Category: Urban sketching

Day 600 – Wet Paint 

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 Will be posting the winner and the prize in a couple of smears. Thanks for sticking with me thru 600 days of consecutive posting. I wonder how long I will go on?!

 
Did I forget to say that this little mixed media angel I did flew away to a new home aka she sold at Wet Paint. Hurrah!! She’s stitches scribbled glued bubble wrap printed and three d. Genuine Lutheran hymnal pages in the background. A lot of fun!  

But not as much fun as drawing the models at wet paint.   
  

Another James Bond model sketch. I really need to fix his hand and his foot. Maybe. I had a lot of fun looking up James Bond quotes to write on the JB sketches. 

  

Beautiful model that could hold a rock solid pose. She’s wearing turquoise culottes with huge buttons. The half you can’t see is white. Harlequin style. She has lost had spectator pumps on. I had forgotten about them til I saw hers. I had a pair I loved. All tan leather so I painted those instead of the two tone ones she had on 

Thanks for reading. Will post the winner in a couple of days. Class today. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 599 The Name is Bond

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  James Bond -6×10″ Arches Carnet de Voyage HOT Press 

Lots of fun last night sketching at Wet Paint party at Sacred Heart Cultural Center. 

  

The Vintage Olie models were styling James Bond movie fashion style. Lucky Ruth Pearl and I had a table right next to one of their six pedestals as they rotated around the audience. 

  
I really liked this just as it is EXCEPT all my gooey only fingerprints all over it. Sigh. The light we were drawing in was terrible and my beloved Noodler was leaking as usual. Not conducive to clean drawings. 

Misplaced my non leaky Noodler

 Konrad.  😱

 
Background is gouache. Covers those ink prints!! 

Wc Used Quin coral , French ochre, cerulean, burnt sienna, burnt umber, ultramarine blue. 

More urban sketching coming!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx 

Day 593 – Back to Rouen 

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  Somehow I forgot to post this sketch I did of Rue Martainville from the square in front of St Maclou in Rouen.

 These half timber frame houses proliferated in the Rouenduring the medieval period.  More still remain here than anywhere else in France. The medieval Europeans thought they were more fireproof than timber houses. Hmm?!

  
 Notice how the bottom leans. Oh my!! 
 Rouen has them in great variety and shape, overhanging streets, leaning crazily. Often doors and windows are totally leaning a kilter on the front of the houses. Nothing is square though we were told they were inside. How is that possible. Je ne sais pas. I don’t know! But I have seen them with my own two eyes. Now you have too. 

  
   Lining an alley. 
 And how is it that these crazy wonky leaning buildings don’t fall down upon our heads. Once again. Je ne sais pas! C’est un miracle. 
   

 
Surrounding the market place. 

  
  Marching toward St. Mclou. 

  
And of course cheek to jowl with St Maclou. 
Rouen has street after street lined with these teetering ancient beauties like old women in spikes towering and tilting down the narrow cobbled lanes waiting to tumble down momentarily. 
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx hot planning maps to make to fill in blanks in my French travel Journals. 

Day 590 -Almost 600 Days 

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Since I started posting everyday. 600 days is ALOT!! I think it’s time for a giveaway. Leave a comment and I will put you in a drawing for a watercolor. Just remember I have to be able to find you after the drawing!!  

I remember my mother telling me you can skip it when I was on vacation with my parents. I told her no I would have to start over. That was about 350 days ago. But here I am still plugging away. Some days better than others. 

The sketch. Watercolor on Strathmore 500 mixed media paper with a Noodler Konrad loaded with Platinum carbon black ink. 

  I don’t know what is with the two guys on the left. I think they were slouching in their chairs so odd angles or maybe I got off to a slow start?? Think I need to go back and paint the guy in the blue jackets right arm. Evidently I forgot to draw it. How’s that work!? I also had forgotten to draw his foot but I fixed that. Lol. Nothing like surreptitious drawing in the middle of a room crowded with artists and art lovers to get intimidated. 

  I warmed up by the time I got to the four ladies on the right. I just love them. They are just fun. The building in the background is a beautiful old 1800s building with wrought iron balconies. 

Colors used : Quin gold and sienna burnt umber Inathrodone dioxzine purple alizarin Quin red cerulean cobalt Quin burnt orange green apatite spring green. 
Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to leave a comment!! 

