Can scarcely believe I am keeping up. 18 days now and 18 drawings. That’s a first for me.
Margaret trying to keep the words to a minimum. Lamy Ef w Platinum Black ink black micro uniball white pentel gel pen and stillman and birn alpha. Small books are so much less demanding. Xoxoxox
It’s that time of the year and so far I have done seven drawings. That’s a new high. Usually do one or two and stop.
And a superhero quilt for my oldes grandson. His request.
Also baked and baked and then baked some more. Pumpkin spices cookies. Choc chip cookies. Scratch biscuits. A quiche. Pumpkin streusel muffins. I am tired now. Nite nite.
Margaret xoxoxox
We started with an egg sketch.
Hair dried a lot of masking fluid today. Something ideally you should never do as it makes it tough to remove.
I also dipped my Loose Goose into some Winsor Newton white gouache to add a few more pieces of straw and curly bits where I didn’t have any. Bet you can’t tell where I did that.
This class is available for purchase on Shopkeeparty soon if you would like to try your hand at a nest or one of Lizs other classes. All are available as video on Shopkeeparty.com.
I highly recommend Liz! Margaret xoxoxox
My friend Mike and I usually go to Cheap Joe’s to take a class and paint together but all that has gone virtual with covid. She had signed up for a class with Don but it had canceled early in the epidemic.
When he posted a zoom class we decided to have a virtual get together and paint with Don. He does these every other month or so. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see what he’s up to.
Class evaluation. Don has been teaching at Cheap Joe’s for years. Several of Cheap Joe’s American Journey watercolors are named for him like one of my favs Andrew’s turquoise.
Anyway Don really knows his subject matter and explains it well. Has great class paceing allowing plenty of time for drying the watercolor and breaks. Technology has greatly improved since he and his wife started. He also allows plenty of time for questions after class plus access to the class video for a year on Vimeo.
We started by doing small samples of what he calls granulated washes. You start off wetting the paper then adding colors one by one and letting them blend together. This is on Arches 140 rough.
There’s another word for them – is it ombré washes!? But can’t think of it off the top of my head.
I checked Whitney’s book. These are called graded and granulated washes in his book. Two types.
Whitney has some of the best explanations of washes in his book.
The graded wash-Done on paper flooded with water the graded wash is an even gradation of color dark at the top almost white at the bottom. Also called ombré.
The granulated washes are done by flooding with plenty of water. Then tilting the paper back and forth “letting the pigment settle in small basins in the paper.”
This might be a pic of the mountains finished. I really should check.
We started with the sky and water wash. Then we dried it.
Then the far background trees and some on the left which I managed to paint out. Oops.
Then we dried it. Notice a repetition here?? Everything is quite sloppy wet using this technique which can be quite fun.
Last layer was applying the darkest darks. And the boat. All the reflections.
Would I take another class from Don. Definitely. I find some watercolor painters just hurry hurry hurry they the class leaving no time to catch up with the teacher or to dry the watercolor. NEVER a good thing trying to paint on a still damp watercolor.
One for my new granddaughter whose due Dec 21. What do you bet she gets a Christmas quilt too?!!
Hugs Margaret who needs to finish her morning caffeine. Xoxoxo
Stay tuned for part two.
Arches 280# cold press paper
Well who knew I would be painting rocks? But I did. I liked it so much I did two. Another Shopkeeparty class.
And then I took another longer class from David and his friend Bob Ross today. Another crazy fun class. He sweetened the class by giving a 20% discount. Now I am thinking abt buying the video. 😳😳😩
Two for one. So this one counts for Friday too. Off to Atlanta tomorrow for the next week. plenty on my phone that you have not seen so I can continue my knitting.
Hugs Margaret. Xoxoxox
Anyway here’s the photo.
Margaret done for the day. xoxoxox hoping she will get this one painted and then finish the Atlanta one. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
I left the house with $20 in cash in my pocket. by the time I went to pay for my items it was gone. No check and they do not take credit cards which I had plenty of.
A very kind man paid for mine when I told the lady I would run back to the house and find it or a check. Wow!! Thanks mystery man. His story is the pencil writing in the background. Had to commemorate the event.
Anyway Stillman and Birn Epsilon or hmm is it a Beta? heavy paper compared to the Alpha that I usually use. Uniball micro pen. American Journey watercolors.
Margaret xoxoxoxo
Well maybe …in the gates but waiting for the race to start. Hoping not to be an also ran.
Can I just call this done?!
This is my primary picture I am using. I have a ton of photos of the Fox. I snap them when traffic backs up at the light or just put the phone on the dash and take a surreptitious pic or two.
Try upside down. You will see it works.
On another subject. New cat on the back porch. Eeek. Worse my cats who are bigger than it are afraid of it and run when it tries to eat their food. Dummies don’t know they are suppose to run it off. Sigh.
Margaret xoxoxo
I actually like this so far. The morning will tell. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev
Yellow ochre cobalt and alizarin This layer will eventually disappear or appear to be white.
Margaret ready for a nap after four hours of madly chasing after Vlad today. Eeek.
Xoxoxoxo
That boat in the middle. Thought I would never get it drawn. Right now it’s done but who knows when i look on the am?!
If the drawings not right you can’t start painting.
Hugs Margaret xoxoxo looking at a busy day tomorrow.
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 