Day 958 A relaxing Sunday

March 5, 20172 Comments

Well kind of sort of. Been busy posting about our show and getting it a write up in the local paper. In the meantime here’s a watercolor for you. I have to do it on paper for my friend Monica who is in it.

Monica works at the DuPont Planetarium at USC Aiken also known as the Ruth Patrick Science Center. She leads tours of school kids and gives them talks about the stars.

Follow the Drinking Gourd is the black history month lecture about how slaves used the Drinking Gourd the Big Dipper to find their way north to freedom.

I paint across the parking lot from her at USCAiken Etheridge Center. She invited me over to hear her Drinking Gourd talk. Monica did a dynamite job and I had to draw her. It was almost pitch black by the time I finished.

The sketch sat around while I decided how to draw the star field and the whirlpool galaxy. Never done that before.

I realized I could paint the night sky black and then splatter it with white gouache which worked out great.

I also wanted to make the galaxy bright in the center and fade at the edges. As I painted the sky with a mix of indigo alizarin crimson and hookers green I bled the edges around the galaxy with clear water. I coated it with very watered down Quin gold just to give a glow. Let it dry.

Coated the sky with the indigo mix again and bled the edges again. Then I added dabs of watery alizarin crimson and marine blue in a circular swirl. Let it dry. Added more of those colors and grey and purples to define the galaxy spin. Trying for that glow.

Finally I splattered the galaxy with white gouache and a very small brush. I should have used a tooth brush. Next time I will.

Highly recommend the Ruth Patrick tour!!

Happy Sunday.

Still in my Jammies relaxing on a chilly Sunday

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 955 Urban Landscape Knoxville

March 2, 20172 Comments

Yesterday we had at lunch Kathe Drew and I had a big discussion on gridding our paintings or not. Drews currently working on a huge painting of downtown Augusta. The view is five floors up and he’s frustrated trying to get all the buildings in to the scene.

I told him about drawing this view of downtown Knoxville last May. I was five stories up too at 7 am drawing away. It took about half an hour to draw this.

Most people looking at it would think that yes that’s exactly what Knoxville looks like but it’s not quite.

No matter how hard I try to plot the drawing of a cityscape like this I usually run out of room by the time I work right or left to the edges.

I end up leaving out buildings. I told Drew that as long as you get the important buildings in the skyline is recognizable. What would the Knoxville skyline look like without the Workds Fair golden globe or the the big basketball from the basketball hall of fame.

Some buildings are musts in the skyline. Other nobody will ever notice they are missing. Nobody has yet to say where’s xyz.

These are actually what I was looking like.

I didn’t even paint it so it looked like this.

I added nice dawn colors. Layering buildings with a base coating of Quin gold letting it dry and then painting it the colors of the buildings. It gives a nice early morning glow to the sketch.

Anyway that’s it for today. Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 951 Lazy Sunday

February 26, 2017February 26, 2017Leave a comment

Ah NO. have a pile of 7-8 sketches to paint. Oh my!!

In the meantime. MY fav heathy out and about breakfast the bowl at the Inner Bean. Scrambled eggs black beans avocado tomatoes bacon and hmm oh cheese. Yum.

These guys sat next to me at the Bean as I ate my bowl. Deep in conversation over Masters preparations at local golf courses. Never noticed me sitting there sketching them.

Both done with a Lamy EF with Lexington Grey ink in a Stillman and Birn Alpha. Ted Nuttalls transparent colors plus cerulean.

A few of the pics of sketches I need to get painted.

Thanks for stopping by.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 950!! It’s Saturday

February 25, 2017February 25, 2017Leave a comment

Busy day! Hard to believe in 50 more days I have been blogging daily.

I didn’t quite finish her. Had to leave at second break but I do think she’s interesting. Her thigh is too big and her right elbow is too high. Both easy fixes. And I think the shadow on her jaw is a bit dark. Ear. Oops never got around to adding details. But I can. Of course will I is the question? Maybe?!

She was up high above me on a box and I sat in a low chair with the board just a foot off the floor. Loving the Winsor purple with the Indian yellow. Flesh rigt out of the liquitex tube.

Here she is at first break. She’s 24×36″ and the figure is big. Almost life size.

A fun bit of cartoon homework. Imagining what goes on in a hen house b

The last old house on upper Broad Street downtown in Augusta sitting in the middle of a car lot. Somebody said there were three blocks of these houses that ran from 1300-1500 block of Broad Street. Sad to me they are all gone. The last three are just shabby or derelict like this one. The first floor windows are really boarded up but I didn’t want to do that to it. Upstairs lots of windows are knocked out.

Here’s the sketch. Stillman and Birn alpha drawn with a Lamy EF and Lexington grey ink. Ted Nuttalls transparent palette.

The other two houses a few doors down still lived in though shabby.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 949 OOPPPs

February 25, 2017February 25, 2017Leave a comment

Slated to appear on the local dr Sketchys page as the logo I think it’s the logo. Well will let you know!!

Went to Dirty South Burlesque at Le Chat Noir and almost forgot to blog tonite. OOPPS. On the up side is I have NOT laughed so hard since….well I don’t know when. It was so FUNNY!!
This is the cast at the finale.

And then everyone dances. But I had to take pics.

More of the dancing and

Yes more. Lol

Did I say I have one at least free tickets to this at least three times and never gone. Well as I told Princess Augusta NO MORE!! I will be using them!!!

While we are on the subject of Chat Noir here are the rest of the dr Sketchys sketches.

All but the last one are done with a Pentel brush pen, whisky painters box with Winsor newton watercolors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral in a super aquabee 11×14″ tablet.
She was leaning on an exercise ball which I turned into the Chat Noir cat. Lettering in this one is done with a noodler Konrad.

This was a challenge to turn the exercise ball she sat on into a cat.

Turn her into a margaritas ad. I really wanted to put her on a glass but I didn’t have enough room.

Add a tropical animal. I turned her into Jane because I was tired of drawing her bikini.

We had to draw her three times. Which is all I did. I never did the challenge. Oops.

The End Fini Caput Finished drawn with caran Dache neocolor ii which were sprayed with a mister and allowed to drip.

Gooodnite. Tomorrow’s saturday. You know what that means!!

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox whose off to bed. Well as soon as the dog comes in.

Day 945 Fat Mans!

February 20, 2017February 23, 2017Leave a comment

A long time Augusta institution. At Christmas everybody went to Fat Mans Forest to oh and ah over the animated Christmas decorations or to find the perfect tree or ornament or ride the Christmas train. Or do all of the above everybody on town went. But the owner Mr Usry died. The kids wanted to sell the land and move it which never happened. Thus Fatmans Forest passed into history. Fat Mans was also the go to place for Halloween decorations and a house of horrors.

However the younger Usrys Fat Mans Cafe is still going strong turning out “soul good” food at their Enterprise Mill location. Excellent squash casserole. Vintage Oolie on Broad bought out the costume part of the business.

I could not resist drawing their catering trucks as the gleamed in the noon day sun after our luncheon Thursday.

Painted in an S&B alpha with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Drawn w a Lamy EF pen with Lexington gray ink.
Ttyl! Time to Parker vous Francais!

Margaret xoxoxo

#fatmans #EnterpriseMill

Day 944 Enterprise Mill

February 19, 2017February 23, 20173 Comments

This sketch took the longest of all the sketches I did Thursday. Large double spread in my Stillman and birn alpha. Drawn with my Lamy ef.

The building is vermilion or scarlet lake mixed with a bit of burnt umber or Piemonte. I also used Piemonte w ultramarine for shadows and windows. Makes a nice purpley blue dark.

I drew the last old house on Upper Broad Street yesterday. It’s a sad mess. Probably a tear down because nobody wants to live in the middle of a used weedy car lot.

Windows open rotted away and boarded up. But you can buy a Prius from the front porch! It must have been quite a house in its younger days 100 years ago. I wonder who lived there.

These two houses sit to the right across the weedy car lot from the lone house .

Ted Nuttall’s transparent colors. #2 Richeson squirrel mop brush.

Ttyl

Margaret who refuses to catch a cold but has a stuffed up head xoxoxo

#fatmans #EnterpriseMill

Day 943 The Two Dowagers

February 17, 2017Leave a comment

Upper Broad Street used to be lined with these late Victorian houses. Now there are only three left. They look tired but not quite derelict. These two stand by themselves like two old ladies.

The light was great yesterday – and the houses were bathed in the bright winter sun which lit them like a spot light.
I added the guy walking by. He’s really just an oval, a rounded triangle for the body, and a couple of strokes for legs and feet. Ditto for the arm.

I coated the houses w a very light Quin gold. Makes them look sunny I think.

Colors used-Sky. Hmm peacock blue?! Hookers green and hematite, Quin gold, cerulean, burnt umber and ultramarine, Quin burnt orange, vermilion.

The trees are done w a watery soup of cerulean and Quin burnt orange to give the effect of bare winter limbs.

The biggest thing that gives this look is using my small squirrel mop. You cannot get to picky with it. An #8 I think.

In a Stillman and Birn Alpha w 92 pages which means they are thin. And they are wavy causing puddling. Not sure I like that but will continue on since it cost a pretty penny $27 from Amazon. Hoping they will flatten out as they dry.

Drawn w a Lamy EF loaded with permanent Lexington gray ink.

Ttyl

Margaret 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.