Day 420 – Meet Me at the Rocket!

September 2, 20154 Comments

Inscrutable Half Sheet 300 # Fabriano

Why at the Rocket?!
The South Carolina State Fair Art Show in Columbia, SC is a BIG statewide event in South Carolina. And everybody meets at The Rocket, an old missile named Columbia donated to the state.

The Best in Show Professional prize is $2000!! And there are thousands more in prize money!! The paintings are my entries. I will be happy if they sell because droves of people attend the fair daily.

Tea Time 11×15″ 300# Fabriano

Artists from all over the state enter and the competition is fierce. There are so many entries that they fill up half a huge butler building. There are at least 1000 paintings in the show. Some are outstanding some are beginners and there is everything in between. The good the bad and the ugly.
I intend to sketch there. Anyone want to meet me at the Rocket?! Lots of animals of all kinds to sketch. Roz Stendahl of Roz Woundup blog (http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/) would be jealous!! She sketches at the Minnesota State Fair every year and organizes a huge sketch crawl.

BYTW if you go don’t miss the huge sand sculpture that are two – three stories tall. They are pretty amazing. Here are a couple of them. http://scfairgrounds.com/fair/special-attractions/sand-sculpture.php and http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2014/10/11/state-fair-sand-sculpture-still-a-work-in-progress/17118097/

Another page for your drawing pleasure.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 419 – College again!?

September 1, 2015September 1, 2015Leave a comment

On Monday and Wednesday I am auditing a painting class at a local college. SCARY stuff. NO PeNcIL allowed?! But he’s the boss so NO pencil. Should be interesting.

He said if we can draw with a pencil we can draw with a brush. Hmm?! As I said he’s the boss he knows.

Here’s the sketch drawn with my paintbrush and a very watery burnt sienna. I hope I get the hang of this soon. Maybe I just need to practice sketching with my paint brush. My size 4 Isabey.

Probably needed more painted information on the page. And darker paint?! No idea.

Had a lot of trouble getting the head small enough. Not sure why but I did. Couldn’t be that I sketched it too large could it?!

Not only was his head to big his neck which is slim is massive. Oops!!

Ok so I cheated and got out a watercolor pencil because I was getting so frustrated with the head. The light purple areas around the head are where I narrowed the head. I also ended up lifting the beard and the sunglasses.

Lifting is easy to do on good cold press Wc paper like this fabriano. Just dampen it a bit with a brush and left off with a CLEAN paper towel or Kleenex. No puffs allowed they have lanolin in them. Not good for watercolors.

Another day another page. I hope I didn’t post this one already.

Onward and upward my painting partners.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

August 31, 2015August 30, 20151 Comment

I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling on it seems like a good idea. What do you think?!

This was sketched at the Inner Beab in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?! Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?!

Colors used. Almost every color I have !!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

August 31, 2015August 31, 2015Leave a comment

I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling about it seems like a good idea. What do you think?!

This was sketched at the Inner Bean in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?! Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?!

Colors used. Almost every color I have !!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 417 – a Dogs life!

August 30, 20156 Comments

Pouring rain here today and all but one of the dogs hate to go out in the rain.

This dog appeared on TV when I paused it. Decided it was a sign to paint him. No idea what kind of dog he is. A collie perhaps?!

Here’s the original sketch done with the Pentel brush pen. It’s good for quick sketching but takes some getting used to aka practice. Also some thinking is required before you sketch aka at what angle should the lines be drawn?!

Better to do one line than try to correct the permant ink lines. They will always show unless you do some creative painting.

The dog was painted with a cheap Joes size 12 Legend sable. Expensive but worth every penny. I use it a lot.

Colors used – most of my paint is Daniel Smith or Holbein. Quin gold and Quin Sienna for the fur. Quin red for the tongue with a touch of mineral Violet. Burnett umber and ultramarine blue for the darks. Cerulean in the shadows.
Sorry I forgot to post these yesterday so doubling up today.



Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 416- It’s Saturday again!!

August 29, 2015Leave a comment

You know what that means – Life Modeling at USC Aiken. I am very happy with my painting today. Ilena might get a few tweaks but she’s done for now.

It was a great pose and the drawing went well. I didn’t even use head measurements til the end just to check if she was in good order. It took about twenty minutes to draw this sketch.

TIP: The drawing was started with the shoulders matching the diagonal line of the models shoulders. Same for the arms and leg angles. You imagine drawing a straight line thru the shoulders and start with that line.

The outline of the head was added still matching the angles of the models head.

Here she is after about an hour of painting. Still a lot to do but looking good. The rust color is Quin Sienna or burnt orange. Not sure which. Flesh is Quin coral with a dab of yellow ochre added. The Blues are mostly cobalt. Hair burnt umber and ultramarine blue.

You really don’t need a lot of colors to paint people.

Everybody voted no to a light blue background.

Then it got a little dark. Oopps. Turning it upside down and allowing water to lift the color fixed the background. Along with a little blotting.

The. I had ring around the model. A NO NO.

I fixed that by adding bits of colors around the model and the ring disappeared.

Her current incarnation. Thanks for all the help and advice from my peanut gallery Ruth, Mike, and Tom!!
Thanks for reading. Go forth and draw!

Margaret xxx

Day 415 – Dr Sketchys Part 2

August 28, 20159 Comments

This is the one I won the Chat Noir t shirt for – the models favorite sketch. Though you can’t see it the cape is colored with a wink of Stella red glitter pen. Those wink of Stellas are always winners.

The next two are the same twenty minute pose. I got done early and started a second. I have NO idea why he is wearing that “hat”!! Background was done with two red tombow pens that I wet down and let run.

See above for this one. Actually drawn during the first part of the twenty minute pose but was annoyed because I didn’t have room for his foot so I started over.

Another stance with the same strange costume. Had fun journaling on this page. Princess Augusta thinks he looks like Fozzy Bear thus the name. The tattoo is my favorite part of this one. I stole Ruth’s inktense to draw it with. I always like drawing on wet paper with inktense for fun off beat effects.

A reclining pose. And that’s it for now. Tomorrow life modeling. Hope it goes better than last week.

Two More pages!!


A little urban sketching I started this morning at breakfast.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 414 – Dr Sketchys Time!! Part 1

August 27, 2015August 27, 2015Leave a comment

Five minute sketch

Always a fun time at Dr Sketchys anti art school. You draw like mad and Laff for three hours. The model quickly strikes many funny poses since the models are not your average college art class model but performers of various kinds.

Fozzy Bear Five minute sketch

Anything from burlesque to circus performers may turn up on stage. Sometimes clothed sometimes not. Always in a costume.

Draw the model doing something funny contest. Five minute sketch

Sometimes because you are drawing so fast you just mess up. These were all done with brush pens and Tombow markers in a SuperBee tablet.
Dr Sketchys is a worldwide movement. Poses are 1-20 minutes. Check the Internet for a branch near you!! Then GOOOO!!

One of my sketches was the models favorite so I won a free tshirt. Thanks Princess Augusta!! Chat Noir on Eighth Street is where Dr Sketchys is held once a month. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what his favorite sketch looks like.

A couple more pages of how to draw people. Still a lot left!

Thanks for looking!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 414 – Dr Sketchys Time!! Part 1

August 27, 20151 Comment

Fozzy Bear

Anything from burlesque to circus performers may turn up on stage. Sometimes clothed sometimes not. Always in a costume.

Draw the model doing something funny contest. Sometimes because you are drawing so fast you just mess up. These were all done with brush pens and Tombow markers in a SuperBee tablet.
Dr Sketchys is a worldwide movement. Poses are 1-20 minutes. Check the Internet for a branch near you!! Then GOOOO!!

A couple more pages of how to draw people. Still a lot left!

Thanks for looking!!

Margaret ️xxx

Day 413 – Drawing Target

August 26, 2015Leave a comment

Excited my sketch yesterday was sold. HURRAH!!

Yesterday there were herds of people check out at the Evans Ga Target. I got THE table with a view of both Starbucks and the check out lines. With 15 minutes to kill before time for class at the Y I drew these people.

Done with my Pentel brush pen. Like the way most of them turned out. When drawing these life is going too fast to think about anything but capturing the gestures as quickly as possible so accidents happen like the girl in the gutter.

Here it is in ink.