Category: Art

Day 233 Alla Prima

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My granddaughter and I were painting together today. I decided to do one of her. No pencil drawing first. Not too bad. Her hair is wild aka bed head. She might have dreadlocks soon. Now if I could just get rid of the seam. What was I thinking?!

Groan. It’s not like I didn’t have some fluid 150 cold press nearby.

Cad red and cad yellow. Alizarin Quin gold burnt sienna burn umber a dab of black. Peacock blue and Verditer blue – a pretty soft sky blue that I think has white gouache in it

Stillman and Birn alpha which was very forgiving when I lifted a few areas.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 229 Recipe time

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They never seem to turn out how I imagine but the recipe book is filling up. Try these two. Easy ad delish.

Snickerdoodles. Yum. Quite popular with my friends

My fav go to easy meal

Margaret going to watch Queens Gambit because I got sidetracked Fishermans Friends a feel good movie about some British fisherman who hit the top ten with their sea shanty recordings. A true story. Xoxoxo

Day 228 Kitties Wonder

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Chased around after the kitties drawing them today. There’s always something that gets their interest. Sometimes it’s me. Hmm.

Ps fixed the spelling of kitties. But too lazy to take another picture. Now comfy on the sofa.

What is she doing?! I know that’s what they are thinking. Didn’t someone have fun with Hallie’s marking??

Yesterday I lifted tails of everyone but the tigers. One male the black two females the torties. Like calicoes torties are almost always female and bring good luck.

My torties are named for Halloween. Hallie and Weenie. Weenie and Tootsie are quite friendly. Thinking he might need a rename but what?? Hallie is coming around. Tigers as shy as ever.

Lots of baking going on today. Snickerdoodles and quiche or a frittata since I leave off the crust.

I drew the recipes in my recipe sketchbook but letting the ink dry over nite before i color them.

Ok lazy Tahred woman fixed it.

Margaret ready to watch Queens Gambit. Xoxoxo

Day 220 WIPE Out or Surprises!!

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Hmm I more ways than one. My car battery died today too. Now jumped off and running fine. A Prius gets a dead battery so easily. And yes I thought I had checked to see if all the lights were off Miss Rebecca. Evidently NOT. Sigh. Thank goodness for USAA roadside assistance. They have me on speed dial for dead batteries. Groan.

Been working on this hideous painting. Not at all what I imagined. So where did I go wrong.

I didn’t used my value sketch but the photo to paint from. A bad idea according to Vlad Yesilesev and I should no better by now but NOPE. Did it anyway.

After much discussion with Ms Ruth today she suggested I put the focal point back where it belonged and take attention away from the middle building.

With nothing to loose it was time to WIPE it out. So I taped it up and had at it.

Now I actually like it better. An amazing improvement with nothing down but wiping off paint.

Stay tuned to see if I wiped off the finish w the paint. I hope not but if I did I drew another one this afternoon thinking this one was hopeless.

Stay tuned.

Pot kitties posing in the autumn sun.

Stay tuned.

Margaret xoxox

Day 217 Assisi, Italy

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Flew off to Assisi Italy today with Vlad Yesileyev on his paint along. So far. Leaning toward this is DONE but might change my mind in the am.

The photo

The value sketch by Vlad Yesilev. I am bad. I don’t look at the shades. Rather look at the painting.

First wash.

I use a muffin Pan to mix the first wash-yellow ochre cobalt and alizarin – in so I can save it for the next painting instead of tossing. I do have to stir it up before use because the color settles. Moving along flowers started.

Same colors as first wash and burnt umber dioxzine and Andrew’s turquoise.

Well underway almost done. I forgot to take photos. Oops. We added indigo mixed w cobalt to our colors. Should have had two windows but I messed up. So I have three up top. Another oops.

I decided I needed to fix the top of the left door. It was NOT aim perspective.

So now I am done. Pot kitties fed. Chicken pot pie in the oven. Time to put my feet up and snuggle Zoe for a while.

