Day 337 – More Ponce Market

June 10, 20152 Comments

My favorite side of the old Sears building now known as Ponce Market. Both have problems.

I drew this one first but really had just wanted to feature the tower and the sign. Love that sign. Vintage but brand new.
TIP: Since I didn’t use a pencil or a ruler you might be wondering how i get all those lines parallel and fairly straight. I put the pen on the paper with my hand on the side of the paper and run it down the page with my hand sliding down the edge of the paper. It really does work. Try it.

Colors same as yesterday. Noodler Creaper Ahab loaded with Carbon Platinum Black Ink. Stillman and bIrn Alpha. The color was hard to move on the sky and blotched. That did not make me happy. Oh well. They are done right?!

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 328 – Quick Dog Sketches

June 1, 2015Leave a comment

The Watch Dogs aka Pits on guard

Happy June!! Can hardly believe it’s amer again!

After one false start this one went very well. The two dogs were guarding the house while strangers were getting giveaways on Craigslist off the porch.

They will sit still barking their heads off for what seems like hours. This sketch took at most ten minutes and perhaps ten to color it. Quick and dirty. It was done with my Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with carbon platinum plus. The ink should not have run. Maybe I will make this mixed media when I get home by adding a piece of ledger paper over the lettering on the right.

Tips aka How I did it. Colored with Caran d’ache watercolor crayons wet with a waterbrush. The brindle pitty was a problem as usual with his tiger striped coat. I started with the same colors as the fawn pit bull Livia. Then I added black to Bear. I wet it down hitting it here and there with the waterbrush. If I had brushed the water on it it would have blurred the colors.

The blinds were done by coloring with a burnt umber crayon and washing the blinds with it. Then letting the wash dry and drawing new lines on the blinds with the burnt umber crayon.

I had thought about getting my fine mister out and spraying it allowing the colors to run. Glad I didn’t. I really do like this sketch. The mister spray effect is totally unpredictable.

This is the first attempt at drawing them. A contour sketch that didn’t have room for all of Bear the pit on the left or all of Livias tail or the chair. Sometimes it’s just easier to start over.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx

Day 327 – a few more planes

June 1, 2015Leave a comment

If it was hard drawing a plane with one wing a biplane doubles the opportunities to screw up. Oh my gosh. Hard to draw. I actually lost a propellor. And all kinds of struts and ties. I think they are there now. I hope. Hate for it to fly apart.

My grandson Henry loved this little yellow plane. He has watched the short video of it at least 20 times. He wanted me to draw it for him. So we did.

First problem. Do not paint with a two year old and not expect ho to add his favorite color red to a yellow planes wing. Oops. I drew another one do him to paint and he was happy.

Then the yellows were a problem. Cad yellow was not Orange enough. I finally used a dab of Indian yellow gouache. I have a white marker that I used to add the reflection on the bottom of the wing and some of the wires. Why was there a reflection there?! No idea.

Last problem. No idea what kind of biplane this cutey is.

Here are Henrys paintings with a little help from his gramy. The yellow plane was painted with my Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith watercolors. The one on the right was painted with his Watercolors. I never could get a dark black to draw the plane. So the next time you want to save a little money and buy student grade paints don’t. What if your grandson I mean you paint a masterpiece with the cheap paint?! It won’t last forever. That would be sad.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 322 – Good Books

May 27, 20155 Comments

shopping for Franklin and Froggy books at our Gucci Goodwill. Found a stack. Sat down to draw the customers in the Good Eats Cafe there.

Some days you can’t draw at all. Viewing it as a warm up for Dr Sketchys tonite. Hope I do better then.

These are the best of the trash that I drew. Could not get in the rhythm today.

I brought in a sketchbook with only two pages left DUH! So I drew over some screwed up pages of Rhineharts Oyster Bar.

Browsers and worker bees at Good Books.

Rhineharts roof. Guess I could have drawn on the napkins!?

Sorry about the quality of the photos. Weird shadows from the lights in Good Books.

Maybe color would improve these?! Or a brush pen!?

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 314 – More Grandkids Paintings

May 20, 20155 Comments

Love the background on this spread. Scroll down to see how it was started. This is a practice painting for the next one. I think she needs a neck or her heads too big. Or maybe her head just looks pasted on becaus it has no shadows around the baby’s chin. I think that’s the problem. What do you think?!

Pleased with the way Henry turned out on the right.

Definitely more work required. Liking the drips and splatters which I actually purposefully made. Stay tuned I will show u how but not tonite. Too late posting. Sorry.

TIP: This is how I started the background in the first double spread. A wash of several soft colors Quin red Quin gold yellow yellow ochre burnt sienna cerulean and mineral Violet.

Then u tone it down by painting more washes of a variety of colors over it which is how the background in the first one was done. Just don’t go dark with your washes. You can do that later!

Here she is so far. More work required. No drips and no splatters yet. The soft pink skin is made from Quin coral and yellow ochre. Hope the dress is not too dark.

