Day 480 – one day till

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Lift off. My suitcase is packed and I have plenty of room for art supplies. When I went to key west I actually needed more sketchbooks. Not this time!! 

So why am I taking to sketch with?!! I know u r dying to know!!! 

  

 My two small palettes.  Been painting with them and they really have all the colors you need. The whiskey painters palette has all the basic Winsor Newton colors plus Daniel Smith Quin coral which I love for skin tones and two ceruleans because I use it A lot!!

The cotman is full of quinacridones and a couple of paints that should be in the Whiskey painters palette the yellow and Thalo blue. 
Paint brushes. Taking the good ones since I have room and just in case. Most of them are Isabey sables including the mops but the big sable is my cheap Joes legend which I love. Curious to see how much the Isabeys cost in France the land of their birth. They are made in Brittany and are Charles Reid’s  favorite brush. I wouldn’t mind another one or two. 

 

 Back up colors in case I run they the ones in the palettes. 

     

Pens loaded mostly with Platinum Carbon Black. Top to bottom Kuretake Brush Pen, Black pitt pen Fine, pentrl brush pen, sepia pitt pen Fine, two Noodler Konrads (one has Deartementis document brown ink in it) Platinum Carbon pen, and two of my favorite pens the Noodler Creaper  ahab.

   
I am taking these with me in case I want to paint as I sketch. I usually paint when I get home because I hate to make my sister Jan wait while I paint. Bad enough that she waits while I sketch. 

  Lots of ink and cartridges. 

 
Lots of paper. The two hand made sketchbooks have Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro, 3 strathmore mixed media sketchbooks(my current fav) a tablet of Fabriano squarely 149# cold press, some Canson post cards and some Strathmore 500 watercolor cards oh and a stack of accordion folded Stonehenge paper to draw strings of people and maybe a chicken or two on?! 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret who is taking clothes I her suitcase and backpack too!! 

Day 479 Two days to Paris 😳

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Well at least we leave then. Lol. Be in Paris by 2 pm Thursday.  

Been raining cats and dogs do I am posting all of the family dogs but one today.

  A quick sketch of my lab Honey. She walked off before I finished it but decided to paint it this am. Painted with ultramarine blue and burnt umber.  
Grant – my sons newest put bull. Drawn with a Lamy Vista using Carbon Paltinum Black ink. 

Drawing a new dog is always a challenge. To top it off he’s black and white. I smeared the ink with my finger to try to make his black more solid. I actually drew him three times before I was happy with him. 

I wish I could give u some dog drawing tips but the only one I can give u is that a dog like a person or a horse is just geometric shapes. Check out Richard Schmidts wonderful Alla Prima book which is what he says about drawing anything. They are all just shapes.   

  

Livia my sons other pitty. Small sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded w Platinum Carbon Black ink. 

 

Lucy dog my youngest sons Briard Colie mix. Such a good puppy. 

  

My other dog Zoe watching me pack. Maybe I should stick her in the suitcase?! I have enough room. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 478 – finishing up

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WIP???   Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie 11×14 super Aquabee tablet 

Not sure these are done but at least they have some color now. Getting into travel mode so I  used my travel Palette with Winsor Newton colors and my cotman palette with quinacridones. 

The background in this painting is cerulean and yellow ochre. I may darken with ultramarine or inathradone to make the mermaids pop. 

  
Remember this is what it looked like?

 

WIP – Mistress Princess Augusta – 11×14  drawn when I was done with one of the long mermaid poses. Her right arm still has problems. She was not posed so she was moving a lot and I drew her right arm too long. I shortened it with negative painting but now I think it is a smidge too narrow. 
TIP: Really love her skirt.  Both of these paintings were done wet on wet after watching a how to impressionistic watercolor video on Marcon Chews website http://www.marvinchew.com/ (You will have to scroll down for the video. Could not copy the exact irk for u! 😐) about wet on wet painting.The skirt turned out especially well I think. Done with ultramarine and burnt umber added to a wash of water that I painted on the skirt first. The background was done the same way. 

  

I added the bowler hat to the original sketch. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 477 – last of Dr Sketchys 

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Happy Halloween!!  

The first three are all drawn with my Noodler Konrad and Lexinton Grey ink. The colors are all Winsor Newton watercolor markers a few tombows and Wink of Stella Glitter pens. 

  Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie. What librarians do when they are not working!! Wear mermaid costumes and makeup like a character from Avatar. 

My two favorite mermaid sketches. Thier costumes were awesome which is why I saved them for Halloween. This was a twenty minute pose that had ten minutes added to it.  

 I was done in twenty minutes so i started sketching Princess Augusta our hostess. 

  
Mermaid Lorelei and Mermaid McKenzie

Twenty minute sketch. If I ever sit down to watercolor these this one will be great. I barely had time to start painting.  

  

This was a ten minute sketch. I spent most of the time on the tail. Much more fun coloring than the human part. I really like the tail part but the human part not so much. 

