WIP -Michonne-
Walking Dead star.
Caran d’ache in stillman&birn zeta.
Odd how u look at sketches the next day and think they need more tweaking. I think she could use more red here and there. And oops her left eye is not done. Wonder how I did that!? Will I finish her? Probably. Have the urge to draw Darryl and Maybe Carol so I better finish Michonne.
Made 5 accordion books today. This is two of them. Hope to do a how to make them this weekend. Check back.
Thanks for looking!
I started drawing Rick when my son and I were binge watching Walking Dead.
It was the episode that they are arriving in Alexandria and he was sitting still being interviewed. So I thought draw Rick!!
OOPPPPSSS
Of course as soon as I started to draw him he was done and the next interview began. I kept trying to draw him. Oh what a mess he was. Just a little off here and there.
This started out as an ink sketch. I didn’t like that at all so I added some caran d’ache like it was pastels. Scribbling it here and there. Adding odd ball colors like yellows, red, light blue, and light purple.
There are lots of things I liked about him and some not so much. I rewound and paused. Slapped some flesh gouache to straighten out the hair line, erase bags, lengthen the cheek, sort the nose and hmm what else? Widen the brow, and get rid of a few stray ink marks.
After the flesh colored gouache dried I added the same colors back again. Added some more black ink. I think I need to fix his neck. But otherwise he’s done.
Thanks for looking.
something new tomorrow.
I thought that my Bayeux Tapestry would fit in this tv cabinet which is huge. NOPE. The TV is a 50″ one. I mean the book is only 210 inches. Just shy of six feet. But I think it looks cool there anyway.
Sennelier Urban Sketch Accordion with heavy paper.
I found a temporary replacement at Binders. A nice heavy Sennelier accordion book but it’s only about a yard long. Not quite the impact of the long moleskine. However that paper is much better. Heavy nice paper. You could draw on both sides I think with no problem.
Bytw I also found out that Moleskine has outsourced all their books to China. The not so great paper is really terrible now. I won’t be buying more. I am going to bind one.
How hard can an accordion book be!? I got some light weight BFK Rives paper, some Stonehenge and some of Binders brand like Stonehenge to give a whirl too. Exited but will have to wait till I get home because I don’t have all the tools here to do it with. Hence the purchase of the Sennelier book.
In the meantime here is a closeup of all the panels. Promise last post of the moleskine. Done with Pentel brush pen, colored Pitt brush pens, tombows, flesh watercolor and flesh gouache.
Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park
Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park
Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park
Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park
Evans Towne Center walking track and dog park and Inner Bean
Inner Bean
Inner Bean and Edgewood Target Atlanta
Edgewood Target Starbucks Atlanta
Edgewood Target Starbucks Atlanta
the last panels of the book. Actually the first ones that I did.
270 inches long Moleskine accordion 3.5×5″
This section was drawn at the Evans Towne Center Park and the dog park there. I love the walkers swinging their Arms and leaning forward. The people with their dogs are also a favorite. Bicycle guy rice by twice before I decided to draw him. And of course he never came back after I started him. Oops!
An overlap. Some of this was drawn in the Earthfare parking lot while I waited for my friend to carpool to life sketching at USC Aiken. He rest was drawn at the Inner Bean.
Thanks for looking!!
A friend, Neil Foster, dubbed it my Bayeux tapestry and oddly it does look a bit like it.
7 feet of Moleskine accordion book. Colored with Tombows and watercolor markers. Drawn with my Pentel brush pen.
And the question is – do the back??!
I could hang it on the wall the way it is now. If I do the back you can only ever see one side and some of the watercolor and pen did bleed thru to the back. I could cover it up by writing all over the background. Too many decisions. I m not going to think about it. It will tell me when it’s ready.
I did the last 35 inches at the Edgewood target Starbucks in Altlanta which is most of this panel. The first five people were done at the Inner Bean in Augusta.
Most of these figures were done at the Inner Bean in Augusta thought here is a big overlap of figured.