Decided to make this a journal page of our weekend together.

Henry’s head reshaped from yesterday’s post. Now I think he needs more back on his head but at least it’s not shaped like a football helmet.

I added some drips and some dark darks behind his head and under his arms to this one.

Don’t know why I didn’t do any drips and splatters. Have a few paintings from spring fling that I did drip and splatter. Wondering if that is because the kids paintings are more important to me than the others? I think so.

Do you find it freeing not to care if you mess up a painting? Sometimes the most fun happens with watercolor then.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 304 Homeward bound

May 8, 2015Leave a comment

such a great class we were all loathe to leave.

Our parting shot – a sign to remember us by. I lettered it.

Fealing painted it.

Quick peek in the candy store aka Cheap Joes warehouse.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 281 – The Wild Plum Tea Room

April 13, 20152 Comments

Lunch on a deck over a streams surrounded by flowering trees. Spring at its best in Gatlinburg.

Great charming ambience, terrific food on assorted old china plates. Wait staff is fabulous.

This place won a well deserved Trip Advisor award of excellence in 2014. We will go back maybe even tomorrow!!

I need to draw their lobster pie. Mike high lobster pie!!

Desert was a gooey brownie sundae with chocolate chip ice cream with a wedge of pineapple. I still have to paint it.

This is colored with caran d’ache crayons over a watercolor base done with the crayons. Inked with my trusty Kuretake brush pen filled with Carbon Platinum black ink.

Wish I had a few more things flowing over the border. Maybe I will cut something out and stick a few leaves on it?! Probably not. On to the next picture.

Thanks for looking.

Day 277- Earls

April 10, 2015April 12, 20152 Comments

finishing up Atlanta sketches. As usual we hit the restaurants.

Earls on Flat Shoals Road in East Atlanta Village was the perfect spot for an outside lunch on a gorgeous spring day.

Hamburgers were cooked to order and delicious. Sweet potatoes fried were perfect and the Dijon cranberry dipping sauce was some kind of heaven. Tasted like it had a bit of horseradish sauce it it too. Yumm. The tea was just the way I like it. Lots of ice too.

I drew the sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded with Carbon Platinum black. Love that pen. Think refillable Pentel brush pen. Heaven right. I colored it with the Caran d’ache watercolor crayons. The bases are washes of watercolor using the caran d’ache crayons. Layers of color were scribbled on the base watercolors with any color that I thought would look good. After I was done painting i reapplied lots of ink including cross hatching.

The pale blue background was made by using a water brush on the flat end of the crayon. Fun stuff!!

I already filled up ️my Sennelier accordion book. No bleed thru so far. The paper is lovely heavy stuff. Will be posting as soon as I do an accordion book tutorial and color the Sennelier.

Thanks for looking!!

Day 276 Church Lady

April 10, 2015Leave a comment

sometimes I wonder why everything I seem to paint is full of problems that I have to solve. How is it that I screw up over and over. Maybe it’s the universe hinting I should go back to painting with acrylics!? I dunno.

I painted three ladies or manikin heads with fancy hats. Church Lady is the third one. I meant to post this one on Easter Sunday but got busy and didn’t quite get around to it. You notice that quote?! Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. That’s me and watercolor. Something is going to invariably mess up.

I painted her face THREE times. Can you believe that?! I truly did. I had a lovely face and was doing the letterig on the side and my pen caught on the string and slung blips of brown ink all over her face and a bit on her hat. Groan. That’s all I could do.

Here she is right before instarted the lettering. Worst thing is I hated the lettering when I had finished it. So I messed her up for nothing.

I painted over the ink splats with white gouache and never could get her face right. So I decided to cut out a new face. I did. I cut out three or four. One even ended up painted. It never laid down right so I peeled it off. Oh what a mess.

Finally I painted the remains of her original face out with Daniel Smith watercolor ground. The surface was ripped and lumpy. I thought hopeless.

I redrew her face with my Noodler flex non and De Artrementis brown document ink. I painted her face for the third time. Finally I pronounced her done. I lettered her with a brush and the brown ink. I also painted out the quote with yellow gouache. I thought church ladies was a lot more fun than that quote which ended up I the border. Oh I highlighted the hat and the eyes with white gel pen.

Oh. I made a few more accordion books. That make seven. Stay tuned for a how to on the accordion books.

Love that new Kuratake refillable pen in the picture . Now loaded with platinum carbon black ink. Super pen. Busy drawing my way thru my new S&B Zeta. Still need to paint them.

Thanks for looking.

Day 276 – Michonne

April 9, 2015April 9, 20152 Comments

WIP -Michonne-

Walking Dead star.

Caran d’ache in stillman&birn zeta.

Odd how u look at sketches the next day and think they need more tweaking. I think she could use more red here and there. And oops her left eye is not done. Wonder how I did that!? Will I finish her? Probably. Have the urge to draw Darryl and Maybe Carol so I better finish Michonne.