Pencils4tea live from Milan Italy

September 2, 2023September 2, 20231 Comment

Miss Marcia 3 min.
Always a lovely look to a watercolor of her.

14 live Sketches in an hour! 😳 @pencils4tea Thanks Ilairia and Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Italia aka Italy!! Always fun and challenging.

@Drawingisfree on instagram starts up again. More face drawing fun live from Paris for 1 hr at noon EST. Zoom Link in her bio on instagram. Pencils 4 tea will not meet next week. 😭😭😭 I really think these events have improved my sketching and loosened up my watercolors.

Highly recommend trying it. U dont have to share them and they will get better the more times you do it.

Our hostess Ilairia in Milan Italy 6 min.

Used 1 paint brush a 3/8” Princeton dagger brush. My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil.

Ruth in Chattanooga 2 min
my frequent partner in art adventures for the last 12 years.

Wc Colors used DS quin burnt orange and quin rose, Cheap joes(cj) andrews Turquoise, cj yellow ochre, cj burnt umber, cj cerulean, cj cobalt , cj alizarin, and cj hookers green, Lukas Cad Yellow, m graham cobalt and ultramarine watercolors, 5×8” superaquabee sketchbook

Meg McCurtain 2:36 min.
Such a lovely long neck. In my next life I am asking for one!

Rone Prinz 3:45 min
Lovely puffy curly white hair and daisies my fav flower

Raphael 4:39 min
Really should have turned the book sideways to get his hand in. Oh well.

Molly 3:14 min
I finished her up afterwards because i knew three min was not enough to paint her lovely scarf.

Sarah Brunell 1 plus min.
Not enough tine of course. I took a deep breath and drew her. Then painted when we were done.

The weather here is beautiful after Idalia blew by. Sky is as clear as a bell. Cooled off from the brutal 100 degree days to 64 lows and highs of 85. Fabulous weather.

Margaret xoxoxoxo as usual ready to put her feet up!

Day 107! The Red Feather

August 17, 2023Leave a comment

Don’t ask. Obviously i cant count. 🥴😵

Don’t forget tomorrow. Free every Thursday on zoom thru @pencils4tea on ig. Link on her bio. Just show up 1 pm est.

Day 107! The Red Feather. The fifth of the 7 I speed drew Friday and painted four of them including this one.

Quin rose, quin burnt sienna, ultramarine all the usual skin colors. Quin rose. Cerulean and andrews turquoise for that five o’clock shadows.

Ultramarine and ivory black for hair and hat. Yellow ochre and cerulean background. Cerulean, andrews turquoise, burnt sienna and ivory black for shirt. Lt cad red feather.

9×12” superaquabee sketchbook.

Thanks, Judith @jyportraitchallenge and @marzemog

Margaret ready to go to sleep. Zzzzzz.

Pencils4tea today

August 4, 2023August 4, 2023Leave a comment

A sketchbook throw-down but i drew in all of them today. The 3 annoying sketchbooks. Try juggling 3 books while madly drawing.

Two full sketchbooks. Waiting for amazon to deliver new ones. Will NEVER use three books again. What an aggravation!!

Robin 3:52 min. Another fav
More than ample time for this lovely pose.

Molly not long enough to do this fun pose justice and oh that circle of yellow tape. 🥴

16 live Sketches in an hour! 😳 @pencils4tea Thanks Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Dundee Scotland!! Always fun and challenging.

My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil. Superaquabee sketchbook

Barbara two min and we were done. I raced off to the dermatologist 😳

Out my back window after two hrs of rain. The egrets are starting to roost. Its August when the big birds show up. On the look out for a woodstork or two. The cormorants will be here soon.

Margaret def tired tonite. Xoxoxo

Mary Whyte and Mom’s 96th Birthday

January 29, 2022January 30, 20222 Comments

Well the time has come to take a class from the famous Mary Whyte. Off to St Simons next week via Dick Blick class in Savannah to spend my gift certificates. You know I “need “ something. Right?

Best part will be hanging out with my friend Karen Schaaf who I haven’t seen since before covid. Karen recently got her NWS signature and will be in the next issue of Splash 22. We can say we knew her when. Met her at Cheap Joes taking a class from the late great Charles Reid. I think I have almost every book he wrote.

I painted this of my mom who turned 96 last Monday a couple of years ago. I call it
“I Told Her to Smile” because I did and she didn’t. Painted on Fabriano 300# hot press. 11×15”

Thinking about repainting it since it looks off to me now. Nose too long and the mouth twitched to the side. And what’s with the light streak across her chin. Bytw mom did NOT like this painting. Never pout mom, never pout.

This is the photo the painting is based on taken on her 90th birthday. A friend said she was concentrating. Maybe so.

Maniacally sewed this baby quilt for my nephew and his wife’s new baby Mary Rose. She is named Miryam after her mothers aunt who died in the Holocaust. And another who survived it.

The back. Kind of wish I had put the yellow print on the front. Oh well. It’s off in the mail hopefully to greet the baby when she comes home this week.

It has the baby’s name in one corner heart her parents in another, her dob in the third and place of birth in the last one.

Really got to finish this. An old 60s VW abandoned in a car port in Athens Ga across the street from my brothers house. And then take it down town to Art on Broad with my other vehicle paintings for Kristin to sell. Maybe a few prints?! Could be an excuse to buy a new printer!!?

Baking bread. One loaf going to a friend for her birthday instead of a cake. We went to see Kingsmen and I treated her to popcorn and a drink since we aren’t eating out right now. We loved it even though the critics didn’t. Kept us in the edge of our seated the whole time.

Bytw NOBODY is at the movies so quite safe. We had the theater to ourselves. Well the top half. A couple that came in after us sat way down in front. Socially distancing! Yeah!!

Slicing my load up to freeze it. Reheats so well as toast or nuke ten min in the microwave. Taste fresh from the oven!! Also tasty as a sandwich.

My favorite red socks. Wore a hole in my other pair. It’s a free pattern from hedgehogfibers.com. It’s called Sprouting. I have probably made a dozen pairs of this sock. This is my second red pair. Wore the heels out of the first which were Malabrigo no poly. These are Madeline Tosh sock. Wears like cast iron. I also have to them in gold, two grey pairs, and turquoise.

A blue heron we saw on our walk. Fishing in the rice paddy where I live. This used to be a river plantation 200 years or so ago. Silly bird thought he was invisible and didn’t budge as I walked toward him. Finally I flapped my arms at him and he took off.

Bytw it’s quite dangerous to get near one of these birds or an egret. They can stab you with their beaks according to the SC Wildlife Department.

My current snuggle quilt. Where are my knitting needles. One more pair of socks almost done.

Margaret under her quilt on the sofa who really needs to pack for her Mary Whyte class next week but heck I can do that tomorrow right?! Xoxoxo

Robert Dutton, Yorkshire Artist

January 25, 2022January 25, 20224 Comments

I took an online zoom pastel class with delightful North Yorkshire artist Robert Dutton a while back on ShopKeeparty.com and been meaning to post this for a while but as you know when I think of how annoying Word Press is and I just don’t do it.

Anyway Robert is my new fav teacher. So enthusiastic so sharing….he’s one of those teachers that wants to pour everything he knows into your little brain.

He’s extremely supportive. Will chat with you on Facebook and on Instagram and answer all your questions. I just need to hop a plane and go take a class with him in the wilds of Yorkshire, don’t I?!

In the meantime I will make do with Shopkeeparty and a new site he’s teaching from. You can sign up for that class here. It’s £15 and will be worth every penny!!

Starting with a piece of vine charcoal.
Fabriano rough 20×30”

This is a large drawing on a full sheet of watercolor paper. Fabriano rough. 22×30″. Starting off with vine charcoal sketch and a few pastels.

Adding more details and colors. More pastels . I have an assortment of Senneiier(if they were good enough for Degas Manet and Picasso they are good enough for me-sold on the left bank in Paris or on Amazon), Unison both soft pastels and some Rembrandt pastels which are much harder.

We also used water on some of the charcoal to get the grey on the top right and sanded some charcoal to paint with on the bottom middle…great fun but what a mess!!!

Anyway..its done. Might be my fav…as soon as omicron calms down I am taking it downtown to frame…so I can hang it on a wall and not worry about the dog or the cat smearing it….

I also highly recommend Roberts book which is selling like hot cakes on amazon. Drawing Dramatic Landscapes for $21 and worth every penny…jam packed with how tos and what to dos. Heres a link to Robert talking about his new book on YouTube.

There are ten more videos you can purchase on ShopKeepArty with Robert along with my other fav cutie Ian Fennelly. You feel like you have run a race when you are done drawing with them both but you have learned a lot from both of them especially Robert….take a class you won’t be sorry!!!

There are at least three of Robert’s videos available on Shopkeeparty’s YouTube. Here’s one of them – the one that hooked me.

Kitty Ecstasy I
It’s what you do in a cold winter day.

Kitty ecstasy….Weenie Cat found her love Zoes bed and was in seventh heaven wallowing in it today in the sunshine. Too funny.

I think she wants to be a house cat. What do you think!!?

Margaret who just told Word Press tech support that on. a scale of 1-10 I give their new user interface a big fat ZERO. I would NEVER recommend WordPress to anyone…maybe I need to go back to blogger. time for bed!! XOXOXO

Da da with a long Ā Also Known as David

November 16, 2021November 16, 20213 Comments

My youngest grandson Dada on Ampersand Aquaboard. 11×14 watched a NWS zoom video on how to paint on Aquaboard with Ali Cavanaugh then we painted on our own. Came together for a critique on Saturday.

I never realized David has my son Ben, his daddy’s eye brows til I painted this. Funny the things you notice when you paint people. The eyebrows on those two are identical shapes.

