Day 644 – that couple at PCM

August 3, 2017Leave a comment

Making progress on the big painting. The guy definitely needs more work. Eek. Funny how different they look in a small photo.

No matter how many times I walked a way from it I didn’t notice it. Hmm I was tired. I think everyone in the studio had spring fever. Nobody stayed late painting like we usually do.

Colors heavy body Golden and liquitex Tutanium white, nickel Azo gold, burnt umber, napthol red, ultramarine blue, dioxzine purple, pyrrole red. Thanks for looking.

So why use artist grade besides they will last forever. The pigment load is higher. That means you get more intense color with less paint. You can actually use more paint when you use the cheaper student grades to get the color you want and you may never get intense color.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Sunday – Jour ??

August 3, 2017Leave a comment

No idea if this published. I did try yesterday and Sunday.
This posted yesterday on that OTHER blogsite I have…now HOW did I do that. I used the computer so I wouldnt do that but I did anyway. DUH-I know its the cold I keep trying to get…Scratchy throat sneezy and a drip that comes and goes…gone today…wheres my vitamin A but I have a headache. SIGH!!

Happy Sunday!!!

Which one do you like best?? I think the second one?!! For me at least.

Catching up diet journal pages and only have 6 more days til I can eat more food. YEAH!! Good news is I am down 23 pounds. AND even better news I can resist the treats like cake and cookies. HURRAH…and that basket of bread at Carrabas the other nite…did I say I DEARLY LOVE bread?? That said I dont think it loves me…my joints would get a flu like ache two three times a week before I gave it up…havent had it since. Another HURRAH!!!

This one is done with Winsor Newton Markers and some regualr watercolors. It was a pill . Mostly because there is so much paint in those WN WC Markers that they will leak into the other colors if you are not careful.

The “title” is colored with Tombows a dark blue on and caran dache neocolor ii crayons… a bright orange and then the brightest yellow I had…still not bright enough but OH well I am done…only messed with this two three hours…

I finally got a piece of ledger paper and glued it over the title of the page…I really had wanted orange letters but that was NOT to be. Ledger paper does not make bright colors sadly but does add a nice texture and a change of pace.

I also had hand lotion on my hands when I started painting this which acted like a resist…eeekkk…finally got around that by wiping it with a kleenex…not one with hand lotion either lol…

Anyway coming down with a cold..another new way to loose weight?? NO I refuse…loading up on vitamins…

Day 1102 Urban Sketching Atlanta and the burbs

August 1, 2017August 1, 20174 Comments

Sort of house hunting in Atlanta. 800 sq feet for $209k. Think extremely dilapidated in the outside. But so adorable.

Not easy to do since where I would like to live my house would cost $1.3 million like this one down the street from my sons house in Oakhurst. Maybe I should become a realtor?!

Love Petite Marche in Kirkwood. These will get painted soon.

Hard to get the paint out with a 3&5 yr old grandchild around. They want to paint too. Oops.

Cute little fixer upper in Pine Lake. Has tons of very dark knotty pine that needs to be painted white. And a disaster of a side porch with jalousy windows that will no longer open or shut. Eeekkk. Keep looking?!

Off to walk the dog and have a taste of living urban style in a walkable neighborhood. Then more house looking.

Drawn with my Lamys in a Stillman and Birn Zeta.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1100 A big number!!

July 30, 2017July 30, 2017Leave a comment

When I started this new blog I thought I would try to make 50 days of daily blogging and here we are at day 1100. Who knew. As Wayne Dyer said anything is possible if you do it one small piece at a time.

20 minute sketches. The last of the dr Sketchys really liked the wings. Great fun to draw. The flowers NOT so much fun to paint. Jessie was some kind of woodland fairy. I think. She held the pose rock steady for 20 minutes which after 2 1/2 hrs of paint is no easy thing to do.

Bytw I set the sketchbook up vertically while I drew and painted these. Anymore I almost can't paint or draw on a flat level
Surface. Strange but true. It feels odd. Time was short so these are all alla prima
Paintings. Love the way the darks in her legs and wings blended themselves.

Like Charles Reid says it's 50% you 50% the watercolor.

10×14 superaquabee sketch book which loves pentel brush pen and watercolor alike. Winsor Newton travel palette watercolors and all the Daniel Smith quinacridones. #10 DaVinci Kolinsky Sable.

Ttyl time to play with the grandkids. Hugs. Margaret in Atlanta xoxoxoxo

Day 1099 Moh Dr S

July 30, 2017Leave a comment

15 minute sketches. I think I would do better if I used a timer all the time. The mask has black wink of Stella glitter brush pen on it and the necklace gold wink of Stella.

Done in a superaquabee tablet 10×14 or 16. W pentel brush pen and winsor newton travel palette colors plus all the Daniel smith quinacridones.

Day 1098 More Dr Sketchys

July 28, 20172 Comments

Ten minutes

Five minutes

Five or Ten minutes. Add texture contest which I won. The feather is done with glitter pens.

A contest. Add a beast to a sketch. Added the Chat Noir cat. Kinda wished I hadn't. Liked it better before oh well. Always another sketch. 10 min then 10 more to add the cat. I think. Mask is done with wink of Stella glitter pens.

Done in a superaquabee tablet 10×14 or 16. W pentwl brush pen and winsor newton travel palette colors plus all the Daniel smith quinacridones.
Ttyl off to run errands in Atlanta
Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1096 Those Dogs

July 26, 20174 Comments

Last page in this sketchbook. Hurrah. So I decided to draw another page of Zoe.

Zoe is always up for a modeling job. She's cheap. She works for treats! She is NOT good at holding a pose. Her ears are always listening. Rotating line radar to see what you are doing.

I really like the way this head turned out. Both the sketch and the watercolor.

This is my second favorite head. I was drawing fast.

I still had not filled up my pens and reached into my purse to see what I had. Pulled out a 6B Charcoal pencil and drew with it.

After I painted her I set the charcoal with fixative. So far it seems to not be smearing. Cross your fingers.

Strathmore 400 sketchbook. Colors used. Quin burnt sienna cerulean cobalt Andrews Turquoise.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1095 My Flabrador

July 25, 2017Leave a comment

My sweet flabrador Honey. She's fat as a butterball. She's very fond of food especially bread and cookies. Pumpkin pie. NEVER Leave any on the counter if you want to eat it later.

Yesterday drawing at Starbucks all my pens were empty. Huh. Four of them. So I drew with pencil. Today yet to fill them tried a 6B charcoal a la Alex Powers. It loved this Stillman and Birn Alpha. Unlike the pencil it does not repel watercolor.

There's actually a screwed up pen sketch hidden on the left of my grandson.

Labs are hard to paint. The highlights are almost blue. I slapped combos of mixed burnt umber and ultramarine in the dark areas and bled out the edges w clean water for the highlights. Shadows are cerulean and Quin burnt sienna.

Ttyl Margaret who had another busy day xoxoxo

Day 1095 The Flowers

July 24, 2017Leave a comment

Flowers 20×30 Strathmore Bristol paper

Flowers Riechison 300 lb cold press After my friends loathed my sweet little Chinese doll I decided to have another go at this bouquet on some Strathmore Bristol paper. Since it acts like hot press it lets the colors slide around on it and mingle like no other paper I have tried.

That paper meant aLOT of fast painting. Smallest brush I used was a 10 Da Vinci Kolinsky Sable.

Despite that you will get runny drips which I love. It also meant using a lot of paint.

I had to leave it at this point. I will say it was easier to continue the background without hard edges like would have happened with hot press.

I got this far by about 8 pm and decided to quit because I couldn't find my masking fluid.

There was no way I was going to paint this saki pot without it. I finally remembered that I had put it up when I cleaned out my paint box before going to Charles Reid's class. He NEVER uses masking fluid.

Here it is ready paint. I used the tip of a paint brush handle to do this. Made great dots.

Just as I was finishing I got a smear of Quin gold which is staining even if you are using cold press paper let alone this type of paper. Eeekkk! Ruined?! I thought.

My friend Mike said NOPE looked awesome. Leave it alone.

So it's done.

Want to buy it?!

Colors used : Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus cerulean and cobalt.

Margaret xoxoxo who went sketching at Starbucks today and had to resort to a pencil. FOUR pens all out of ink.

Day 1094 A Rewind

July 23, 2017July 23, 2017Leave a comment

As I am prone to do with a painting I hang them or prop them on the fireplace so I can study them while I watch tv at nite in the den.

Ilaina had problems. For some reason I had made her chin too long her forehead too high. And that awful purple blob on her chin.

I gotut my winsor newton synthetic badger flat and started lifting that purple blotting it with dollar store Kleenex. I lifted some Highlights with it too on her chin and reflected light under her chin.
Lifting and blotting. Always finding the brush with clean water.

Lowered that hairline. Lifted 1/2" of the brown background along her neck. After letting it dry I added a quick brush of the brown cerulean mix lightly where I had lifted it.

I hung her back up and Realized that I needed to lower her right shoulder. I lifted a bit of the flesh color to see if it worked. Blotted it with tissue. Let it dry. Added about a 1/2" of background to lower it.

I also trimmed down her hip and right leg a bit brushing it with some of the burnt umber cerulean mix with a two inch flat.
I think she's done but you know how we women are we want to look our best. She might be a little too square still. But that's for another day.