Thursday is @pencils4tea day

August 11, 2023August 11, 20232 Comments

Link @pencils4tea in her bio On ig. Every TH at 1 pm EST in the US.

@pencils4tea Thanks Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Dundee Scotland!! Always fun and challenging.

Anna w a hale brush . Her hair is white.

Michelle from California w a handful of butterflies

My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil. Superaquabee sketchbook

Flesh Daniel Smith quin burnt sienna and MGraham quin rose. Blue shadows mostly cerulean and some cobalt and Andrew’s turquoise. Brown burnt umber and ultramarine to make black. Greys whatever blue brown mud i had sometimes adding ivory black.

Gorgeous Alexandra 2:46 a failure she so lovely. Does not do her justice

I confess i spent another hour titivating these aka tweaking them. Added all the backgrounds and painted some of the people later always spending at most five min on them per person.

Lily and Angela Shannon –
5+ min LOVE this one!

Liz always a pleasure to paint 3:20 min. Love her top! 4 diff patterns on it.

Ursula from Germany who i chat w alot on ig. One of my favs 3:46. She might need a background. Only 1 i didn’t give one to.

Rafael- Il es Français and he looks like it!❤️ 3:30 min

Daniella 1:19 min i confess i drew the cat and painted her after it. I had just started the cat when it ended.

Maggie immensely tahred xoxoxox

Day 63 A miscount

May 16, 2020May 16, 2020Leave a comment

Never was my forté. It’s day 63 not 62. Oh I drew with Vlad yesterday. Threw my count off. This needs paint. Not sure what color. I know it needs a background. Maybe I need to record my adventure at Lowe’s. I think everyone in Augusta was there. I have never seen so many people at Lowe’s as there were at this one Wednesday. But I like my jade tree. So healthy. Maybe I can keep it that way.

This one is done. Finally realized I had one more roof to paint – the small one to the right of the smaller red barn. Now I LOVE the painting. Odd what one roof can do.

Yesterday before I painted the third roof. It was still competing and distracting from the center of attention aka focal point the roof of the smaller barn. Now to sign in.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 59 My White Amaryllis

May 13, 2020May 20, 20202 Comments

And a quote from Reese Witherspoon. This white amaryllis has been blooming steadily for SIXTY days one stalk at a time. Thought I should commemorate its swan song. It has consistently shown up to do the work of blooming. Third year it has come back to bloom.

I journaled a bit about the amaryllis in pencil and painted it faintly in the background on the right page.

Namiki Fude Eelskin Black Ink

A sweet fat cardinal wallowing in bird seed on the back deck.

Margaret who is Tahred again. Xoxoxox.

Day hmm 56?? Mask making

May 9, 20204 Comments

But took some time off for art. It’s a must I think.

First was draw a tattoo that reminds you of your mother with Koosje on the sbsdrawingparty on Instagram today. My mom loves flowers and has quite the green thumb. I was making masks today so naturally I thought a mask surrounded by flowers for my tattoo. Moms self quarantining in Asheville NC with my brother.

Draw something nearby with Morgan. Been meaning to draw my grandmothers opera glasses which are quite cool. I take them to art classes to see what the teachers doing better. I also watch the birds with them. They are really quite good binoculars. Brass and mother of pearl with a cool lorgnette that I hope is bake lite plastic NOT ivory.

Lamy joy pen and Namiki Fude.

Margaret whose tired from sewing masks all day. Hugs. Stay safe. Wear a mask! Xoxoxo

Day 55 What Makes you HaPPy?

May 8, 2020Leave a comment

Today the weather was so gorgeous I had the back porch sliding door open. I could hear the birds sing and crunch on the sunflower seeds. Ditto the squirrels silly things. They made me quite happy today as did listening to Danny’s soothing voice.

Of course I forgot to draw Zoe!! She and I snuggled up in the sofa for a nap after mopping and scrubbing all the downstairs floors dusting the house and changing the sheets. Now it’s tie. For a good nite sleep.

Margaret Xoxoxox

Day 49 Well that was fun

May 1, 2020Leave a comment

Put your cup of art supplies lower so you have an aerial perspective. I put mine on the floor. Then we did a continual line drawing. Not easy to do all those art tools with one line. Eek. But I tried. Used a Micro uniball.

I tried to take a better pic of this one. Odd how it turns up two tone. It’s not.

Margaret who really should draw but might not. Xoxoxo

Day 48 ReALLy?!

April 30, 2020Leave a comment

That many days?!!😭

Yesterday I planted a bunch of tomatoes and herbs on the back deck. I also pulled up a few baby oak trees in the process. Somehow this one missed the trash can. Koosje said draw something near you with a ballpoint pen. It was nearby on the floor. Only one problem my paper did not like the only ballpoint I had so I want over it with my Lamy vista upside down. The point gave a crowquill pen like effect. Interesting. Then I decided to add some quin gold watercolor to the page.

TodY boss lady Koosje said paint first then draw over it with ink. Something in the house. A plant. Well only have two plants. Here’s one of them a Christmas Cactus that blooms off season. I don’t know what happened to the two blooms. I painted them but didn’t draw them. Hmm kinda fun though.

And this is the sketch I did while I binge watched Balthazar on Acorn. It was awful and NO you can’t see it.

Margaret trying to save some Balthazar for the big weekend. Might go to the grocery store en mask. What a crazy world we live in now. Hugs. Xoxoxoxo

Day 45 Today’s pile

April 28, 2020April 28, 20204 Comments

Drawing sheep with Danny Gregory on a video during #sbsdrawingparty at noon on YouTube. Always like drawing animals. Then I got the bright idea to “paint” them with one of my soupy teabags. Namiki Fude pen

6. Draw your keys. No idea what these keys are for so afraid to toss. And 7. draw with your non dominant hand which did not turn out too badly. I did use a pigma pen so I wouldn’t smear the ink.

10. Draw your keys from memory. And 11. Draw a pile of clutter. Time to clean up or maybe I can make the pile teeter if I add more.

22/23. What I ate yesterday. U didn’t see all those snickerdoodles.

48/49. What I bought last week. Really just groceries and some things from Amazon. Did I say the birds were hungry?!!

16/17. Draw blobby doodles and turn them into something. Hmm. I do like the last page. First one not so much.

Only 24 pages left to draw in Koosjes Killer Sketchbook Filler book. 😱😱 It’s a small book so maybe I can get it done soon. A Fabriano Venezia Journal. Love the red hard cad cover based on bricks at San Marcos in Venice. Fabriano has been making paper in Italy since the 1200s.

Margaret ready for a nap. Wait I already did that. Hmm xoxoxox

Day 44 A Day in Provence with Vlad

April 26, 2020May 19, 20215 Comments

Did a paint along with Vlad Yesilesev today. He will be doing some more. Think it’s a great format that lets what he says sink in. And you get a copy of the class to download. Some dummy didn’t get that 911. They expire after a couple of days. OPPPSEY. I Will do it this time. Using a 2B mechanical pencil we all do a value sketch under his tutelage. Lots of squinting.

Light washes of yellow ochre cobalt and dioxzine and alizarin.

First wash. Oopsey. Always leave holidays and then duh go back and repaint. That does NOT work on damp watercolor. You get blooms.

And opps forgot to take more photos duh. Next time.

Hugs Margaret. Xoxoxoxo

Day 43 Koosje’s Killer Sketchbook Filler

April 26, 2020Leave a comment

A fun live class today. And oh my were we busy. We drew 16 pages but have ideas for 34 more pages all neatly enumerated in our journals.

The title page. Just a small 4×6″ Venezia Fabriano 90# paper journal. Had it for years and never used it. It’s day has come.

Two Blind Contour Selfies done with 2 Crayola crayons. NO mirror. Put your finger on your nose and trace your face with the finger as u draw it. WHAT?! Not so bad considering and quite interesting to try.

P. 4 Draw the contents of your purse. A veritable jumble but also fun. So much stuff I missed drawing my sunglasses in the pile-all THREE pairs!! 😳 Namiki Fude. Really having fun with that pen.

Draw a musician. Micron uniball. Wish I had used my Namiki Fude. Cal Scott is quite the guitar player. Excellent job!!

We had two more opportunities to draw Cal and listen to him. Did NOT like my brush tip pit pen. I think I will toss it. The tip is all splayed and chewed. Wonder how that happened.

Last time drawing Cal with the Namiki Fude. Like the lines MUCH better.

Draw your shoe four times- each time faster. Five minutes to start. Last time 15 seconds. What?!

Added the story of my poor lost Chaco flip flop which I actually found in a parking lot over in Columbia FIVE DAYS LATER. Still wearing them. Fav want weather shoes.