Day 423 – A Demo

September 5, 2015September 5, 20158 Comments

We had the pleasure of watching Mr Yow of Northern China an acclaimed artist of the Lu Chin school do a demo and explain what his paintings mean last Wednesday.

I have three videos of him painting the horse but I Can NOT upload them to WordPress. I will be uploading them to my Facebook business page where you can see them at https://m.facebook.com/MargaretMccarthyHunt?ref=bookmarks

It was fascinating to see him paint. This took four minutes for him to paint.

Thru an interpreter he explained that he ponders his subject for a few days and then paints it quickly with a large chinese ink brush and ink on rice paper which he ripped off a large roll.

In China they do not have watercolors or pencils – only ink. So all drawing, painting, and writing are done with ink.

Also different artists specialize in one area. His is the horse. One artist specializes in shrimp painting. Really!!

The calligraphy is actually a poem that tells explains how he feels about the painting.

This is the granddaughter he hopes to have one day. The calligraphy tells that story of his hopes for his granddaughter.

All Chinese children grow up doing calligraphy with a brush in school.
He also said that the chop, the red squares, can be a name, a nickname or something else.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 2o7 – Shoe Time

January 29, 2015January 30, 2015Leave a comment

When I was a kid going to UGA we had to draw 150 drawings per art class each quarter. At times I took 3 art classes, a full load. That was 450 drawings besides 6 hours of class daily and lots of homework. We would run out of ideas for drawing.

One of my friends Carolyn Cates drew her shoes. I decided to draw my favorite Pappagallos. I loved these shoes. Expensive for a student but not meant for walking the campus in all weather. They were notorious for falling apart in a sudden rain shower.

Anyway, you are not here to hear me reminisce but to talk paint. That painting and the shoes have long disappeared so I decided it was time to recreate them.

I googled Pappagallos to see if there were any photos online. I didn’t find mine but I found a few similar pairs for sale on etsy.

Cute aren’t they?!

These are for sale on Etsy!!

Love these. Too bad they are the wrong size I would say SOLD!!

These pics revived forgotten details like the blue striped interior, the turquoise sole, the small stacked heels.

So I drew my old long gone favorite Pappagallos with my Noodler Creaper Ahab.

I was cleaning up the lettering. I thought it was dry. OOPs, it wasn’t!!! A smear!!!

What to do??!

TIP– You can always glue some of that paper we all save over your mistakes. Glue some of my vintage ledger paper over it.

Oops, that didn’t work. Look at all the feathering around the pen line!

Finally I found a piece of scrapbook ledger paper. Tested it with my pen. NO feathering. Hallelujah!! Modge podge it down!!

TIP- Modge podge is great for gluing down great for SECURELY gluing paper down in your art journal. Learned that from Mary Ann Moss!! Thanks Mary Ann!!

Here it is finished?! Wait – no it needs something in that wide border. What?

FINISHED Finally!!!

Colors? Dark blue cobalt outer border and a double black line done with my Noodler helped. And the ultramarine blue line around the title with another double black line helped to make it pop. I am
Not a faded out kinda girl. Vivid and bright is me!!

Once again contrasting colors helped with that. For the background I used yellow ochre with a little grey mixed from burnt sienna and cerulean. The cobalt blue border made it pop. The cobalt also brings out the blue bows on the shoes.

The green is manganese blue and yellow. The almost black dark on the bows and x’s is ultramarine blue and burnt umber.

And that’s it. Go forth and paint your shoes. The brighter the better. Maybe some of the snazzy sneakers in wild colors! And use contrasting colors. You will be glad you did.

Thanks for looking!!!

Day 205 – Fast and Slow

January 26, 2015January 26, 20152 Comments

Taking Sketchbookskool beginnings and Seeing. This is the homework for Seeing, Danny Gregory’s Fast and Slow assignment. Yes HOMEWORK!!!!
Despite the fact that it was the h word it was a lot of fun. Betting I will do a few more.

