Portrait painting

July 2, 2022July 3, 2022Leave a comment

She may or may not be done. Not fond of the too loud quin gold and the too heavy pencil that won’t erase but otherwise like her a lot.

Took an online class with Fealing Lin a couple of weeks ago thru Cheap Joes online. The biggest plus is that we get to keep the video on YouTube forever. A big plus.

Another plus you can contact Edwina May at cheap joes to get put in your favorite painters waiting lists if you can’t score a class.

My friend Mike aka Linda joined me in the zoom class. Even though she was in Raleigh and I was at mine it was almost like being in Boone in one of Fealings classes. We texted each other our paintings back and forth during our class breaks.

Oops really not fond of him. Lost some of his mustache and the quin gold really got out of hand. Eyes need work and I need to lift his mustache.

And she definitely needs work. Not sure what BUT sooner or later I will.

Loving these lazy summer days. I suppose I am having too much fun just lasting with the hubs yet around the house to bother painting. My bad right??

Last evening we were floating in the pool watching the swifts dart and dive overhead for their dinner. Who knew they did that??! Or maybe it was just a whole new view of them from below instead of from the deck?

Then the next door neighbors shot off fireworks for a half an hour. Scared our feral cats to death but we loved them. I actually posted a short video of them on Facebook last night.

Tomorrow night our other neighbors will go to town with their spectacular fireworks display. He has enough fireworks to fill up a long bed pickup in his garage. Grandkids are coming and they are going to love it! So are we.

Out my back porch on the Savannah river just now.

And earlier today. I thought the rain was suppose to continue.

Happy fourth!! Love Margaret xoxoxoxo

Time to draw

June 11, 2022Leave a comment

Still not done but it was fun to hang out w friends and paint Azelia who is just lovely and so much fun. Half sheet-15×22” of cold press 140 fluid paper. While I am not fond of a reclining pose had a lot of fun painting the fabric. Used wc paint w very little water to make it opaque. Easy to paint it with the sharp tipped seconds perla brushes.

Gesture drawing warm ups. These are two not minutes.

Not sure how long ruse were. Five minutes ish. She posed til she got tired of the pose.

Five minutes. All done on large sheets of newsprint w Caran d’arche Neocolor ii crayons.

What’s for dinner tonite. Meant to cook it yesterday. Oh well. Chicken pot pie. yummm. Plenty left for tomorrow

Margaret xoxoxox

Plein Aire Fishing

May 27, 2022May 27, 20222 Comments

Well while he fishes I paint.

Flags flying at half staff on the Thurmond Dam.

The sketch. The only pencil I had was a thick leaded 2B derwent sketch pencil. Yes I forgot a regular pencil too. Sigh. You know when fisherman are ready to go they are ready to go. 😂😂😂

Off course I didn’t finish them. Left the big wash brushes at home. Both of these were painted with a tiny size 4. I rarely use anything smaller than a 10!

Both are fairly small. 1/4 sheet 140 arches rough. The pad just fits in my painting bag so I took it along.

Will finish these when I get home but off to moms memorial so these will languish on the studio table while I am gone.

Mom at 90. She does recently from Covid. Refused to get the shots.

On her 90th. She was 96 when she died in April. RIP Lucy June!

Maggie xoxoxo

It’s All About the Cherry

May 27, 20224 Comments

Half sheet Kilimanjaro 300# M Graham watercolors w Mary Whyte colors in it per her portrait painting book.

My niece was excited about eating her chocolate milkshake at Rutledge Cab Company in N Charleston. Great restaurant bytw!!!

Why do I always make problems to fix like the light background?

Storm blowing in from Georgia. Mostly a deluge but no tornadoes thank goodness. Hugs Maggie xoxoxo

Another Monday with Crystal

May 26, 2022May 26, 2022Leave a comment

The long pose – 40 minutes – pentel brush pen and watercolor in my superaquabee tablet. Crystal of @crystallinecreative did a terrific job as usual during this live zoom session thru Townsend Atelier. She’s doing online modeling sessions via Townsend Atelier about once a month on Monday at 5 EST. You can contact them at mailto:peggy@townsendatelier.com.

Ten minute pose

Fishing again today. That’s my husband up at the top of the dam – the blue dot. You run up and down that hill to land fish. Not me. I sit at the bottom and paint. Of course I didn’t finish anything today. Maybe I will get them down tomorrow. Some dummy left most of her brushes at home. Duh.

Maggie xoxoxo

Pepes

May 24, 2022Leave a comment

Oldest eating establishment in Key West is their Moniker.

Margaret xoxoxox who needs to do a whole series of Key West quirky places.

Across from the Key West Bight.

This place serves the most awesome coconut pie you will ever eat. I ran across this sketch when I was looking for photos of Chrystalline creative in my superaquabee sketchbook and really like it a lot so thought I should publish it.

