Category: Mixed Media

Day 2051 Ponce City and Decatur sketching

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Ponce City these need W O R K lol

The old DeKalb County court house. A guy walking by on Ponce said it was beautiful. He didn’t notice my egregious error. Or that darn fly lol.

That’s better.

These are all 9×12″. Stillman and birn Alpha. Lamy Joy and Lamy Vista. My Ef was out of ink. I was actually going to paint today. I seem to have left my whisky painter box at home. Darn. I lugged some water brushes all over town. No paint. 😵😵😵

Watercolor to come.

Margaret off to a family dinner and an awards nite for Henry. Xoxoxo

Day 1115 -It’s Saturday

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Emily 90 minutes watercolor pastel and 6B lead on strathmore Bristol.

A little thin thru the shoulders and body. And HOW did I forget to paint her other leg. An easy fix.

The sketch. About 30 minutes.

First break with a wash of raw sienna and Quin rose.

Second break? 80 minutes. Used a huge 16 Legends Sable. And a Golden Fleece Cheap Joes 2″ flat.

Added sepia Quin sienna Quin gold aureolin cobalt violet and dioxazine violet

Added white pastel stick for highlights.

Al Beyer oil 3×4′

Katie’s pencil and pastel. Love the flesh tones.

Jeremy. Red conte crayon?

Coach. Always does nice charcoal sketches.

Tom Needham’s small watercolor 10×14

AC Daniels small not quite done. Second break.

Fred the dentist having fun.

Margaret xoxoxox who better paint that leg.

Day 1096 Those Dogs

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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.

I really like the way this head turned out. Both the sketch and the watercolor.

This is my second favorite head. I was drawing fast.

I still had not filled up my pens and reached into my purse to see what I had. Pulled out a 6B Charcoal pencil and drew with it.

After I painted her I set the charcoal with fixative. So far it seems to not be smearing. Cross your fingers.

Strathmore 400 sketchbook. Colors used. Quin burnt sienna cerulean cobalt Andrews Turquoise.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1053 – Politics 

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Hard to avoid it today. It’s all over the tv the radio Facebook twitter. I don’t know about you but the last few days have been riveting. THIS IS WATERGATE!! 14×20 Mixed Media 

Enough to get Rachel Maddow back from her sick bed where she had been for almost two weeks.  

I got the brilliant idea to do this one on arches #140 cold press. BIG a mistake. Hard to write on with any ink pen or marker I had.  

I finally picked up a Japanese brush pen I thought had permanent ink. I tested it on a scrap of paper.  It didn’t run. 

Fast forward to all the heavy lines in this sketch are done with that brush pen especially on Dan Coats. 

When I started painting him he turned into a gray runny mess. This was supposed to be a watercolor.  EEEKKKK.  

I dug into my mixed media art supply grove. Caran d’ache Neocolor ii to the rescue. I started coloring. I lightened him up. The only person that didn’t have some runs was Comey. 😳

A lot of the letters ran. The names!! Eeeekkk. On this rough paper there was no clean edge. Tried a grease pencil which works great in my sketchbooks. NOPE TOO rough. 

Got out a white gel pen on the letters.  Better!! Got out a paint pen. Even better. More outlining with the Lamy Safari. 

Done. Whew. Not what I had in mind BUT finally pleased with it. 

Margaret planning another but it will be on hot press paper. Xoxoxo the news is calling. 

Day 1037 AlexPowers 

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I don’t usually review books BUT this is a great book for anyone wanting to do figure drawing and painting. 

Comprehensive as only older art books are. He covers every aspect. I think newer books are shorter to cut down on costs. You can own this book for about $5. 

So what do I like about this book besides its comprehensiveness?! 

Well I love his art. It’s sketchy but visually exciting with slurpy runs and drips and smears of gorgeous color. Some Of my favorite things about watercolor and art. 

I discovered him when I was at Cityart during the Vista gallery open house last month. 

His art is like huge pages ripped from Sketchbooks or figure drawing sessions and combined on big sheets of paper complete with notes. 

And how did he draw these in motion sports sketches?! Well now I know. He video tapes and paints from the video. A who knew moment for me.  

