Day 380 – Busy Day

July 24, 2015July 24, 2015Leave a comment

working on a commission. Got up so early to get a start I actually was worn out and took a nap in the bed. I always nap on the sofa IF I take a nap.

I was out at 6:45 taking photos of the dawn.

Then I actually cooked breakfast.

After that we were off to the Hemingway look alike contest at 9 at the Cypress House.

Very odd being surrounded by a bunch of white bearded guys.

They usually have about 75 entries.

You can look like a young Hemingway but most of the guys were older look alikes with white beards.

Lots of pics for painting bearded guys in hats now. Been wanting some since Fealin Lins class.

Last years winner. A funny guy. Not sure of his name. He got a medal which is the red ribbon hanging backwards around his neck.
Then I came home to get to working on the commission. Could not find my full sketchbook of Key West anywhere. I needed it to make a bigger painting of one of the sketches. Thank goodness I had good photos and got busy.

Took a break and went to eat at the Hogfosh grill. We were gonng to a shrimp place on stock island but atrip advisor review from two days ago said dogs were all over and eating at the table. We decided to got to HogFish were we knew what to expect.

Before we left we searched the trunk in the daylight and there was my sketchbook. Thanks goodness.

Here’s what I am working on.

Lots of details left to do. Hope Analise likes it. Thanks for reading.

Back to painting.

Ps if you want to paint the Hemingway look alikes feel free. They love posing!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 377 – and chickens

July 21, 2015July 21, 20154 Comments

I love drawing chickens. I NEVER used to understand WHY anyone would like painting drawing buying chicken paintings. Now I know. They are just fun to draw as are all birds. These are drawn with my Noodler creaper Ahab in my almost finished moleskine. Thank goodness.

I still really don’t like that paper!! The paint just seems to stick to the paper. You can not wash out the color. It just sticks. NO FUN!!

From now on I am sticking to Strathmore 500 mixed media paper or Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbooks. NO MORE moleskine watercolor books ever again. At least I only have one more page in that moleskine!! HURRAH!!
Here’s a picture for you to draw that I took at the Wildlife Center yesterday!!

I still have to go back and draw the egret pelicans hawk and various sea birds at the Wildlife Center.
I rounded the corner there and on the sidewalk was a HUGE white egret.

I guess we were both scared.

He flew off.

If you want to draw either the egret or the chickens feel free!!
Thanks for reading!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 375 – Food Tour part 2

July 18, 20152 Comments

The whole enchilada. Wanted to post before I pass out from a fun four mile bike ride with Lloyds Bike tour. Color me worn out. Lettering done with my pentelbrush pen and my noodler creaper Ahab.

Annlises logo. Can’t go wrong with her tour. Viking would be proud to say she did their tour!! Terrific local food and local color!! And Annelise worked hard to keep us hydrated. We each got our own fresh coconut to drink. Amazing!!

All the food was delicious but I fell I love with the fish taco at Andys cabana. I have eaten a lot of fish tacos lately and this one was perfection. I also drank coffee something I NEVER EVER do. Cuban coffee from El Siboneys could be my new energy drink.

We also learned about the history, architecture, the real estate market, and the flora and fauna. She does a super tour. A native of Key West she shares her huge amount of knowledge with her clients and if she doesn’t know she doesn’t mind telling you. Chances are good she does know!!

We also got a list of other restaurants tha specialize in local fresh caught seafood and fresh local veggies. So far we have eaten at two. Louies Backyard and Camilles. Fabulous food. Just fabulous. Great atmosphere. Can’t recommend either of them enough or the Food tour.

Annlise. She’s actually prettier than this wc.
The pages

Up close for your enjoyment.
More after I recover from fun with Lloyd!! He’s so funny and so knowledgeable.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 374 Key West Food Tour

July 17, 2015July 17, 2015Leave a comment

led by our fearless knowledgeable Annlise.

A very quick Pentel brush sketch done while we were enjoying our conch fritters with lime aioli sauce at Camilles. The fritters had just he right amount of hot. And a tall glass of ice water to keep us hydrated on our journey. Annlise is a font of info about all things Key West from the local food scene to the history and stories and even real estate pricing. You can not go wrong with her southernmost food tour.

Colors : cad red light, yellow ochre flesh, mineral Violet, cerulean, cobalt, Inathradone blue, alizarin, Burnt sienna, Andrews turquoise. Hair is Inathradone blue and burnt umber. Drawing done with Pentel brush pen.

More about the food tour tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 349- Key West Finale

June 23, 2015Leave a comment

The scourge of Key West. Iguanas ravenously devour the landscape on Key West. I do love this watercolor though.

B.O.’s Fish Wagon a shady place on the corner of a parking lot made from an amazing collection of found junk. Awesome food!!

Delicioso what else can I say about B.O.’s Fish Wagon?!

Love the look of Bo’s.

Blue Heaven Garden

Was my favorite sketch before I colored it with my watercolor pencils. I know it’s getting a redo when we go.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 348- Key West Dreaming Part Two

June 23, 2015June 23, 2015Leave a comment

One of my favorite sketches. All things Key West. Chickens, motor scooters, Blue Heaven, palm tree, sea shells and a beachy drink. This was drawn in pencil and added to as inspiration hit starting with the scooter.

Zany celebrations abound in Key West. The dachshund parade which was around one square block followed by a chihuahua flash mob!! Next trip Hemongway look alike contest to celebrate his birthday. Can’t wait to sketch hairy old men and mustacheoed young men a la Hemingway.

