Category: Painting

Day 2054

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Stones at Parafugel Spain on the Mediterranean. Did I go?! NOPE from a photo of Vlads. I didn’t even like the photo just couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to paint that I had a photo of. Sketch on 140 lb cp rough Fabriano.

Sky wash. Cerulean w a dab of MIXED neutral tint. NOT about a tube of neutral tint but a mix of burnt sienna indigo and dioxzine purple.

I blotted the clouds w Kleenex and dabbed in some of the neutral tint for shadows.

Warm wash over all the rocks.

Moving along with step 2- 50 color/50 water. Really hate it. Especially rocks in middle foreground.

And here’s how I left it. Green tree in background IS distracting guess I will fogk it up. Rofl. Manana.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox Up early in search of THE photo.

Day 2053 it’s a bird

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No it’s a thrasher. The Georgia state bird. Evidently kills smaller birds. Bad bird. Have a big one 11″ or very leggy at the back porch feeders. Never bothers anyone. Maybe mine is a lady thrasher. Lol

Remember my grandson said I could sell these for $3 rofl.

Watercolor pencil Kilimanjaro cp.

Margaret whose putting her feet up. Xoxoxox

Day 2054 Strancone, Italy done!!! Onward!!!

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At least for the monenbt. You never know. It’s subject to change right?! Until it’s framed.

At the end of class. Pallet colors same as Vld said to use. Mostly neutral tint cad red light cad yellow and cobalt today.

Thinking tomorrow or Thursday will try the beach scene we did the sepia sketch of. Lost my focal point but I can fix it in the final one. Should have been in the middle.

Like this one. Sigh.

Think I will draw the scene while I listen to tv. Lol. Can’t watch and draw right.

Spent half the day looking for paint. How can I be out of cobalt van dyke brown AND dioxzine purple. This method of painting uses shovel loads of paint. Need to buy the BIG tubes not the 16″5 oz. shoulda added to my Blick order. Sigh.

I ordered these during class Sunday and here they are already.

I did get a set of Escoda perla brushes from amazon because I could NOT get my black velvets to dry brush. They split.

Escoda perla 8,10,12 from top to bottom

If the perlas are good enough for Vlad, Iain Stewart and Joseph Zbukiv they are good enough for me. Suppose to make great calligraphic marks as well as do sweeping dry brush effects. Not a bad deal $30 for and 8 10 and a 12 travel brush Escoda perla Joseph Zbukiv Brand.

Homework from class. I couldn’t stand the tension of watching the battle this week in Game of Thrones. Eyes on paper. Eeekkk. Glad that episode is over.

Line practice

More homework from class. Supposedly if u draw two dots keep your pencil on left for eye on right dot you should get straight lines. Thinking not something to do during game of thrones or after four cups of high caffeine tea. Lol.

Margaret who has to make her clean bed first before she draws the scene so I can practice trees with my new brushes. Bet they will work on rocks too. Xoxoxo

Day 2053 Day 3 w Vlad

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So tired after three days of painting all day and family parties every night I drove home two and a half hours and crashed. Vlads luminous painting of Strancone Umbria Italy Class yesterday was again wonderful. He stayed til the bitter end far longer than he was required. I think he left at 6 not long after I did.

Mine at the end of class. NOT finished. I got into trouble AGAIN. Groan. I did my shadow wash to the wrong line on the drawing. I thought the wire line was where it was supposed to stop. I was painting so fast doing the wash I didn’t notice. I was going to flip it over and start again or paint white gouache over the left side when Vlad said no. Got a sea sponge and taped off the left section and the arch and blotted off the errant wash. Now I have to go back and repaint the windows.

At least my first wash went well. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Vlads soupy washes

Finished day 2 painting. A little dark. I wish I had lifted it with a sponge. And I may redo or look try my paintings for one to do in similar style. Everybody loves it but it looks dark in comparison to yesterday.

Will post yesterday’s when I finish it – hopefully tomorrow.

Vlad at lunch still instructing.

Perhaps the most exciting sharing watercolor teacher I have had. Always on, always instructing. Goes the extra mile. When not demoing hes walking the room helping students several times a day. Shares EVERYTHING he knows. Only John Salimen can compare as a teacher. Then dear Charles who also shares everything he knows as does John.

Tells funny stories and his Russian accent is icing on the cake.

Vlad’s Strancone Italy on his website for sale. I do like his sunflooded version better than the one we painted in class.

One of his funniest told with his Russian accent is we Russians line up for everything. We don’t know what line is for but we get in line anyway.

A fog it up example from his website.

Another funny story. He was telling us how to a paint a landscape similar to this one. He said with his Russian accent u need to fogk it up. We were all dead silent eyes large thinking he said THAT word. He said you know Fogk it up. Aka FOG to up. We burst out laughing after that. Watercolor teachers do NOT run to cussing let alone that word.

He’s also kind and considerate in his critique of your work and thinking of tailor made suggestions to improve what you do. I HIGHLY recommend him. If you cant take one of his classees get his dvd. I am sure its as wonderful as he is. Mine is on its way. He ran out before he got to our class.

Vlads palette and brushes

Two of Vlads paintings that will be for sale at Olmsted Plein Air this weekend.

