Category: Portrait

Day 451 – A few Paintings

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  Henry – background Quin gold. Sofa Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange – skin Quin coral and French yellow ochre 

Got the nasty virus still that half of the people in Augusta seem to have but forced myself to paint some in my coloring book aka my ink sketches. 

  About Henry sketch.  Really like the way the darks make his legs pop and take shape. My favorite of the ones I painted yesterday. 

   
    Inktober day 4 – Forgot to take a pic of the black and white sketch. Oops. 

Random customer at the inner bean sitting less than three Feet from me. So absorbed in her phone she didn’t notice I was drawing her. 

Drawn with Noodler Konrad and carbon platinum black ink. 

Hair – burnt sienna Quin burnt orange. Shirt cobalt and inathradone.  Skin Quin coral and yellow ochre. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna.   

A reindeer head that was over the cabin fireplace last weekend. Why a reindeer in the western North Carolina mountains?! NO idea! A friend told me he was a moose but we decided he was a reindeer probably from Norway or Sweden. Along way from home. 

  Quin gold and burnt sienna wall. Same with the splatters. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna.  Piemonite and cobalt used in the shadows.  

  Out my back door. Glad to report the Savannah is still units riverbanks!! 

Thanks for looking!! Back to watching the BIG Flood in nearby Columbia and Charleston and glad Augusta dogged the bullet. 

Stay safe and dry my chickadees! 

Margaret glued to WIS Columbia. Nope no football here!!  

Day 451 – A few Paintings

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  Henry – background Quin gold. Sofa Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange – skin Quin coral and French yellow ochre 

Got the nasty virus still that half of the people in Augusta seem to have but forced myself to paint some in my coloring book aka my ink sketches. 

About Henry sketch.  Really like the way the darks make his legs pop and take shape. My favorite of the ones I painted yesterday. 

   
    Inktober day 4 – random customer at the inner bean sitting less than three Feet from me. So absorbed in her phone she didn’t notice I was drawing her.

Drawn with Noodler Konrad and carbon platinum black ink. 

Hair – burnt sienna Quin burnt orange. Shirt cobalt and inathradone.  Skin Quin coral and yellow ochre. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna.   

A reindeer head that was over the cabin fireplace last weekend. Why a reindeer in the western North Carolina mountains?! NO idea! A friend told me he was a moose but we decided he was a reindeer probably from Norway or Sweden. Along way from home. 

Quin gold and burnt sienna wall. Same with the splatters. Grey is cerulean and burnt sienna.  Piemonite and cobalt used in the shadows.  

  Out my back door. Glad to report the Savannah is still units riverbanks!! 

Thanks for looking!! Back to watching the BIG Flood in nearby Columbia and Charleston and glad Augusta dogged the bullet. 

Stay safe and dry my chickadees! 

Margaret glued to WIS Columbia. Nope no football here!!  

Day 450 – Inktober

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 All I can say is WOW!!!!  450 days of consecutive daily blogging. And I didn’t think I would make thirty. 

 Jan  DAY 1

Noodler Konrad pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet 

  Decided to really drove myself nuts and participate in Inktober. Aka posting an inksketch daily for the month of October. I tend to do art everyday anyway so it’s not a big stretch just to do ink sketches all month. Takes the pressure off doing watercolors too lol though I bet I end up painting some of them. 

  
Old Man at Panera Day 2 

Carbon platinum pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet  

Not happy with this sketch. This guy was in his eighties. Lots of wrinkles. Eyes set deeply in his head. He was busy giving someone his power of attorney. The things you learn when you sit and quietly draw while people yammer on about their lives on their phones. 

 If I had taken a photo of him I would have redrawn him. Although the carbon platinum pen has a very fine point I don’t think it gives you the range of lines that the noodlers do. And it was hard to do any fine shading on his small face. 

  The Smoker Day 3 

Noodler Konrad pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet 

What a character! A lot off wild waving of  her hands with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, bright pink shirt orange overdyed black hair. I had to draw her. 

 Notes about drawing 

All my sketches are drawn from live people not pictures unlike my finished big watercolors which are usually drawn from photos. I think it gives the drawings more life. And people that know art can actually tell they are from real life as we say. 

Drawings are more successful if I lay down one line and don’t fiddle with it. Original line is usually the best. 

Been practicing life drawing almost daily for a year. 

Faces often easier to leave them out because that’s usually where I screw up a sketch like the old man.  The heads need to be fairly large to draw a good face. 

Start drawing from the shoulders and add the head- the attention getters.  Then the rest of the body. 

Favorite pens : 

My star pens are any Noodler pen.  I have several and love their flex nib. These were done with my Konrad because my big ahab is leaking. I am going to redo the rings in the ahab. It’s hard to beat because it holds loads of ink and is cheap at $23 at http://www.gouletpens.com

I am also fond of my Lamy Vista fine point and the Carbon Platinum pen. 

Brush Pens Pentel and Kuretake. The Kuretake is an elegant Japanese pen. And very reasonable at $20ish. 

INK hands down favorite is the ultra waterproof Carbon Platinum Black from Goulet pens.  DO NOT BUY IT FROM AMAZON. The ink there looks like goulets but runs like crazy. I use CPB in my Kuretake too. It’s the reason I bought the Kuretake. The Pentel is a great brush but sometimes the ink just is not waterproof. 
Other inks I like a lot are the super waterproof De artementis DOCUMENT brown and Noodlers Lexington Grey. Also from Goulet. 

I have a Bottle of Noodlers Eelskin which is supposed to be waterproof it isn’t for me. 

Smooth paper is a must for ink sketches. Favorites are superaquabee, Stonehenge or other Bristol and strathmore Mixed media 500 and Stillman and Birn Alpha. All but the S&B Alpha do well with watercolor too. 

Ok my chickadees that’s enough for today. Hope you haven’t caught this virus half the world seems to have in Augusta Ga. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 449 – it’s a ViRuS

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  Henry 

Carbon platinum pen, superaquabee sketchbook 

That half of Augusta seems to have including myself and my sister Jan who lives at my house. Sneezed and dripped our brains out. I hope you all my sweet chickadees do not have it but it’s also not a terrible virus to have. You just don’t feel up to par. 

  Reindeer head at the house we stayed in last weekend. I didn’t know the lives in Western North Carolina!!😳

And it’s still raining. Was hoping to go downtown tomorrow for more band sketching BUT I think hurricane Joaquin will make that a wash. Hoping it doesn’t. 

Anyway that’s it for today. Tomorrow find out about the pens and ink I love and the paper too. 

Thanks for reading! Stay healthy and dry!!! 

Margaretxxx

Day 448 – A Few More Arts in the Hearts 

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  How could I resist sketching this stylish lady who was really enjoying the Adam Harris Thompson groups music?! Such a great hat and her stance was super.  

 I am pretty sure it’s the same hat that Frankie aka Lillie Tomlin wore in the netflixs series Frankie and Grace. If not it’s a twin sister of Frankie’s hat. 
 
This guy has the most interesting face almost skeletal. He was so thin. Also irresistible to my pen. I later found him in photos posted of the eighth street stage.  

    
These are the original sketches. 

 
You can see the red ink that had been on my Noodler Konrad bleeding thru in this sketch. Have all the sketches a weird red cast after they were painted. Oh well. Hey we’re such great sketches. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

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  A recent challenge to paint an acrylic self portrait in Fauvism style using a snake of complimentary colors with impasto brush strokes. Impasto is thick paint which can show the method of application. In this case a hog bristle brush. 

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it. 

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.  

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are 

  • Strong colors but no black 
  • Colored lines but not everywhere 
  • The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected 
  • Melting lines 
  • Thick paint 
  • White off Canvas shows thru
  • Not a lot of detail 
  • Faces done roughly 

 
We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using  a complimentary color(red) to the green background.   

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use.   All the above colors were made from those three colors. 

 After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange. 


Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot  of the original red lines showing thru.  

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.  

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

 

Day 446 – Fauvism

Leave a comment

  A recent challenge to paint an acrylic self portrait in Fauvism style using a snake of complimentary colors with impasto brush strokes. Impasto is thick paint which can show the method of application. In this case a hog bristle brush. 

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it. 

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.  

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are 

  • Strong colors but no black 
  • Colored lines but not everywhere 
  • The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected 
  • Melting lines 
  • Thick paint 
  • White off Canvas shows thru
  • Not a lot of detail 
  • Faces done roughly 

 
We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using  a complimentary color(red) to the green background.   

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use.   All the above colors were made from those three colors. 

 After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange. 


Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot  of the original red lines showing thru.  

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.  

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

 

Day 444 Hanging a Show

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 A Friend forgot she signed up for a show at our favorite cafe. And she knew someone with lots of art stockpiled so she asked me to do the show. We spent all day today wrapping and hanging and pricing the show. Took ALL day. Thank goodness it is done. 

  

Sorry the photos are so bad but it’s a rainy day and the lighting in the Bean is not the best. I also drank TWO cups of expresso to keep caffeinated and climbing up that ladder to hang paintings. 

If I climbed it once I know I climbed it 30 times!!! 

  
There’s a wide range of art- all shapes and sizes and all prices. The strips are also for sale ranging in price from $150 -$295 for the longest one. It’s almost 100 inches long. That’s only $2.95 an inch lol!! 

  
So why is it hung like wash on a line?! WHY NOT?!  We thought it would be fun. And what could be more arty than hanging art with binders clips of every shape and size. 

  
Some come on out and buy some art for Christmas presents or just because!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 442   Adam Harris Thompson Group Part 2

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  This is actually the first sketch of the group. I didn’t post because it was in the sketchbook which was in my car yesterday. And I was too tired to walk down stairs to the garage and get it. 

  I was really pleased with the two sketches of the group performing. They were drawn as they played and sang. And No they do not hold still. 

  At some point I changed to my beloved red noodler Konrad that had been loaded with a beautiful red ink. I had decided to change it to black but neglected to clean out the pen. The no waterproof red kept leaky as I painted these. Did NOT make me happy because I really liked these sketches. And did not like the red leaky ink. 

  
I have since rinsed it out with water and reloaded it with fresh clean Carbon platinum black ink.  AND tested it to see if it would run. Glad to over the runs are over. 

 I did find that adding yellow ochre to th Mix somewhat mitigated the red on the larger sketches but on the smaller ones in my Aquabee well sadly the red really bled. Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 442   Adam Harris Thompson Group Part 2

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This is actually the first sketch of the group. I didn’t post because it was in the sketchbook which was in my car yesterday. And I was too tired to walk down stairs to the garage and get it. 

I was really pleased with the two sketches of the group performing. They were drawn as they played and sang. And No they do not hold still. 

At some point I changed to my noodles Konrad that had been loaded with a beautiful red ink. I had decided to change it to black but neglected to clean out the pen. The no waterproof red kept leaky as I painted these. Did NOT make me happy because I really liked these sketches. And did not like the red leaky ink. 
I have since rinsed it out with water and reloaded it with fresh clean Carbon platinum black ink.  AND tested it to see if it would run. Glad to over the runs are over. 

I did find that adding yellow ochre to th Mix somewhat mitigated the red on the larger sketches but on the smaller ones in my Aquabee well sadly the red really bled. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx