Day 937 Its Saturday

February 11, 2017February 11, 2017Leave a comment

Sarah 24×30″ Acrylic alla prima.

Her last modeling session before she moves to Los Angelos this week. We will miss her. She had such a sweet pensive look today. Maybe she was thinking about her big move. LA is a long way from Augusta Ga.

The painting. Was done in an hour or so. I liked it when I left. Now I am not so sure but that’s life isn’t it?! Took a while and several restarts to decide how to paint her but after that it was easy. I turned the panel one way and then the other. Finally painted her vertically.

She was in such a nice position with her legs extend I wished I had a big square to paint her on but oh well only a rectangle.

Colors used titanium white pyrrole red and nickel azo gold for skin. Highlights are primary yellow mixed with the skin color. Shadows are Winsor purple added to the same mix.

I used some thalo blue and that’s all the colors.

Here she is at first break. Forty minutes.

Last session I drew this large ink drawing of Sarah on a piece of mat board. It’s Sarah’s goodby present. Took about 15 minutes.

Oops I forgot her hand and left leg. Oh well.

Drawn with my Pentel brush pen and I bled the ink with a wet Winsor Newton flat fake mongoose brush for shading.

It was a big crowd today. People were even sitting on the floor. Oh it’s good to be young. They were rewarded with Happy buttons for their floor positions.

Al Beyer’s beautiful very large oil 3×4′. A great expression.

Jeremy’s beautiful conte crayon sketch.

Kathe’s wispy sketch. Love the wispiness of it. Conte crayon.

Here it is before the background.

Tom Needham’s beautiful watercolor. Background is Daniel Smith Quin coral.

Marilyn Hartley’s lovely pencil charcoal and ink sketch. Wispy was in today. She really did a great face on this one. Looks just like Sarah.

Another of Kathe Dennis’ lovely sketches charcoal this time.

AC Daniels great oil though for some reason he later wiped out her leg.

Coachs charcoal. Always a great job. And interesting.

Rachel’s branching out. Pastel on arches.

Fred still in his Mondigliani mood.

Dawns sweet face of Sarah.

Last but not least our lovely Iliana’s painting. Great colors. Wonderful face.

And that’s it for today. There were More that got away without a photo.
Ttyl

Margaret ready for a longggg nap. Xoxoxo who sold TEN paintings last nite. Hurrah!!! And the show has a month to go!!!

Day 933 Urban Sketching

February 7, 2017February 7, 2017Leave a comment

Went sketching downtown with my sweet friend AC Daniel. We ended up at the Soy Noodle house eating. Gotta keep your strength up. So far this is my fav sketch done that day. It looks terrible after I painted it but turned it into a journal page with the lettering.

Stillman and Birn Zeta Pentel Brush Pen and Lamy EF. My whisky painter travel palette and waterbrushes.

Wish I had taken a photo of it before the lettering. The brown was just dullllll.

Pleased to announce Augusta is having its first Urban Sketchers meeting. Hopefully Sunday February 12 at Earthfare Meeting Room at 1 pm. Click on the link to join our facebook page, to keep up to date, and to see our art!!! Lots of sketching will be going on.
Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo who had to work on her sketchbookskool homework.

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 918 The Feet that Marched

January 23, 2017January 23, 20172 Comments

Right foot left foot.

Contour drawing. Well supposedly.

I tried not to peak at my foot but that’s so hard. Maybe I will try again after my painting class this afternoon.
I had to color this coloring book like page. COULD NOT give up color once we started!!

L-R Noodler Konrad, Lamy Safari, Pentel Brush Pen, Carbon Pen.

Done with four different pens but I had to color my coloring book page with. Prismacolor art sticks.

Ttyl time for class. Getting ready for TWO shows. What was I thinking.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 912 a little conch republic

January 18, 2017January 19, 2017Leave a comment

And a little more FauvismWhat we jokingly call a jacaranda when we head to key West. The trail on the Sunshine Parkway to Key West and we try to entertain ourselves. One way is the first jacaranda sightings which we usually spot south of Orlando.

The Tale of the Jacaranda

Now why do we call Norfolk Pines Jacarandas? My first trip to Key West I sent a picture of a very tall thin tree to a friend who grew up in Florida. She told me it was a Jacaranda even though we thought it was a Norfolk Pine. I finally looked it up and yes it’s a Norfolk Pine. They grow fifty or more feet tall in southern Florida. Straight up like a cornstalk.

But that’s southern Florida for you. Every house plant we have grows to enormous size. Our house plants are their outside foundation plants. Pothos and philodendrons have leaves bigger than dinner plates and grow stories tall just like the Jacaranda Pine tree.

Stillman and Birn mixed media Zeta Ted Nuttals transparent colors. My small Isabey mop. Well mostly.

Yesterday after I bough the sunflowers I remembered that Earthfare sold some gorgeous red radishes with lots of green leaves. So I made an extra trip 8 miles up the street and got a bunch. $2.99 ouch. Cheaper than flowers though.

Once again we were to use as many cooors as we could to draw these after drawing the first one in the colors the object is. I was lazy and left them on the plastic bag.

Number 1. Fun but I like the other one better.

And all the colors I used.

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 908 Lazy Saturday

January 14, 2017Leave a comment

After all that sneezing and Benadryl decided to be lazy today and binge on Netflix’s.

Maybe I should do some urban sketching off of Midsommer Murders? It’s always set in the most charming Bristish villages as long as you overlook a serial murder or two in every village.

About the sketch one of the Key West sketches. A steel drum player at Buzzards Roost. Sketched on location of course.

Colors are Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Pentel. Rush pen in a Stillman and Birn Zeta.

Tip: I do much better painting all trees when I use my squirrel mops. I have a 12 and a big fat Isabey mop. It keeps me from getting to detailed. Then I usually splatter them to give the small lead effect.

Love my mops. Top one is the Isabey 12 second one is an Isabey 8 I think. Bottom one is a Richeson 2. The 12 is from Blick Atlanta Peachtree store. The bottom two are from Cheap Joes. I use the two smaller ones the most.

It’s really hard to get detailed with these which is great for trees or painting Charles Reid style. The smallest brush he likes to use is an Isabey 16 Kolinski sable.

That’s is for today. Go forth and sketch.

Margaret xoxoxo thinking about a run to the nearest park to sketch the kids in the manufactured snow park. One day only event.

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 903- I had to

January 10, 2017Leave a comment

Paint Calvin the guy who showed up for me to draw Friday. In the rain playing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.”

47 degrees rain and I was out there with him drawing him. Which of us was crazier.

Stillman and Birn mixed Media zeta journal Ted Nuttalls transparent palette.

Here it is before I drew it.

Sketchbook School homework. Fill a page up with doodles using various pens and pencils.

Here are the six pens and pencils I used to make the marks with. I have to day I thought this was a dumb assignment but really enjoyed the 15-20 minutes it took to draw this.

Made me feel like Picasso or maybe Matisse.

Try it I bet you will like it too.

River Bend sunset out my back door tonite. So bright it lit the den up which was how I noticed it. I was too busy blogging to look. Oops.