I had already collaged the background with old accounting paper and a piece of paper bag from Little Shop of Story’s in Decatur Ga – our favorite independent bookstore. It has quotes from story books on it- Wild Things is my favorite.

First choose an intricate object to draw. I chose Henry’s Rocker. Rockers usually give me fits.

Next you make a soupy puddle of any color watercolor and using a big brush you try to paint the object quickly. I used Daniel Smith piemonite and American Journey cobalt with a size 8 sable brush.

Let it dry. Take a fairly thick pen (Noodler Creaper Ahab) look at the object carefully and attempt to draw it. Add in details with a finer pen(Lamy Vista Fine Nib).

And that’s it. Of course I had to decorate the page. The words Henry’s Rocker are painted in his favorite color in this case Holbein cad red light. Background is Daniel Smith new gamboge with a touch of Holbein cad light.

Lettering done with my Noodler Creaper Ahab loaded for business with Platinum Carbon Black INKC 1500.

Tonites sunset.

Thanks for looking.

Day 202 – Time Flies!!

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015Leave a comment

Especially when you have something interesting to do…I seem to draw and or paint something or someone just about everyday now. I am taking TWO Danny Gregory Sketchbookskool online classes at the same time…Beginnings and Seeing.

Lots of fun! Some great teachers. I highly recommend it. Each one is six weeks long with a different teacher every week…and theres that dreaded word HOMEWORK!! aka Assignments….OH MY!! But since I am drawing and painting sometimes all day long it’s not a problem!! All those skies started out as homework…we only had to do one…I did EIGHT!! OPPS!!! And have one more in mind to do…

Today its rained all day. Skies were an uninspiring grey grey grey so I drew this perky violet that seems to resist my best attempts to kill it. A friend gave me a small piece last winter saying it would root easily in water. Hers was huge!! More than a foot across. I thought uh huh…this wont last long. Lo and behold it rooted…I planted it in an old McCoy pot of my grandmother’s it continued thrive. It sits on the kitchen counter where it gets little sun except thru the backporch skylight. So today I drew it…growing against impossible odds…thriving!! I also journaled about my mother and grandmother -both famous for their green thumbs.

Now to get my homework drawn-draw a piece of bread. In my case a biscuit. Near enough!!!

Thanks for looking!

Day 195 I hope! Ink Comparisons

January 16, 2015January 17, 20157 Comments

A fast sketch I did of Peter Dinklage from an HBO Game of THrones ad at midnite a couple of days ago…not bad for midnite!!

As some of you know I have been really into ink lately. I now own three fountain pens seen in this Je Suis Charlie Sketch, a Noodler Creaper Ahab, a Lamy vista Fine and Lamy Safari with THREE bottles of ink.

Noodlers Bulletproof Eelskin and Black and another Black that was a total wreck with water.

I did some Ink and pen comparisons on Strathford 500 mixed media paper. I let the ink dry overnite.

Before I wet the paper.

After I wet the paper.

The Platinum Carbon Black was a BIG FLOP. I think the problem was my ink had NO D on the box…gotta call Goulet and order from them next time. UPDATE: I have gotten to the bottom of why this supposed always waterproof fast drying ink wasnt!! Mine though it was sold as waterproof has the wrong number on it…back it goes…sending it to amazon tomorrow…well Monday…drawing tomorrow after all this computering!! The ink should have an INC-1500 on it mine has an INC-1200. A guy named Treor was complaining that his new bottle ran, his old one had not. The new one had a different number under the barcode. HMM…well Goulet is mailing me a new one…hopefully SOOON!!!

The Noodlers did well in the fine point Lamy Vista but not as well in the large nibbed Creaper or Safari but they were acceptable compared to the carbon black which was supposed to be waterproof!! OOPS!! I threw in the Pilot Varsity because I have them and blue was a nice contrast with all that black!!

Sketching at Panera

That said I used my Noodler Creaper loaded with Noodlers Bulletproof on this sketch that I did at Panera…the words were added BEFORE the paint in the background.