Category: Watercolor

Day 695 – Another Journal page 

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I drew this the first day of class during lunch. It’s the Old Knoxville Business District around the corner from our classroom door on an alley that runs parallel to S Gay Street, Knoxville’s main Street. 

It called my name the Minute we rounded the corner from S Gay to Jackson Avenue to unload for class. 


Here’s a detail. Maybe 2″x 1″. My favorite bit of the painting. If I could just do this all over it consistently. At least I got this bit right. 

An interesting tidbit.  According to a friend of mine who lived in Knoxville thirty years ago the city riff raff used to hang out in this area. 

Lots of hides holes under the bridge down from S Gay Street to Jackson now barricaded and inaccessible because they are covered with bars. 👀 I had  wondered if it was some kind of odd jail til my friend told me this today. 

Our Alley 

 Colors used – well mostly I under coated all the buildings with a grey made with cerulean and burnt sienna. Then adding various mixes of Quin gold and alizarin over the dried greys. The windows are Inathrodone blue and burnt sienna and finally lamp black. Blue is cerulean in the buildings and sky. Dabs of hookers and Thalo green.


The start of another abstract. I have to transfer this 8.5″x 11″ drawing to a full sheet of Arches via a grid. What can I be thinking????🙄

Thanks for checking by!

Margaret who thinks she loves urban sketching or is it a travel journal?! Xxx 

Day 690 – Progress I think 

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How it looks now with collage bits glued down at the end of the day. 22×30″ Arches 300# cold press 


This morning. 

After a consult with John the teacher. How it looked after I sprayed it with the atomizer and removed the masking tape. Still to much white.  

Auditioning collage bits by taking pics of their placements. 
Audition number two 


At the end of class today. So much work. So busy.  Calling it Waiting in Line. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who is exhausted from all the fun. And work😳

Day ? – John Salimen

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Oh my what did we sign up for?! Abstract Watercolor. 

Mine so far. OH my oh my. Unlike anything I have ever done. 
The start. Sorry for the bad photo. 

We had to draw four random items on four pieces of tracing paper. Stack them up and trace all of them on one piece of tracing paper. 

Then we gridded the traced objects and transferred them via a grid to a full sheet 22×30″ watercolor sheet. 


First we had to trace of an interesting shape for white space and cut out the tracing paper. Then we painted a yellow line around the tracing paper so we wouldn’t loose our whites. 
My abstract was  ready to paint. 

First layer was use a variety of yellows reds and oranges plus a sprinkle of salt. 
Oh my will all these dark 2b pencil lines to away?! Scary stuff. 

The whole thing is scary but learning something new usually is. 


Here it is now ready to torture me some more tomorrow. But you know I really like the way it is going. The whites are taped to preserve them while we do some more torture tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret 👀😳🙄😁

Day 644 It’s done

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Rhineharts 10×15″ Watercolor on Crescent watercolor board

Done and ready for delivery. I think I gave a sigh of relief Repainting this successfully. You just never know with watercolor if you will mess it up or not. Thank goodness I didn’t.  

  I had to do it over because the original was in my sketchbook and it was drawn across two pages. Would I have cut that one out and sell it to Rhineharts?! Sure would but hard to frame it when it’s in two pieces. 
So a redo was in order. 

  
   

Here’s the ink sketch. I actually used pencil first and let it dry a while before I erased it. No ink smears on this one. 
   

   
The Rhineharts Masters Week tshirt. A bit darker than the original!

 While it dried I did some last minute shopping before Masters Madness descends full blown on this town.  
I got home about five and it was painted in time to sit down and enjoy Grantchester on Masterpiece Mystery. Really enjoy that show. 
 The shirt on display at the restaurant 
 Back to the painting – it’s painted on crescent watercolor board. Heavy stuff. 
Colors used – Sky cerulean, building Winsor yellow with grey made from cerulean and burnt sienna or yellow ochre. Roof has the same colors with Inathrodone for darks. Trim is marine blue with viridian. Blacks are Inathrodone and burnt sienna or burnt umber. 
Trees are burnt umber and Inathrodone for trunks. Inathrodone, viridian, yellow ochre and green apatite. White gouache for lights. 
Thanks for reading. Get your shirt at Rhineharts. 
Margaret xxx

Day 643 -A Bit of Fun 

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One of the things we love about Costco is the snacks. Of course we all know there are NO calories in the snacks if you eat them there. Lol. So after a walk thru of Costco with heavy snacks I decided to draw all the ones I ate.  

  
 

This is what I had when I left. I sat at the snack bar tables and sketched it before I forgot some of this deliciousness. 
Drawn on Strathmore 500 Mixed Media with Carbon Black ink. Noodler Konrad pen. 
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx

Day 642 – hmm 

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WordPress continues to cause problems. 

   
The Bottoms at Looking Glass Falls Mt Pisgah, Blue Ridge Parkway. For Sale. 

Finished this full sheet (20″x30″) watercolor yesterday. It languished in the corner for about two years almost done. Really pleased with the way it turned out.    
Detail

Detail    
Detail

 

Detail
  
Detail

No idea what the colors are its been so long. 👀🙄

I did lift some whites around the people and on a few trees with the Mr Clean Eraser and my erasing shield. Scrub scrub scrub and there’s white. I also used a dab of white gouache just to be sure. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who hopes WordPress posts this because it didn’t yesterday. 🙄

Day 641 PCM and the t shirt

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  Really loving this sketch of PonceCity  Market Szechuan Restaurant. Love the dragon. Strathmore 500 watercolor paper carbon platinum black ink in carbon fine tip pen. 

  
   

Repainting the tshirt sketch as promised. Hope to deliver it Tuesday to Rhineharts. 
Letting the ink dry so no smears on it. Ink smears are so annoying and so unpredictable. A kin to letting paint dry!!! 
 I usually don’t use pencil but since it’s a redo of the original sketch which has a split page from the sketchbook it’s a necessity if the restaurant is to have it. 

The sketchbook. 
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx
 

Day?! Rhineharts

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  Sold a painting to Rhineharts that will be on their Masters Week shirt. How exciting is that. I know stacks will be sold that week. 
  The shirt pocket

I sat out front of Rhineharts waiting for my high school friends Peggy and Karen. We are all excited to be on the shirt!! 
Yesterday I got in Charles Reid’s class at Cheap Joes. It fills the instant its released. My friend Mike and I got one of the 16 places. Now to contain our excitement til May 2017!!!😳😃 
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx

Day ?! St Pauls

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  I drew the inside the other day and decided to draw the outside when I was downtown yesterday. It’s a beautiful old colonial style church. Really like the way this painting turned out. 
All the main colors were done in one wash of color and then other colors dropped in while it was still wet. 

  Here’s the inside again.  
Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx

Day 635 Ponce City Part two or three?!

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Szechuan Restaurant and Bar
I had a perfect seat to have another go at this dragon. I think I did a better job at the perspective this time. 
    

While there is a lot I like about this the perspective on that bar is wild and I still think the people look like the walking dead. 

    A nervy young couple say not two feet from me between the restaurant and me blocking my view. First time that has ever happened. 

I kept craning my head to look around them as I drew. They never noticed nor did they notice when I took this picture of them. 
I really should turn them into a large painting similar to the one I am working on now. 

  
Waiting at Waffle House which no loner looks like this. Who could resist those crosses arms and those faces?! 

  
  Ponce City Market looking toward the Beltline stairs. No walking dead in this sketch. 

Taped down and reading to watercolor. 

  

The Cuban restaurant LL Superpan. 

All three Ponce City Restaurants are drawn with the very fine tip pilot pen with Carbon Platinum Black ink on Strathmore 500 watercolor paper which is lovely paper. I can’t wait to use it. Takes the color so well. 
  

A tea towel from French Silver Shop. Sooner or later I will buy some. I just can’t pick which one. 
   

Ohhhhh

  Ahhhhhhhh

We were “hangry” from all the oohing and ahing, the walking, the two hour drive, the packing, the loading of the car. Which restaurant would we choose?? There were so many. 

  Marakeesh Mediterranean Market North Africa East of Atlanta 

  We decided that though the hamburgers smelled oh so delicious wafting thru the air we were not doing burgers. So many restaurants how did we choose?! 

  

We got food from Marakeesh Market because there was a small line and well it was just exotic to eat Moroccan food. 

  1. The potato stuffed burekas,tahini, Israeli pickles and Israeli salad which looks just like feggous – a Morrocan tomato and cucumber salad except for added radish sticks were all just simply delicious. I can’t decide which item I liked best. Best pickles ever.  Perfect iced tea. 

Thanks for reading. 
Margaret xxx