Day 841 Dr Sketchys tonite 

At Chat Noir 7pm at eight and Ellis in downtown Augusta. Come join the fun and games and outrageous models. Last months model Jessica was super. She held rock solid poses.

My five minute sketches were great. 

And so were my two minute ones. 

Five minutes

Two minutes 

Mary Poppins came for a visit. 


The month before we had a mermaid. No telling what we will have for Halloween. A ghoul? A witch?!

Whoever it is I bet it won’t be Mary. 

Winsor Newton markers and tombows w a pentel brush pen in a 10×14 superaquabee tablet. 

See ya tonite. 

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 840 Almost a nightmare. 

The pen I used on this page was not one of my normal ones. THE INK LEAKED WHEN I TRIED TO PAINT THE PACE. EEEKKK. 

So I painted almost all the letters grey with water. All but the numbers which is why they are dark red. When the numbers did ok I decided to go back over the grey ines with the same red marker. 

Not bad but I will not be using that pen again unless I want the ink to run. Here’s a picture of the offending pen.  

I tried to go with the Bleedy color. It occasionally  got me into trouble as I colored and painted. I used a pile of Kleenex blotting the ink as it ran. 
I used tombow markers and a couple of caran d’ache neocolor ii crayons on this. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal a lovely crispy paper. Highly recommend this one or stillman and birns series. Great sketchbooks for watermedia. 

Ttyl 

Margaret off to the y for yoga!!😳xoxox

Day 840 Almost a nightmare. 

The pen I used on this page was not one of my normal ones. THE INK LEAKED WHEN I TRIED TO PAINT THE PAGE with a light blue tombow pen. EEEKKK.

So I painted almost all the letters grey with water thinking I would stop there. I painted All but the numbers which is why the letters are a darker red.  I blotted alot of the excess ink with kleenex and take out napkins.

When the numbers did behaved ok I decided to go back over the grey letters with the same red marker. And a dark red resulted…not the lite blue I had in mind BUT when catastrophe strikes you have to make lemonade right?

Then I colored the background with what I thought was a yellow marker…it was really orange…oh well …I wet it and lifted alot of it too with the kleenex heap which was growing.

Not bad but I will not be using that pen again unless I want the ink to run. Here’s a picture of the offending pen.  Its a Japanese pen with a brush on one end and a really fine point on the other end.

I tried to go with the bleedy color. It occasionally  got me into trouble as I colored and painted. So I blotted some more with the growing heap of kleenex!
I used tombow markers and a couple of caran d’ache neocolor ii crayons on this. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal a lovely crispy paper. Highly recommend this one or stillman and birns series. Great sketchbooks for watermedia.

Ttyl

Margaret off to the y for yoga!!😳xoxox

Day 839 Progress!

Today at 2:30.  Have French class today so I left on time for once…maybe the first time ever.Its cropped a bit to small. BUT I and everyone else that I paint with like it alot.

Instructions from todays critique..DO NOT loose the sketchy lines as I paint AND to organize the chaos of the shadows…whatever that means…I guess it will be revealed!! I HOPE!

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Last Wednesday afternoon at the end of painting session.   I will be glad when Friday gets here and I am done with my diet journal…I think at least one of my followers will be too!!

 

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The photo that I am working from in downtown Brevard last month.

 

TTYL

Margaret off to parlez vous français.

Day 837 Its Saturday

Sorry that its a little late today…the day got away from me!!

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My finished painting today.  Ilania Acrylic 24×28.  I painted this in about an hour.  I used large one inch brushes on most of her.

This painting is alla prima which means that the brush strokes were laid down in one stroke after I drew her.

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Here she is at the second break. I had only worked on her MAYBE forty minutes at the time.  I drew an ink sketch first and forgot to take a photo of it…
Really pleased with the way she turned out! A definite keeper!!

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Cathe Dennis 24×30 acrylic Always like the sketchiness of her work and the brush strokes.  As Drew Murphy who was off hunting likes to say the one thing we can do that a photo or the computer cant is brush strokes.

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Al Beyers HUGE oil.  This one is about 4 feet long and two or two and a half feet wide.  Alot of ground to cover in an hour and half of painting.

 

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Marilyn Hartleys beautiful painting.  I think shes acrylic. Its quite large close to 24×30″  Always love her work.  Very sketchy thin paint.

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Alex who hides in the corner and ERASES these every week…I am going to buy some canson to give him and trade him for some of these lovely conte sketches. Big full sheet of canson mi Teinte

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Lee’s Conte crayon.  He does alot of vigorous sketching with slashing strokes.  I finished early and was watching him draw.  Quite interesting.

