The male cardinal has made his appearance. Fun stuff slopping paint on with the sword brush. same colors as yesterday.
Loving the abstract quality of these.
Margaret whose off to bed as soon as Zoe comes in. Xoxoxox
Tag: sketchbookskool
Day 2096 Portrait time
Monday is portrait class over in Aiken. Can’t remember our models name. She has. A few issues. Forehead too high. The dent to the left of her eye is too deep but maybe her cheeks too fat. And the right shoulder needs some definition.
First break. She looks like a ghost. NO PENCIL sketch. Eeek. Always makes me nervous. But it can be done. Onward and upward.
Second break. That ghost is still there. I do t seem to make much progress drawing the beginning with paint. And it definitely stresses me out that I can’t erase it.
Third break. I get tired of poking about and slap the paint on.
I lifted bits of white to the left of her left eye but think it may be a bit too much. So I will stare at her a while and decide.
Colors used. Charles Reid palette. Used a lot of opera pink since she had a rosey glow with a mix of cad red light and cad yw light for flesh. Cerulean cobalt peacock blue burnt sienna on the face
Hair is a wash of cad yellow light first. Then yellow ochre burnt sienna cerulean mixed with burnt umber and finally cobalt mixed w Burnt umber. Her hair like a lot of blondes has a lot of greys in it cerulean makes a great grey.
Oh and that black dot on her right cheek is NOT a mole but where I touched it w my dirty pinky knuckle. Sigh.
Top is yellow ochre burnt umber alizarin and cad yellow light.
Margaret who has a headache from stressing over the painting. What we do for fun. But the sinister grunge seems to be gone. Hurrah. Xoxoxox
Day 2095 Crud that keeps giving
Or is it just stopped up sinuses. Either way. Yucky. My bird drawing craze goes back at least six years or more. Some early ones. 
Parking lot seagulls probably in a Strathmore mixed media. 
I draw better birds now. All these were drawn while watching the birds.
Chicken chasing 
Parrot rescue in Pigeon Forge 
Drawing pelicans before we eat at Key Largo – Buzzards Roost. May be there soon hurrah.
Key west ibis from the Key West Wildlife Rescue. Love
These guys. They magically show up in droves when Lloyd the bicycle tour leader comes because they know he has snacks for them.
Love the ibis hmm and the chickens and the parrots and hmm I love drawing birds. Parking lot seagulls were lots of fun too.
Margaret year Xoxoxoxo time for Endeavour.
Day 2091 waiting
Seems to be a trend lately. And reading books.
Margaret who almost forgot to post. Off to hot lanna tomorrow. Xoxoxo
Day 2089 Chelsea
15×22″ Spent two and a half hours chasing Chelsea as she would turn from full frontal to the right. As soon as she relaxed a little she would loose the pose because she was twisted in her seat.
First break. NO pencil. 😵😵😵Rough block in on Co fluid watercolor paper. 140#. The paper is really a bargain for great paper. Six full sheets for $24 on amazon. Always dries just about flat no matter how soppy wet I get it. 
Second break not making a lot of progress. Adding more darks and the blouse. Lack of progress I think that was due to the continually rotating head. No excuse for that left eye. But an easy fix on this hp. Most hot press would not let you move it at all. One shot and you are done. 
Last break. That left eye shoot me. But I brought it around. Add more darks to the hair which was ultramarine and burnt umber or van dyke brown. Also I didn’t want to get the shadows dark since that would age her. She has quite a very young face. Deep shadows age people in portraits especially babies. For now. I have a to do to her list. May or may not do them. BYTW her blouse was painted in two shots with my size 16 Cheap Joes sable. First was a glaze of very watery cerulean and burnt sienna. Then after it was dry lines of the black hair mix.
Colors used Quin gold French yellow ochre burnt sienna burnt umber ultramarine cerulean vandyke brown. A hint ifocad red light
Margaret ready for a nap. Xoxoxox
Day 2088 Tahred from road running
One last sketch from Columbia. Wait who am I kidding two more I haven’t painted. Oopsey.
Snuff jars from the museum. Hmm I wonder if they sell them on eBay. One could hope. Like rows of tiny gems. Two inches tall at most.
Think I will go back and draw some more of them sometime. Just love these tiny guys. And each so intricately decorated.
Charles Reid palette colors. Twisbee pen now leaky twisbee Deartrementis document brown.
