Day 723 -WIP – Three hours of work so far

June 23, 2016Leave a comment

This is HUGE 28×48 Acrylic. I have only worked on it about three hours this includes drawing the photo to paint it.

I have a few glaring problems which I need to fix before going on. I have made her face and body much too wide. The shadows are nonexistent on her body on the left.

She’s a friend and I intend to fix that. I would fix it even if she weren’t because I would rather make people thinner than they are.

I had intended to paint this but all my friends said paint the next photo because the light is better which is true. I really love her boots. If you know her she wears boots most of the time since she rides horses.

Only problem is that I had already drawn this to do a full sheet watercolor too. It took hours and hours to draw it and LOTS of erasing.

Even in this one the face appears a little wide. Possibly due to the lack of shadows?! 3/4 views are always a pain.

So I guess I will do two since this one took most of the day to draw.

I do think it’s interesting that it was so much easier to draw the second time out. Practice makes perfect right?!!

One last thing. A lot of times I will change the photo to black and white to paint from so if I want to I can give her a red shirt and a purple jacket. I do like the blues better but getting comments it’s TOO pretty.

Sigh! You just can’t make everyone happy can you?! 😋

Colors used so far Golden Quin Nickel Azo Gold, Thalo Blue and Ultramarine Blue ( great for denim), Liquitex Burnt Umber and Titanium white plus a tube of Winsor Purple.

Day 721 – Alexis

June 21, 2016Leave a comment

One of my Aiken painting friends blocking out her new painting.
Alexis always comes to paint dressed to the nines frequently with a scarf flung over her shoulder wearing ballet flats. She says she’s trying to wear out her old work clothes now that she’s retired.
I quipped at her it wouldnt take me long to do in my good clothes with acrylic paint smears.
This painting doesn’t do her justice because she’s also very tiny. I fattened her up a bit. 😁 Sorey Alexis. She works hard on staying slim. Always eating somethings healthy.
Speaking of which I think I will go eat a salad. Big wedding coming aka Mother of the Groom dress. Eeekkk.

Colors used – Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. And sodalite. Makes a great granulating grey.

Day 720 Happy Fathers Day

June 19, 2016Leave a comment

My dad, a young 93, loves dogs. He’s a sucker for them. And they love him. Feeds them endless snacks. Feeds them of his dinner plate.

I should be painting something new to post. Goodness knows my sketch books are full of ink sketches begging to be painted BUT there’s a new dog in town. I am babysitting my sons rescue the sweet Wesley aka Cowdog because he’s black and white like the Chic Fil A cows.

I took a photo of this and noticed his head was too small so I added about an 1/8 of an inch along his jaw line.

Here’s the one when his head is too small.

Drawn with a Noodler Konrad with carbon platinum black ink.
Thanks for checking by! Hope you all enjoy your Fathers Day!

Margaret xxx

Day 719 – Saturday

June 18, 2016Leave a comment

Already again.

Ilania 20×24 acrylic

This only took about an hour to paint. Somehow the thinned nickel Azo gold prepainted background really helped getting her done.

After the first forty minutes.

Of course after I started looking at her on my phoneI thought maybe I should have painted the drape she was sitting on. Her left arm looks chopped off. It’s really behind the chair she sat on. And her right arm though it looks great is suspended in space. So hmm. What do you think?!
She was painted with Winsor violet, liquitex burnt umber and titanium white, and golden fluid pyrrole red and nickel Azo gold.

Al Beyers lovely large oil. Anout 4 feet long. The hand is just amazing. Remember these were all painted in about an hour and a half.

Drew Murphys acrylic. Some lovely skin tones. Cezanne looking today. Great effect.

Cathe Dennis from Lansing, Michigan’s pastel. She even knows where Diamondale is. My daughter in laws family lives there. Love her scribbles. For some reason it reminds me of Toulouse Lautrec.

Ruth Pearls awesome large pastel.

Tom Needhams El Greco he always does beautiful skin tones.

Fred Baker with his always interesting sense of color.

Thanks for checking by.

