Day 993 How many more days till 1000?!!!

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017Leave a comment

SeVeN. HURRAH!!

I might cut back to three four times a week. What do you think I should do?!

Worked on this page this morning.

This is what it looked like this am.

What the whole three page spread looks line now.

I colored the hand green with a Prismacolor art stick. The scar letter on the right was done in a page ripped from an old Bartletts quotations.

I flipped this huge thick book open randomly to Lewis Carrol which I thought quite odd since I had a couple of quotes from Alice on the middle page. Decided to save it , read it and maybe cut up the poems on it later.

Flipped the book again without looking. Louisa May Alcott was on that page. I have read every book she wrote at least once and read Little Women multiple times. It’s also the only book I own multiple copies of.

I scribbled the letter with a Kuretake brush pen loaded with carbon platinum black. I ripped the letter by laying my hand on it to give it a hand shape but leave the X-ray part and glued it down.

The milagro heart was also a piece of the same Louisa May Alcott page. The shreds of the ripped up letter cut out like a heart and glued and colored. After all sometimes our hearts need a miracle.

Why a heart?! The reason for the X-ray. Some scars are hidden!! And you know your heart is one such place.

Then I colored it with Prismacolor paint sticks and tombow markers. The Tombows did really well on the black masking tape. Who knew?!

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 984 Alex and Willie

April 2, 2017April 2, 2017Leave a comment

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.

Day 982 Dr Sketchys 2

March 31, 2017March 31, 2017Leave a comment

Love the Chinese dresses Foxy wore at Dr Sketchys Wednesday. Gorgeous fabrics and they fit her like a glove. Classic Chinese dresses probably from her home in Taiwan.

This is my favorite sketch I think though the next one is nice too.

Both 11×14″ Super Aquabee tablet. Noodler Konrad WN colors in a whiskey painter box with a Cotman travel box full of Daniel Smith quinacridones. I used a gold Wink of Stella marker to sparkle these.

This was a challenge to add origami elements. I have folded thousands of those cranes and a few of the frogs. As a kid I loved doing origami since the first kit I received for Christmas. I think she’s slightly out of proportion. Head to big. Legs a tad too short but I like her anyway. A lot to draw and paint in 20 minutes!!

Day 982 Last Nite!

March 30, 20172 Comments

After several disastrous sketches I knew I could handle our beautiful Asian model when I did this watercolor in ten minutes or so.

All sketches are 11×14 in a Super Aquabee tablet. Love that paper. Painted with my whisky painter box loaded with WN and Daniel Smith Quin coral and an old Cotman palette loaded with every quinacridone I own plus thalo blue and green black and white gouache. Painted with a pentel waterbrush.

These are all two minute sketches. Some of these will probably be altered. And most are pretty awful. As in EEEKKK I Don’t feel good and I can’t draw a thing tonite. This one was the worst.

Better. I decided to give up my go to Dr Sketchys pen the Pentel Brush pen and use a Noodler Konrad. Life improved. I always think it’s interesting how a change of pen can improve your drawing skills when they aren’t going well.

Next We had a challenge to turn her into a fox. Evidently her stage name is Foxy. As some of you know I like to draw chickens. Follow them around at Key West to draw them or sit and watch them and sketch them. Never thought chickens could be so much fun but they are.

Really like the sketchiness of her body and legs in this one.

Ttyl another busy day. Haircut picking up paintings and back to aiken for a reception for a friends show.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 974 More St Paddys Day Parade

March 22, 2017March 22, 2017Leave a comment

St Paddys Day Parade ladies from St. John’s tower. They were actually riding another truck but I liked this one better. Augusta Ga
A dab of gel pen on the antennae. I loved those. And they were riding in chairs.

#stjohnstower #augustaga #stpatricksday #watercolorpainting #sketchbookskool #urbansketcher #undercoverspy #urbansketching #usk #georgia #ink #lamysafari #lamy #stillmanandbirn

Gotta run. Heading to Atlanta. Hope to sketch there. I am Ready!!

Margaret xoxox

Day 974 Art for Breakfast

March 21, 2017Leave a comment

Decided to quickly draw my Sunday brunch before I ate it. Hmm it’s an omelet. Got a little dark. Aka lost my yellows. But on the whole I like this a lot.

The tulips were really standing up but they are so pretty decided to draw them flopping so they would fit.

Since I also used a Prismacolor art stick or two and a white gel pen this is really mixed media.

Lamy safari Arches #280 paper Lexington grey ink.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 948 Dr Sketchys part 1

February 23, 2017Leave a comment

Last nite was Dr Sketchys at Chat Noir one of my favorite times of the month. This is one of my favs of the ten or so sketches I did last nite. I did not feel like dealing with her legs which were very heavy so I swathed her in a gossamer white gown and called her Cleopatra complete with a deadly snake.

All sketches done with my Whiskey painter watercolor pallette loaded with Windsor newton WC and one lone Daniel Smith Quin coral and painted in a super aquabee tablet with a Pentel brush pen.

A warm up doodle with my Noodler brush pen and a Noodler Konrad with sepia ink.

2 minute sketch. Pentel brush pen.

2 minute sketch. Pentel brush pen

Five minute sketch. Pentel brush pen. Tombow marker.

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow.

Margaret off to Aiken for an art show opening. Xoxoxo

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.