Category: Art

Day 365 ONE YEAR

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of daily blogging.and creating art.  I have grown a lot as an artist in that year which included a class with Charles Reid and one with Fealin Lin four online Sketchbookskool classes. Highly recommend them all. 

  Currently seemed to be obsessed with painting girls. Making progress on the latest one. She’s big. A half sheet of 300# fabriano which is about 15×22. That’s a big watercolor.  

  ALOT of negative painting. And a lot of wet in wet. 

  
I added a lot of why Fealin calls jewelry which are light blobs of paint. Most of mine are small but may add more larger ones to the girl before I am done. 

Painting the background has been a lot of fun. Colors used green apatite marine blue cobalt ultramarine cerulean mineral violet alizarin a bright yellow green. 

More to do. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 364 – Another girl

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Since I already did this post once on the WordPress ap I am hoping it does not post twice or disappear like the last one which  disappeared when I tried to schedule it.  I guess because I am getting a little crazy…tomorrow will make 365 days of continuous daily blogging AKA ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! My grandsons third birthday is Saturday – I am in charge of making the cake AND we are leaving for Key West right after the party…HELP HELP!! And making arrangements for pet sitting….oh MY!

After wiping out the girl yesterday I decided to just start a new one.  I think I have about 25 sheets of 300# cold press paper so WHY not use them…thats not counting at least two blocks of it..one arches and one Richeson block or is it Stephen Quiller?? Time to use the paper up!!

So I started another girl.  She is done on Fabriano 300# cold press and painted with Isabey mops, #2,#8 and brushes, #4-#8…and one #12 Cheap Joes Legends…LOVE all those brushes..start collecting yours NOW!!

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Here’s the sketch.  Next time I am changing to a darker pencil EVEN if it smears.  I didnt notice the chin was a touch too long because the pencil is too light.  That is UNTIL I painted it…had to do a little plastic surgery….oops..

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The first wash…its one of my best I think …Skin done with Quin Coral and Winsor Yellow which are both transparent.Burnt Sienna and Cerulean for most of the shadows.   Hair is any reddish paint I had and a few golds and yellows like Quin gold, quin sienna, burnt Sienna and a little purple a little burnt umber and even orange.

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I did surgery on her chin…it was just too long…I used a straight edge brush and clean water and a kleenex to wipe it and lift it…its easy to do on Fabriano which is amazingly forgiving….

  Well if it won’t upload on my laptop u can always add it after it’s posted on the ap.  Thank goodness it’s done. Between the slow computer the crashing so and my neighbor jack hammering his swimming pool deck I have gotten quite the headache. Sigh. 

Then I decided I hated her hair and used a mr clean wedge to just wipe it out….all gone.  I actually like it better now….who knew but you cant see it because WPress will NOT upload the image…sigh…only one day to go only one day to go ONLY ONE DAY TO GO…Imagine theres a picture here!!

Next to soften some of the hair around her face…wet and blot!! Sigh….

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Helmet hair is NOTTT a good look is it!?

And now her chin looks a little dirty…opps…an easy fix…what i love about watercolor…it will drive you nuts!! :>

I seem to go straight to the dark side with watercolor…I need to stop.  I am trying to stop…i wonder if there’s a meeting for that.

Thanks for reading!!!

Margaretxxx

Day 363 a Change of Plan

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the only things I seem to do consistently is make art and post on my blog. 

  
While watching Bloodlines last nite I realized I could improve this by lifting some of the too orange orange and widening the area to the right of her eye. So I got up this morning and started scrubbing off color. You can lift off kilimanjaro but the paper gets roughed up. Wish I  had painted her on fabriano the paper that takes a scrubbing and keeps on going. It’s super. Oh well.   
The krinkley bit to the right of her eye is caused by the roughed up kilimanjaro. 

  Here’s the  eye before I widened it by scrubbing. 

 I also darkened her background so her hair would not look so pasted on. Probably should have scrubbed it out too. 

 

. Before surgery. 

  
This is the one I was going to post today but instead an FYI!!! Cg. I scrubbed this one off with a mr clean type scrubber that I got at cheap joes. A pack is $2. It scrubbed the paper back to just about white. And since this is fabriano it’s still south as can be. I actually did paint the flesh color back before I took this pic.  It was much whiter.  

 
This is what she looked like before I scrubbed her off. I like her below the waist but NOT above. All that dark color on her cheek is G O N E!! Amazing. 
Thanks for reading. 

Margaret ️xxx 

Day 362 details details. 

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Did a great hand today. But darn what happened to her eyes?! 

  

  I decided on a do over. There’s a lot I like about this painting but darn the right eye. I did try to fix  tomorrow or add it to my bin pile. Lol. Or the compost heap. 

  
A Tip! I sometimes turn paintings into a gray scale photo to check the darks.  I also do this when I paint from photographs. 

Tomorrow I will post version two after I tinker with her some more. 

Thanks for reading 

Margaret xxx

Day 361 – sometimes u should stop

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when you are ahead.   But first
 
Happy Fourth of July!  From Brian Andres storypeople.com Obviously he’s had some experiences. 

 Things were going well after the first forty minute session. But THEN

  
I started adding more purple and Orange. Maybe because I still had an hour and a half to paint and didn’t bring any extra paper.  Oops. 

Should have stopped at this point.  Oops. 

  


And now she’s too orange and too purple.  I have plans to further mess her up but will wait till tomorrow to proceed with the painting torture.   
More tomorrow or maybe I will throw her in the bin?! Stay tuned. Will Erica survive her torture or not?! 

 Update!  I decided to torture her some more. 

 Lightened the purple around her left eye.  Need to work inner nose some more. I also lightened the oranges on her left arm and her hand. She has fingers again. Thanks for reading. 

MArgaret with only four more days till I have posted everyday for a year!!  ️Xxx 

Day 360 – Island Dreaming 2

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I repainted it. This one is larger than the first one. 12×18 

I am much happier with this painting than the last. If I could change anything it would to have used a light hand on the porch across the house. I would have liked to have done it more like the next picture.  Maybe one more go round?! Probably not.  

This was mostly painted with my Isabey mops. Next time I am putting up all my paint brushes but the mops so the small ones don’t call me.  You paint a lot looser with the mops.  Try them. You will love them. 

  
Really like this glow.  I should have taken a break and thought a while before I painted the bottom half of the painting.  

Colors used : cad orange and Aureolin yellow, cerulean, mineral Violet, cobalt,  every green I have, Inathridone, burnt umber and vermilion to make the grey on the Palm trunks.  Some Quin red.  

  
Here’s version 1 of Island Dreaming. I actually do like it just wish I had not gotten the tower as dark as it is. Which one do u like best?? 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret ️xxx 

Day 359 a few more palms

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 Just thought I would trade you today with a few details of a redo on Island Dreaming. Who knows I may do a third one before I am happy with it. I do need to plan a little better. Ah the challenges of watercolor. Ultimately i lightened up the purple orange at the bottom and added some cobalt. 

The beginning of the Palm trees. A mix of cad yellow light and Quin gold.  

 Juicy colors. The fun of watercolor is letting it do the playing.  Of course the purple did not stay that dark darn it. 
  
One more detail just to tease you. Will post the whole thing tomorrow. I think I used every green I own painting the palms and a few that I made. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 358 Those Palm trees 

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  been trying to paint Palm trees again  not sure how successfully.  I tend to get heavy handed with them or get too heavy with the darks. Then I have to lift some of the darks. No wait ALOT of the darks. Thank goodness this is on Fabriano. 

 

I under painted a lot of the trees and the building with light yellow. The green is Daniel smith green apatite. The purple is mineral Violet. 
  
My favorite detail because I like the way the colors blended and a lot of lights. Cobalt mineral Violet and cad orange blended for the darks. 

  
Colors used. Lots of mineral Violet and cad orange a fun combo when painted wet on wet. There’s a lot of orange made with Quin gold and Quin red too. It’s not opaque like the cad orange is. 

Thanks for reading. 

Margaret xxx

Day 357 Henry Time!!!

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Always one of my favorite people to hang out with my grandson Henry.  I meant to post these a few days ago before I got bogged down in elephant mania. Still have at least one more elephant in mind. 

These were done Fathers Day Weekend so they have been in the sketchbook for a week waiting their turn. 

  He’s very good at holding still only when watching his favorite tv shows or when reading. Otherwise a perpetual motion machine.
Thanks for reading.  

Margaret xxx

Day 356 – Love my Noodlers

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I am embarrassed to tell you how many I have. 

  
This was done with my latest acquisition a ReD Noodler Konrad loaded with Diamanté Wild Strawberry. Don’t knowwhich I like better.  The red ink or the red pen. 

I wrote it in my Super Deluxe Bee sketchbook. No fuzzy letters.  The paper loves ink.   

 
My new Konrad loaded with wild strawberry and my beloved Noodler Creaper Ahab loaded with carbon platinum black ink. I have four more Noodler pens. LOVE their flex nibs.  Super for both sketching and lettering because they have an interesting line similar to a dip pen.  I only occasionally make messes with the ink.  I always do with dip pens. Try the Ahab. A bargain at $20 and holds a huge amount of ink.   

  
My other Noodler pens all loaded with different color inks.  A girl needs choices, right?! The top pen, a Noodler Konrad is loaded with Noodlers Lexington Grey, the brush pen is new.  Not sure what color but probably will get Lexington Grey since I have Carbon Black in my Kuretake pen. The slim red Noodler is loaded with deartrementis document brown. The bright yellow one is loaded with deartrementis Petrol a turquoise greeny bluet color. The two small pens were dirt cheap at Goulet. $10 or so each. The Konrads are the priciest at $40. I have a couple of Lamys that I never use.  Hmm I while gift them on at least the safari. May be great for writing but didn’t like it at all for drawing. 

Thanks for reading 
Margaret xxx