Day 553 – Montmartre

January 7, 20164 Comments

Do you like it better with the red Moulin Rouge or all ink?!

I really have to quit drawing these in my sketchbook. Somebody is already asked to buy it or a print. So now I have to draw it over. WHY do I do these things?!

Carbon pen with carbon platinum ink. Great fine point pen but sometimes it leaks BLOBS On your just drawn paintings. Sigh. BIG blobs.

I have a French Seine riverbank landscape I was working on yesterday. Yes. You guessed it. BIG BLACK blob. No warning.

It also leaks into the cap which can cause problems. Sigh. What’s a girl to do?!

I know. White out?! 😜

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 552 More Brevard!

January 5, 2016January 4, 2016Leave a comment

Main and Broad in Brevard. I think it’s the town hall or the court house?! Watercolor, Noodler Konrad w D’artrementis Document Brown in strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook.

I drew this sitting out near O P Taylors on Broad which has a good view of the court house.

The tree and building were still decorated for Christmas. I love that people no longer zip the decorations into storage the day after Christmas.

A great view of the mountains as Broad Street drops off toward Asheville.
My biggest dislike about the Strathmore Mixed Media 500 journal is that it’s very difficult to make lay down flat giving a large shadow down the spine. Not very attractive in the middle of a painting!

I guess I need to flatten it on the scanner but so much easier to use the cellphone for a quick pic.

Colors used. Cerulean sky w a touch of cobalt. Red w yellow ochre for brick colors. Burnt umber and Inathrodone for shadows, roofs, truck and street. Hookers green w Inathrodone for the for tree.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx who is off to the Columbia Art Museum for the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit.

Day 450 – O.P.Taylor’s Toy Store

January 3, 2016January 4, 2016Leave a comment

O.P.Taylors Toy Store – Watercolor, Noodler Konrad w D’artrementis Document Brown in strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook.

In Brevard NC a charming small mountain town near Sapphire Valley. We all love to visit O.P.Taylors Toy Store http://www.optaylors.com in downtown Brevard on the corner of Main and Broad Street.

O.P.Taylors Toy Store is truly a fantastic store that kids dream about. Toys packed to the ceiling in this old two story store. Even the staircase ballisters are popping with stuffed animals. There are several other locations including one in Biltmore Village and a website. If you find one nearby check it out. It’s truly ToYLaND!!

I drew the store as I sat outside waiting for my kids to come out of it. It’s a dangerous place for a grandma to go with her sweet grandchildren. They didn’t need another thing after the largesse of Christmas so I sat outside to avoid temptation.

This is not the front of the store but the side that faces Broad.

Colors used. Everything in my whiskey painters travel box. And a white gel pen on the Christmas lights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 546 – Sycamores

December 29, 20152 Comments

Line the streets of Paris. The French like to prune them into odd shapes. I don’t like trees that Americans prune like this but in France there are so many I grew to like them. They line the Seine River and many streets.

In the 1880s it became fashionable to take the air but one did not want to get a tan so trees were planted and pruned to indulge this whim especially in Paris.

Colors used. Leaf French ochre w Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange. Cerulean. Splattered with whatever soup was on my palette. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 542 – that travel journal

December 25, 2015December 26, 2015Leave a comment

🇫🇷Or breakfast at the Rochester hotel.

A lavish spread. Heaps of croissants and tasty rolls. Several kinds of delicious cheeses, quiche, home made yogurt and the list goes on and on. There was even some kind of baked chicken and veg. 👀

🇫🇷If you didn’t like what they had you could order whatever you wanted. I always ordered an omelet. We were up so early I did’t want to get hungry before we found a place to eat lunch!! And of course since it was a buffet we tried lots of goodies-perhaps only a bite.

🇫🇷This lady sat next to me at breakfast one day. I knew she would not notice me drawing her since she was engrossed in her IPad.

🇫🇷Strathmore mixed media 500 paper, Noodler Konrad pen, platinum carbon black ink, Daniel smith, winsor Newton, and Holbein watercolor.

🇫🇷 I think I left my heart in France when it’s not in Decatur with my grandkids. 😢 I dream about it a lot!!

Merry Christmas🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄

Thanks for reading.

Day 540 – quite a few travel journal pages done

December 23, 2015Leave a comment

Paris Day 1 – Giddy with excitement.

Now but since I am once again traveling will parcel them out and hope I get some more done. Not easy with an adorable three year old grandson “helping” you out. Lol

Like the layout. It evolved. The right page was done first sketched while we waited for our food. L’Artoise is a sweet little restaurant on Rue d’Artois around the corner from our hotel the Rochester. The Yelp reviews were spot on. Food was passable but not memorable.

Debbie and Tucker also cruising on Viking and staying at the Rochester.
The Proprietors were sweet and oh so French. The eggplant entree w a slab of store mozzarella was not great. The chicken an improvement – cow au vin I think.

We were so excited that dog food would have been wonderful lol. We imagined we were Phil who we followed on his adventures on PBS What is Phil eating. A hoot. Phil would not have eaten at L’Artois.
Dessert créme brûlée. Yummy. Then we walked the champs Elysees. I think we walked five miles even with out jet lag.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret off to make Christmas cookies but dreadfully in need of a long winters nap. On the 26th right?! 😊 xxx

Day 537 – Finally

December 22, 2015December 22, 20152 Comments

Figured out the title page for my France travel journal. I filled up two Strathmore 500 mixed Media journals but still have a lot of pages to paint in what I call my coloring book.

The light was bad on the boat for painting so I mostly drew with my Noodler Konrads while I was on board.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret making headway in her journals finally. 😘

Day 534 Dr Sketchys

December 17, 20151 Comment

Tired Santa – Ink glitter pens and Watercolor in superbee tablet. 20 Minute sketch. My favorite of the ones I kept.

Was great fun last nite.

All the sketches are 10×14 watercolor and ink with wink of Stella glitter pens. I started with my Winsor Newton wc markers but found it easier to use my two small travel palettes I took to France- a whiskey painters palette and a cotman palette reloaded with artist grade watercolor. The skin tone is quinacridone sienna. Paintbrushes are the waterbrushes.

What every girl wants for Christmas – 20 minute sketch

Ink glitter pens and Watercolor in superbee tablet.
Princess Augusta got a little wild and XXX rated with her poses. I have this one to the guys because they stood for twenty minutes with their hands in the air and they were so embarrassed over the pose. Think cheeks were bright red.

Naught and Nice -15 min sketch

Ink glitter pens and Watercolor in superbee tablet.

WIP – Santa’s Ugly Christmas sweater. Ten minute sketch. Ink glitter pens and Watercolor in superbee tablet

First we did a fast sketch of the model and were suppose to just do the head. I forgot and started drawing his body and his tank top. After we drew him we had to make up an ugly Christmas sweater. The face could use more work.

I won two tickets to the Chat Noir New Years party with this sketch. Hurrah.

I also won a free drink with another sketch but I forgot to take a picture of it. Oops!!!

It was models choice.

Best prize we all received tickets for the current Chat Noir show. Thanks Chris and Princess Augusta.

There are a few more but they really require more work.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 523 Place de laConcorde

December 16, 20152 Comments

One of the fountains that have replaced Madame Guillotine which stood here during the French Revolution.

Off to Dr Sketchys.

More Manana.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 522 – Last of the Marais

December 16, 20153 Comments

St Gervais a beautiful odd church near the Hôtel de Ville. The facade is neoclassic but the rest of it is gothic with flying buttresses like nearby Notre Dame.