Margaret putting her feet up. Xoxoxo
Day 2086 D Day Invasion
When we went to France we went to The Normandy Invasion Sites. Aka Operation Overlord aka D Day.
The French in Normandy seriously love Americans because they know we saved them. This is a sketch of one of the Canadian cemeteries at Birn Sur Mer. We were there on Veterans Day and many of the people on the tour had uncles buried there leaving roses on their graves. 
The Canadian DDay Museum a fascinating place that looks like a maple leaf from above. It’s made with aluminum sheathing that glows in the light. 
Arrowmanche which still has implacements from the invasion in their harbor. I almost got left behind by the bus while I was drawing this sketch. 🤣 We suffer for our art.
Ranville. The first city the Allies freed in Normandy also a site of another allied cemetery. The church is still pockmarked with canon shell holes. 
Mushrooms outside another museum we visited.
Pegasus Bridge Museum where the British paratroopers landed BEFORE the D Day invasion. Out of the 600 that parachuted in only 165 survived the nights shooting.
Another page I just dug up. The leader of the British paratroopers.
The invasion maps. – The la song sites -Utah Omaha Gold Juno and Sword Beaches – among rh coast of Normandy near Bayeux home of the famous tapestry and Areowmanches where the Bristish established Mulberry harbor a temporary port for the allies. Remnants of it can still be seen today.
Memorial at the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. 
More Omaha beach pictures. One thing you can say about France sunny one minute cloudy and raining the next.
The bravery of these men was amazing and we and the French will all be forever grateful. The stories of them abound still in Normandie.
Oh bytw several shows on tonite on the National Geographic channel with actual footage from the invasions tonite. Have my dvr set.
Margaret getting ready to eat her chicken noodle soup. Xoxoxo
Day 2075 Back at the Museum
I loved these slightly primitive statues. So old.
Sketch in Deartrementis Brown with my Twisbee. The inks almost gone so next I will be using a Noodler Brown recommenced by Brenda Swenson.
Hahnemuhle journal yellow ochre cerulean cad red light cobalt burnt sienna ultramarine and a dab of quin gold.
I used a 2B pencil to write the info from the museum all over the background of this page to add texture and lightly erased it before I painted it.
Margaret who is book club tonite. Xoxoxo
Day 2070 Problems Problems
Decided to add this lady to my sketchbook as a memory page. 
She meets me at the back sliding door and peers thru the glass this way and that as if to say are you there. Where’s my breakfast??? It’s very funny.
Hahnemuhle Journal twisbee pen Charles Reid palette colors and Vlads neutral tint which is dioxzine purple indigo and burnt sienna.
Advantage of using his neutral tint or making your own is that you can shift it to blue purple or brown maki g it a flexible grey that Vlad never paints without it on his palette.
Miss squirrel earlier added some ground under her feet with the neutral tint so the nice highlights on them would show. And splattered it a bit with the neutral tint.
wouldn’t let me upload these pics yesterday. 😵😵😵
Seems I have run out of storage on WordPress. I either have to Del a lot of old photos which is oh so difficult to do or pay $200 more a year for unlimited storage. Groan.
wouldn’t let me upload this one either so added it today.
So while I am deciding I Del a lot of my friends nudes and I bet the pages look like Swiss cheese. Sorry friends and dear readers. I still love you.
Here’s the final painting again. Do wish I had left the metal strip on the side.
That freed up a little space.
wondering why I didn’t do this one but I think I will maybe on the opposite page.
Oh. Went to see Anne Hathaway’s new movie The Hustle. Funny well only occasionally. Best part was the French Riviera scenery the French music and Anne’s fabulous clothes.
Skip it and go see Poms. Much funnier.
Margaret In p189 of Redemption. Only 200+ pages to go.
Ttyl. Xoxoxo
Day 2030 A few bits and bobs
.
The divine Miss Kate from last week. I added some
Darks to the stool and under her feet. A bit more dark purple to her silk drape.
Hot press fluid 140 lb
Isa Belle from Dr Sketchys last month. She has not gotten quite finished in the 30 Minutes we had to draw her. 10×15″ Canson artboard
And a bit more torture for Miss Macy. Shortened a foot added some Drapery. Just played with the sketch some more. Added some lead drawing pencil down watercolor pencil.
And I tried to lift that horrible blue drip. Half sheet fluid hot press. 140 lb
Margaret putting her feet up. The pollen definitely playing havoc with my lungs. Xoxoxoxo
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Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 