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 215 Kitties Cleanup

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Kitties cleanup after breakfast this am. I was quite daring and left four of them inside last night. Nobody knocked on the bedroom door to wake us up this morning. However they were excited to go outside and eat breakfast. Tootsie Weenie and Hallie will let me pet them a little while they eat.

They seem to like “inside” and especially the tiled laundry room. So far no poo anywhere.

Namiki Fude so much fun to draw with but that Noodlers Eelskin ink which is suppose to be permanent smears even after its dry. 😩😩😩

Stillman and Birn alpha Caran d’ache Neocolor ii

Margaret ready to eat some dinner. Homemade butternut soup. Hope it’s tasty. Xoxox

Day 201 Venice Canal Part Deux

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Or should I say Duo?!

Think it’s done. The way I left it Sunday after The paint along with Vlad Yesileyev. I was not happy with it and thought about trashing it. Aka turn it over and paint on the back.

I actually used a large 1″ bristle brush to wash this off after I taped it up. It lightened up a lot. Thank goodness. Hate to waste half sheet of Kilimanjaro. Down to about one sheet of it. Eeek.

So I slowly stated adding color to it. Adding a lot of black and grey. Actually used ivory black. As well as mixed greys and blacks.

I also Added A grey unifying wash on the brown building on the left and across the bottoms of some Of the others.

I also added some blues-cobalt ultramarine cerulean and Andrews turquoise. And Browns burnt umber and burnt sienna mixed with blues and that darn Dioxzine purple.

Then I decided it needed some more black and some vague details on the right walk way. Oops I had forgotten them. Joes turquoise and grey to the rescue.

Subtle Changes so I didn’t kill it again.

And this is it now. Really like it a lot.

Scrubbing off color was so much fun I decided to scrub this one too. It too has gone to the dioxzine side. Duh.

Look how light it is now. This one won’t be so hard to fix. Not as much to do.

Margaret listening to the news. Xoxox. Stay safe and wear your masks people. Hugs!!!

Day 214 Kitty Doodles

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Got bogged down doing paperwork today but managed to draw the pot kitties on my back porch. Oddly once again two are missing. Last time that happened they turned up. So who knows. It’s a wait and see right?!

This morning they were busy playing inside and outside. Spent the afternoon snoozing. As I type they are waking up. Of course I Am done drawing them. Sigh

Anyway here they are. Used my Namiki Fude. Faber castell watercolor pencils. Was afraid to dampen the watercolor pencil because I knew the ink would run. Really need to order a bottle of platinum black. Never had these things problems with it.

Stillman and Birn alpha.

Zoe’s ready for Halloween. She was very excited when I put on her Halloween scarf.

The knitting is growing. 16″ or so now.

Margaret thinking abt a nap. Xoxoxox

Day 213 Upside down

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After the upside down drawing I got into a discussion with my dear painting friend Ruth Pearl also my guiding light for art critiques about looking at your art upside down to see problems.

So today I tried it. I want to see if I can apply what I have learned from Vlad Paint Alongs to this fairly simple photo.

I did my value sketch. It is a little big. Should be postcard size. Oops. And I should work on a wider range of values from dark to light but I have a good start.

I want to make the top right window the focal point.

Then I turned it upside down to sit and look at for errors. Why do errors show?? Because you aren’t looking at what you drew but the shapes and tones of the value sketch.

I noticed right off the bat that the building was wonky. Aka lines weren’t straight. A good thing or bad thing. I also noticed that the top window did attract your eye right off the bat.

I cheated and drew it first. Now I have to go back and make some Adjustments. Like a taller roof on the left building and the chimney on the right one.

I guess I should turn it upside down and look at it too.

Something else I like to do is take the color out of a photo to reduce it to the elements.

Ps don’t forget just because it’s not there in thenpainting doesn’t meant you can’t add it.

Been watching Frank Francese paint watercolors on Cheap Joes YouTube. https://youtu.be/EPSfkIL9nzs
There are several of them. Love his bright colors and his wild paintings.

Margaret ready to watch Part 2&3 of Frank’s Beach painting. Xoxoxox