Pepe’s Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 C Graham Crumbs

1/4 C Sugar

6 T Butter melted

Stir all together and press in 9-10″ pie pan

Filling

3 Egg Yolks

2 t Coconut Extract

1/2 C Sugar

3 Heaping T cornstarch

3 C Half and Half

1 C Flaked and Sweetened Coconut

1/2 C Heavy Cream

mix yolks and extract, set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch , half and half in heavy sauce pan over medium high. Bring to boil stirring constantly.

The recipe for Pepes Coconut Pie.

Pepe’s Coconut Cream Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 C Graham Crumbs

1/4 C Sugar

6 T Butter melted

Stir all together and press in 9-10″ pie pan

Filling

3 Egg Yolks

2 t Coconut Extract

1/2 C Sugar

3 Heaping T cornstarch

3 C Half and Half

1 C Flaked and Sweetened Coconut

1/2 C Heavy Cream

mix yolks and extract, set aside.

Combine sugar, cornstarch , half and half in heavy sauce pan over medium high. Bring to boil stirring constantly.

When it starts to bubble and 1/2 C of mixture to eggs very slowly to temper them. Return all to the saucepan whisking constantly over medium low. When the sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon remove from heat and stir in coconut. Cool to room temperature and turn into the crust. Chill for 2 hours. Whip cream (1/2 T powdered sugar) and spoon over pie.

If you love coconut pie this is the one to eat. We passed up pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving for this one when I made it. And I make a great pumpkin pie too.

Online Live modeling session

May 23, 2022May 26, 2022Leave a comment

Crystal was awesome. She’s a rock steady model holding the pose for long periods of time without moving and her poses are always fascinating. Her costumes which she makes are always phenomenal.

We started off with five minute poses then two minute and up to forty for the long fairy pose.
You can follow her at @crystallinecreative on Instagram.

*10 min pose with pentel ink brush pen, watercolor in my favorite super aquabee sketchbook.*

Crystal is a super model. Been drawing her off and on for a while since going to the Atlanta Artist Center where she also models. Now She’s doing online modeling sessions via Townsend Atelier about once a month on Monday at 5 EST. You can contact them at mailto:peggy@townsendatelier.com. They have a phenomenal range of classes.

Well chop her head off. Another two minute. Love the body but that neck is toooooo long. Lol.

10 min u really should fix her left eye. Will eye. Probably not. Lol.

Another ten minute but I went back in later and touched it up. Looked lame because it was done in pencil and needed more paint.

The Fairy is painted on a half sheet of Fabriano hot press. 15×22. It was nearby when I decided the long pose was too interesting for my smaller aquabee. Drawn in pencil painted with my Mary Whyte colors palette.

*Screenshot from the online zoom session.*

One advantage to doing a zoom session is that you can capture her pose with a screen shot.

Handy if you want to tweak your sketches. Doesn’t matter if there’s not enough detail because you really don’t want to get bogged down with the details.

The camera was down near her feet so there was a lot of odd foreshortening. She really doesn’t have big feet except from that angle. Lol.

Margaret who needs to get busy xoxoxo

Beach combers

May 22, 2022May 22, 2022Leave a comment

Is done. Lots of wet on wet painting with huge brushes. The whites were not masked before painting. Call it living on the edge.

The sketch on 300# Kilimanjaro cold press

On the palette Aurelian yellow, vermilion, burnt sienna, Thalo blue(joes blue), manganese blue, alizarin, quin magenta.

I tried to fix the sky. When will I learn to never touch a wet sky wash. My downfall in these kinds of paintings. I just can’t resist tweaking and then it’s NOT wet enough and I get a bloom or worse lifted paint.

Hope your Sunday is wonderful. We are getting much needed rain here on the river!!

Margaret xoxoxo

Gone fishing

May 17, 2022Leave a comment

Me fishing. Incredible but it happened today. Actually I was painting in my Hahnemuhle journal while my dh fished. Of course the fish started hitting less than five minutes after he threw out his live bait. 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

I can see this one needs work after looking at it just now.

The weather was perfect behind Clarke’s Hill Dam or floating lazily on the river under a turquoise umbrella fishing.

He caught four like this. Two were big enough to keep. The other two were slightly smaller. This one is over 28 inches long a big boy!!

Maggie having a relaxing Sunday after WordPress tried to eat this post. Xoxoxox

Update

April 23, 2022April 24, 2022Leave a comment

Calling Teri done now. I lifted highlights on her arm and face. Also added quite a few darks along her tummy and her hand and here and there. most importantly I gave her her middle finger. No idea why I didn’t paint it in yesterday since I did the other four. I also shortened her thumb. It was far too long.

Played with her a lot. Added a dark juicy background. Slung some paint at her with my Scroobys Loose Goose from Cheap Joes. Might try some paint rolling too with it. Too bad she’s really a very light blonde.

Might have too many hard edges. Will see what my fav two critics say.

Portrait Society of America is currently meeting in Atlanta and running live streams on their Facebook page. The paint out TH a nite was awesome. 12 portrait painters painting four models live. Here’s the link.

Also a link to last years winners here. Tonite we think they will live stream this years winners.