Day 315 – Kirkwood Spring Fling

May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Random people at last weekend’s Spring Fling in Kirkwood in Atlanta at Bessie Branham Park, a beautiful spot with lots of shade trees around for sitting under as well as an open green space where a band played.

I actually like this odd assortment of people. Originally there were more tents planned in the background but I didn’t paint them because dark large leaks from from other pages in the book. The guy in the hat had green on his face from the leaks. 😳 Got out the flesh gouache to fix him but it was not to successful. It was a dark green. Sigh. No feet. Not sure why other than people were just whizzing by. I couldn’t ask them to stop. Lol.

Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with Carbon Platinum black ink in my Strathmore 500 mixed media. Really not happy with the way it’s leaking watercolor washes along the binding and ruining pages.

This one was never finished. See the leaky clothes on the pages at the center? Nasty mess.

More random people at the Spring Fling. No idea why not one of these people have feet either other than they were moving so fast. They walked off before I could add their feet. Some of the people are compilations of several people walking by like the red head with the backpack in the middle. Drawing moving people is much easier to do with a brush pen. No drag on the surface like my Noodlers have when you draw with them.

Really pleased with the greens I mixed in both of these.

So here’s the tip for today. The dark greens in the trees are made by mixing burnt sienna and Inathridone blue pb60. I added Quin gold to the mix on the paper. Really like the color variations the mixture gave me.

The green in the grass was made with manganese blue and aureolin yellow with touches of Quin gold. New Gamboge would be great too instead of the Quin gold. The flowers of alizarin and purple were added while the grass was wet as were the shadows under the bench.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 311 – Finished Accordion Book

May 16, 20154 Comments

Hard to take good pics of these. It’s about 80″ long. Sorry they are crooked. The paper is Stonehenge print paper I think. Cream colored. Lovely paper. You can actually paint on both sides which I did because I had filled up the front at Pops Under the Stars. It was so much fun drawing that I kept on drawing and filled up the back.

So here are close ups of the front.

I started this in Gatlingburg. Only got two people done. Oops! I drew the first lady while waiting for my mom who is the second lady.

Love the lady to the right so much I drew her three times.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 308 – a Few more of Maestro Z

May 13, 2015Leave a comment

There are actually ten pages of these but this set messed up the other eight already finished pages. I was bored after painting the first eight and decided to try something different.

Fealing gave us an example with this wash on it so I decided to try it. The background is a wash of 16 washes of color. I applied the first eight backwards so I did 8 more in the right order and the washes leaked. It’s a great color BUT not so great I wanted to mess up ten or twelve other pages.

See below for color combos for the background.

Here are the pages that were messed up. Even worse I had finished painting them ALL. There are grey blobs on all of them. One set of pages even got stuck together.
I did use some white gouache on a few to try to fix them with varying degrees of success. White gouache my BFF.

Just a small leak on this one.

Big lean on this but it didn’t show so much.

Thank goodness nothing to mess up on these pages.
The 16 layers of washes are

Cerulean

Orange

Cerulean

Orange

Cerulean

Burnt Sienna

Hookers green

Cerulean

Then I did them in the right order

Cerulean

Burnt sienna

Hookers green

Cerulean

Cad orange

Cerulean

Cad Orange

Cerulean.

Now I think I will try another one with just the last eight washes. The correct way lol. It does make a beautiful blue grey.

Day 307 – Reportage Accordion Style

May 12, 20154 Comments

Maestro Z

Drawing the conductor Maestro Z at Pops under the Stars was so much fun I wished I had brought an empty accordion book. This is just half of one. It would be fun to do a ballerina like this.

Detail 1

The blacks were made with Inathridone blue and burnt umber. Grey on the jacket is cerulean and burnt sienna or cobalt and burnt sienna.

Detail 2

The background is Quin gold and Quin red painted on with my big Isabey squirrel mop and allowed to blend when they were wet. I think I might cover up Maestro Z and splatter this strip.

Detail 3
Drawing this was so much fun I drew ten pages of these in my sketchbook. Will post them tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 307 Reportage?! Part 2

May 11, 20151 Comment

Love these new Isabey and Richeson squirrel mops that I got during my class with Fealing Lin. Not cheap but love the soft loose look of the paint you get with them. She paints all her landscapes with them.
Been busily painting the sketches I did during Pops under the Stars Saturday. This is Brad Means warming up the audience at Lady Antebellum Amphitheater in Evans Towne center.

I sketched in the audience as they headed to get snack or a better seat. There was a lot of movement. People standing and sitting down yakking with their friends. Sipping wine. Some people dressed to the nines. Others wore jeans and tees. I am sure there was some champagne in the crowds song with bud lite!

Gesture sketch of the orchestra warming up. The violinist was serious.

Lee Anne enjoying the calm while Drew chased the perpetual motion machine Henry.

Henry’s first concert. Every now and then he took off like a rocket with one of his parents racing to catch him. The child has a career as a future star sprinter. Get ready Decatur High School.

Tomorrow more Pops Under the Stars. I only drew about 30 fast sketches and half an accordion book.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 295 – Get Your Inner Jackson Pollock On!!