Lots of thin layers. Rather reminded me of the class I took with Mario Robinson a few years ago. Lots of sheer thin layers.

Hours later. I scratched his hit with my Olfa box cutter as I listened to the critiques.

Need to work on making the bubbly background Ali does which I love. This is a screen shot from her Instagram feed so you can go followed her. She also has a patreon page for $20 a month to encourage portrait painting which I think I will do sooner or later.

Margaret xoxoxo

Fall trees in my yard. If I could change anything about my house it would be to put some of my front yard trees in the treeless backyard. The previous owners cut them all down when they put in the pool. Anyone want a pool. Please come and get it. Trade you for a few trees and maybe a patio.

Waiting for this beauty to go red. Maybe by my birthday Sunday?! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 214 Kitty Doodles

October 15, 2020October 15, 20202 Comments

Got bogged down doing paperwork today but managed to draw the pot kitties on my back porch. Oddly once again two are missing. Last time that happened they turned up. So who knows. It’s a wait and see right?!

This morning they were busy playing inside and outside. Spent the afternoon snoozing. As I type they are waking up. Of course I Am done drawing them. Sigh

Anyway here they are. Used my Namiki Fude. Faber castell watercolor pencils. Was afraid to dampen the watercolor pencil because I knew the ink would run. Really need to order a bottle of platinum black. Never had these things problems with it.

Stillman and Birn alpha.

Zoe’s ready for Halloween. She was very excited when I put on her Halloween scarf.

The knitting is growing. 16″ or so now.

Margaret thinking abt a nap. Xoxoxox

Day 165 Key West time

August 27, 2020Leave a comment

A work in progress.

To chop it down or not to chop it down. What do you think? .

The sketch and then I forgot to take photos. Duh. Did not turn out the way I had envisioned but it’s growing on me. Like it better without the bikes.

Just some of the watercolor paint my dad left me. I have a lot more since I don’t buy a lot of Cheap Joes. Just alizarin and Andreas turquoise. Some of this paint is more than twenty years old and still soft and useable. Aka good paint.

BUT I am going to replace the Lukas paint with Cheap Joes. Good paint as opposed to crappy paint at a reasonable price. Cheaper than any other except Lukas which is nasty and chalky.

Spent the day sorting my own paint for an upcoming class. I did find quite a few tubes on her list.

Swore I was never buying more paint then I hit amazon. More paint coming. Oops!!

I mean I didn’t have the right colors for the Kathryn Giles class, you know?! And I have been on the search for a good Transparent yellow. She says she has one. We shall see. Besides I eat Cad yellow and cad yellow light like peanuts so I can always use more..

Back to Schitts Creek. Margaret xoxoxo

Day 164 Sweating in Barcelona

August 26, 2020August 26, 20207 Comments

Another wild paint along with Vlad. Can’t wait for the next one Sunday. Painting boats. Love boat paintings

10×15″ Kilimanjaro 300#. I decided to use Kilimanjaro to see if it scraped like the nasty arches did.

The Arches scrapes great to do leaves, branches or grass. Maybe it will scrape for boat lines. Or I can use my dads antique arches that’s probably 20 years old. I know it scrapes great.

The photo. Kind of a nothing photo don’t you think except nice sunny light, umbrellas and a beautiful old building.

The value sketch

First wash- the water stage

Colors growing. Aka more first wash. Umbrellas really orange but odd it looks so red in this photo.

The second darker washes more pigment. The tea stage.

The last layers. Lots of milk. Aka thicker paint. I think mine moving be too thick.

And the way it is now. Kinda wishing I had not added the Browns and the grey trees on the left. Sometimes I get up in the morning and like them a lot better. We shall see right?!

Had fun drawing all over it with my white gel pen zip zip and always solid unlike white gouache.

Margaret ready for bed but has to watch one more episode of Schitts creek-my current binge. Soooo funny on Netflix’s. Watch more than one before you pass judgement. Xoxoxox

Day 24

April 5, 2020April 5, 20202 Comments

Could be a new thing.

Watching cooking shows and writing down the recipes on the shows. Then I just seemed to need to illustrate them.

I have done ten pages of these in the last two days and they are getting more complicated.

Hmmm.

Terrible drawing of Joanna Gaines. My daughter in-law loves Joanna Gaines so I thought she would like her recipes.

She’s starting a network and a cooking show. Hmmm the Gaines empire expands. She did not give most measurements except for the crepes so you have to buy her cookbook to see the amounts.🥴

Think this one has too much business but I quite like the shrimps. The recipe itself sounds delicious. I intend to give it a whirl when I assemble the ingredients

Next time no coloring the ingredients to highlight them.

And these are just fun to draw. Not too much of a challenge to draw a two inch box is it. just draw a little portion of objects nearby. I obviously need a tidy up.

Watercolor pencils Lamy Safari and Vista Noodlers eelskin Ink Stillman and birn Alpha