Margaret xxx 

 

Day 589 – Art and Inspirations Meeting

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And a little urban sketching/journaling  in downtown Augusta. I think this sketch got better as I worked my way from left to right.  

 Really love the front row ladies.👍🏻😃 Drawn with my Noodler Konrad loaded with Platinum Carbon Black ink in my Strathmore 500 mixed media journal.  Can’t wait to get it painted.  
The speakers were great. Cheryl Goldslegger, the Morris Eminent Scholar at Augusta University and the new art department chair Scott Thorpe – the Dynamic Duo outlining bright plans for the future of artists in Augusta and art students at Augusta University. 

  

Thier next event is LASER next Tuesday at 6 pm on campus. There will be a Q&A period. 

  

Ruth and I are going and getting our questions ready!! See you there!! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 585 – Juno Beach

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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 584 Inside St Sauveurs

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A quick sketch drawn while sitting in the lovely early morning quiet of the church. Not that Les Andelys is a hub bub of noise and activity!!  It was lovely to sit in the still in the old rush seated chairs and admire the 16th century stained glass windows.

I think I really enjoyed drawing this one because we could not even stick our noses into the Rouen Cathedral or even see the whole facade due to the Christmas market construction at the base. 

All that way and no good looks at Monets famed cathedral. Sigh! I guess I will just have to go back!!! 

I coated the sketch with an initial coat of Winsor yellow and let it dry. I also used a lot of Quin burnt orange on the walls of the apex. 

Shadows are burnt orange and Inathrodone. Not quite as dark as burnt umber and Inathrodone. A nice light alternative. 

Windows – marine blue, ultramarine blue, purple and bits of Winsor yellow. Each color was allowed to dry before the next was added. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 583 – Eglise Sainte-Sauveurs

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In Les Andelys. 10″ x 16″ 

This was drawn leaning on an old building across the narrow street. Very hard to get a good view. Hard to draw in a floppy sketch book with nowhere to put the book but hey how often do you get a chance to draw a church built in 1198-1202 a very short period for such a huge building. 

Because of the short building period it’s very cohesive in its early gothic design unlike most of the churches and cathedrals which took two or three HUNDRED years to build. 

  

This lovely gothic Eglise aka church sits in the heart of the small river town Les Andelys, Richard the Lionhearted’s stronghold on the Seine. A small park or market square sits beside it where the citizens could promenade under the trees and enjoy the weather. 

Originally I painted it a little too grey so I perked it up with a very diluted wash of Winsor yellow and hits of Quin gold. 

Most of the churches and cathedrals are really not grey but the color of limestone which is yellower. The grime of centuries has turned them grey.

A bit of history. Richard the Lionhearted would not allow the town of Les Andelys to be built til his Chateau Gaillard was built. What the king wants the king gets right?!  Another interesting bit of history. Most French churches are topped with a crowing rooster. 

More about the church at http://lesandelys.com/church/

Colors used. Winsor yellow background. Stone cerulean French ochre and burnt sienna. Inathrodone blue and burnt umber shadows. 
Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink. 

Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 579 – More Chateau Gaillard

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I did say I drew Chateau Gaillard a lot!  This was my first attempt  and the same view as yesterday post.  

 
I seriously ran out of room before I could get the whole town in at the base. Just rooves looked odd so guess what’s under the accounting ledger?! You got it!! The bit of town I drew before I turned the page and started over. 

This turned into a fun opportunity to do a bit journaling, mixed media and add some stamps. 

I chose this quote because Richard was the quintessential adventurer traveling from France to the Holy Lands, got kidnapped and ransomed, hung out with Robin Hood, battled the wicked King John and his lackeys. Now that’s a life spent in adventure. He even took on his father the original tough King Henry II to usurp the throne. 

Colors – the same as yesterday’s. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret off to class in Aiken. Xxx

Day 580-One Last Chateau Gaillard

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I sat on the corner in Les Andelys watching my cruising companions hiking up the hill from which “many don’t return” according to my new friend Gus’ husband Bob. Gus and Bob have done the Paris to Normandy cruise several times annually. 

This painting was done wet on wet and is one of my favorite paintings to date. I felt like I was finally getting Charles Reid!! 

Since hill hikes make my asthma go crazy I elected to draw while they hiked.  Les Andelys is just a charming tiny village. A cute row of shops. A church dating to 1200! Half timber buildings. 
  
What’s not to love?! And Richard the Lionhearted walked these streets. Fascinating to me with our young American history. 

Once again same colors. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx