Remember this one?

March 25, 2023March 26, 2023Leave a comment

Hong Kong! Decided i liked it. My husband thinks its so much more interesting than the plein air tree. As he said what can you say its a tree?!

The beginning. To say i hit the pause button alot with this one would be an understatement. starting off soaking the paper w water which caused problems as in running and bleeding. 😵‍💫 Oddest looking first wash i have ever done. Mostly using flats and a fan brush. Mike dont behave like Jansen Chows did. Hmmm .

Adding some darks well i think we did. 🤔

Lots more color added. What are those things anyway??

When i stopped for the night. Well i couldn’t. Messed some more.

And now my husband likes it. Go figure. I did use alot of gouache in every color i had. The whole large light blue block on the middle is gouache.

A little bird flew by

February 19, 2023Leave a comment

A tufted Titmouse that was out back this am eating before the cats showed up for breakfast. The cats don’t know it but I let them go hungry while the birds are. He’s not quite what I meant to do but at least it’s done.

This was how it started out and I didn’t like it. So I decided to darken the background. Still don’t like it. Then I got the razor knife out and started scratching it. Well it was as good as it was going to get. Titmice don’t hold still long enough to let you draw them. One seed and they are off.

Should have been finishing the flamingo but was having an unmotivated Saturday. 🙃🙃🙃

My baked mushrooms were delicious and so easy to make. Clean the big mushrooms. Bake them at 375 for 20-25 min. Slap a square or two of cheese on top and let it melt. Yummy. You can microwave them too but I like them baked better.

Margaret whose sleepy now. Xoxoxo

Drawing the lovely Crystall.

January 18, 2023January 20, 2023Leave a comment

Chrystall as a fairy. You have to love her as a model. You never know what she will wear or if she will wear anything. She designs and makes all of her awesome costumes and also does fire batons as well as other performing. You can follow her adventures at crystallinecreative on instagram

These are both gesture sketches with a pentel ink pen drawn quickly. Then painted. This one was probably ten minutes The first one was a longer pose. Chrystal posed for us in a Zoom session. Lots of fairy poses. Best $10 I have spent recently.

My favorite type of sketchbook when I am doing live model drawing. Lotsa sheets. Loves watercolor and ink plus it flattens out mostly when it dries. I have it in every shape and size they make. I usually use the two biggest sizes for life modeling thru zoom or Dr Sketchys. Great for all those gesture poses.

This is one I use for everyday things when I don’t have my other fav Stillman and Birn handy.

Margaret xoxoxox

Been drawing

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022Leave a comment

In my small Stillman and Birn alpha w a Office Depot mechanical pencil.

The best of the lot. My sweetie Hunt. 4×6”

I measured his head when I drew this one by holding up my 2B mechanical pencil. His head is very long and narrow. Kind of like the rest of him. He’s 6’3”. Lots of whiskers. Mustache and goatee. Going grey but still has a lot of pepper in his once black hair.

Next up a watercolor or two of him sooner or later.

This is the First go round and his face was not long enough. Made him look squat. Vaguely looks like him but the mouth is his mouth. Oops. Easier to redraw than erase all that pencil. 4×6”

And Sam I Am a Siamese stray on the back porch. Sweetest of all the back porch cats. once he’s fixed he’s looking good for a house kitty. He wants in every time I feed him or pet him. Another man of good taste.

Pepes

May 24, 2022Leave a comment

Oldest eating establishment in Key West is their Moniker.

Margaret xoxoxox who needs to do a whole series of Key West quirky places.

Across from the Key West Bight.

This place serves the most awesome coconut pie you will ever eat. I ran across this sketch when I was looking for photos of Chrystalline creative in my superaquabee sketchbook and really like it a lot so thought I should publish it.

Pepe’s Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 C Graham Crumbs

1/4 C Sugar

6 T Butter melted

Stir all together and press in 9-10″ pie pan

Filling

3 Egg Yolks

2 t Coconut Extract

1/2 C Sugar

3 Heaping T cornstarch

3 C Half and Half

1 C Flaked and Sweetened Coconut

1/2 C Heavy Cream

mix yolks and extract, set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch , half and half in heavy sauce pan over medium high. Bring to boil stirring constantly.

