Day 933 Urban Sketching

Went sketching downtown with my sweet  friend AC Daniel. We ended up at the Soy Noodle house eating. Gotta keep your strength up. So far this is my fav sketch done that day. It looks terrible after I painted it but turned it into a journal page with the lettering.

Stillman and Birn Zeta Pentel Brush Pen and Lamy EF. My whisky painter travel palette and waterbrushes.

Wish I had taken a photo of it before the lettering. The brown was just dullllll.

Pleased to announce Augusta is having its first Urban Sketchers meeting. Hopefully Sunday February 12 at Earthfare Meeting Room at 1 pm. Click on the link to join our facebook page, to keep up to date, and to see our art!!!  Lots of sketching will be going on.
Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo who had to work on her sketchbookskool homework.

Day 932 – Al Beyer


I drew this during art history lecture last Wednesday. Not meant to look like him exactly just the essence and to take notes on the lecture about how to compose a painting and be sure you get all the parts in perspective. When people are added the heads have to line up on your sight line or they will appear to float. Check out John Salimen,  another great art teacher.  He’s a master at composing from photos  with many national and international art awards. His new coffee table book is just gorgeous. 

His DVD  on urban landscapes explains how to compose a picture from several photos.   

Painted with my tiny whiskey painter palette loaded with Windsor newton travel Paullette colors. Refilled with Daniel Smith using the same colors plus DS quin coral. 

A bientot Happy Mondayoff to class I go. 

Margaret xoxox

Day 926 – Ponce City Market-Day 3


Working little is Looking Down

This is day three working on this huge acrylic. Well huge for a very short person. Lol. It’s 3’x4′. 

Sorry the picture is not better. 

Bytw the photo I am using to paint from  was taken from the second floor of Ponce City Market looking down on the restaurant tables below. The ceilings are very high so it’s like it was take from the third story. 

The day I took photos the man on the right was everywhere. Always in the background cleaning. Always working silently in the background. 

This is what it looked like yesterday when I worked on it. Still a lot to do. I don’t have the picture of the sketch because I started painting it as I was sketching it. 

The sketch lines were becoming jumbled and confused so I started blocking in the colors so I could see what I was drawing. What was right and what was wrong. 

Colors used. The undercoating is Nickel Azo gold. Other colors pyrrole red, Winsor purple, thalo blue, black, burnt umber, titanium white. Also

Using up lots of tail ends of tubes before they dry out like yellow ochre. 

Ttyl gym time. 

Margaret tearing herself away from the tv. Xoxoxox

#poncecitymarket

Day 917 Urban Sketching the Woman’s March

Despite the deluges yesterday a large crowd turned out. It was a rainbow kind of crowd – old and young, men and women, LGBT and even a few dogs.

 

I drew these yesterday on a very wet day in downtown Augusta. The March and the speeches were at historic Springfield Park where Morehouse College started at Springfield Baptist across the street. 

The flame like sculpture on the rampart is all a part of the park. I did paint these at home. I didn’t think watercolor would work  too well in deluge weather.  Besides there was nowhere to put anything down because it POURED all morning too. 

A second even faster sketch of the happy crowd of raincoats and galoshes.  I think the correct number of marches was actually 671 but the speakers said 370 and 20 countries. 

The sketches were done in my Stillman and Birn Zeta mixed Media with my very patriotic Red Noodler Konrad.  I added the flags and the signs to give more interest to the sketches.  

Notice the big raindrop blotches on the ink?! Oops. Bravely I kept on sketching standing on top of a bench for a better view.  

Here’s the first sketch and a picture of the crowd and park. The local news reported 600 people were there.  I think there were closer to 1000. Guess it’s impossible to count. 

Somebody asked me how I drew these. The only thing I can say is start at the front and fill in the crowd moving back or you won’t have room for the people in the foreground. 

You can not draw a counter in a restaurant and then add people. You have to do it people first then the counter or pencil in the counter which I rarely do. Sometimes it gets me into trouble when I forget the order :

People first background last!

Happy sketching. 

Margaret madly painting black edges on canvases for her show at 4p in February. Xoxoxo and yes it’s still raining.  

Day 916 skies 

When you live on a river you see a lot skies. Sunrises sunsets and 

 

wild storms blowing in from the west across Georgia and the Savannah River.

Because it was a stormy sky I used a lot of marks to make it hopefully seem stormier. 