Margaret xxx

Day 718 A JRT or two

June 17, 2016Leave a comment

Really have to find something else to draw besides the dogs. Well at least something to practice fast sketching on.

This one is a little off but chalking it up to Zoe moving when she was giving me the Jack Russell stare while eating which means she really wants it cause she might be fainting from starvation any second if I don’t give it to her.

I did start this sketch for a really big full sheet watercolor that I have been wanting to start since I got back from Knoxville. She still has some kinks to work out before I start it.

So that’s what I have been up to today.

Thanks for checking by!

Margaret xxx

Day 617 Done and a dog or two

June 17, 2016Leave a comment

All the squiggly lines are glued down now. I like it but will live with it a while before I sign my name. My biggest problem is always deciding when something is done. But for now it is done.

Back to drawing dogs. Noodler Konrad loaded with Deartrementis document brown ink.

Begging ever hopeful Honey. She did get to lick my breakfast plate. This is drawn with a Pentel Hybrid Techna pen that I like to write with a lot. It did a good job drawing too. It’s so fine it requires a lot more cross hatching than the Konrad. The pen isn’t waterproof so a little water and smudging took care of that problem.

HOWEVER when I used it to mark grid lines to enlarge a photo I am going to paint the ink on the photo killed it.

Now I am wondering if Cheap Joes will replace it. They have a one year warranty on all their products. I got it during my class with Ted Nuttall last month and just finally used it. I used their warranty when my paintbrush had a loose ferrell and they replaced it without a problem. Cheap Joes is such a great place.

Thanks for checking by
Margaret

Day 714 – It was

June 13, 2016Leave a comment

A trick. Found some more that I have not posted. At least I don’t think I did.

Our sweet new friend Lenore

And Piper the service dog. One of my favorite dog sketches ever. I might have posted this one but its so great i can post it again. He’s actually a black standard poodle which is difficult to paint so black shadows are sufficing-artistic license and all that!!!

Here’s the whole page together. No idea why I didn’t paint the while background the same color. Ah well. No do overs with watercolor like one can do with watercolor.

Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent palette.

And the class synopsis with all John Salimens key points.

Warning. There still may be one more set of pages. Not sure.

Thanks for stopping by.

Margaret off to French classes xxx

Day 713 – might be done?!

June 12, 2016June 12, 2016Leave a comment

Oops still one more page to post after this.

I drew this sketch of Mike when he was sitting on the floor drying his painting. One of my favorite Knoxville sketches.

This is the entire page with a few notes and a doodle to remind me of an idea for a future abstract perhaps using motifs are puns the city to rift off of.
Linda

Linda and another ponderer, I never knew her name. LInda was the class teachers assistant all week and volunteered to work diligently to assist John doing whatever he needed to be done. She sold giclees. She tutored people in the use of the atomizer and supervised it’s use. She took photos of all of us with our abstract.

The second lady could frequently be seen across the room leaning against the wall staring at her painting 20 feet away. I am not much of a ponderer.

I am either painting or it’s sitting around where I can see it as I go about my day or watch tv sometimes noticing improvements or changes to be made, sometimes ignoring it completely.

Once again painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors.

Thanks for checking by.

Margaret xxx

Day 712 – It’s Saturday

June 11, 2016June 11, 2016Leave a comment

Been a while since I posted one of these. Been out of town I think for the last two months or sick so haven’t been going to life modeling.

And did I say rusty?! What happens when you don’t paint regularly. She looked good when I painted her. Not so sure now. Oh well there’s always gesso!!

Or maybe she needs a good crop?! That’s one good thing about painting on hardboard you can crop it with a table saw.

Thought I would share some of the other paintings done today. All but the watercolor are at least 24×30.

This is Drew Murphy’s acrylic, my favorite one today I think. Really like his colors. Drew recently won a blue ribbon for best Abstract at the Aiken Art Guild juried show.

Al Beyers’ oil hard to top Al but I think Drew did today. Al is a professor at USC Aiken and currently part of a faculty show at Aiken Center for the Arts.

Tom Needhams watercolor. Tom teaches watercolor at the Gertrude Herbeet Institute of Art in Augusta.