HIS Plein Air painting in Havana. Said it was full of wonderful crumbly buildings and old cars. But take plenty of paper towels. They don’t have them. 😳 And he ran out when he was there. Oppss.

A lot of these are for sale on his website. Wishing I could afford one or two.

Margaret resting up after her travails. Xoxoxox

Day 2052 Day 1 with Vlad

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Mine. Today Vlad talked about value, cast shadows, reflected shadows and and we did value studies. Did I say I am tired.

Then we drew and painted value studies.

Mine needs more darks in the middle.

This is his. I managed to loose my whites on the rocks in the middle immediately. So unlike me. What was I thinking.

These are painted on 300 # rough arches with only sepia paint.

#2 Immediately I went toooo dark. Oopsey.

This is the photo we all used.

Next pass.

Oops why did I paint the red flowers orange.

Better but no where near as good as his.

Vlads. Super teacher.

And his Russian accent. Oh my. You should have Heard him try to say FOG it up as in add mist to sky. Came out very close to the other word which he knew. We were all WHAT said he say til we figured out it was fog w a Russian accent

If he keeps this up the next two days he will be one of the best teachers I have taken a class from. Teaches you everything he knows. Walks the classroom when he’s not instructing generous with his time with everybody.

Margaret off to another family dinner. Xoxoxox

Day 2051 Ponce City and Decatur sketching

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Ponce City these need W O R K lol

The old DeKalb County court house. A guy walking by on Ponce said it was beautiful. He didn’t notice my egregious error. Or that darn fly lol.

That’s better.

These are all 9×12″. Stillman and birn Alpha. Lamy Joy and Lamy Vista. My Ef was out of ink. I was actually going to paint today. I seem to have left my whisky painter box at home. Darn. I lugged some water brushes all over town. No paint. 😵😵😵

Watercolor to come.

Margaret off to a family dinner and an awards nite for Henry. Xoxoxo

Day 2026 More Urban sketching

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This guy was really doing a super job singing his heart out at Soda City Saturday. I drew him in a hurry because I was meeting a friend at 1 and had to go when I found him playing his heart out in a bright sunny spot. Sun on the subject is always a plus for me.

Margaret having a lazy Monday but the weeks slam. Xoxoxox

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Day 1742 Inktober

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I have been doing inktober aka 31 ink sketches. Question is do you make it to the finish line of one ink drawing a day?!!!

I threw one of those strips in my purse before I went to Costco. Sat down at the restaurant area and put my satchel purse up on the table to hide behind. Parking yourself somewhere with a good site line to streams of people is always a good idea when doing these.

Started drawing with my Namiki Fude pen-love it’s thick thin lines. I tried to finish it at Lowe’s today BUT huge trucks thought they needed to be close to the door and blocked my view. 🤨

Pretty soon I had a whole strip done. I ended up at the Walmart grocery store because they always have a good flow of people going in and out.

Be brave and go to Costco or sams and draw the herds of people that walk by. Lotsa fun.

Margaret xoxoxox hanging out with a friend who is heading back to Charleston tomorrow.

Day 1699 Headache😱

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15×22″ on Fluid watercolor paper. Planned to paint this sketch I did yesterday but if a headache and decided to take it easy. Aka didn’t get back around to it but did enjoy Anne with an E on Netflix’s. Oh and Guernsey Potato Pie And Literature Society and Chocolat. Two great movies an old fav and a new fav.

Bytw discovered a great source for fluid paper on amazon. Got a six pack of full sheet 22×30″ 140# cold press for $26 or $28. I like the paper because it dries flat. Doesn’t form hollows while it’s wet like some 140 lb will and it’s easy to wipe the paint off if needed. Just dampen blot with a Kleenex and lift and repeat. No harm no foul.

And a blue jay newcomer on the back deck when I threw out black sunflower seed. He seemed to really enjoy it. Watercolor pencils in my stillman and birn.

I should have been watching some of the great YouTube videos by Proko. Everything you want to know about portraiture and figure drawing. Check them out!!

Margaret whose headache is gone. Xoxoxo

Day 1695 Summer Snow WIP?!!

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Summer Snow – Fluid 140# cp paper 15×22″

Sorry for the late post. Been working on this when I wasn’t busy walking 🚶‍♀️ 🚶 🤗!! My feet are tired.

What I started off drawing.

I drew it with a 2 B Derwent sketching pencil. Very soft. Before I started painting I erased it to lighten the pencil marks.

Here we go. Decided the background was too light.

Kind of wish I had left it.

But I thought the background was too close in tone to the flowers. No idea why I thought that but I did. So I darkened it. Hmmm. Well those flowers really show now. And they look cut out. Not a good thing in a paintjng. Oopsey.

Lots left to paint on this half sheet.

Heading toward THE END! I was getting tired and probably should have stopped.

But I kept on. Now you might notice the flowers don’t look so cut out now. That’s because my friend Mike suggested I use a Mr Clean eraser on the flower edges to soften them. THANKS Ms. Mike!! That helped.

Now the question of the hour is more splatter or not on the flowers especially the ones on the right side. I think I will sleep on it. Have to work fast because those crepe myrtles don’t last long.

Charles Reid Holbein colors plus quin gold.

Margaret putting her feet up with the tv clicker in her hand. Xoxoxo

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