Category: Strathmore 500

Day 421 – A Little Urban Sketching 

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at Fitch and Fifth in Surrey Center in Augusta Ga. A room full of people and I am waiting to eat. What else would I do?!

 Scenes like this really call my name to get out my Noodler Ahab or my brush pen and get busy drawing.  

I do usually paint these later because I don’t want to impose on whoever I am with too much. 

TIP: Oh. Almost forgot. The ledger strip down the side.  Whenever you see that I can promise you there is something I really didn’t like about the sketch.  In this case it was a waiter running a bill. Usually a figure on the side is nice but this one was not!! What to do?! Glue some ledger paper down and record our dinner. 
Ps it was delicious. My trout was perfect. I forgot their five stars. Oops. Will fix that!!! Or maybe not. Really like it just the way it is. 

 
And you thought the body was round?! Enjoy. One more page left!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

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I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling on  it seems like a good idea. What do you think?! 

This was sketched at the Inner Beab in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?!  Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?! 

Colors used. Almost every color I have !! 

  Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

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I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling about it seems like a good idea. What do you think?! 

  

This was sketched at the Inner Bean in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?!  Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?! 

Colors used. Almost every color I have !! 

  Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 411 -A Pelican 

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I drew this brown pelican when I was at the Key West Wildlife Center with my brush pen. Finally got around to painting him. If you wonder why he was at the center I noticed while sketching he was missing the upper bill. For lack of a way to exlain it better the part under where your nose would be. I noticed because I saw his tongue while I was drawing him. He was above my eye level. 

  Here is another pic oh him if you want to draw him. See the slit in his bill? The reason he lives at the center. 
Since I drew this I have thought a lot about these poor birds doomed to live in cages forever because we polluted their world. Fishing line or a fish hook likely got his bill. Saddens me to thin that he will never get to soar on the currents or dive bomb for fish like he was supposed to do. Now he lives in a cage with another pelican. 

All I am going to say is DONT throw ur trash in the water. 

Colors used: Quin gold, cerulean, burnt sienna, and every blue I own for the water plus a little spring green and purple. 
Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 410 – More of those chickens!! 

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Courthouse Chickens Key West 

Where else but in Key West would you find chickens at the courthouse?! 

  

I drew these toward the end of our stay in Key West when I went on a sketchathon starting at the Key West Wildlife Center and ending at Higgs Beach sketching the people as they walked by in front of the car. 

   
Fast sketching requires a good flowing pen – chickens birds and people don’t hold still for long!! I use my Noodler Craper Ahab or one of my two brush pens – the Kuretake or the Pentel.  The first two are always loaded with Carbon Platinum Black ink which dries so rapidly. I frequently paint them later especially if the weather is extreme like in the tropical heat of key west. 

 
 I thought you might like to see the chickens before I painted them. 

  
  While in Key west I saw a lot of Chinese style brush work paintings of animals in one gallery on Duval. And decided to try it out on the long chicken strip. I liked it so much I did it on these pages too. 

There are really only a few pure colors used on the chickens. Quin gold, Quin Sienna, Quin burnt orange, Inathradone, Quin red and alizarin period. All the colors were allowed to combine on the page. Painting was done with my large cheap joes legend #12 sable even the large splatters. 
  

Tip: To make the splatters. Choose a color or two and make a soupy mix. Fillup a large brush and gently tap over the painting. Yes I have a toothbrush but I always get little splatters not big juicy ones with it.

  

  
Probably due to heat stroke I was imagining what the chickens might be thinking as I drew.  What would I think if I were a courthouse chicken?! Look there goes another felon?! Wonder what they did?! Hope I win my case?! 

  

Before I started drawing chickens  I thought roosters were mean ready to attack you at any second like the ones we had as kids. When get are with the chicks and be a they are very different beasts. They are not aggressive. Feed them and they defer to the babies and hens to eat. They also stand vigil while the hen takes care of the babies. Who knew??! 



Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx 

Day 409 – Life modeling 

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   Having fun at dripping paint today because when things are not going well that’s when you get to have fun with the watercolor paint. You can’t ruin it if it’s already messed up. 

A list of today’s problems:

Could not get myself together today to draw Erica. 

My mechanical pencil had no lead. OPPS. 

Borrowed a pencil from Tom. Sharpened off center so it ran out quickly. 

Couldn’t find my glasses. 

Maybe I needed to go back to bed and start again?! But I loved her pose today and the wicker chair so I kept slogging along at it.  
Between all of that I got her roughed in without loosing a foot. The legs stayed where they belonged but what about those arms. They were both too short. Great thing about Fabriano. You can life color off with an old paint brush.  

 
Notice how short HER right arm is in this pic? What was I thinking. Got my old oil paint brush out lifted the background and now her arm is better. 

  Had trouble getting her head right too. Charles Reid has a rule. Never make the head smaller than four inches. It’s just too difficult to paint if it is. But smart me drew a head that might be an inch and a half at most. It hd to be small to get the whole body in. Oh well. I won’t do that again. 
She is done for today. That does not mean that tomorrow I might not get up and scrub her off the paper. Or change her in some way. But for now. DONE.

Oh wait.  I think it needs a little turquoise. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 407 – Playtime

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Loved the way the dads play with their kids now. And help out with them. Today we welcomed a new McCarthy Olivia June into the world. My nephew her dad Vince McCarthy is one of those great dads. This sketch is another great dad playing with his daughter on the beach at Garden City. Olivia will be playing here with her dad in a few years. The circle of a life. 

As one of my first graders once told me that’s all I got for today. Large sinus headaches here. Back to sofa lounging. I even packed my gym bag and almost got there today Til the headache struck about two.  

More tomorrow.  But you knew that. 

Thanks for reading!! 

Margaret ️xxx

Day 406 – the Pier

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The Pier at Garden City

This was sketched on the pier at Garden City. A very long pier. The late evening sun glinting off the boards was turning the dock to gold.  

 A bit of the pier

People were everywhere. Some sitting some walking enjoying the breezes others waiting to get weaves done in their hair. Who knew weaves were in demand on the piers of the Grand Strand?! 

   

 Put these together to see the whole pier. 

And of course you guessed that gold is Quin gold.  The people’s shadows were made with a soupy Inathradone and burnt umber mix that I let drip from the feet by propping the sketch book up. I added burnt sienna to some of the figures to give them a tan. Tans are big at the beach. 

I seem to be into drips and splatters lately. I find the splatters are easier if I load a large brush like my #12 Legend sable brush with a soup of darker colors like blues and the Browns. Sometimes together sometimes separate. 

Tip of the day!! Just remember splattering can make a BIG mess!! BeWaRe!!! It will go everywhere. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 401 – impressive number of 

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continual posts. Almost broke the record snoozing today. Oopps. So make this short and sweet. More Garden City!

   

 These three sweet children were waiting for their mothers who were busy making money doing hair weaves @ $5 each on vacationing little girls. They were so well behaved I drew the whole pier before I noticed them. The one small girl was literally sitting under the palm. 

That’s it for Tonite.  

Thanks For reading. 

Margaret ️xxx 

Day 400 – A lot of Days!! 

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 400 Days of consecutive Posting!! Anyone see any sky rockets and fire works going off?! Grown a lot on this journey both with my art and the number of followers- almost a 1000 on Instagram and over 100 in six months on WordPress. My original intention was 50 days. I have exceeded that now haven’t I?!  Thanks for all the support!! Let’s see how far I can go?! Two years?! I am settling for day by day! 
A quick sketch of a grandmother playing with her granddaughter on the Garden City beach last weekend.  
Flesh is yellow and cad red light with some burnt sienna on the grandmother. The sand is burnt umber Inathradone and yellow ochre. 
Thanks for reading.  
Margaret ️xxx