Day 572 – the Latest Painting

January 26, 2016January 26, 2016Leave a comment

Approximately 20″x 30″ Acrylic

Drawing this was tough to say the least – getting the proportions right.

Here she is roughed in.

She’s gone thru a lot more tweaking since then. I spent hours trying to get her right before I started the painting. You can see in this photo her nose and mouth are off.

There were hash marks on the half way points on the edge of the canvas along each side. I also marked the mid point on the canvas and then tripled her. Measuring measuring which I hate to do but I think it was worth it in this case.

Can u see the hash mark on her face for the center and the two center ones on the bottom and right side?
One hand/arm is huge and foreshortened the other is just the opposite. Skinny and delicate. And tough to get in the right proportions. Thought I would never get them right but I persevered.

Progress.

And here she is again now. I may work on her hair a bit more and lift the heavy shadow on her right arm but I think she’s done. Now she needs a name.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 564 A -Ilenia part deux

January 17, 2016Leave a comment

Uses a one inch and an one and a half inch hog bristle to lighten the offending darks. I also added white and cobalt blue to the background using sheer layers. Lightened a lot of the face shadows with a watered white.

No beards on Ilenia!!

Of course I lightened the background w a dry white and cobalt blue. It helps soften some of her edges. Probably could do more but I am leaving her alone for now.

Thanks for checking in!!

Margaret who is off to knit and contemplate another painting. Xxx

Day 558 – Which do you like?

January 11, 20162 Comments

Background 1

I spent most of yesterday repainting the Ilenia’s background. This is the current background and my favorite so far. I also did a lot of work on the bottom background adding alizarin here and there to tie it to the background. Trying to loose some edges and get rid of the pasted on look of the figure bits of the purpley dark was added to her hair to blend it into the background. I had to completely paint out the blue background 2 with titanium white to get rid of the blue and paint the background as it is in the first picture.

The background colors are burnt umber, alizarin and ultramarine blue. I also added touches of burnt sienna and yellow ochre. It always seems that I scumble backgrounds a lot. And of course some of it was just painted with a sable paint brush which gives a smoother finish than the hog bristle that I used for scumbling.

Background 2

I thought I would like this color better than I did. It’s cerulean, nickel azo and titanium painted over background 3 which is really the first background I tried out and another I usually like. I thought it was too over powering.

Background 3

Burnt umber and ultramarine blue with some nickel azo over brushed or scumbled over the darker colors.

TIP: if you get tired of getting up and walking back from your painting to look at it you cab use your home.

Here are a few other versions of background 1.

So my question dear readers is WHICH do you like? As I said so far background 1 is my favorite.

Thanks for reading!

Margaret who is off to class to make great art tomorrow. Xxx

Day 557 – Saturday Life Modeling

January 10, 2016Leave a comment

Ilenia after about an hour and a half of painting. Acrylic 30×36 hardboard panel

Always a fun weekly event.

I thought she was going well for working in the dark. For some brilliant reason I had my easel turned AWAY from the light. Maybe because we breeze in right before start time. Hopefully next time I will set it up right.

Obvious problem was the bottom leg was too long. Her knee sticks out to far. I think that was due to slight shifts in the pose during breaks. Hard to resume the exact pose every time.

Here she is now. Knee shortened. Top hip lengthened a bit on the left. All that foreshortening is such a pain.

The background needs more work. The brown is too dark and those triangles at her feet need to go! 😳

Hard to paint such a big piece in a few hours. I think I have about five hours in it now. Dos I say I use big brushes.

Ilenia by Al Beyer – oil – at least 3×4′

This is Al Beyer’s aka painting. He was painting a few feet to my left. Always interesting to see how he goes about painting the model.

And how different the model looks just a few feet to my right or left. Al to my left barely saw her head.

Lee drawing on my right had her full profile whereas I barely saw her nose.

Als after two hour session which is really an hour and a half or so.
Colors used: all golden or liquitex -titanium white, nickel Azo gold, pyrrole red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, alizarin Crimson. I buy artist grade but whichever is cheaper or the color I like better.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 536 – Saturday in Aiken

December 19, 2015Leave a comment

Life modeling today at USC Aiken

The lovely Ilenia was our model. Great pose- The thinker!! Acrylic on illo board.

Felt good to be painting and hanging out with other artists today.

After first forty minutes – legs are too long!!

