Day 941 A few more als and that urban sketch

February 15, 2017Leave a comment

Sketched at the Aiken Brewing Company on Laurens St downtown Aiken

Colors used Quin gold Quin red orange cerulean, burnt umber, ultramarine, hookers and a gel pen or two.

Draw with a Lamy Safari and Lexington Grey ink in a Stillman and Birn Zeta.

Als painting of a student circus 1990. Even then he was trying to paint like Vermeer.

Als friend from the gym who loved to tell stories. He was a rower in the 52 and 56 Olympics for Hungary.

Al after his heart attack. He used his computer camera to take this photo.

The models make Al look like a great painter so he says but we know he’s a great painter.

Ilaina gorgeous as ever. A Saturday painting. 3×4′

Als office. Always neat. Painted with acrylic. Much wilder than his oil paintings. LOVE This one. Think it got a certificate of merit at the State Fair.

Als an awesome painter and teacher the reason. I drove 60 miles three times a week to Aiken to become a better painter I HOPE!!

Xoxoxo

Margaret

Day 940 – LateNight Entertainment Al Beyer!

February 14, 2017Leave a comment

Our beloved prof Al Beyer was the program at the Aiken Art Guild last night and he was his usual humorous self peppering his talk with quip after quip such as “If you get a bad painting it’s your failt but if you get a good one (at lifemodeling) it’s all the model!! And that is true well sometimes.

This huge seemingly abstract is the way Al works. It will be a photorealistic water landscape painting when he’s done or as he calls it the most boring painting ever since it will be almost all water with his. A bit of tree bank across the top.

We told him we liked it as it is. An abstract.

He blocks off the painting into multiple blocks the size of a standard piece of paper. Every nite with a printed paper from his tiled photograph he paints one section in oil with a small brush which takes him about 2-3 hours per square.

Here he is with his helper Vanna aka Ilaina – one of our Saturday models.

Here’s a better picture of this huge painting. It’s made by layering multiple photos of Beijing in Photoshop. Interesting effect.

Hmm my sketchbook seems to be among the missing. I drew theses ladies yesterday while my excellent steak salad got cold at Aiken Brewing Company on Laurens Street in Aiken.

Hope I find it. It will be a great painting when I am done. Sigh.

Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 939 Urban Sketching at Earthfare Cafe

February 13, 2017February 14, 2017Leave a comment

Always a good place to draw. Add people as they drift into your picture. Next time we are drawing at Wet Paint party at Sacred Heart an incredible setting Saturday Feb 18 7-10 pm. Trying something new. This is my Woman’s March sketch on a small canvas. What do you think? It’s 14×16.

This is the original sketch.

Gotta run. Another busy day. Tomorrow I collapse and go to the Y for yoga. Relaxing.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 938 Sometimes it doesn’t turn out like u expected

February 12, 2017Leave a comment

so it’s good to have a fall back.

I have darkened this one down quite a bit. Trying to get the lights to glow. Still not there. Better than it was.

Here it was earlier. I drew this last week in downtown. It’s where AC and I ate late lunch.

Remember this?! Like this one better. Maybe I need to write all over it. Lol. Still have one more sketch from or Sunday unpainted.

Off to our first meetup of urbansketchers of Augusta. Hope to see you at the Earthfare meeting room at 1.

Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo whose having a way too busy weekend.

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!!

Go try it. A lot of fun.

Margaret already in her flannel jammies for this cold winter weather. Well cold by Georgia standards. 52!! 😱

Day 921 Dr Sketchys part 1

January 26, 2017Leave a comment

Our model last nite was just phenomenal. She struck pose after pose with NEVER a down minute. These are all two minute poses drawn with my pentel brush pen in a large super aquabee sketchbook.

My favorite of the nude poses I think. If you have ever done a gesture drawing that’s how I do these. Well at least I think that’s what I am doing.

Or maybe this is my favorite

Not quite done. Ran out of time. Two minutes goes fast. Maybe I spent it breathing after the first three poses.

Yes two minutes. Funny how fast you can sketch with the pentel brush pens.

Ilaina is also into yoga and ju jitsu. Two minutes. ALOT of drawing for two minutes.

Ditto the above. Sometimes I surprise myself.

A Bientôt. Yoga time soon.

Margaret xoxox

Day 910 – Hours of Marks Making

January 16, 2017Leave a comment

Happy MLK Day dear readers!! A holiday is always a good day for lots of drawing and painting.