April 29, 20152 Comments

When I ran across one of my favorite card ever the BMW Z 3 in. The Kroger parking lot I knew I had to draw one more car. I have always convetted this car. And they were made up the road from me in Greer SC. This is painted in my Stillman and Birn Zeta Staedler pen watercolor and gel pen. Bytw the gel pen hates this paper. Very odd.

Chose yellow for the background because they are complimentary colors.

Car #1

This is my friend Marsha’s 1995 Corvette also known as Baby. I drew her three times. Twice before I got her right and a third time just for fun on ledger paper.

Car #1 is obviously awful but I did find the ledger paper interesting so I fluster it again.

I have a whole book of ledger paper. Not one of the old gorgeous books that Lapin loves but one from the 70s I think. Does that make it vintage?!

I have used the paper quite a bit in mixed media and it always gives a fun effect so I thought I would try the corvette on it. After all she’s vintage too.

Car #3

The paper wrinkles. Strike 1. I thought about mounting it on a piece of illo board and I still might. Hopefully that would flatten it out. It also did not allow for the watercolor to be bright. The colors are more delicate on ledger paper an effect that I do like. So will I paint some more on ledger paper. More than likely especially if I can find someone to cut the book in half. It’s a tall narrow book. The other problem with it was that it will take forever to fill it. It’s 252 pages long!!

I did find that the gel pen loved this paper. No idea why but it would go on like butter. It’s not so fond of watercolor papers.

Car #2

This is painted in my Stillman and Birn Zeta. My second attempt. It still has a few problems. The left bumper is off. It should be square and her read end is too long which is why I drew it the third time.

Splattering. Be sure to cover your car when you do the background. Mix up soupy cerulean and yellow ochre and sling it at the paper. Get your inner Jackson Pollock on. So much fun to splatter paint. Just know that it will go everywhere including your phone your ipad and you!

Go forth and look for vintage cars. They are not Ez to find.

Day 294 – homework

April 28, 20154 Comments

I mean cars. Taking a Sketchbookskool class called stretching. This week is Lapins week.

Lapin loves to do urban sketching drawing food people and cars. He even moved from France to Barcelona because there is such an active urban sketching group in Barcelona. How’s that for dedication!?

He also likes to paint in old ledger books. Definitely a different look to that paper. More transparent but that’s for tomorrow.

Stuck getting my Prius first checkup yesterday I drew and painted cars in the dealership. Usually I draw on site and skulk off home to paint at leisure. I used my old Winsor newton field allege and a Cotman pallette I reloaded with all my quinacridones and a Niji water brush. I had never realized that using a waterbrush would make the colors more delicate. Hard to get lots of color with a waterbrush.

The Scion. A sporty model that was on the showroom floor. We drooled over it when I was car shopping last fall but was practical and got a Prius.

Painted with cerulean and burnt umber greys. The windshield is a green blue. Pen is a Staedler in my Stillman and Birn.

Still waiting. One car done so why not draw another?! A big Lincoln SUV was parked right outside the window nearest me. Have you ever tried to paint a white car that is mostly in the shade?! Careful or you get a blue car. 😁 background is cerulean and yellow ochre.

Don’t forget to cover up your car when you splatter the background.

Thanks for looking!

Day 293 – So many sketches

April 27, 2015April 27, 20152 Comments

which should I post?! I have been painting up a storm the last few days and I keep drawing more to paint. Sooner or later I will get them all posted.

I drew the Locks at Savannah Rapida last Thursday when I was at the Savannah Rapids park for The Newcomers Lunch and a talk by the head of the Savannah River Keeper (http://www.savannahriverkeeper.org https://www.facebook.com/savannahriverkeeper) who does her best to keep the Savannah from being the most polluted river in the country instead of the fifth like it is now.

Glad I live above the pollution but both Augusta and Columbia County drink from the pollution as well as dump their waste in it so we can drink it. 😜 The things you learn at lunch.

Drawn in my Stillman and Birn Zeta with my Noodler Creaper Ahab and Carbon Black Ink. Colors. Well just about everything on my pallette but the yellow.

This was painted from background to foreground a cobalt sky and trees painted at one go.

Trees. The greens are yellow ochre or sap green mixed with viridian.

Same mix for the water with more cerulean. But the water was added LAST! Don’t forget to leave the whites. Hard to do!

Greys are mixed with burnt sienna or burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Rust is burnt sienna but you knew that.

Rocks I added yellow ochre to the grey mix.

The locks were painted right before the water.

Gel pen for hand rails. White gouache seemed like too much work!

Thanks for looking.

Day 292- Inner Bean

April 26, 2015April 26, 20154 Comments

I love go sit in the inner bean and sketch the diners but I have never drawn it from this angle before. I say in the middle of the place drawing and nobody noticed me. They were all too busy with their conversations.

There were all kinds of coffee things to draw from this angle. So many cups!!!

I started by drawing the bar and as people filtered in I added them to the scene. Biggest problem is the counter is so high you can’t see the moms and their worker bees fixing coffee and sandwiches and cutting the delicious cakes.

For some strange reason a lot of people were wearing black. It’s spring and it was Friday. Where are the bright colors?! I actually changed some of the black shirts to other colors or it would have been deathly dull.

Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with carbon platinum black in my Stillman and Birn Zeta.