Tomorrow! Be there!! Day 56!

June 11, 2023Leave a comment

LIVE from Paris! Drawing is Free at Noon EST on Zoom!! NO Nudity. Just drawing heads. GREAT practice

**Day 54-** My fav painting so far.

Keeping it fresh i hope and not overworked. I used Mary Whytes fav flesh combo M Graham raw sienna and quin pink for the flesh tones. Works well for all skin tones just varying the amounts of raw sienna and water to lighten or darken the mix. Its the only combo she uses for skin tones. Sweet face w her fun two tone hair. Fun painting her curly hair again today. While i remembered to do the hair wet on wet it ran too much. Thicker paint next time.

Lots of great lost edges in this painting

**Day 55** #jyportraitchallenge. Definitely a TOUGH paint. All that shadow and the pic is black and white so what to do with the background?! Lots of dark blue since its the compliment of peach/orange and makes her skin sing. The blue also let me loose her left side in the shadows.

My fav part is where her left hip meets the background.

**Day 54** #jyportraitchallenge. Another crazy busy day so i just did our lovely model in profile. Hmm got the ear too far foreward otherwise fun painting her hair and the lovely lights on her chest.
I used a big cheap chinese brush and a Cheap Joes Scroogys Loose Goose for her quin gold and quin burnt sienna tendrils. The Cheap Joes Scroogys Loose Goose is a very long very skinny saver brush that is almost impossible to control. You have to trust it it will make perfect curls.

**Day 52** #jyportraitchallenge. Love her eyes. Fun painting her curly hair. Forgot to soften the hairs edges by painting into the background wet on wet. Hopefully next time. Works so well w fluffy curly hair. Drawing went well. Done quickly.

**Day 51** #jyportraitchallenge.
Miranda. So many details to paint. Need i say more!? Drawing went well. Done quickly. Painting wasnt bad either just too many things to paint. Note to self. Do not tape the corners. Duh!

**DAY 50!!!** of the #jyportraitchallenge. Did not ever think that i would get this far. David @gotsix2 flew off my pencil and brush. Glad he’s done. Beard could use some more grizzle in it but hey done is good.

M Graham and a few Daniel Smith quins – gold burnt sienna and scarlet.

11×14” Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook OR Meeden cp 140. Or Fluid cp 140.

Painted w a Mary Whyte fav paint M Graham and her fav brush a cats paw, #10 Charles Reid kolinsky sable (both brushes and paint at Cityart in Columbia, SC @cityartsc ) and 1/2” Robert Simons synthetic flat, arches 140 cp 9×12”

Maggie who wanted to be sure to post today. Xoxoxox

How to paint a nest

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023Leave a comment

My fav things splattering and slinging watercolor. Always fun. Colors used paynes grey, indigo, thalo blue, burnt umber,sodalite.

Mask the eggs first! I like pebeo masking fluid.

First adding masking! Not too sure abt flinging masking fluid. Could be dangerous! Just lay it down roughly and u will be good to go.

Spray it down w a big sprayer and add some color. Prussian blue and burnt umber. And some splatters!

More masking and more color! Careful not to go to dark.

Remove the masking And now to paint the eggs.

A lovely blue w some splatters and paint slinging with my cheap joes scrooogys loose goose aka a saber brush and shes done. Wonder what kind of bird will pop out?!

Margaret being lazy today but thinks it might be fun to have another run at a nest. We do love our birds. Xoxoxox

Round three and four

April 10, 2023Leave a comment

All in one day today wore the golfers out and me too. More golf than i want to watch in one day but i persevered to the end.First page done w my noodler pen.

I thought changing pens might improve them. Nope. Done w my uniball micropen. And not as much fun to smear as the noodler.

Tired from too much Easter -lotsa cooking dinner for my son and his family. Zzzzznite nite margaret xoxoxox

Things found and a black black

April 7, 20236 Comments

More or less clean but i found things i forgot i had while cleaning.

This lovely hand made sketchbook full of fabriano 140# hot press paper. Evidently they sell for big bucks on etsy. This one has a kid skin cover. A gifty from my son Ben and his lovely wife Nelie.

A Value finder. It loos well used hut it was lost so nope i do t use it. I should but never got the hang of it.

Red plastic similar to a value scale. Look thru it to see of u have enough darks or is it all mid tones like most paintings?!

Any guesses as to what this is? Something else i though i needed but dont use.

This is cool. A masking marker. Not lost and hopefully wont ever be lost. Love it!!

Azaleas are required this time of the year in Augusta Ga. You only have to watch the masters golf tournament to see them here.

Anyway a recipe for a good dark black. Alizarin viridian and indigo til its black. Works everytime. Good luck and happy painting. Margaret xoxoxoxox

Ready for a break!!

April 6, 2023April 6, 2023Leave a comment

Sketching in my strathmore mixed media. For some reason my ink did not dry. When i wet it w paint it smeared. Grrrr. Makes me want to toss the pens and the ink. Should not be doing that. Bytw red pen on bottom is straight. The bend in the fold makes it look like its not.

Drawing what i saw. Sometimes its quite a challenge to draw whats in front of you.

Sketch before i hit it with the watercolor

Raw Sienna background color. Annoying smears.