  Mermaid Lorelei 

 Looking at that part of would be an easy fix. Shave a tad off the right side of her face and draw in her right upper arm. Oops the things u miss when unate drawing fast. The last one with the Kuretake brush pen. Sometimes I just draw better with one than the other. I changed to my Noodler Konrad. 

Day 476 – Dr Sketchys part 2 

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One more day in Inktober. The end is nigh!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

  Love this mermaid pose. Mermaid Lorelei who is on Instagram was great. Held poses like a pro not the librarian she is in real life. 

  This one needs her pretty quotient raised. Murray body. Face not so much. 
All the poses and sketches are fast fast. Some poses are a minute. Some are five minutes. Longest pose is usually twenty minutes. The models though fascinating are not professionals. Sometimes they never hold still so you better draw fast. Draw the head draw the shoulders and work on down. Don’t go back. After three hours and ten large sketches I was exhausted. I intend to go back and finish these but between going to school packing for Paris, babysitting  grandkids and dogs I haven’t. I will I promise. 

  
This was a great drawing that turns into a disaster when I tried to color it. The eye ran. I changed pens after that. 

More tomorrow.  

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 475 – Dr Sketchys

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 The faun 14x 11″ 20 min  Kuretake brush pen, platinum carbon black ink, Winsor Newton watercolor markers, wink of Stella metallic pens. 
  5 minute sketch her feet were like hoofs!! 

Was great last nite. Lots of fun. Great costumes!! Contests, a drink or two and wild music to suit the fast sketching. 

After ten 11×14 watercolor sketches I was totally exhausted when I got home last nite. 😳  
 WIP – Let’s play a game! Trivia anyone?! Noodler Konrad, Lexington grey ink. Winsor newton red watercolor Marker. 

Even our hostess Princess Augusta was dressed up. I drew her when I finished some of the other sketches but she’s not done.  

 Her stockings get black stripes. And her clothes are black. 

  A teaser. There’s more to this mermaid!!  Noodler Konrad, Lexington grey ink. Winsor newton watercolor Markers, wink of Stella glitter pens. 
Stay tuned for more faun and the piece de resistance the MERMAIDS!!! 

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx

Day 474 – what a day 

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I almost forgot to blog. Came home from class and took a nap then left for Dr Sketchys.  

 Oops no blog post. So here I sit in the cvs parking lot waiting for Ruth and writing about Winsor Newton watercolor markers. I bought these to use at the fair last week when I went to City Art in Columbia- a great old fashioned art store on Lincoln downtown. The. I lost my sketchbook so no using them at the fair. 

   The colors I Have are odd. No Browns. One cad red never a fav with me. No cerulean or cobalt. Just Pthalo. No yellow ochre some of my go to school favs. 
  So these were colored with the six I had.  I will say I like the way they flowed. And the way they covered the paper. Lots of juicy color.  I hope to use them instead of my beloved Tom Bows. More tomorrow after add Sketchys where they will get a work out. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 473 – my Merrills

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  And some Inktober drawn with a Noodler Konrad loaded with Lexington Grey ink. These shoes have a lot of memories and I have been meaning to do this page since last May when Fealin Lin and I both got a pair of them. They are ultra comfy but hot for warm weather. Our feet were killing us because of standing all day at Cheap Joes at Fealins class. Of course the cure was a trip out to Mast General in Valle Crusis the most beautiful valley that is like time forgot it. One of Mikes and my favorite places near Boone NC.  

 
Fealin Lin!! 

  

  Mast general 

  Gorgeous tree behind Mast General 

  Inside Mast General 

  Inside Mast General 

  An old house. 

  

The church 

M



 

Barn near Mast General   
  A creek in Valle Crucis.  
The original Mast General store was in Valle Crucis. There are others in Boone Asheville and Columbia Sc and I think Knoxville. Just great old fashioned stores. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 472 – She was too pretty!!😳

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She was too pretty 30×40″ ??? acrylic 

At critique today the class loved the way she looked but the boss aka professor said she was too pretty so I spent today trying to make her less pretty. It’s hard to make a pretty girl not pretty. This is what she looks like now.  I should have known better than to use any pink. . 

  
I decided to use contrasting colors adding a lot of orange with cad yellow light for highlights. I also added some pure phtalo blue for darks. And bits of cad yellow light for  sparkles.  

I also like the area of carpet under the sofa. All the busy stuff. Fun!  

  
This is what she looked like earlier today. A lot of white on the sofa. I do like the sofa with more cad yellow light on it. The yellow in this photo is nickel Azo gold a rusty gold. 

 Thought u might want to see her pretty face that wuz up close. I do actually like her better now. Now to get her a little wilder and crazier. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Inspiration for this week

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Two super sketch books. These people can seriously draw!!!

dannygregory's avatarDanny Gregory

Recently Tommy Kane showed me this incredible video of a flip-through tour of James Jean‘s recent sketchbook.

It’s awesome but what it inspired Tommy to do is greater still: a tour of his sketchbook from this past summer. I have seen this book and I have watched him draw several of these drawings and it is amazing. Obsessive, imaginative, hilarious and moving. Just like my old pal, Tommy Kane.

I hope it sets your week off in the right direction.

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