These are done with Prismacolor art sticks and colored pencils in my Stillman and Birn Zeta Mixed Media Journal. Lines and lettering with the Lamy Safari I think or the EF. 

Ttyl Margaret xoxox

Day 915 Atlanta 

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 910 – Hours of Marks Making 

Happy MLK Day dear readers!!  A holiday is always a good day for lots of drawing and painting. 

Spent three hours last nite drawing this old rice paddy down the street from my house which is built on an old antebellum rice plantation. No idea how many pens I used. Also scratched the wild rice tops with my xacto knife.  At least I assume that’s what they are. 

The assignment was to make a variety of marks. And I tried to add a variety of tones and not relie on lines. Have you ever tried drawing weeds and trees without line. Not easy.  

Stillman and birn Zeta.  I know I used my Noodler Konrad, both pentel brush pens, my carbon platinum pen and my Lamy Safari and a white pentel gel pen.  They each make such different lines both in weight of line and style of line. Even the two pentel pens are very different from each other. 

A detail for those who don’t like to click on the big pic. 

 And a few words from MLK himself. Words to live by in a daily basis too. 
Ttyl off to draw. 

Margaret xoxox 

Day 909 A bit more of Key West 

Been meaning to finish this for a while. Today I did it. A compilation of two of our tours the Historic Inn Tour and the Christmas Trolley Light Tour which was our fav. $15. A bargain. 

Still have three more spreads to finish. Guess it’s time. Anyone know a publisher who needs a Key West book?! 

The tools. 

Hmm painted with my smaller #2 Richeson  mop and my #10 Da Vinci Sable. And mostly I used the mop. 

Tips on The Christmas tree. Leave a lot of white. First layer is quin gold. Then I added hematite green and a bit of hookers green and ultramarine blue. Did the palm the same way. 

Last I used a white pentel gel pen to add white lines and lights to the trolley. And anywhere else I wanted a bit of white. It doesn’t show when u use it but it does show in photos. Strange but true. 

Off to sketch the park in black and white. Wonder how many pens I will use?! 

Ttyl 

Enjoy your Sunday 

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 908 Lazy Saturday

After all that sneezing and Benadryl decided to be lazy today and binge on Netflix’s. 

Maybe I should do some urban sketching off of Midsommer Murders? It’s always set in the most charming Bristish villages as long as you overlook a serial murder or two in every village. 

About the sketch one of the Key West sketches. A steel drum player at Buzzards Roost. Sketched on location of course. 

Colors are Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Pentel. Rush pen in a Stillman and Birn Zeta. 

Tip: I do much better painting all trees when I use my  squirrel mops. I have a 12 and a big fat Isabey mop. It keeps me from getting to detailed. Then I usually splatter them to give the small lead effect. 

Love my mops. Top one is the Isabey 12 second one is an Isabey 8 I think. Bottom one is a Richeson 2. The 12 is from Blick Atlanta Peachtree store. The bottom two are from Cheap Joes. I use the two smaller ones the most. 

It’s really hard to get detailed with these which is great for trees or painting Charles Reid style. The smallest brush he likes to use is an Isabey 16 Kolinski sable. 

That’s is for today. Go forth and sketch. 

Margaret xoxoxo thinking about a run to the nearest park to sketch the kids in the manufactured snow park. One day only event. 

Day 905 – the Bean

Everybody’s favorite place to eat lunch in Augusta or for a coffee or even better some of their amazing cake. They give you a slab of home made cake for $4 or $4.50. Today I had their Tuscan Bean Soup which was delicious. A big bowl and some delicious ice tea $5. A good deal. 

I don’t think I have ever eaten anything that was not delicious at the bean as we call it. Their coffee is from that other fabulous cafe that I drew a couple of weeks ago The Dancing Goats in Decatur. 

Painted in my new STillman and Birn Zeta.  Drawn with a Lamy Ef loaded with Lexington Grey and painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. 

Sketchbookskool Homework. 

Draw some textured objects. I might have gotten carried away but have had these on my art table for a while to draw. I can check them off my list now right?! 

Pens used Staedler .01, carbon Platinum pen w carbon platinum black ink and a Pitt calligraphy pen which I soon abandoned because it was too dark to me. 

Stillman and Birn mixed Zeta journal. 

Ttyl 

Margaret off to bed early after two hours at the gym and walking a couple of miles. Color me tahred. Xoxoxo