Telling the story. I actually journaled abt my busy day. Bytw i can get off the floor again easily since i have turned into a cleaning fool. I added the red pen because it needed something there. I drew it with the pen on the right.

Margaret done for the night! xoxoxox

From the River

April 3, 2023April 3, 2023Leave a comment

Our volunteer Sunflower continues to shoot skyward. I swear it grows 3 inches a day. Jack and the Beanstalk don’t have anything on it. Hopefully a sunflower on the opposite page. An old Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook I never filled up. Lovely paper but I abandoned it because it won’t lay flat which annoys me. Drawn w my original very first beloved coral Lamy Safari with carbon platinum black ink.

Cleaning continues. Found these two old sketches of dear Erica from 2014. Goes to show you can improve if you draw enough. Legs far too short. 😵‍💫

While she is long and very slim those tiny hands?! And once again foreshortened legs OFF. So keep those pencils sharpened and practice practice practice. Daily practice does work just like in tennis. Or should i say like golf since its Masters week here in Augusta Ga Ya gotta put the hours in.

The cleaned and sorted cupboard. Way too many brand new sketchbooks. Who knew i had all of those?

Sooty playing guard cat. No bird need eat. Clueless what he’s doing. And that’s the sunflower in front of him.

Margaret xoxoxo from the rainy river.

31?! Key West Cycles

March 30, 2023March 30, 20232 Comments

Pouring after watching a Linda Baker segment on Watercolor live 2023 which has been worth every penny. You really should consider this. Finally finishing it up. We got a 60 day extension which cost $200 more. Cheaper to sign up now than wait. Price increases. So glad Mike talked me into it. U can hit the pause button and do it at your leisure. If u do tell them i sent you. I don’t get a thing i just want them to know i am doing it. Truly a bargain at $297 right now.

I think i love pouring. May make a bigger one of these tomorrow. This is a quarter sheet of fabriano cp artistico. 300#.

The photo i took in Key West. Sucker for bike pics. I have abt 255 of them.

First pour. Cobalt Yellow ochre raw sienna

Pouring indigo. I may have gotten carried away. You add masking before each pour.

I also added a grinder of salt all over it. The small bottle is soap to wash out the masking in the brush. It survived.

Oops getting a little too dark aka too much indigo

The masking off was not a pretty site. I guess i should have take A pic anyway. Adding paint w a brush to get rid of the hard edges left by the masking.

Quitting for now. This is the color it is now. No idea why my iPad pro takes accurate color like this and my iPad phone 13 does not. The phone is so much newer than the ipad. Maybe two years newer?!

Now to do a bigger one. But first the grocery store

Also made a jar Martha Stewarts sweet red onion pickles today. They are pretty even if they don’t taste good aren’t they? will have to try them shortly.

Margaret worn out exhausted w an unmade bed. Sigh. Xoxoxo

#28

March 25, 2023March 28, 20234 Comments

Done. **Painting #2**8 done since January.
Quitting. I like this one. A little too realistic because of the hard edges would be my only critique. The roses went well. Did them with alot of wet on wet to keep the edges soft. I seem to be painting alot of leaves lately. Ready to NOT paint leaves. Lol.
Half sheet fluid 140# which performed so well I wonder why I ever use anything else. Lifted like a champ.

**The photo**
Johannes Vloothuis did a free class on artist network today. While he was doing oil i painted watercolor. Really not painted in the same way at all but i enjoyed. He runs a very well organized class. his prices are so reasonable as to be ridiculous. $25 for three upcoming classes. I may take them although i really need to be doing my own work but i am a sucker for a deal.

He provides a very easy to print sketch for the class. On the pay classes he even provides a how to transfer it if u don’t want to draw it.

Ready to rock and roll. Used masking to save preserve my whites for the flowers.

The roses were done by saturating them with water and dropping buts of color in til I was happy with them. Probably the most successful roses i have ever done. The wood was done with my chinese brush flattened and then dry brushed. I should have used some of my old acrylic brushes that are splayed from paint drying in the ferrules.

Leaves were painted with blue and yellow i have and then i added some white gouache to a few. i used thalo blue ultramarine joes turquoise colbalt green gold cad yellow light aureolin yellow ochre to name a few. Oh and chrome green and thalo green. I tried them all. I should gave tried my beloved winsor newton filbert. Super painting for leaves.

See ya in one of Johannes classes. Margaret who is tahred xoxoxox

Getting done?

March 15, 2023Leave a comment

The Messy Table i have been letting pile up in the den. Lamy EF, watercolor and inktense pencils and tombow markers and Strathmore mixed media sketchbook which used to be my go to sketchbook til i found Stillman and Birn. The paper is much heavier than the S and B alpha i normally use. 140 # cp

I painted the wc pencil with my winsor newton momarch psuedo mongoose 1/2” flat love the way it painted.

But it still needed something.

Thr tombow greys did the trick i think. And then i cleared the table off.

Margaret xoxox

The correct color

March 13, 2023Leave a comment

I actually took this out on our wet back deck to photograph when the rain let up. You get more accurate color photos on an over cast day or so they say. The great debate was on as to whether it was done. I decided it was.