Field of flowers

April 15, 2021April 15, 2021Leave a comment

You know one of the things That is a good side effect of the pandemic is all the zoom classes with famous artists that you could never afford to take from in person. And no travel. Do it at your favorite painting table. A win win if there is one in this hideous pandemic.

Today I took a class with Keiko Tanabe on shopkeeparty.com. she just zips along. This class went alot better than thenlast one I took with her so I may do another.

Quitting now. I worked on my sky a bit. And splattered a lot with white gouache, cad yw, opera, and some Joe’s Andrew’s Turquoise. Softened a few edges. Lightened a few spots that had gotten too wet to paint the bushes on and gone dark.

The photo

Will try again with a different building on Hahnamuhle rough instead of Kilimanjaro cold press. Let’s see how it does.

The sketch. Not much to it is there?! Kilimanjaro 300# cold press.

First wash. Dry brushing once I remembered to. Oops. Scratching in the field a bit. And splattering the green to simulate followers. The sky omg. Puffballs. Eek.

Progress. Using my cheap Joe’s Scroggys loose goosy, a kind of saber brush, to paint the flowers – all those lines. It also makes great hair, branches and sometimes telephone lines.

Adding details and darks. Trees and bushes. It was still to wet to do a lot of these but I plowed on chasing Keiko.

NEVER drink espresso Before Doing phone lines. Wobbly lines. Sigh.

Finally remembered how to dry brush trees. Added some neutral tint and some yellow ochre and alizarin to the sky. More cobalt too.

Thought it was done. But eeek. That hard edge under the house bushes. Had to wipe them out some.

And done.

If you are interested in taking online classes. Shopkeeparty.com offers all kinds of art classes twice a week. Every Tues am there’s a one hour one that is free to the public on YouTube. There’s also an extensive backlog of videos on YouTube all free for the watching on Shopkeeparty. John Harrison who runs it has been doing these for a year now. Another COVID benefit. He’s in England. His artists are all over the world.

Margaret xoxoxox who should sell some art to pay for the expensive sliding door that’s getting g replaced. Salesman coming today. Eeekk.

WIP

April 14, 2021April 14, 2021Leave a comment

Tractor time. Found this one smack in the middle of Oakhurst in Decatur.

Slowly rusting away in a back yard near my youngest sons old house just off Oakview. As one of my friends said it already had a chicken. I think it might need one on top of the tractor too.

The sketch on 10X15″ sheet of 140# of hotpress Fabriano. Drawn with a .03 Derwent permanent marker.

Watercolor added. Cad red light ultramarine Prussian blue quin gold burnt sienna.

Done for the moment but I do think it needs something. I added some greytone Tombow markers.

Addendum: found out this is a McCormick Farmall Tractor probably from the 40s or 50s. Thanks have found a pic on line of the same one but doesn’t tell the model number.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox

David time

April 10, 2021Leave a comment

He was so cute I decided to write down some of the things that he did and said like he’s calling me Gaga. Who wouldn’t want to be as glamorous as Gaga without the tortured bit. I better step up my game.

The black and white sketch done with my micro uniball pen. In some ways I like this better. The grassy area bothers me a bit.

And since I had screwed up this page I decided to write down my activities which seemed to mainly consist of binge watching tv binge knitting and shopping. I was using gift certificates for a lot of my art store buying. Still have more to spend. Blicks and Binders had discontinued Daniel Smith Watercolors. What the heck?!

I drove to Roswell to the big Blick store a round trip of 64 miles across Atlanta traffic. Should have just gone to the Intown Blick on Peachtree. Only a few miles from my sons houses and they have almost everything that I want there. I don’t buy all that extra stuff at the other Blick.

One of the socks I binge knitted. I mean Christmas is coming right?

Margaret xoxoxox

Monday can be Funday too

March 30, 2021Leave a comment

Looking at this boat makes me smile. Love the silly birds on top. Clyde and co!

The photo. I was trolling YouTube this am and discovered an Ian Fennelly paint along and I thought way more fun than listening to NPR and doing the Aigusta National golf club.

And I was right. Always fun to listen to Ian natter on. This is an old sailboat on the river Dee in Cornwall. Something about the river isn’t there anymore just the marshes?!

Stage 1. The pen layout.

Stage 2. Drawing the boat and environs with a Tombow fine tip end. A number 65 I think.

Stage 3. Coloring the boat w tombows and fine liners.

Stage 4&5. Color added then some more marker detail. Also the silly gulls. Limited palette Ultramarine, Burnt sienna, Orange, green gold, white gouache.

Margaret who almost forgot to post. Xoxoxox

Sacre Couer

March 29, 20212 Comments

Sketching Paris – Sacre Couer which sits on the highest point in the city and can be seen from all over the city. There are a few tweaks coming sooner or later.

The photo.

Step 1. Lay out pens on your paper at the angles you will draw the buildings.

Step 2. Drawn with a very light Tombow on 140# hot press Fabriano 15×20″. Delicious paper. Sometimes I think it would be easier to start these off with a pencil. Then you can erase the inevitable oopseys.

Step 3. Ink it with a .03 permanent fine liner adding a few more details.

Step 4. Watercolor layer. Only four colors used. Ultramarine, cad red dark, burnt sienna or quin sienna and cobalt teal light.

Step 5. Adding more Tombow and darker tombows including black.

Step 6. Adding more details! Using the permanent fine liners. .03 .02 .01 And a bit more Tombows.

Step 7. And last add a bit more watercolor. And a few more splatters. I do love splattering.

That’s a wrap. The last Sunday Funday with Ian Fennelly. Ian’s been a very busy boy during the pandemic offering a ton of classes in Studio56Boutique.com.

Margaret tucked up in bed. Xoxoxo

Daffy for daffodils

March 26, 2021Leave a comment

Got a little carried away painting daffodils yesterday over and over and over. Wanted soft edges and kept getting hard ones. I used up a half sheet of 300# Kilimanjaro painting these.

They range in size from 10×10″ to about 7×7″.

Some have salt added to them which gives the speckled look.You can still see salt on this one. Oops.

After lunch I forgot the salt and splattered them. Oops

Cad yellow light, Indian yellow, Daniel smith sodalite and green apetite, quin magenta and sap green. Oh and some Daniel Smith gold and opalescent blue.

I also added salt to three of them. Wish I remembered to do it to the last two.

Margaret xoxoxo

Oops I did it again

March 23, 2021Leave a comment

Two paintings in one day and a nice long nap on the sofa when I finished.

I painted and drew from 9 am to almost 5! Guess my artistic block is over. Amazing how a vaccine takes the pressure off! Hope you get yours soon.

The drawing. 300 # cold press Kilimanjaro. Nice paper! Masking fluid was added to reserve the white of the whiskers.

Off to a wild start with Liz Chadderton. You too can paint a cute Easter bunny. She makes her animal paintings look so easy but let me tell you they aren’t. My paper kept drying out making hard edges. Sigh.

Almost done. This only took 40 minutes and about forty years of practicing. Only 3 colors used. French ultramarine, burnt sienna or burnt umber and opera pink. Masking fluid on the whiskers.

And that’s a wrap. Back to my nap. 😴 Margaret xoxoxo

La Tour Eiffel

March 22, 2021Leave a comment

Done for the moment. Sunday Funday with Ian Fennelly. Who could resist drawing the Eiffel Tower with Ian??! Really enjoyed it despite I wore my hand out inking it. Should have taken a lunch break. One of my fav places in Paris esp when lit up at night.

I sat under it on one Saturday nite drawing it. Heaven for someone who loves to sketch.

Of course I can’t find the picture of the sketch right now. A double page spread too.

The photo

The sketch. Tombow time.

Firming it up with permanent ink markers. Like the lettering but little matchbox cars. Oops. Oh well. Can’t have it all, right?!

First layer of watercolor. Four colors. Winsor Newton Brown Madder, WN Cerulean, WN Prussian Blue, and M Graham Azo Orange. Oh a dab of ivory black used as a grey.

Close up. Yummy colors. The weird brown red is the the brown madder.

Adding more tombows. Coloring with the marker end. A range of greys and black. Second sweep with watercolor. Cross hatching underway with permanent fine liners .05, .03 and .01.

Finished exhale or it got a little dark. One good thing abt fluid hotpress. You can wipe some of the color off.

Here it is now. My fav bit are the cobble stones near the crosswalk. No idea why but there it is.

But this one is still my fav.

Next Sunday Sacre Couer!

Margaret watching Bull again. Not listening to it again. Xoxoxox

The Road Less Traveled

March 21, 2021Leave a comment

Done. For sale 15×20″ cold press 300# Kilimanjaro

Love my trees. Painted with Daniel Smith Payne’s grey a yellow mix used for the trees yellow ochre Holbein lilac and a cad yellow light. A few bits of cobalt cerulean mix.

Oh and most importantly painted w a saber brush and a dagger brush uncontrollable but make wonderful lines for trees.

The snow was done w cobalt. I tried adding cerulean but always get a nasty opaque grey with it so wiped it off. Scrubby scrubby.

Other colors used burnt sienna burnt umber and Prussian blue in his jeans.

I got carried away having fun painting the trees on the right. Finally decided to wipe some out by scrubbing with a paint brush. They are not the focal point.

My morning greeting. Anyone need a kitty kitty?!!

Margaret who can’t let them starve. Xoxoxo

Archibald Butt Bridge

March 19, 2021March 19, 20212 Comments

Done for the moment. Quarter sheet of fluid hot press paper. The bridge is an Augusta landmark on 15th Street and spans the Augusta Canal. The mills in the background once were powered by the canal. Archibald Butt was an Augustan who died on the Titanic giving up his seat in a lifeboat. He also served in President Roosevelt and then Tafts administration who came to town for the dedication. Butts is buried at Arlington.