Banyan trees fascinate me. One is so enormous there are shops inside it and a sidewalk.

A view down the street towards the Custom house I think. One of my fav sketches. Love that tall towering Palm.

A few more Key West sketches tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 348- Key West Dreaming Part Two

June 22, 2015June 22, 20152 Comments

Banyan trees fascinate me. One is so enormous there are shops inside it and a sidewalk.

A view down the street towards the Custom house I think. One of my fav sketches. Love that tall towering Palm.

A few more Key West sketches tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 347 – Key West Dreaming

June 21, 2015Leave a comment

We are off to Key West for fun and sketching in a few weeks. I know we are going to be eating at a lot of great restaurants.

Key West A sunny place for shady people!!

El Meson de Pepe. Lots of atmosphere but the margaritas were weak and the conch fritters rubber.

Blue Heaven aptly named. The food is amazing. Atmosphere funky with loads of chickens who beg.

My review of Blue Heaven. A definite we shall return.

The double page spread.

If being wrapped in palms is cozy the Bistro on Duval is a must. Food was ok. Great waitress. Great atmosphere. Killer deserts.

Watercolor and ink in a moleskine landscape watercolor book.

Hopefully more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 345 – That Paper!!

June 19, 2015Leave a comment

Gets five Gold stars in my book.

as I said yesterday I bought a landscape tablet of Aquabee Super Deluxe paper when I was at Binders at Ponce Market in April. Great store!! How often have you had an art store manager ask you what you would like to see carried in their store?! Told her a class with Charles Reid. I hope I hope!!

Anyway I had read in David Millards great watercolor books about Super Deluxe Bee sketchbooks. These books are 140 pages each just packed with information on watercolor. The price can not be beat. $4 or less on Amazon. Why do you ask?! The books are from the early 80s. The author died in 2002. Sadly I can’t take a class from him. He is big on sketchbooks big lots of tips on drawing crowds and buildings. The man knows sketchbooks. His favorites took all the water I threw at them and flattened out when I was done. Rare in a 93lb paper. And reasonably priced. Amazon has the big 11×14 listed for $22 and full price is $25 for a 100 pages!! I am stopping by Cityart in Columbia on my way to Charleston to pick up an 11×14 for Dr Sketchys and a smaller one to take to Key West in July. And maybe a tube or two of paint. Last week Randy the owner had Holbein paint half price. Why didn’t I order some?! Cityart is the store that Charles Reid and Mary White use to supply their classes. Great store down in the Vista. They also have a great website and shopping is almost overnite and so reasonable.

I drew this last April in my super deluxe bee 6×12 landscape book with my Kuretake brush pen from an overlook in Gatlinburg. Never quite got around to painting it. I was too tired from all the running around. The brush own had loved the smooth paper. Would the watercolor?! Despite what Millard said I am always a sceptic. And as Roz Stendhal says one thing you can count on is that paper will change. His books are 30 years old.

Thank goodness he was right. I lost count of the washes I threw at this paper. Big watery wet washes layer after layer. While the paper buckled a little as I painted it was almost perfectly flat when it dried!!! Hallelujah. A 93# paper that dries flat and doesn’t cost a fortune?!

TIP!!! Bytw I started the lower hills with a wash of light yellow Aureolin for the trees and gradually darkened it with very watery layers of red for the red oaks in the spring and darker greens and blues and mineral purple. Really like using the mineral purple as a dark. Using lots of layers of this colors let me keep the colors transparent. Aka didn’t make MuD!! Sky is a couple of layers of cerulean.

This is another sketch from the same overlook up in the Gatlinburg bypass. I meant to fill in the town but never did. It started raining. It rained a lot the week we were in Gatlinburg. And the pen ran out of ink. My kuretake converter holds a drop of ink. I swear. I did later find cartridges of platinum carbon black that fitted it so now I am good to go.

Another plus for this paper. I just realized that the Pentel brush ink supposedly permanent but so often runny in my Stillman and Birn zeta did not run on this paper when I went back over the lettering and decided to add yet another wash. Hurrah.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret who needs to get packing!!!xxx

Day 324 Dr Sketchys Part two

May 29, 20154 Comments

Ten minute pose. This one is going to be used on social media to advertise the Sweeney Todd show at Chat Noir this weekend. Wish I could be there to see it but in Atlanta dogsitting. The red is a wink of Stella brush pen. All red glitter. Makes him look even more gruesome.

The sketching went much better but I do wish I had used my Noodler Creaper Ahab for some of these. Instead I used the Pentel Brush Pen, Tombow Markers, Pentel color brush pens, and Wink of Stella brush pens for some glittery sparkle. both the Tombows and the Colorbrush pens are water soluble and fun to use with a water brush.

This was a ten minute pose. We were supposed to make a poster of him so I turned him into a pirate because I messed up his left eye. Perfect place for a patch. Problem solved. Most of the coloring was done with the Tombows. There was a prize of two free tickets to Sweeney Todd but since I wasn’t going to be there I didn’t enter.

Mickeys a great singer so we drew him as he played the guitar and sang. Tombows and Pentel color brush. 10 minute pose. The challenge of this was drawing his moving arm as he played.

15 minute pose. His leg is too short. Oopsey. It was hard to see in the dark theater. And as I was sitting in front of him I had to peek over the sketch book to see his lower half. Or at least that’s what I am blaming this on. Lol. Couldn’t be me!!