Nuff said

January 23, 2022January 25, 20225 Comments

Snowy Morning
Hahnamuhle 140 Rough
15×20

Been a busy week. And I am tired.

Dada with a D. Aquaboard 11×16”
Think he’s finished. I also think I hate the way WordPress doesn’t work anymore. Makes everything harder. So I don’t want to use it because everytime I do it’s A royal pain.

Won’t load photos. Won’t let you type. “Corrects” words and makes them misspelled. Sigh.

Zoe my live model posing with her portrait. Lol.

Mostly sennelier Pastel on mi teinte 15×20”also used a few Unison. And a variety of other hard pastels.

Did I say I bought a new bigger set of pastels from Amazon. Sennelier of course. Yes I did!! I bought that. It will be here first of February. Can’t wait.

One set of Sennelier wasn’t enough. If Sennelier was good enough for Degas Monet and Picasso – well I need.

So nice and creamy but don’t drop them on the floor. Oops!! Hmmm maybe I need to put a rug down?! Or a towel??

The trees are brown for Pete’s sake yet my phone takes them as black. What the heck?! And the background is much lighter though not as brilliant as in the first picture. What do I need an $800 phone for if it won’t take accurate colors?! Please tell me. Thanks.

This is suppose to be the second to last block but uncooperative Word Press won’t let me move it. Finally got it to move. So aggravating. Makes me
Not want to post for another month or two. Sigh.

Got off my tired self off the sofa and took a picture with my iPad Pro. Much closer to the actual colors though it darkened a bit on the left. If it’s not one thing it’s another right?! See below. I told u the trees weren’t the right color in the photos.

I drew a penguin on this screen shot I took of a Porkchop Zimmerman’s sidewalk crack drawing. It’s a thing like looking at clouds and seeing Mickey Mouse. You can look at sidewalk cracks and draw whacky animals from them. Pork chops side wall cracks probably have SEVERAL animals in them. Lots of fun to do. I have a whole sketch book of them.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox tired from drawing all day.

More inktober

October 18, 2021October 18, 20212 Comments

Can scarcely believe I am keeping up. 18 days now and 18 drawings. That’s a first for me.

As you no doubt know my model is prone to rolling over stretching and turning her back on me if she’s annoyed. Does she care if she’s holding the pose like a good model?! NOPE!!

Margaret trying to keep the words to a minimum. Lamy Ef w Platinum Black ink black micro uniball white pentel gel pen and stillman and birn alpha. Small books are so much less demanding. Xoxoxox

Day 124 Zoe

July 6, 2020Leave a comment

she’s not made an appearance I my current sketchbook and it’s almost full so thought it was fine.

Lamy Ef. Might need to add some background on the left. What do u think.

No Vlad paint along today. I was all set. He’s sick. Hope he’s well by Tuesday. He lives in Florida – not a good place to be right now.

Creepy guy I drew a month or so ago. One of Danny Gregory’s mugshot sketches. Eeek.

Margaret ready for Grantchester. Xoxoxox

Day 33 Lemonade

April 17, 20202 Comments

Is what you get when you paint over a nonpermanent ink pen. I forgot I went over the letters with a pilot varsity pen which is NOT apermanent. 😫😫😫

I do have plans to fix this so stay tuned. Sometimes they don’t get done in one day.

Zoe actually held her pose for me because she was giving me the jrt stare which means she wants something. And I wasn’t giving it to her aka outside Now. She really wanted to go out and bark at her nemesis two very tall Pointers the neighbor dogs.

I thought coloring the background red was a good idea. It was too pale so I had to keep coloring it and then I added orange which helped.

But these do look better colored. ESP like the jrt head colored orange too.

Margaret ready to watch some comedy on tv to be happy. Xoxoxo

Day 33 Never

April 15, 2020Leave a comment

Eat a large chocolate bar. It will keep you up most of the night. But oh was it good.

I took another photo of The Farm using my Ott light to light it up. Much more accurate photo. Can’t wait til Saturday for the next class.

Drawing with Koosje. A corner of the living room really my den.

Lamy Stillman and Birn Alpha.

We drew masks with Danny at noon. Now we have to pick one out and make a paper bag mask.

I had to write down what I thought they were saying. That was fun. Can you find the Covid monster?! Lamy Safari Stillman and Birn Alpha. Only five spreads left but I got a new one from Amazon. Hurrah.

Sweet Ilaina. Missing my painting peeps.

Digging around for my 140 # rough press Fabriano I found this. Always liked it. Still have the photo to finish it. Full sheet on Waterman cold press I think.

Got some decent pics of the Downy that hit the window this am. So pretty.

Not sure what he is but cute. A sparrow?! Where’s the bird book?!

Loves this female cardinal on the thistle feeder. Adoreable.

Distancing in SC

Margaret ready for bed despite my excellent afternoon nap while watching Mary Berry at Highclere Castle on YouTube. Zzzz

Xoxoxox😘

Margaret xoxoxo

Somehow I forgot to post

April 2, 2020Leave a comment

yesterday. Not sure why since I had this sketch of Zoe all ready. Lamy Safari Stillman and Birn Alpha watercolor pencil background a

Zoe wondering why I kept calling her name and adjusting her head. She never quite returned to her pose so her heads Bit too wide. Surprised she just didn’t lie down like she usually does and take a nap.

