Love these two guys. The first guy was actually a walk off and I drew the rest of him after he did. He was just a cool looking guy in his African  mud cloth vest and his rakish hat. 


I also loved the look of this guy – an audience member. He sat not far from where we were drawing. About broke my neck while drawing him. He was such a dignified guy. Thanks goodness he didn’t catch me craning my next at him. 

Skin tones burnt sienna and Quinn gold with some cerulean and cobalt. 

The backgrounds.  I heard you wondering how they were done. Just lots of layers of thin color. Some of the colors used were cad red light, alizarin, cobalt blue, Daniel smith piemonite(which is lovely combined with cobalt), Quin gold and probably yellow ochre. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

 

Day 442   Adam Harris Thompson Group Part 2

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  This is actually the first sketch of the group. I didn’t post because it was in the sketchbook which was in my car yesterday. And I was too tired to walk down stairs to the garage and get it. 

  I was really pleased with the two sketches of the group performing. They were drawn as they played and sang. And No they do not hold still. 

  At some point I changed to my beloved red noodler Konrad that had been loaded with a beautiful red ink. I had decided to change it to black but neglected to clean out the pen. The no waterproof red kept leaky as I painted these. Did NOT make me happy because I really liked these sketches. And did not like the red leaky ink. 

  
I have since rinsed it out with water and reloaded it with fresh clean Carbon platinum black ink.  AND tested it to see if it would run. Glad to over the runs are over. 

 I did find that adding yellow ochre to th Mix somewhat mitigated the red on the larger sketches but on the smaller ones in my Aquabee well sadly the red really bled. Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 442   Adam Harris Thompson Group Part 2

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This is actually the first sketch of the group. I didn’t post because it was in the sketchbook which was in my car yesterday. And I was too tired to walk down stairs to the garage and get it. 

I was really pleased with the two sketches of the group performing. They were drawn as they played and sang. And No they do not hold still. 

At some point I changed to my noodles Konrad that had been loaded with a beautiful red ink. I had decided to change it to black but neglected to clean out the pen. The no waterproof red kept leaky as I painted these. Did NOT make me happy because I really liked these sketches. And did not like the red leaky ink. 
I have since rinsed it out with water and reloaded it with fresh clean Carbon platinum black ink.  AND tested it to see if it would run. Glad to over the runs are over. 

I did find that adding yellow ochre to th Mix somewhat mitigated the red on the larger sketches but on the smaller ones in my Aquabee well sadly the red really bled. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 441 – More You know What! 

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   Adam Harris Thompson Group

 Arts in the Heart is a BIG event in Augusta. Downtown closes down for several blocks. There were at least four stages with acts, tents for almost every nationality selling food and endless arts and crafters selling their wares. 

  The sketch


One of the band members named Michael I think. Played a great lead guitar. 

  Adam Harris Thompson Group is a great blues band. We really enjoyed their music. 

  
I actually drew the Adam Harris Thompson Group three times. This was the first time. There was an interesting group watching the act on stage which I had already drawn. I decided to draw them. Who knew it was the next group?!! 

I drew a lot of the audience too. And then drew the group again which is the first sketch. There is one more drawing of the group which I will post tomorrow. 

Tomorrow more u know what👀!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 439 Some arts in the hearts

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My friend Ruth and I went sketching at the eighth street stage during arts in the hearts. These ladies were sitting in a nearby row like peas in a pod and I could not resist sketching them. Less than five feet from me. 

   They were too cute. Since I was doing undercover drawing the features are off. Their noses were no were near that big!  I was really trying not to get caught. 

This was painted with my large Isabey squirrel Mop #8 on a vertical easel. 

  Will Post some of the bands tomorrow. Yes I did draw two Of the bands as they sang and played their hearts out.  They were really quite good. 

Hanging a show at the inner bean Thursday. Come by and check it out. 
Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx 

Day 437 – Sacred Heart

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  A beautiful old deconsecrated Catholic Church in downtown Augusta. Supposedly it even has a ghost in one of the bell towers.  

  It’s hard to get a clear view of the entire front of the church. Trees have been planted that block the view so I only drew the top. 

I knew the sketch had problems when it was drawn but painted it anyway.  Painted with my Isabey mop #2. No control over it and should have changed to a sable to even up the towers.  Oh well.  I think it might be my Rouen cathedral to paint over and over. 

From Wikipedia 

It was built by Jesuit priests and its first service was on December 2, 1900. The church had been in Augusta for 70 years, until it closed in 1971 due to modern suburban advancements. While the building was vacant, it endured much vandalism and was near destruction.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[1]
In 1987, the Knox Foundation renovated the building and opened as a vibrant center of the city for cultural events. The building now host events such as wine festivals, choral concerts, and Christmas events. It is one of the best examples of redeveloping downtown Augusta.

More Sacred Heart tomorrow. The inside!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx whose actually reading a book instead of drawing or painting. 

Day 433- WIP Savannah Riverwalk

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 pleased with progress off to class so moh later as my grandson Henry says. 

  Calling it done.  My weapons of choice were an Isabey #2 squirrel mop and a Lamy Vista fine point with an ink converter lapsed wit carbon platinum black ink. Mop is from Cheap Joes expensive but worth it and cheaper than Dick Blick. I got the pen and converter from Amazon but the ink from Goulet. The Amazon ink was NOT waterproof though it appeared to be the same ink. Another good waterproof ink is Noodlers Lexington Grey from Sam Flaxs Atlanta and de Artrementis DOCUMENT Brown from Goulet pens. 

  

Colors used cerulean and cobalt sky. Aurelion yellow, Quinn gold in roof. burnt sienna quin burnt orange inathradone for the Sphinx. Quin gold hookers green olive green and green hematite with burnt umber in greenery. Piemonte and cobalt blue shadows on buildings and sidewalks. 

 

The sketch Lamy on strathmore 500 mixed media

If you like this style of sketching and painting aka urban sketching sign up for Marc Holmes class on Craftsy. Sign up thru his site http://citizensketcher.com/2015/08/29/travel-sketching-in-mixed-media-lesson-sneak-peek-silhouette-shapes/ for a $10 discount. A good deal for $20 and do it at your leisure. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 428 Busy as a bee 

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  Day 1 at the dog park. I hated this one but now I think I like it because of all the people and all the dogs. 

The seat on the right was completely misdrawn. And I tried to correct it. I had run out of room for the people OPPS.  

 
This group is my favorite part. Lots of dogs, lots of people. I sit in my car in the parking lot and try to catch the people and dogs before they move. I used a Noodler Creaper pen and de artrementis document brown ink. 

The bench was painted with Daniel smith green apatite which granulates and Inathradone with a touch of burnt umber.  All painted wet on wet. The bushes were painted like the background in Monday’s post though I didn’t take as long. 
 

 I did this one today. There was only one dog in the whole park!? And three people. Wonder where the other dogs were. 

  

These were drawn yesterday or the day before. The tall guy stood there right until I started to draw him and then he walked off. Same thing happened with the lady. Before that they had a BIG conversation.  

  

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx