Day 399 -Garden City

August 13, 2015August 13, 20159 Comments

The swarms of people at Garden City were calling to my pen saying draw draw draw. If I hadn’t been drawing this is what I would have been doing consuming books like peanuts.

I really like this painting a lot. The water is more of a Caribbean blue than an Atlantic blue but I like it. It’s done in cheap joes Andrea turquoise, cobalt, purple, and a bright yellow green. The sky is cerulean and cobalt.

The sand is really grey when it’s wet. It’s done with burnt umber Inathradone and yellow ochre.

Bytw the horizon line is really straight but the books would not lie flat. The only fault I can find with a Strathmore 500 mixed media sketchbook.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx heading out on another trip. Thank goodness for house sitters!!

Day 397 – Louies Back Yard

August 10, 2015Leave a comment

Louies Back Yard Key West

Whenever I go on a trip there always seems to be some leftover sketches that don’t quite get painted. I call these making my own coloring book because sooner or later I go back and paint them.

Right now I have six from Key West and 8 or ten from Garden City to paint. Hopefully I will knuckle down on the next few days and get some knocked out. Several of them I really like including more of the court house chickens. Of course you said she has more chickens to paint lol.

This is one I got around to painting. Louies should have about ten stars on its sketch.

Mahi Mahi with Mango sauce.

The food is superb the servers outstanding and the views are amazing. Hands down our favorite for divine food. Go at lunch to save a little on the bill!!

A not to be beaten combo of great food and gorgeous view.

After we ate inside we sat on the back deck enjoying the breeze and the view of the Florida straits.

The view from out table.

My divine sautéed yellowfin tuna a la Julia Childs flounder in Julie and Julia. I have the recipe. I guess I need to turn it into a recipe sketch. Easy and oh so delicious. We used to make it with striped and hybrid. To think I almost didn’t get it because I am tired of tuna a la Charlie in a can. Not the same at all!!

My sisters Beef. Also fab.

My creme brûlée with a brownie buried in it. Melt in your mouth deliciousness.

A coconut orange cream pie like nothing you have ever eaten. The creme brûlée wins the desert contest BUT if you go twice like we did you can try both!!

Day 397 – Travel Day

August 10, 2015Leave a comment

Louies Back Yard Key West

Whenever I go on a trip there always seems to be some leftover sketches that don’t quite get painted. I call these making my own coloring book because sooner or later I go back and paint them.

This is one I got around to painting. Louies should have about ten stars on its sketch.

Mahi Mahi with Mango sauce.

The food is superb the servers outstanding and the views are amazing. Hands down our favorite for divine food. Go at lunch to save a little on the bill!!

A not to be beaten combo of great food and gorgeous view.

After we ate inside we sat on the back deck enjoying the breeze and the view of the Florida straits.

The view from out table.

My sisters Beef. Also fab.

My creme brûlée with a brownie buried in it. Melt in your mouth deliciousness.

A coconut orange cream pie like nothing you have ever eaten. The creme brûlée wins the desert contest BUT if you go twice like we did you can try both!!

Day 392 – A Few Ibis

August 5, 20157 Comments

Three times is the charm they say! Wordpress keeps eating my post today. These were all drawn on site at the Key West Wildlife center. I counted at least 8-10 pages of ibis sketches.

Stay tuned tomorrow for painting details. Want to be sure WordPress behaves before I write one more long post.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 392 – Wesley

August 4, 2015August 4, 2015Leave a comment

my sons English fox hound mix rescue is spending some time with his grandma.

All the drawings are app. 6×12. If you are interested in having me draw your dog email me at m c m h u nt @ me. Com

Wesley Noodler Creaper Ahab Platinum carbon Black ink.

All the drawings are app. 6×12. If you are interested in having me draw your dog email me at m c m h u nt @ me. Com

Every Monday I try to win the Goulet Pen giveaway. Every Tuesday I DONT!! Reminds me of when I buy a lottery ticket. Lol.

I suppose I did actually win because I like these sketches a lot. And I like to draw dogs a lot. Wesley was a very cooperative subject as he snoozed on the sofa chaise on top of a quilt.

One relaxed dog. Noodler Konrad with Lexington Grey Ink.

I usually start by drawing the spine and the top of the head a modified contour drawing. I also bear down on the pen like I did on his legs to make a variety of lines.

You have to love a Noodler Flex Nib pens ability to do that. All the lines on the first three pics were done with a Noodler Flex Nib. It works simalarly to a dip pen and usually not quite the mess.

The first two drawings were colored with the Noodler pens. I smudged the ink with my finger as I went.

Did I say he likes to sleep!? Noodler Konrad with Lexington Grey Ink. This one is just cross hatched. I left light areas to give an effect of the shine on his black fur.

Dogs can sleep for hours and just rearrange giving you new drawing opportunities. This one was the first one I drew. Done with a Pentel brush pen. His jaw was a little too wide so I started over again this time with a Noodler pen which allows me more control. Sometimes it takes a few sketches of a new dog to get him down pat just like it does when you draw a new model.

The sketches are posted in the reverse order that I drew them. Wesley’s head is the last one I drew of him.

Back to key West sketches tomorrow. I think I drew enough while I was there to post for the rest of the month. Lol. Hmm maybe I should save some of them for while I am in Paris?!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 391 – Buzzards Roost part 2

August 3, 20152 Comments

As we sadly left the Keys we made a return trip to Buzzards Roost on Key Largo. I drew this as we waited for our order to arrive. As usual the service was not super though our waitress was an overworked sweetheart (too many tables) this time but the view was still gorgeous!!!

The view

Drawn with my Noodler Creaper loaded with Platinum Carbon Black ink.

The food was amazing this trip. We ate Mahi Mahi wraps. Oh my gosh it was sooo good. We both kept the second half of our sandwich for dinner. Sadly we ended up throwing it out since we never ate dinner that nite. Nobody wants tomaine poisoning on a four hundred mike drive.

I also sketched the marine at Garden cove. This was our view from our table minus the bank of flowers across the edge.
Here it painted. The yellow in the palms and on the boats is Quin gold. I like the glow it gives to the shadows on the boats.

If a storm had not been blowing in I could sit here for hours drawing and enjoying the view. Garden Cove is just a gorgeous place. A piece of Heaven!!

Day 390 – the days Pile UP!!

August 2, 2015August 3, 2015Leave a comment

A year and 25 days now of consecutive blogging.

Buzzards Roost on Key Largo. The restaurant has an amazing view of Garden Cove out to the Atlantic or is it the Florida Straits?! Eating out on the covered deck is hard to beat surrounded by beautiful, water boats and amazing flowers.

We actually ate there twice. The first time was coconut shrimp. Fried a little too long to suit my taste. I like my shrimp fried in three and a half minutes period. The second meal was much better. Otherwise they start to get tough. It was still good not great. The staggering view more than made up for the lack of superior food and so so wait staff.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more Buzzards Roost sketching and food

About the watercolor : all the water was painted wet on wet. Palm Trees were painted light yellow and allowed to dry. Touches of Quin gold were added. They were then painted w a variety of greens and Inathradone blue for the darks.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 389 Drawing Duval Street

August 1, 20152 Comments

Duval Street – $150 app 8×40″ Heavy Stonehenge paper

I actually drew this one after I drew the chickens. I was so hot I sat in the Starbucks on Duval drawing passersby.

I tried to give them a tropical feel. Crowds on Duval do not look like an Atlanta crowd or the denizens of my favorite cafe Inner Bean or customers running into Earthfare.

Tank tops tshirts short shorts sunglasses and flip flops are the order of the day. Chickens use the crosswalks and palms line the road.

I tried to use bright tropical colors to give a tropical feel to this long strip.

It was not the best vantage point to see people to sketch quickly. They went by TOO quickly. Mere seconds.
TIP: This was drawn with a Pentel brush pen. I actually have two brush pens because drawing these strips use up the ink. Hate to run out while drawing a strip.

I generally start with the shoulders and next the head.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 385 – A few loose ends

July 28, 2015Leave a comment

Some of my favorite things about key west is the wildlife.

The double page in my Moleskine watercolor book. I decided they were the last double spread because they are so iconic in Key West. Literally they are everywhere behind and under almost any bush, in the parking lots, under the tables in your favorite restaurant. You can not help but fall I love with them.

A few chicken stories!

Chickens actually use the crosswalks to cross the busy streets. I saw them do it with my own two eyes. Truly they do. And I love following them around to draw them.

Roosters. Indispensable to their families. If you feed the chickens the roosters let the hens and chicks eat first while they are on the look out for enemies. Keeps the species going. I never thought a rooster could be so thoughtful and protective of his brood though I have seen a male Cardinal take care of his babies.
Ibis at the Wildlife Center. What a hoot. They follow you around i hopes of a snack. And seem to pose like this one.

One of my favorite Watercolors I did at Key west. The wildlife center ibis.

A few of the eight or so ibis sketches I did at the wildlife center last Saturday. Or was it Friday?! In Key West the days run into each other.

I spent a lot of time taking pics of iguanas. They are so fascinating. Living dinosaurs.

My favorite finished iguana sketch.
This guy a big grey one was begging with the ibis til he got scared and leapt into a tree. They are SO fast. And he was big. More than four feet long. He blended right into the palm tree.

We fondly nicknamed this one Mango. A big fellow at the condos. I stalked him talking to him nicely. He would begrudgingly pose. Later we saw him repeatedly whip a kid who was throwing stuff at him. OUCH!! I don’t blame Mango one bit. Someone should have been watching the kid. Evidently iguanas also have razor sharp teeth. They hang out in the trees in Key West and would rather run climb or swim away than get in a fight.

A large green one. I think this is my favorite color but they are all so gorgeous like a watercolor and blend right into their surroundings.

Sunrise in the Keys. Going to miss these too. Enough for today. Can’t wait to get home and get my paintbrush busy!

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 383 – on the road again!!

July 27, 2015Leave a comment

The long road home. Two days of driving from Key West to Atlanta.

Amazing sunsets

Thought I would share some of the highlights of our trip.

The ghost
hunt
tour with Michael
Creepy but fascinating. You do hunt for ghosts. 😳

the Lloyds tropical bike tour and

Analise and her

food tour YUMMMMM
The Papas

And sitting at Mallory square during the eight mile hike. THINK SWEAT!!

Eating at a few of our fans. Caroline’s on Duval super wait staff salad was the best we ate. Bamboozled salad.

Blue Heaven Thomas and Petronia Chickens and wonderful breakfast of eggs Benedict with pink shrimp. And a band in a funky spot including a chicken cemetery.