Day 722 – the Miller

June 22, 2016June 22, 2016Leave a comment

Named after its owner Frank Miller the theater is an Arte Moderne theater built in 1938 in downtown Augusta.

This side of Broad Street rarely gets any direct sunlight and of course it’s the side where all the old stores are.

Business office buildings are largely on the other side of Broad the sunny side probably because who wants to shop in the hot summer sun??

The onset of the malls in the late 70s destroyed downtown Augusta business and forced the closure of the Miller in 1980s.

Currently under new ownership of Peter Knox it is slated to reopen fully restored in 2017 as the new home of the Augusta Symphony.

As kids we went to see Disney movies, Beatle movies, and the umpteenth screening of Gone with the Wind here. I distinctly remember watching Swiss Family Robinson and 101 Dalmatians here.

Colors used. Ted Nuttalls colors and sodalite. Really like the way the sodalite granulated on the front of the grey stucco building. I also used a white and a light yellow caran d’ache watercolor crayon and a white gel pen for the lights.

Anyway. Thanks for checking by.

Margaret xxx

Day 721 – Alexis

June 21, 2016Leave a comment

One of my Aiken painting friends blocking out her new painting.
Alexis always comes to paint dressed to the nines frequently with a scarf flung over her shoulder wearing ballet flats. She says she’s trying to wear out her old work clothes now that she’s retired.
I quipped at her it wouldnt take me long to do in my good clothes with acrylic paint smears.
This painting doesn’t do her justice because she’s also very tiny. I fattened her up a bit. 😁 Sorey Alexis. She works hard on staying slim. Always eating somethings healthy.
Speaking of which I think I will go eat a salad. Big wedding coming aka Mother of the Groom dress. Eeekkk.

Colors used – Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. And sodalite. Makes a great granulating grey.

Day 720 – a Watercolor Finally

June 20, 2016June 20, 2016Leave a comment

I drew this almost a month ago but have been busy painting other things so finally got around to it last nite.

This is an old theater on Broad Street in Augusta GA which still has shows and YES an Elvis show was and is coming up the end of June at Imperial.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors with the addition of cerulean. I always have a hard time painting white without my beloved cerulean.

I also used Daniel Smiths primatek colors Serpentine Genuine and Sodalite after seeing samples of them at Jerrys Artarama. You can buy Daniel Smith at most art supply stores as well as online at Cheap Joes and Amazon.

While I am on the subject of Cheap Joes I know the owner and founder Joe Miller a lovely man who recently received a humanitarian award from AWS. He’s the first to step up and voluntarily help artists in need as well as his longtime home Boone NC.

During the devastation of Katrina Joe voluntarily went into the Cheap Joes database to find any artist in the seven states affected by Katrina. Each of them received a studio startup gift certificate from Cheap Joes. He has done this time and again. So BUY from Cheap Joes if you can!!

Oh before I forget the tree was done with a sea sponge. I also used Caran d’ache watercolor crayons to add color to the drawing – white yellow and orange.

I also used a few Winsor Newton watercolor markers – indigo, lamp black, and turquoise.

Thanks For Checking by.

Margaret xxx

Day 720 Happy Fathers Day

June 19, 2016Leave a comment

My dad, a young 93, loves dogs. He’s a sucker for them. And they love him. Feeds them endless snacks. Feeds them of his dinner plate.

I should be painting something new to post. Goodness knows my sketch books are full of ink sketches begging to be painted BUT there’s a new dog in town. I am babysitting my sons rescue the sweet Wesley aka Cowdog because he’s black and white like the Chic Fil A cows.

I took a photo of this and noticed his head was too small so I added about an 1/8 of an inch along his jaw line.

Here’s the one when his head is too small.

Drawn with a Noodler Konrad with carbon platinum black ink.
Thanks for checking by! Hope you all enjoy your Fathers Day!

Margaret xxx

Day 719 – Saturday

June 18, 2016Leave a comment

Already again.

Ilania 20×24 acrylic

This only took about an hour to paint. Somehow the thinned nickel Azo gold prepainted background really helped getting her done.

After the first forty minutes.

Of course after I started looking at her on my phoneI thought maybe I should have painted the drape she was sitting on. Her left arm looks chopped off. It’s really behind the chair she sat on. And her right arm though it looks great is suspended in space. So hmm. What do you think?!
She was painted with Winsor violet, liquitex burnt umber and titanium white, and golden fluid pyrrole red and nickel Azo gold.

Al Beyers lovely large oil. Anout 4 feet long. The hand is just amazing. Remember these were all painted in about an hour and a half.

Drew Murphys acrylic. Some lovely skin tones. Cezanne looking today. Great effect.

Cathe Dennis from Lansing, Michigan’s pastel. She even knows where Diamondale is. My daughter in laws family lives there. Love her scribbles. For some reason it reminds me of Toulouse Lautrec.

Ruth Pearls awesome large pastel.

Tom Needhams El Greco he always does beautiful skin tones.

Fred Baker with his always interesting sense of color.

Thanks for checking by.

Margaret xxx

Day 718 A JRT or two

June 17, 2016Leave a comment

Really have to find something else to draw besides the dogs. Well at least something to practice fast sketching on.

This one is a little off but chalking it up to Zoe moving when she was giving me the Jack Russell stare while eating which means she really wants it cause she might be fainting from starvation any second if I don’t give it to her.

I did start this sketch for a really big full sheet watercolor that I have been wanting to start since I got back from Knoxville. She still has some kinks to work out before I start it.

So that’s what I have been up to today.

Thanks for checking by!

Margaret xxx

Day 617 Done and a dog or two

June 17, 2016Leave a comment

All the squiggly lines are glued down now. I like it but will live with it a while before I sign my name. My biggest problem is always deciding when something is done. But for now it is done.

Back to drawing dogs. Noodler Konrad loaded with Deartrementis document brown ink.

Begging ever hopeful Honey. She did get to lick my breakfast plate. This is drawn with a Pentel Hybrid Techna pen that I like to write with a lot. It did a good job drawing too. It’s so fine it requires a lot more cross hatching than the Konrad. The pen isn’t waterproof so a little water and smudging took care of that problem.

HOWEVER when I used it to mark grid lines to enlarge a photo I am going to paint the ink on the photo killed it.

Now I am wondering if Cheap Joes will replace it. They have a one year warranty on all their products. I got it during my class with Ted Nuttall last month and just finally used it. I used their warranty when my paintbrush had a loose ferrell and they replaced it without a problem. Cheap Joes is such a great place.

Thanks for checking by
Margaret

Day 716 – While digging

June 15, 2016June 15, 20164 Comments

For collage papers I also found my citrasolve altered papers. I have a two inch stack of them.

Multimedia collage with citrasolv papers, ginkgo leaves, tissue paper and tuna fish pak cardboard from Krogers.
It’s a great way to make altered “antique” photos for framing or for collage or any thing else you can dream up. Art on a Budget.

So I am posting some of my favorites I made 3-4 years ago.

They are made from old National Geographics the only magazine that can be used for this.

Use the straight UNDILUTED citrasolv CONCENTRATE. Also rubber gloves and a sunny NOT WINDY day is required. More detailed directions are here.

Mine is from Jerrysartarama. I have quart. Let me know if u need some if u live in the Augusta area.

Put some citrasolv in a shaker container like a pill bottle with holes punched in the lid.

Flipping thru the National Geographic sprinkle some citrasolv on all the pages but the ads. It doesn’t work well on them. The papers different.

Close the book and let the citrasolv sit til the ink starts moving.

Maybe ten – twenty minutes. Yes you can peek.

When the ink is moving open the book.

Start ripping the pages out one at a time and lay them out flat and separately. No stacking no overlapping. The spine will come apart easily.

Lay them on the grass to dry in the sun. You will have a lot of pages. Don’t let them blow away.

They take a while to loose the citrasolv smell.

This is a copy of one I liked a lot.

You can make copies so that you can keep your favorites.

Then you can use them over and over.

Bytw you can buy National Geographics for .50 at our Salvation Army of you don’t have a friend that will give you stacks of their old ones.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 715 – the Abstract

June 14, 2016Leave a comment

Been working on this today adding the collage bits. I used paper that I painted a few years back. If I had used scrap book paper it wouldn’t be eligible for a lot of watercolor shows.

Here it is before I added the collage bits. Can you find them?!

Black and gold with golden silver or possible golden stainless

These papers are oh so easy to make and I have a large stack of them.

You paint a blobby line of acrylic paint across the top of a piece of printer paper and scrape it down with an old credit card. Let it dry.

Nickel Azo gold with dioxzine purple

Then you repeat with another color. Scrape it down with a credit card.

Spray it with water BEFORE IT DRIES. LET IT DRY and scrape it again. It will peel off paint leaving the splatters from the spray.

Golden stainless nickel Azo gold then golden silver

Thalo? Green and copper

Not sure but the base coat is nickel Azo gold with a golden silver top coat. Not sure what the second layer is. You can do three layers.

Nickel Azo gold with golden silver

Nickel Azo gold with golden silver and a third color

Turquoise with golden silver

Quin magenta I think with dioxzine purple
Opalescent light green with copper I think.

I also added pieces of old painted deli wrap paper.

Like you get Hardee’s biscuits in without printing on it.

You paint scrape and stamp them yourself.

Or stencil them.

Most of them are painted with golden pearlescent and opalescent paints with liquitex solids.
A painted and stamped Ruby Tuesdays napkin

And there’s always those paper towels you wipe your paint brushes with.

Since they are all glued down with gel medium it doesn’t matter that they are not archival. They become plasticized with the medium.

Thanks for checking by.

Margaret xxx

Day 714 – It was

June 13, 2016Leave a comment

A trick. Found some more that I have not posted. At least I don’t think I did.

Our sweet new friend Lenore

And Piper the service dog. One of my favorite dog sketches ever. I might have posted this one but its so great i can post it again. He’s actually a black standard poodle which is difficult to paint so black shadows are sufficing-artistic license and all that!!!

Here’s the whole page together. No idea why I didn’t paint the while background the same color. Ah well. No do overs with watercolor like one can do with watercolor.