Lots of good natured banter and holiday cheer today. The pound cake that I took was devoured. Just a few pieces left for Al our esteemed leader who was off celebrating his daughters marriage.

After I got home I gave her a good look as I sat eating a sandwich. Her chin was jutting out to far. The arm under her chin was too straight. Nose too long.
More shadows in the foreground. Cerulean blue shadows in the drape.

Making progress. How she looks at present!! I think I need a nap now. Going to let Ilenia lean on the mantel and tell me if she’s done or not. She will know. Then I will know.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret who has presents to wrap and a sweater to finish knitting. Xxx

Day 472 – She was too pretty!!😳

October 26, 20152 Comments

She was too pretty 30×40″ ??? acrylic

At critique today the class loved the way she looked but the boss aka professor said she was too pretty so I spent today trying to make her less pretty. It’s hard to make a pretty girl not pretty. This is what she looks like now. I should have known better than to use any pink. .

I decided to use contrasting colors adding a lot of orange with cad yellow light for highlights. I also added some pure phtalo blue for darks. And bits of cad yellow light for sparkles.

I also like the area of carpet under the sofa. All the busy stuff. Fun!

This is what she looked like earlier today. A lot of white on the sofa. I do like the sofa with more cad yellow light on it. The yellow in this photo is nickel Azo gold a rusty gold.

Thought u might want to see her pretty face that wuz up close. I do actually like her better now. Now to get her a little wilder and crazier.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 470 – More Art Show

October 23, 2015Leave a comment

From the state fair

Miss Sarah – Anne Hightower Patterson – Professional Purchase Award

Mark Conraddy

Spirit Filled – Lois Hall

Drews Starbucks painting

Old Buddies – Ann Annrich

Hydrangea in Silver – Carol Sue Roberts

Window Shopping – Jane Popiel
Old Post Office Restaurant, Edisto – ToddBaxter

Young charmer – Ann Annrich

The Kings Cafe – Sally Donovan

Missed the artists name. Sorry!

These next two are amateur division.

Missed the artists name. Sorry! You know I am going to love a Jack Russell. And two is even better than one!!!

Josephine Camel – Jayne Holland Love this camel. What a great face!!
Ceramic or mixed Media. Not sure which!!!

Rose the Dragonfly Slayer – Diane Gilbert

Things she carried – Wayne Thornley

Another of the great sandcastles. I wonder how they keep the sand stuck together??!

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx

Day 457 – My Diebenkorn

October 10, 2015October 11, 2015Leave a comment

Erica WIP 20×30 painted this morning at life modeling session at USC Aiken. She still needs a lot of work I think. Like fixing her saggy right Tata. I am also not enamoured of the greyish flesh color. And twitch her mouth to the left a bit.

Richard Diebenkorn in his studio from an old Horizons magazine.

We have been studying Richard Diebenkorn who was an abstract expressionist and a Bay Area painters an influential west coast group starting in the 50s.
A Beginners guide to Diebenkorn at

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/richard-diebenkorn-beginner-guide from his recent retrospective at the British Royal Academy.

Coffee by Diebenkorn.

Diebenkorn. Don’t know the title. It is more similar to my painting I color.

Diebenkorn Don’t know the title.

Bay Area painter Nathan Oliviera love the way it seems to fly.

I would love to try Oliviera’s style but I don’t know where you would start. More about Oliviera http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/november/nathan-oliveira-obit-111710.html

Other Bay Area painters are Elmer Bischoff, Thiebaud, David Parks and Thiopolis Brown.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

September 29, 2015Leave a comment

A recent challenge to paint an acrylic self portrait in Fauvism style using a snake of complimentary colors with impasto brush strokes. Impasto is thick paint which can show the method of application. In this case a hog bristle brush.

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it.

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are

Strong colors but no black
Colored lines but not everywhere
The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected
Melting lines
Thick paint
White off Canvas shows thru
Not a lot of detail
Faces done roughly

We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using a complimentary color(red) to the green background.

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use. All the above colors were made from those three colors.

After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange.

Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot of the original red lines showing thru.

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

September 29, 2015Leave a comment

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it.

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are

Strong colors but no black
Colored lines but not everywhere
The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected
Melting lines
Thick paint
White off Canvas shows thru
Not a lot of detail
Faces done roughly

We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using a complimentary color(red) to the green background.

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use. All the above colors were made from those three colors.

After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange.

Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot of the original red lines showing thru.

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx