Day 1054 St Comey? WIP?

June 9, 2017June 9, 2017Leave a comment

Should have stuck to the hot press fabriano I started to draw this on. HOWEVER a I have more Bristol Board than Hotpress so opted for Bristol. NOT next time. And I may redraw.

I could not loose an edge to save my life on this paper. And it took forever dry. Maybe I should have put it on Stonehenge. I do have some of that. Next time. Or maybe hat Fabriano. Fabriano hot press is the loveliest paper and I know Cheap Joes has more and so does Dick Blick.

Inked with my Lamy Safari and Lamy Fine point.

WIP because I may do it over and also may add a bit of mixed media like what about a gold paint pen halo edge!? Could be fun.

These ideas pop into my head and I keep a list of them on my cell phone. Check back by or check my Instagram feed MaggieinSc for an update because Rachel Maddow is on soon and it’s time for a shower so I am ready.

Wonder what she will unloose tonite. an ongoing spy novel.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 507 – Life Modeling

November 29, 2015November 29, 2015Leave a comment

Home again home again. Laundry and nap not necessarily in that order.

Materials used Neocolor II Caran d’Ache and #140 Fabriano Artistico

Today was life drawing at USA Aiken and the lovely Elena was our model.

She’s been thru quite a few stages. This is where she is now though thinking of lightening her right eye. I think it’s still a little dark.

Here’s how she looked after the first twenty minute break. That lemon yellow caran d’ache had been calling my name and saying use me use me!!!

TIP I take pics while I am working on it so I can see how it looks from a distance. You can really see your mistakes when you do this. And they are handy for a WIP work in progress blog post!!👍

My friend Ruth said she didn’t like the yellow and could I make her peachier. Ruth is usually right so I did. I also needed to lighten the shadows on her face which was making her look too old.

I lifted the shadows with a good stuff hogbristle oil paint brush and blotted off with a bounty towel. That#140 Fabriano Artistico is tough paper. Always amazes how you can wipe off the Fabriano.

I also had to narrow her right shoulder and lift both of them up a bit on either side of her neck. I love that hogbristle brush. It lets you do the lifting of color a smidge at a time.

Thanks for looking.

Margaret xxx

Day 238 – Life modeling

February 28, 20152 Comments

After 30 minutes drawing.

Tom, Ruth and I made our weekly trek to lifemodeling today. I used caran d’ache and fabriano watercolor.

I wasn’t too thrilled with my view of the model. Mostly her head but glad to say she turned out looking better than I ever thought my view of her would look. Usually drawing from a foreshortened angle is tough but for some reason I did her correctly today.

I liked the way she looked at our first break. I drew her with yellow ochre. Scrubbed out the incorrect lines with my old Grumbacher filbert hog bristle brush. It’s also great to lift color with.

This is after another half an hour. And she’s done for the moment. Still a bit more to do like the background and a few shadows. I almost made the mistake of using burnt umber on her til I heard Charles Reod saying NEVER use anything darker than burnt sienna on a young model. The only place I used it was on the hair, the eyebrows and the eye.

I used the old grumbacher hog bristle brush to scrub out the highlights on her face near her mouth. And some on her nose. Also across the top

Of her left shoulder. I did manage to retain the whites on her right shoulder. I sprayed the bottom of the girl and the drapery with my spray bottle to get a few runs in the caran d’ache. Always a fun technique.

Colors used: flesh, pink, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, lavender, burnt umber.

Thanks for looking.

Day 228 – A Bit of Fun

February 18, 2015February 18, 20154 Comments

Squirrels are the bane of bird feeders. Pesky things. Ours are so bold. They leap and attack it or they climb upside down on the chain to gorge at the suspended feeder. They even use the screens on the nearby porch as a get away.

One of them was posing on the deck outside the window. I caught him actually behaving. Later on when one of them was hanging off the feeder upside down I decided to turn it into a Wanted poster after all they are thieves aren’t they?! So naughty.

He was drawn with Tombow Markers. I have four or five of them and used the range of greys to shade and sculpt him. Then I wet him down to let the colors mix on the Strathmore 500 mixed Media Paper. I don’t know why I use the Tombows because according to Roz Stendahl they are not archival. The colors are fugitive. So sad because they are such fun to use and give such a neat effects when wet.

Since I don’t have a brown Tombow I used caran d’ache watercolor crayons for the browns and yellows.

I also used a big white Pitt matker to make him look more fluffy especially on his tail. Love that pen!!!

I used a scrap of old yellow ledger paper because I didn’t like the original layout. If you can’t fix it glue over it and try again. And then it becomes mixed media, right?!

Stay warm. Thanks for looking.