The recipe for Pepes Coconut Pie.

Pepe’s Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 C Graham Crumbs

1/4 C Sugar

6 T Butter melted

Stir all together and press in 9-10″ pie pan

Filling

3 Egg Yolks

2 t Coconut Extract

1/2 C Sugar

3 Heaping T cornstarch

3 C Half and Half

1 C Flaked and Sweetened Coconut

1/2 C Heavy Cream

mix yolks and extract, set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch , half and half in heavy sauce pan over medium high. Bring to boil stirring constantly.

When it starts to bubble and 1/2 C of mixture to eggs very slowly to temper them. Return all to the saucepan whisking constantly over medium low. When the sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon remove from heat and stir in coconut. Cool to room temperature and turn into the crust. Chill for 2 hours. Whip cream (1/2 T powdered sugar) and spoon over pie.

If you love coconut pie this is the one to eat. We passed up pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving for this one when I made it. And I make a great pumpkin pie too.

Online Live modeling session

May 23, 2022May 26, 2022Leave a comment

Crystal was awesome. She’s a rock steady model holding the pose for long periods of time without moving and her poses are always fascinating. Her costumes which she makes are always phenomenal.

We started off with five minute poses then two minute and up to forty for the long fairy pose.
You can follow her at @crystallinecreative on Instagram.

*10 min pose with pentel ink brush pen, watercolor in my favorite super aquabee sketchbook.*

Crystal is a super model. Been drawing her off and on for a while since going to the Atlanta Artist Center where she also models. Now She’s doing online modeling sessions via Townsend Atelier about once a month on Monday at 5 EST. You can contact them at mailto:peggy@townsendatelier.com. They have a phenomenal range of classes.

Well chop her head off. Another two minute. Love the body but that neck is toooooo long. Lol.

10 min u really should fix her left eye. Will eye. Probably not. Lol.

Another ten minute but I went back in later and touched it up. Looked lame because it was done in pencil and needed more paint.

The Fairy is painted on a half sheet of Fabriano hot press. 15×22. It was nearby when I decided the long pose was too interesting for my smaller aquabee. Drawn in pencil painted with my Mary Whyte colors palette.

*Screenshot from the online zoom session.*

One advantage to doing a zoom session is that you can capture her pose with a screen shot.

Handy if you want to tweak your sketches. Doesn’t matter if there’s not enough detail because you really don’t want to get bogged down with the details.

The camera was down near her feet so there was a lot of odd foreshortening. She really doesn’t have big feet except from that angle. Lol.

Margaret who needs to get busy xoxoxo

Off to Paris

November 9, 2021November 10, 20212 Comments

Who doesn’t want to go to Paris for the day or a week or a year?!
Half sheet Hahnemuhle rough

I took a class today on Shopkeeparty with Michal Jasiewicz. He’s a great painter but he can’t paint and talk about what he’s doing at the same time because he speaks Polish.

Of course he speaks better Polish than I speak English but when it’s an online zoom class you don’t pay attention to what he’s doing when he’s not talking. You don’t have time to just sit and watch because he’s painting like a madman.

He would be off painting like a madman someplace I wasn’t because I didn’t know he was painting.

I only realized that after the class was over.

That’s another thing. Why do they have to paint like a madman. I can usually keep up BUT i know a lot cant so WHY!?

The drawing. Did two because I drew the first one last nite on the back. Hahnamuhle doesn’t have sizing on the back so I has to draw it again.

First wash. A mix of red yellow and blue no specific colors. Just a nice light grey.

Heading. Down the road. All this was done wet on wet which makes me a little crazy and slab happy with the brush.

No idea why I didn’t take more pics. Here it is for now. Already thinking of scrubbing the tree off some but who knows.

At this point I decided to do why I wanted. Started really slapping paint on. Drawing with my saber brush, the Cheap Joe’s scroobys loose Goose, which is always uncontrollable fun.