I drew this in four sessions. These are the last two. A lot of fun. If only the paper in the moleskine were better. I have been looking for better paper while I am in Atlanta to possibly make my own. I will keep u posted.
TIP: Run and buy a tube of flesh gouache. I used Winsor Newton. That was the only gouache sold at Utrecht Dick Blick where I went today. A God send for the pen strokes that went astray. I LOVE IT!! Covered all the boo boos. And I always find a good flesh color in gouache is a pain to mix.
Oh another tip. Walkers can make the best people to draw swinging their arms or the dog park people standing around yakking.
Will post part 2 tomorrow.
Thanks for looking!
Inspired by a Pam Garrison post on Instagram I made my own book plate in my new Stillman and Birn Zera. My goal was to start in it April 1 and I did. Already have four pages done in it.
I drew a curvy ribbon first. Then I filled in with the black eyes Susans and added the Rose stems then the roses. After that I added all the leaves. Next came the curly que leaves and last all the dots.
I actually painted the ribbon with de artrementis brown document ink with my #2 Isabey sable brush. Lettering and the rest of the ink was done with my Noodler flex pen with the same ink.
After the ink dried I painted the daisies with DS Hansa yellow, the roses with DS Quin Magenta and the leaves with a mix of the Hansa yellow and maganese blue and dabbed in a little mauve. Try it. Nice official way to start a new journal.
The reverse of the first page. A good quote to remember when journaling.
and then sometimes you look and wonder HOW did you make that mistake. This painting has a BIG mistake. Can you find it?!
Another hat and mannequin from Cosbys Apparel during my mad sketching downtown last week.
In my Stillman and Birn Zeta with Noodler Flex loaded with De Artrementis brown document ink.
The background was easy to do. I actually wrote the lyrics to In Your Easter Bonnet by Irving Berlin with a soft 4B pencil in the background. Then I smudged it. After that I painted it out with a mix of white gouache, a bit of all the other colors on the pallette to make a buff-yellow blue and English red. Paint it only enough to blur the writings but not completely obscure it.
The face and neck was washed with DS Quin Coral and Hansa Yellow and allowed to dry. Shadows were done with burnt sienna and cerulean which was allowed to mix on the page. I only painted one color at a time. The wet on wet let them mix. I also softened the edges. More DS Quin Coral was used on the cheeks and the lips.
The hat. Oh my. It was painted with yellow ochre. Then the lace was painted with the DS Quin Coral. I tried not to define it too much.
The hat decorations were painted with DS Quin Coral and yellow ochre. Shadows are Piemonite and cerulean. I really need to practice painting flowers. I need to remember to do more wet on wet.
The sequins and diamond paste was done by dipping the end of my brush in white gouache. You can easily make circles that way.
Glove shadows cerulean and yellow ochre or burnt sienna. Same thing on the pearl shadows.
Lettering done with sepia doc Martin ink and a paint brush, my number 2 Isabey. Love that brush.
So have you figured out what’s wrong with this painting yet?! Her hand is backwards. I took a photo of my hand to draw it and of course I took it from the wrong side. DUH.
Lady in Black. Mixed Media
I am thrilled with the way she turned out but the original sketch in Pentel brush was awful so I decided to whip out the Daniel Smith watercolor ground and paint over her and redraw. I redrew her with the Pentel brush pen. Oh what a mistake that was. It wasn’t waterproof and kept leaking on my sketch. Oops.
I patiently blotted the leaking ink over and over as it ran with a clean folded paper towel. I love brawny the paper towel that keeps on giving. I thought the painting might be cursed but no all of a sudden she was looking great. The smudgy ink lent an air of mystery or at least interst to the watercolor I think.
I actually traced the head on notebook paper and used it as a pattern to cut out the background accounting book paper to glue over the de artrementis document brown ink I decided I didn’t like with the black. I painted over it with a buff gouache. I threw the pattern in the trash but will get it out and take a photo so you can see what I did.
The black is a mix of DS alizarin red and indigo. Makes a great blue black. Skin is DS Quin coral and yellow ochre. Shadows are burnt sienna Quin sienna and cerulean.
Thanks for looking.
The little boy in the blue shirt was helicoptering his arms and I tried to capture that.
These are the very first Fast sketches I did of people going into Earthfare as I sat waiting to meet my friend to drive downtown to dr Sketchys.
Finally got them colored. These are definitely like potato chips. You can’t do just one. And people love looking at them too. Trying to see if they know who is in the sketch.
These are done in a largest Strathmore 500 Mixed Media Journal with a Pentel Brush pen and colored with watercolor pens and Tombow markers.
These were done in my moleskine accordion book. I have now filled up about five feet of it.
Thanks for looking!!
Life model drawings.
But first. I did a little urban sketching yesterday. A store downtown has some wild Easter hats. The purple one is the talk of the town. A huge bow and rhinestones. What else could a girl want?! Trying to get some of my friends to meet to try them on. So far no takers. Pentel brush pen and watercolor in my Stillman and Birn zeta. Greys made with cerulean and yellow ochre or Quin sienna and cobalt.
My brush pen started leaking I mean pouring after I drew this. So I paused at a new u table to clean up my hands and the pen. Reseat the cartridge. All the time two large
Groups of ladies walked by bound for Crosbys all in a twitters giggly bunch. Paused in front of the purple hat phong and aging before going into shop for their special Easter bonnet. I really enjoyed evesdropping on them. They were so enthralled in their conquests. The things you learn when you go sketching.
I used a lot of Quinacridones on this. Quin Coral magenta and sienna. The purple hat is Quin magenta and cobalt or ultramarine. The jillion rhinestone are white gouache. 
Erica is a lovely young lady. Things actually went fairly smoothly today. The colors I used were DS Quin Coral which makes beautiful skin, cerulean, burnt sienna ultramarine blue cobalt and yellow ochre. And that’s it. Six colors!! 
Step 1 – coral and yellow ochre over the face and upper torso. Then I added burnt sienna and cerulean in the shadows. I dipped the brush in water and shook the it out. Then I dipped it in the color I was using. I usually applied burnt sienna first trying not to leave hard edges.
The shadow colors were put on individually and allowed to mingle wet on wet.
I did all this painting pretty quickly in less than ten minutes. She was at this point at the first 30 minute break.
I then used the same colors on her legs.
This is what she looked like when I brought her home. Erica is tall and quite slim but I think I got her TOOO slim. What to do?!
This is as she is now. I realized her neck was too short leaving the shoulder on the right side of the neck too high aka too long. I shortened it about 1/4 inch and now her torso does not look so long. I also realized she had too much hair on top of her head.
Her eyes were not centered in her head. Oops!! So I shave a bit off with my scrubber aka my old grumbacher hog bristle filbert. Much better.
What else needs correction. That forehead is too high and the legs are I think too long but I will probably only fix the forehead.
I seem to enjoy painting the furniture the quilt and the legs best. Less demands. I put on wet color with abandon and let the colors flow and mingle.
The greys
The grey is made with cobalt and burnt sienna. Makes a lovely grey. I used it on the floor and the quilt.
The darks are done with ultramarine blue and burnt umber. That combo was used for the hair and the chair. It can make almost black.
Background cerulean and yellow ochre. Really like the way it turned out. Not too much covered. Lots of white.
All sable paint brushes Raphael #8 & 2 and one of my favorite brushes my Isabey #6. I would have used my #2 but darn I left it at home. It would have been the perfect brush for the details on her face. They make such lovely points.
Her mouth was done with burnt umber with a tiny bit of cerulean added not mixed but dabbed in. Same thing under her lip. I did go back into the eye socket area with those two colors to define the eyes a bit. The head is not two inches long so not a lot of room for detail.
Thanks for looking.
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 