Spent three hours last nite drawing this old rice paddy down the street from my house which is built on an old antebellum rice plantation. No idea how many pens I used. Also scratched the wild rice tops with my xacto knife. At least I assume that’s what they are.

The assignment was to make a variety of marks. And I tried to add a variety of tones and not relie on lines. Have you ever tried drawing weeds and trees without line. Not easy.

Stillman and birn Zeta. I know I used my Noodler Konrad, both pentel brush pens, my carbon platinum pen and my Lamy Safari and a white pentel gel pen. They each make such different lines both in weight of line and style of line. Even the two pentel pens are very different from each other.

A detail for those who don’t like to click on the big pic.

And a few words from MLK himself. Words to live by in a daily basis too.
Ttyl off to draw.

Margaret xoxox

Day 904 Movie challenge

January 10, 2017Leave a comment

There’s something about a Miss Marple show. I love all of them in their various reincarnations.

I have sketched Miss Marple before – the previous actress before Julia McKenzie. Julia portrays a sharp tougher version of Miss Marple and GPTV our PBS channel has been replaying her series on Thursday nites and Sunday afternoon.

Sunday I like to just let PBS run as long as it’s not begathon time. Thank goodness they are done with that for a week or so.

I paused the tv and took a pic of her in an interesting pose.

I drew her with my pentel brush pen off my iPad. And it didn’t go well. I got too heavy handed with the dark shadows.

Gouache to the rescue. Almost like using acrylics. The background is watercolor. Peacock blue and hematite green. Then I scratched the wc off the palm tree.

Last spread in my Stillman and Birn Zeta. Hurrah.

Ttyl

Margaret xoxox

Day 899 – Some More Urban Sketching

January 6, 2017Leave a comment

I pass this cute diner every day twice a day on the way to class at USC Aiken or on Saturdays when I go to life modeling. I am always on a mission to get to Aiken on time or to get home and let the dogs out so I never have stopped to eat there. I hear the pies are great. They decorate it up for fall. Lots of pumpkins corn stalks and roosters. There’s even an old ford truck that gets strung with garlands of fall leaves. I didn’t draw it. I ran out of space.

Here are the brushes I use. The bottom is my fav a sable Da Vinci 10 but the tree and the sky were painted with a Richeson mop. A 12 that I bought at cheap joes two years ago. Very difficult to get any detail with it which is good in tree foliage. The tree branches and trunk were painted by a big goats hair dagger brush that I got at Sam Flaxs a couple of weeks ago. Very long and loopy designed for sign painters. So far I can only get it to paint lines – Straight and curved ones. Practice right?

And I love this sassy rooster sculpture out on the highway in front of the cafe. I need to draw him with a brush pen on a sunny day. School starts Monday so will passing the charming fellow again several times a week. Maybe one day on the way home again soon.

Stillman and birn Mixed media Zeta with a pilot Carbon pen. Really fine point.

Colors used. Quin gold. Cerulean, ultramarine, burnt umber, Quin burnt orange, pyrrole red, cad orange, hematite green, peacock for the sky. And a bit of American Journey Andrews blue a turquoise that I added to my pallet lately.

Homework done. Done. Had to make myself do this one and I love doing calligraphy just not fond of the word hate. Used my pentel brush pen -heavy lines- a Noodler Konrad – fine black lines – and a red tombow for hate. Oh a light Gray tombow for shading in love.
That’s all folks. Got to do my homework for sketchbookskool. Did I say I am behind because I went sketching Mahjong ladies at a local cafe after yoga today when I should have been doing my homework.

A bientot Margaret xoxox

Day 881 - James

December 6, 2016Leave a comment

Ok so another tv drawing. James Taylor was on CBS Morning News yesterday after being honored st the Kennedy Center. Always loved him so naturally I was tempted.

He’s a little long in the face but otherwise I really love him. The eyes are great.

Note to self. Take time to measure!!!

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent wc palette. Drawn with a pentel brush pen in a Beta Stillman and Birn mixed media journal.

This is Teds actual hand held palltette.

These are the actual colors he recommends for the most transparency. I just have to add a couple. Cerulean and a Daniel Smith quin coral. The coral makes great skin tone mixed with quin gold or quin sienna or red orange.

Thanks for checking in. Ttyl. Gotta draw another person but this time my own photo.

Margaret staying in after yoga and another exercise class at the Y today. A nap soon!!