That said I have been preaching f to family and friends about facemask wearing for a month now. I can’t seem to get the time and energy together to get enough made so am sharing these directions with everyone I can find. I felt liked the canary in the coal mine tweeting away about masks til today when Dr David Agus said YES wear masks on CBS Morning show today. I mean if they work for medical why not us.

SO WEAR A MASK!!!

Can’t seem to make Enough masks to even cover my family’s noses.

So these are great NO sew directions.

The time has come for us all to wear masks now that the docs are starting to say wear face masks. Yesterday I discovered this very easy to make face mask. NO SEWING!!!

https://myhaymac.com/2020/04/01/easy-and-fast-no-sew-face-mask/

You can use a filtrete air condition filter to line it – The very expensive FOLDED kind that are hypoallergenic and filter bacteria and VIRUSES.

TWO layers of filter. They have to have a Merv Rating of 1900-2200 and cost $25-50 each but each make lots of masks

You can also use vacuum hepa filters as a filter .

Please wear a face masks when you leave the house to protect yourself and everyone else.

And share this with those you love and maybe some you don’t so we can get back to our normal lives and stop this plague.

Masks can be sterlized by 30minutes at 170° or greater. Dont use microwave (metal nasal fitment will spark). Also dont contiminate mask storage bag.”

The very pregnant stray cat

Virtual hugs!! See you soon!

Our my window.

Love this artist Charlie Macksey !!!

Love you guys. Margaret thinking nap on sofa momentarily xoxoxo

A Break Through

October 3, 2019Leave a comment

Another busy busy day

Not often I am in my jammies in bed st 8:30. Up at the crack of dawn draw and paint all day.

So what was the break through?! Don’t paint people you know then you won’t be hampered or intimidated by the need to make them look like your relative or friend. You can just have fun painting.

So I spent all morning drawing these two ladies.

More to do on Morning Coffee. 15×22″ 140# cold press Fluid

paper.

All that water I threw at her and she’s still flat.

Lots of edges to soften. Hard edges are ridiculous on her face.

The Drawing

A lot left to do on her. All of her jewelry. Her head scarf and a million other fun things. OH her glasses. Not anywhere dark enough. She had on about six necklaces and ten bracelets. So LOTS to do.

And those teeth. Ugh.

Colors used raw sienna alizarin American Journey Andrews Turquoise Mineral Violet Cad red cad yellow burnt sienna and some ultramarine blue. Big 1 1/2 flat for most of the painting.

Margaret tucked into bed before 9am. All I need is sweet Zoe. Xoxoxo

Day 1296 Magic Time Finally

July 19, 2018July 18, 20182 Comments

This post was stuck in my scheduled posts box. I don’t know if I posted but it’s such a great post can’t hurt posting again.

Watching Charles Reid paint a person is like watching someone make magic. He twitches his brush here and here. Stating at the nose suddenly there’s a fabulous painting of a person.

John was our model today. He did a wonderful job.

Charles painting.

The Master Charles Reid the most talented watercolorist in America today.

My sketch.

Painting

More painting.

Charles said time to quit so I did and I started another of John. Let ok’ing at him he needs more shadow on his cheek to define his cheek bone. Maybe a highlight lifted also on the cheek and more shadow in his brow.

John and his Jack Russell Jedi.

We all adored Jedi

Especially me. Missing my Zoe. One more of Jedi and his dad John.

My second drawing. I had about forty five minutes left to paint him.

Progress.

Times up. Hmm think he needs more hair but I like this one best of the two paintings.

Up to the rooftop the rain had ended.

A tugboat heading up river.

Night on the river

A paddle boat passing by while I waited for my car.Look who decided to jump in bed with me tonite. My friend Karen’s collie Carly. What a sweetheart.

Tomorrows model Carver whose mom looks like Madonna.

Nite nite. Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1103 Blind contours

August 4, 20173 Comments

Our three old Jack Russells – Charlie the best jack russell ever til Zoe, Jazz Manic feature and Susie super mom.

A few more oldies from The box.

Charlie

Blind contours. Something I haven't done for a while. You are suppose to keep your pen always on the page while looking only at whatever you are drawing.

Of course I had to color some of them. Jazz had big funny feet even though she was a tiny dog.

The jack Russell state. As in when are u going to play ball with me?

jazz

Jazz

Jazz

all of these are blind contours of Jazz.
They are just delightfully wonky sketches done in a minute or two.

Hmm well she did have very short legs and a really long body. Maybe she was a daschund disguised as a jack ,,.

Ttyl tomorrow's Saturday. You know what that means.
Hugs Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1096 Those Dogs

July 26, 20174 Comments

Last page in this sketchbook. Hurrah. So I decided to draw another page of Zoe.

Zoe is always up for a modeling job. She's cheap. She works for treats! She is NOT good at holding a pose. Her ears are always listening. Rotating line radar to see what you are doing.