Category: Travel

Day 714 – It was 

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A trick. Found some more that I have not posted. At least I don’t think I did. 

Our sweet new friend Lenore 


And Piper the service dog. One of my favorite dog sketches ever. I might have posted this one but its so great i can post it again. He’s actually a black standard poodle which is difficult to paint so black shadows are sufficing-artistic license and all that!!! 


Here’s the whole page together. No idea why I didn’t paint the while background the same color. Ah well. No do overs with watercolor like one can do with watercolor. 


Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 


And the class synopsis with all John Salimens key points. 

Warning. There still may be one more set of pages. Not sure. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Margaret off to French classes xxx

Day 712 – so it continues. 

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Not done yet. 


I drew Donna and Ann as they discussed Donnas abstracr. The conversation went on for quite a while giving me plenty of time to draw them. 


Another sketch of Dinna done during lectures. The shadow under her eye got a little dark. 

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 696 – Memories

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Best thing about a travel journal is the memories when you look back through it. 

Raisin and I shared some awesome deserts and a free shot of Jameson’s is always welcome!! 

This was a pretty great strawberry shortcake at Calhouns on the Tennessee River. The view was fabulous. Will post it when I get done painting it!  Riverside is a wonderful place to eat especially when it’s a different river than the one i live on.

The lines on this page are made with a Wonsor Newton watercolor  markers and a Daniel Smith watercolor crayon that I got at Jerrys Artarama during the demo. 

I color with them – draw lines -and then release them with water which let’s them bleed where they want to go. A really fun effect.  
And I started this last nite. Forgot to eat dinner. Must be fun right?! Hmm 🤔 full sheet arches 300# 22 x 30″ eeekkkkk

Thanks for checking by. 

More Knoxville fun to come. 

Margaret xxx

Day 641 PCM and the t shirt

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  Really loving this sketch of PonceCity  Market Szechuan Restaurant. Love the dragon. Strathmore 500 watercolor paper carbon platinum black ink in carbon fine tip pen. 

  
   

Repainting the tshirt sketch as promised. Hope to deliver it Tuesday to Rhineharts. 
Letting the ink dry so no smears on it. Ink smears are so annoying and so unpredictable. A kin to letting paint dry!!! 
 I usually don’t use pencil but since it’s a redo of the original sketch which has a split page from the sketchbook it’s a necessity if the restaurant is to have it. 

The sketchbook. 
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx
 

Day 635 Ponce City Part two or three?!

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Szechuan Restaurant and Bar
I had a perfect seat to have another go at this dragon. I think I did a better job at the perspective this time. 
    

While there is a lot I like about this the perspective on that bar is wild and I still think the people look like the walking dead. 

    A nervy young couple say not two feet from me between the restaurant and me blocking my view. First time that has ever happened. 

I kept craning my head to look around them as I drew. They never noticed nor did they notice when I took this picture of them. 
I really should turn them into a large painting similar to the one I am working on now. 

  
Waiting at Waffle House which no loner looks like this. Who could resist those crosses arms and those faces?! 

  
  Ponce City Market looking toward the Beltline stairs. No walking dead in this sketch. 

Taped down and reading to watercolor. 

  

The Cuban restaurant LL Superpan. 

All three Ponce City Restaurants are drawn with the very fine tip pilot pen with Carbon Platinum Black ink on Strathmore 500 watercolor paper which is lovely paper. I can’t wait to use it. Takes the color so well. 
  

A tea towel from French Silver Shop. Sooner or later I will buy some. I just can’t pick which one. 
   

Ohhhhh

  Ahhhhhhhh

We were “hangry” from all the oohing and ahing, the walking, the two hour drive, the packing, the loading of the car. Which restaurant would we choose?? There were so many. 

  Marakeesh Mediterranean Market North Africa East of Atlanta 

  We decided that though the hamburgers smelled oh so delicious wafting thru the air we were not doing burgers. So many restaurants how did we choose?! 

  

We got food from Marakeesh Market because there was a small line and well it was just exotic to eat Moroccan food. 

  1. The potato stuffed burekas,tahini, Israeli pickles and Israeli salad which looks just like feggous – a Morrocan tomato and cucumber salad except for added radish sticks were all just simply delicious. I can’t decide which item I liked best. Best pickles ever.  Perfect iced tea. 

Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx

Day 629 – Henry Time

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This weekend my sister Jan and I tagged teamed my sweet grandchildren Henry and Livia. Henry slowed down enough for me to sketch him watching Care Bears and playing with his cars his gramy bought him at Mc Donald’s and Publixs. 

