Done Done Done. Really no more painting on it!!😵😵😵

Never put a painting on the coffee table where you can see it while you watch tv. Been back twice more painting on Aiken Stroll. Small stuff.

So what did I do you say?! I darkened the sky with another coat of peacock blue softening the edge around the tree. The sky was just tooo pale and washed out. And yes crazy woman here painted sky into the tree asking for trouble but it worked. Did I say Hallelujah.

I lightened the sidewalk a lot. A painting should be darkest in the foreground and fade out as it gets farther away.

And no shadows from the trees on the sidewalk. Sooooo I wiped the sidewalk out wetting and blotting lifting paint to lighten it and repainted the dark tree shadows with burnt umber and ultramarine.

Back it went on the coffee table. What no tree shadows on the sidewalk?

I put it back in the easel and grabbed a couple of pieces of scrap watercolor Paper to protect where I didn’t want to splatter land. It tends to travel.

Splattered a little watery cobalt and a little burnt sienna on the far part of the sidewalk. Gave a lovely light shadow instead of that heavy dark grey thing that was there.

Tip 1- bricks. Use a flat. Makes great bricks easily. Just remember they have to recede IN PERSPECTIVE which means narrower and lighter the farther away they get. Those lines were made by the edge of the flat.

Tip 2 – Painting winter trees. I used several layers of very watery TRANSPARENT colors- alizarin burnt sienna peacock cobalt in the first two or three layers. Dry between each layers.

Peacock and Cobalt combine with the burnt sienna dots to make soft greys in great variety. The burnt sienna gives a glow as does the alizarin.

Finally adding opaque colors like mineral violet cerulean and turquoise in the last layer. All the different blues in the right layers combine to make great winter trees with a lot of interesting greys.

Draw some branches with you silver black velvet brush tip. Use different mud build up in the corner of your palette. Vary the water amount to get varying greys.

Keep the sky edges soft. Used to hate painting trees but now I like it. Well at least winter ones.

Ps that gold on some of the branches and tree trunks is quin gold.

Finished these socks that have been languishing in the knitting basket during the insane Christmas hat knitting round.

Margaret who actually cleaned her house today. 😬😳🤗 The dust was building up! Xoxoxo

Aiken Stroll. For My Art Show opening Feb 14 6pm Aiken Center for the Arts! #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #southcarolina #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaiken #urbansketching #aiken #aikensc #usk #augusta #georgialina #csra #pleinair

For the show. HURRAH! Now I can paint something I want. 🤗

For the moment Aiken Stroll is done. I reserve the right to mess it up some more. 🤣 Painted on Canson Plein Air Art Board 12×15. Mixed media.

The sketch. That’s a baby Great Dane puppy. He was too cute.

The photo I based this drawing on. The vanishing point is just past the top of the sidewalks the distance. All the diagonals should converge there.

Notice the dog walker is not in it. BUT the empty sidewalk screamed for them. Here they are ready to jump in the drawing. Isn’t he the cutest big old puppy. Gotta love a Great Dane. No pulling on his leash for him.

So how did I get them in the picture without looking off?! Notice the girls head and the older lady’s heads are at the same level.

And if U look far in the back the tiny figures head is about the same height. It makes the people recede in the picture plane when the top of the heads are all even. So I could have added a crowd of people IF a I keep the top of the heads at about the same eight.

It’s also what makes the older lady look a bit shorter than the young lady. Her head doesn’t quite reach the same heighthaka she’s shorter.

Lamy vista Noodlers heart of darkness ink(don’t you love the name?!!) Charles Reid palette PLUS Holbein opera pink. I painted the dogs face and feet w that pink.

Why opera pink? Cads were too warm. Alizarin not pink enough. Opera pink was JUST right.

A few good YouTube videos Food for thought : My other wc hero Alex Powers

Exaggerating color Laurel Hart going to try this out on this photo of Zoe tomorrow I hope.

Stan Miller how to paint a face any color and cropping photos going to make a couple of those l brackets. Two sets one big one little. Most of his videos seem interesting. And just long enough w out being too long.

Fake or Fortune maybe you have a lost art masterpiece?!

Joseph Zbukiv, Alvato Castagnet and Herman Pikel AMAZING painting a large cityscape together.

The best synthetic brushes I have ever found. And so cheap. A good assortment of three on amazon for $29ish.

Nothing like watching paint dry in a TOO long YouTube video. 😵😵😵

Margaret ready to stream some YouTube videos. Xoxoxo

Aiken Stroll. For My Art Show opening Feb 14 6pm Aiken Center for the Arts! #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #southcarolina #artist #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaiken #urbansketching #aiken #aikensc #usk #augusta #georgialina #csra #pleinair