His first 25 pages covers everything about drawing the head. 

In great detail 


With great illustrations. 


How to draw the figure. 


Designing the picture. 

Hmm you mean you dont just take great photos?! 


There’s more to it than that? Yes there is and he explains it. 


And a great section on that hardest of topics- edges lost and found. 

It keeps your art from looking pasted in. 

Look at the dynamic movement he gets. And he uses a spray bottle. What an idea! 

And coloring book syndrome. Never heard of it in this sense but what a great painting.  

And lots of practical art business advice from an artist whose been supporting himself with his ar since 1979. 

So run over to Amazon and order this amazing book. 

Margaret xoxoxo whose looking forward to dr Sketchys tonite. 🤗

Day 1011 Some Grafitti aka Extreme Journaling

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Well let’s hope I don’t accidentally delete this post this time. ROUND TWO!! 

This is the assignment for week five of the Juliana Coles The Book of the Night class.  Based on the Persephone Demeter Greek Myth.  As usual first we journaled. Then I painted it out.  


And I painted collaged and stamped it.  


I added some red paint wiping it off and some purple on the spring side. 


Added the white lettering with caran dache neocolor ii and scribbled on it some of the neocolors. 

I also used my new favorite toy a 6B lead that I bought at Cityart last Thursday for $1.29. They have a storefront and gallery in the Vista. 


The lettering on the leaves was done with the lead.  I also enhanced the skulls in Hades on the bottom right with the caran dache neocolor iis. They didn’t show enough 


Then I added some more red to the wrap on the girl on the left. I was hoping it would add to the flames of hades.  Not sure it did But it’s done for now.  

Ttyl. packing one more day til I leave for Charles Reid class. Margaret xoxoxox 

Day 994 – Peggy Habet’s class 

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I drew Peggy several times during class. This was the last time and looks the most like her. Fourth time the charm. She was hard to draw with a long thin nose and a tiny face. 


The nose kept overpowering her tiny face when I drew her. This was the first try. And then I painted her too dark so I scrubbed her a little to lighten her up. I did have fun stamping her name and embellishing the page with a watercolor pencil. 


Go round three. Nose still too big. Eeekkk.  The hair is a combo of thalo and sepia. 


Number four. TOO Dark!!!’ What the heck. 


Better. But the face was too wide and not oval enough.  I could make it narrower by adding hair. 

I painted on my class sketches most of the day. Guess it’s time to do those color studies. 

Margaret xoxoxo whose having a painting day. 

Day 985 Some Rachel time

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A good way to start a Monday!


This ones a little busy but it was a busy day on Thursday. For that matter so was Friday. 

Oddly I noticed Rachel looks a little tired in this sketch. If I hadn’t deleted it I would go back and look at it to see if she was. Those kinds of things turn up in sketches even if you don’t notice them while you are watching. 


I actually think I might like this better unpainted. Oh well. As you can tell the news continues to astound me. The spy novel keeps building and building. 

As Chuck Lorre posted after Big Bang “our best hope to save the day is an eighty year old slab of beef jerky from Arizona(McCain) and his trusty sidekick Scarlett O’Hara(Lindsey Graham)!!


Off to bed. Ttyl. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 984 Alex and Willie

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Every Sunday I watch CBS SUnday Morning. My fav bits on it are the partsabout  artists or singers people stuff. And this show is crammed with them. Alex was on this am talking about his 45 impersonations. Hard to resist sketching him. He morphed into 45. The mans definitely making me political!! 

The background was Quin gold but not enough contrast w the head. Like the orange one better. After all he is the Orange One”

Have always loved Willie and meant to just draw him. He just popped onto the page. What’s not to love about an 84 year old who says “we woke up and we are still not dead!”??

Think they are done. Maybe. Trying to resist the urge to scribble on them in the background with a soft dark pencils. So many quotable quotes from them both.  

Painted on 280# Arches Cold Press with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus cerulean, hematite and cheap Joes Andrews Turquoise. Pen pentel brush pen. 

Ttyl Going to try my hand at horses today. 

Margaret taking a walk in the park today too.