  

  His dad asked me if I bought him a car at Publixs and I said Yes of course he asked for one and a rabbit for his sister and flowers for his mom but we knew daddy didn’t want anything but that ham we cooked!!

   
They also went to the zoo. When I asked Henry what his favorite part of the zoo was he told me you Gramy. What a kid. Lol.   

    
Last a bit of ink fun with my Kuretake brush pen. I just like the quote.  And it’s true. Hard to be perfect. 

I got the quote from the strathmore art on line sketchbook Art Ninja Graham Smiths class.  Check it out. It’s free.  I wish I drew glad as well as he does. Here is his website. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Reasons. 

Day 628 – Costco Love! 

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Urban sketching at Costco. And NO I did not eat a hotdog when I drew this. I usually do though. Probably good snacks this day whxib everybody knows are calorie free right?! 

I did hide in the corner behind my purse which is of course big enough to carry my sketchbook and pants. 

Tip: when you take the grandchildren to the zoo you don’t want your bevy purse loaded with sketching stuff when you pick up a 45 lb kid to look at the snakes Be sure to take your over the shoulder sketch purse with sketching stuff and the other important thing MONEY for the gift shop train and carousel!! 😋

  

These people were drawn as we all stood in the return line. I love to buy stuff and bring it back to Costco. They ALWAYS take stuff bought there back no questions other than can I Have your members card please. I do LOVE Costco!! 

Off to class. Need to go by Costco and fill up. Gas is always 20-25 cents cheaper!! And Booking a trip to Paris and maybe Lindon and Dublin via Iceland. No time to list colors but I did use the usual ones.

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 623 – a bit more France 

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Arrowmonches Les Bains in Normandy near the D Day invasion  site. Charming quintessential French village by the seaside. Some of the WW2 beach defenses still remain out in the breakers. 

We had a delicious coq au vin lunch at Brasserie 6 Juin.  

I almost missed the bus drawing this picture. 😳 I could have happily sat there drawing the village all afternoon while the others went to the landing sites but it would have been a LONG walk back to the boat moored at quai in Rouen. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx dreaming of France 

Day 611 – Stick fun!

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 I have been playing with my stick bamboo stick all week. Done a sketch everyday. The Carbon Black ink from Gouletpens works best with my stick. Not the India ink. It seems to load on the stick better. 

Anyway after I tried to shade the ibis in the back grey since he’s in the shadow I decided to do negative painting in the background letting the ink puddles bleed into the brush water to make various shades of grey. 

It seems impossible to get control of that ink flow. It leaves a lot of hard edges which are great for Key West underbrush but not on a bird. 

After the grey puddles dried a little I went back in and drew ink lines in for sticks on the ground. 

  
If I could change this I would get rid of the grey on the farthest back ibis. 

  
This is yesterday’s ibis. I actually like them except for all the black. These are young ibis and have a lot of mottled grey on their necks. 

Maybe I will redraw them and add some background? I think they are funny. The Ibis at the Key West Wildlife Center are beggars and wait for snacks aka dog food that was fed to them. 

  
My favorite still are the chickens. I don’t know why but I LOVE chickens. 

Did I say writing with a stick does not produce the most graceful writing?  

 
 Here’s another chicken sketch done earlier.  I can’t imagine dong this on location. I would have an inky mess everywhere.  Not good when it’s permanent and very black!! 

I also had a paper problem. I used my beloved 93 # Aquabee first but the ink is so thick from the stick that I got out my #98 Canson mixed media sketchbook and used it. No more ink soaking they the paper. At least not yet. 
And here’s Livia again.  One of the first sketches withy the stick  from last Sunday. I don’t know why I didn’t notice one of her legs is smaller than the other. But that’s an easy fix. Sketching frequently had a lot of surprises like a too skinny leg. 
Enjoy your day. Happy stick sketching. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 607 – 22 Sketches

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When you do that many you can post sketches for a week or more never repeating yourself. The girls costumes begged to be painted and the  many columns lining Sacred Heart. Great fun to paint wet on wet. 

 
The second or third sketch I did that night.  I had not quite warmed up.  Gouache is great for covering the background fast. When you have 22 sketches to paint you better have something that gets done quickly besides the sketching.  

  

One day when I grow up I want to paint urban sketches like this one by Al Beyer done in India a couple of years ago. Can you see the moped flying by? This is a big oil painting 3×4′ not a tiny sketch but definitely falls in the urban “sketching” genre. You can see more of his work here but sadly non of his urban sketching he does on his Maymester trips abroad – India – China – and this year Cambodia. Watch out Angkor Wat. 

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx