Day 969 Might be a trend.

March 17, 2017Leave a comment

Been working on this today for an online class I am taking. More political art. I have never made political art in my life til lately.

Step one. Gluing down some figures and journaling over them in pencil. Circling some of the words. Then stamping over that. I couldn’t find my stamps so I drew letters.

Collages layer.

Scribbling on it with Prismacolor art sticks.
Painting over it with cheap acrylic paint I. Bottles.

And I added some washi tape.

Ttyl. Got to clean up the mess I tossed all over the kitchen for some reason. Stacks of paper scraps glue sticks and my apron to name a few things.

Ttyl. Collage is fun. Try it.

Margaret xoxoxo

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 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 915 Atlanta

January 21, 2017Leave a comment

These are based on photos I have taken in Atlanta the last few years. Drawn on Stonehenge paper with Prismacolor pencils and art sticks.

The High Museum 5×8″hmm this building is all white but not in my version. Added the red sky to hopefully make building pop. And dabs of lime green to make the red pop or was it the other way around. Complimentary colors do that.

Ponce City Market- 5x 8″

I take so many photos of this building. So hard to get close enough to take pics of Tower on the right and the name on top of the building. I think one day that name will be an Atlanta icon similar to the Hollywood sign.

The only difference in these two is the sky. The blue made the orange pop. Complimentary colors do. Think it helped don’t you?! Also like the letters sort of there but not quite.

Fox Theater

I am always getting stuck turning left onto Ponce de Leon from Peachtree in front of the Fox Theater. I love looking at it. And since I am stopped dead in traffic at a light I whip out my phone and snap a photo or two.

The Fox is a fairytale Moorish palace complete with a twinkling star strewn ceiling worthy of Scherazades tales in the heart of Atlanta downtown. If you haven’t been to a show in this one or the one in Detroit treat yourself and go. Just magical.

I am going to have another go at this one because it was the first one I tried and it’s not too great. And the Fox needs more from me.
Thanks for stopping by!!

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 611 – Stick fun!

March 4, 20164 Comments

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 604 – Another Bond or two

February 26, 20161 Comment

I did say I have twenty two of these right?!! This is one of my favorites. I like Sacred Heart as the background. As a deconsecrated CatholicChurch it’s a great background.

One of my favorites of the Bond girls. She had a flowing black negligee on with sheer sleeves. That was a challenge to paint. I first painted the arm. Let it dry and then over painted it with a watery black as I painted the whole negligee.

I really wanted to put a bubble for two quote but couldn’t figure out how to do that. Like the red hair against the cobalt background and of course the splatters.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 585 – Juno Beach

February 7, 2016Leave a comment

The Canadians built this beautiful museum to remember the D Day Invasion and the valiant men who fought there on June 6 1944. From above its shaped like a maple leaf.

The museum sits on the shore at Les Courselles in Normandie above La Manche, the Sleeve, as the French call the English Channel. Below are the beaches where the brave British, Canadian and Australian forces staged their D Day invasion.

Eventfully more than 4500 of them died during the invasion of Normandie.

Colors used. First a wash of Winsor yellow on the buildings. Next a wash of Cerulean and Quin burnt orange and Quin sienna. Shadows cobalt and dioxzine purple and more sienna and Quin burnt orange. Windows and sky cerulean. Grass yellow green and olive green with Quin burnt orange.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 578 – Chateau Gaillard

January 31, 2016February 5, 2016Leave a comment

I drew Chateau Gaillard several times while we were in Les Andelys. It sits high above the Seine Valley dominating the river and the quintessential French village at its base.

Richard the Lionhearted built it to control access to Normandy via the Seine around 1180-1200. No housing could be built until the Chateau aka castle was finished in a record ten years. Imagine a French winter in what tents?! Or sleeping outside for ten years?!

The second son of Henry II of England spent most of his life in Normandy even when he became king of England.

Legendary characters in Bristish history surround King Richard from his parents Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitane to Robin Hood who came to his aide.

The machinations of Richards younger brother, Eleanor’s favorite son -the notorious King John Lackland, and the infamous Sheriff of Nottingham who had the Germans kidnap and held him for ransom on his return from the crusades in the Holy Land are the stuff of many movies.

So there it’s sits wrapped in legend glowing in the French sun begging to be drawn. And I did.

This was drawn sitting in the warm lounge of the Viking Pride. Talk about cushy urban sketching!! Does not get any better!! Comfy chair, feet up, huge glass windows with incredible views and a glass of wine! What more could you ask for??!

Colors used – DS Green apatite, dioxzine purple, Quin gold Quin red orange. The castle is Winsor yellow and cerulean with raw umber and yellow ochre.

Read more about the Chateau at http://lesandelys.com/chateau-gaillard/

Thanks for reading.

Margaret off to enjoy this gorgeous 70 day.

Xxx

Day 571 – Save the Date

January 25, 2016Leave a comment

The finished product.

I thought you might like to see how I arrived at this final save the date map.

The pencil sketch was sent for final proofing and approval before I inked and painted it.

The inked proof. It got changed.

The inked map before I painted it.

Here it is with locations colored. The colors are off in this scan.

Background 1. I copied it and tried out different backgrounds.

A pencil background.

A different green. Hard to maintain the green wash on typing paper.

I used the scrap on the left to test colors. This was TOO solid green so I blotted it off and added some gold. I have to say the color lifted easily from the paper. Just a wet tissue did it.

The final product drying. I like the more mottled background.

Thanks for reading. Map on!!!!

Margaret off to class. Xxx

Day 570 – A quickie

January 24, 2016Leave a comment

Thought that would get your attention. I shop too much at Costco and these are just Some of the things that I bought on two trips- one to pick up croissants and one to pick up those luscious new crop strawberries.

I also bought a dog bed and four pounds of butter. 😋

Two friends and I were doing lunch when we started talking about we had on jeans we had bought at Costco the Amanda by Gloria Vanderbilt.

And of course we had a good laugh about what else we were wearing that’s as bought at Costco like my boots.

Next time we need to do lunch at Costco aka sample heaven in the afternoon. Hard to resist those impulse purchases.

Yesthe Florida strawberries are in!!

I may go back and paint the background yellow. I meant too but got carried away on a map for my sons weddings save the date in September.

Colors. The letters started out as cobalt but were too pale so I added Inathrodone to them. Cad red on strawberries. All the green is hookers w cobalt. Same on the hydrangea and strawberry tops. Blacks are Inathrodone and burnt umber or burnt sienna.

Currently dyeing a mouse brown scarf red.

Right now it’s a nice rust but going to dunk it in food coloring since I already used all the koolaid. It’s soaking in vinegar and water for the next go round. If that doesn’t work back to Krogers for more tropical punch.