Month: February 2023

Animal sketching

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One of my fav things to do. Stillamn and Birn Alpha w a black uniball micro pen These were done while we streamed Red Squirrel channel on Youtube. Great shots of mostly birds and some Eurasian red squirrels which are just adorable. its considered cat tv. Two of our cats Weenie and Haley love to watch it when its on which is funny. Well at least to us. You know they are trying to decode how to get a BIG bird off our huge tv.
Tonites sunset brought to u by the Savannah River.

Margaret xoxoxox

Do i like it is it done?!

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Ballerina quarterish sized sheet arches. All done wet in wet using six colors, the hideous potters pink was one. Had the nasty color forever. Who knew it could make wonderous skin.

It was A Ken Call class that Mike and I finally did today that is part of Watercolor Live 2023 back in January. Kens website is well worth a look. His portraits are gorgeous.
This is what it looked like at the beginning. Ultramarine , Potters Pink, Burnt Sienna Sodalite Genuine Paynes Grey and Burnt Umber on arches 140 cold press. I have some 300 but i did not want to cut it up to try this technique when i didn’t know if i would like it. Arches now costs $28 a sheet. Ouch. That was before inflation.

Drips are in with Ken. Me too. I do love a good drip. You use a flat synthetic brush to lift color almost back to the white on this project. Did i say we lifted a LOT in this painting??? Really kind of an amazing technique at least in his hands.

There are two videos of him painting on youtube. Both are about an hour and a half long if you are interested in trying this technique.

https://youtu.be/rzXfr75fbPQ

https://youtu.be/10E4HPMKDfo

Margaret who is ready to go to bed! G’nite xoxoxox

Take two on court reporter

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Alex Murdaugh take 2. Now I am tired. Watercolor pencil superaquabee sketchbook
The pencils. The loose colors are the ones i used alot. I mostly use Faber Castell and or Inktense. Better get them sharpened for Monday.

Maggie henceforth known as Mags ready for bed. hmm never heard that as a knickname for Margaret. Xoxoxo

Court reporter

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In my next life i want to be a court reporter. Since we have alot of connections w the low country esp Edisto and Beaufort we have been following the Murdaugh trial. Today he testified which never happens. I could not resist drawing him.

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Calling this Better than Alex did with the Sketch Artist

SLED asked him to work with a sketch artist for a portrait of the man who shot him on the Salkahatchee Road. Needless to say his idea of his attacker a man he knew well his Cousin Eddie was grossly inaccurate.

And that finishes off my Stillman and Birn Alpha book. Watercolor pencil. This was done with no pencil sketch like you do w watercolor but just coloring til i got it right.

I have Pumpkin ready to pour. I did her whiskers and wispy hits with a crowquill india ink pen just dipping it in and drawing with it quickly.
And then theres this ballerina Mike and I are virtually meeting up to work on tomorrow.
Supposedly she will look like this if we paint fast enough!! The Jury is out in this one. As in we shall see.

Pumpkin

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For some reason I spent way too much time drawing my husbands favorite cat Pumpkin. Next up is masking it so i can pour the background but life keeps getting in the way. Hopefully tomorrow.

Heres her picture. Shes a torby although some people consider them light tortoise shells. She has orange spots here and there. Sometimes she looks like a pale grey cat. A chameleon cat.

The Escort Cat! Her sister Weenie went for a walk with us today. Little kitty walked over a mile.
And darned if I didn’t miss a fantastic sunset. This is the CSX train bridge crossing the river at the end of the street.

Margaret putting her feet up xoxoxo

Tufted Titmouse Time Again 🙃

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This is the one I was trying to do when I did the next one. And he would love to fly to your house!
Will I like this one I was trying to make an energetic drawing and this was NOT it. I saw the first little guy light on the feeder for a second grab a seed and fly away quickly. I grabbed a piece of paper and drew him. Then I spent the next two hours tinkering with him trying not to loose that energy.

I think I got him this time. What do y think?!!

Oh Faber Castell watercolor pencils on Fabriano 140 cp paper.

Nice soft sunset tonite.

Margaret xoxoxox

Done I hope

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After much lifting this is how she looks now. She’s a big girl on a piece of cold press Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro 15×20”. An imperial half sheet as Vlad would call it. Trying to make Shelley Priors technique taught at Watercolor Live 2023 my own.

if your like watercolor painting you really should sign up. Exposures to about twenty artists for a reasonable price. Well worth the cost and it just goes up the closer it gets to the start of the next years class.
I literally had rivers of paint swirling around.
I darkened the wash because I hate the too even spikey feathers I had drawn on its back and it was the only way I could get rid of them. @ericrhoads @shelleyprior

Taping to do the stripping. I had to strip off the dreaded thalo green run with a lot of tape and lifting with a Mr Clean sponge. Also used a stiff brush to clean off the little lumps and bumps where the green background thought abt overflowing.
After I cleaned it with a Mr Clean. Better but still a slight mess. I also lifted bits of green that has overflowed into the flamingo here and there. They were everywhere.
With the tape off. I am signing her and saying she’s done and available.
I added some quin rose and quin gold plus some cerulean to her head to fix it. Tried to keep it soft. I also softened a lot of edges. It was feeling a little cut out to me which happens when the edges are too hard.

Colors used quin rose, quin gold, cobalt, cerulean, DS pimonite genuine, burnt sienna, aureolin, thalo green

Margaret xoxoxox

A little bird flew by

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A tufted Titmouse that was out back this am eating before the cats showed up for breakfast. The cats don’t know it but I let them go hungry while the birds are. He’s not quite what I meant to do but at least it’s done.
This was how it started out and I didn’t like it. So I decided to darken the background. Still don’t like it. Then I got the razor knife out and started scratching it. Well it was as good as it was going to get. Titmice don’t hold still long enough to let you draw them. One seed and they are off.

Should have been finishing the flamingo but was having an unmotivated Saturday. 🙃🙃🙃

My baked mushrooms were delicious and so easy to make. Clean the big mushrooms. Bake them at 375 for 20-25 min. Slap a square or two of cheese on top and let it melt. Yummy. You can microwave them too but I like them baked better.

Margaret whose sleepy now. Xoxoxo

Bird of the day well actually

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Been working on this bird for a few days. Maybe a week off and on.

This is 9×12 and done. I like a lot. So I decided to paint a bigger one. BYTW this one is available if you need her at your house.
The background wash went well but darn what was with the bird drawing. the back looks like spikes and regular ones at that. Regularity is an anathema in a painting. So how do I fix it without starting over?! So of course I kept on painting.
Starting the head. And then of course I forgot to take pics. Sigh. Really like the quin gold and the quin rose with cerulean on the neck and around the beak. But then no more pics. Sigh.
So here she is almost done but those spikes are still annoying me. So yesterday after madly painting with Vlad I thought slap some paint on the background and get rid of those spikes.
So I did. And it went well. I painted the horrible spikey look out. HURRAH!! But then I got the dreadful green run across the bottom of the beak. The 140 kilimanjaro was waffling like crazy with huge ripples making the washes run like crazy. To make it worse the green run was THALO notoriously staining of any paper. NIGHTMARE time.
Slapping cobalt on to give her some curves.
So her she is today. The paper dried amazingly flat for all the ripples it had yesterday. Maybe I can grey out the green streak. Tomorrows job! I do like the way she looks now.
Maybe a crop to take a couple of inches off on the right?? She’s a big girl at 16×20”. Did I say I have already drawn another one?! 😵‍💫
Tonite sunset was rather spectacular. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as I was heating up our dinner leftovers. We do love a good bowl of leftover soup.

Margaret ready for bed xoxoxox

Chasing the train with Vlad

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Chesky Krumlov, Czech Republic according to Rick Steves a charming cobbled city. One of the chase alongs for WatercolorLive 2023 was to chase Vlad Yesileyev as he painted this charming street scene. You had to paint like mad or get off the Vlad Express Train as it briefly stopped in the Czech Republic.
Mike and I entertained ourselves today by virtually painting together. My power went out just as I got the program working. Sigh. No Wi-Fi no show. So we waited. Then I had to wait til the Murdaugh trial had a break.
My palette finally ready to paint. Exciting stuff right?
My uh tracing. There I said it. I had 18 of these to do. Eeek. This is on Hahnemuhle. I agree with Vlad it’s awesome paper.
First layers. Lots of greys. Zipping down the line.
Adding some darks. Then I kept going. When I get to the end and don’t know what to do I use a thin paint brush and just draw on it so that’s how I got to here.
Not my best but it’s growing on me. I am rusty at chasing Vlad. I got thru the pandemic letting him entertain me on a lot of Sunday’s. He’s so funny and his classes are reasonably priced. I highly recommend them so just go along for the ride on the Vlad Express.

Margaret xoxoxox who is now tahred.