 

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Coach’s athletic Ilaina. She is definitely athletic but not quite this monumental.

img_0150Rachel Miller continues to impress me…she started sketching a year ago and watercolor only a month ago!! OH MY…she has talent!!

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Alexis is another newbee and shes coming along!! The more I look at this one the more I like it.

Its Saturday time to watch Father Brown on PBS.

TTYL

Margaret xoxox

 

 

Day 836 Enlarging a photo

I started a new very large 36×48 acrylic working from a picture I took in Brevard a few weeks ago.

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Heres the original photo.

 

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Then it was cropped and lightened in iphoto on my ipad to see the details better…like the lady behind her husband. In the original she disappears!!

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Usually I loathe transferring the picture to the painting but this was SOOO easy all due to having bought a John Salimen about urban landscapes. This dvd is worth every penny I paid for it and it was NOT cheap but hes so informative and easy to understand. Also covers perspective John’s way.

This is how to make really cool enlarging tools that will get you done in no time flat. NO MATH INVOLVED!!

Print your photo out. ( I will post a pic of the printout tomorrow.  I forgot to take one!! )

img_0157Fold it into sixteenths. I like to add lines to the sections so I can see them better.

And divide your canvas or paper that you are transferring the image to into 16 sections. You can see the marks along the edge of the canvas.

 

img_0155The vertical tool.  

Use an old piece of matboard or cardboard.  Cut a trapezoid that has the measurements of your printout on one end and the painting on the other end.

So how do you know what they are??

The short side matches ONE block of the print out.  It is the same height  as the block on the print out – 1 1/2″.

The left side matches the same size vertical block on the painting which was 12 inches.

Add hash marks on each edge dividing into half, fourths and eigths.

img_0156 The horizontal tool.

It matches the horizontal line on the printout on the small end and the painting on the long edge which is 9″.

 

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Using the vertical tool, measure your printout on the short side of the tool.

Do you see that his nose hits at the fifth hashmark and his chin at the sixth one?? His hat hits just above the fourth one.

DO ONE MEASUREMENT AT A TIME or you will become confused.

img_0109Flip your tool to the large end and mark the same hash marks for the nose and chin on the canvas.  You will have your photo transferred in no time and it will be accurate!!

 

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A commission that I have been given that I started today…having nothing better to do.  10×15 watercolor

TTYL

Margaret who is off to Columbia (SC not the country) for the day!! xoxoxo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 835 A Change up as 

My middle school kids used to say. Another Busy day. Well no time to draw til later today. I am actually going to a luncheon today so thought I would draw my pages after I eat.

The new skinnier me. 

I hope I behave but it’s not going to be easy sitting at a table with everyone eating desert!! I need to keep my eye on the fact I have lost another pound not on desert. Now down 21 lb. 
Pray for me. 🙄😬😉

Margaret xoxox

Day 834? Planning ahead 

 img_0098-3Try as I might to edit this on my new iphone 7 it would not allow it…I am so TIRED of technology I almost threw it and I NEVER throw things EVER….just shows how frustratedI am with technology. Still not downloaded all the aps onto my new phone…despite searching the net for instructions on how to complete it…NADA…anyway I am off the to the gym for yoga where perhaps I will find some peace and centeredness. 

MAYBE the phone will let me upload later when I return…maybe not…

Day 675 Retrieved

And I think thats it…other than a couple of diet journal pages…

Papa – 300 lb hot press watercolor paper. 10x 12

This papa is now done. He got a good cropping.

The photo for this was taken during the annual Papa look alike contest at Sloppy Joes in Key West. Every year a bunch of guys 100 or more enter the contest to see who looks the most like Ernest Papa Hemingway.

There’s a Marlin Fishing tournament, a lot of drinking and the Annual running of the Bulls which is where this was taken.

The Papas as they are called all dress up in red berets and scarfs and white shirts to parade one square block in downtown Key West starting and ending at Sloppy Joes where Hemingway used to drink. One lucky papa gets to ride a saw horse bull and get wheeled around the block.

What can I say?! It’s Key West.

Day 676 retrieved

Papa – 300 lb hot press watercolor paper. 10x 12

This papa is now done. He got a good cropping.

The photo for this was taken during the annual Papa look alike contest at Sloppy Joes in Key West. Every year a bunch of guys 100 or more enter the contest to see who looks the most like Ernest Papa Hemingway.

There’s a Marlin Fishing tournament, a lot of drinking and the Annual running of the Bulls which is where this was taken.

The Papas as they are called all dress up in red berets and scarfs and white shirts to parade one square block in downtown Key West starting and ending at Sloppy Joes where Hemingway used to drink. One lucky papa gets to ride a saw horse bull and get wheeled around the block.

What can I say?! It’s Key West.