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

Another Friday Another Life Modeling Session

April 22, 2022April 22, 20222 Comments

Maybe I am on a roll?!

Terry Cold press fluid 15×22 M Graham wc paint. If M Graham is good enough for Mary White it’s good enough for moi. Also nice that she gives you a tube of it when you take her class.

First up 2 min gesture sketches done w Caran d’ache neocolor ii on a big sheet of newsprint. 8×24”

Then three five min gesture sketches. The time flew by ZAP!!

I did work on the shape of the last one a bit but hard to take a pic with all the light flooding in from the slider and no over head lights like the big studio at USC Aiken.

FIRST SESSION
Then it was off to the real race. Painting a king pose. NOT a fond of reclining poses. So much foreshortening which is always tough. Also not fond of all the empty white paper around them.

And all of a sudden we were done. Had fun painting the background in up side down during the break. Perylene Marron and ultramarine blue and slinging paint at it when I finished with my long saber brush called a Scroobys Loose Goose from Cheap Joes. LOVE that brush. Yes I got splatters on her but blotted them off as soon as they landed. Fluid is very forgiving paper like that.

Everybody was going what are u doing. Never underestimate a little paint flinging for a fun release. Also a little brush rolling on the pillows for texture. May have to do more of that next week.

Look what I found blooming it’s little heart out on my side porch. My amaryllis I bought four years ago for Easter.

It will have a dozen flowers before it’s done on multiple stalks.

Margaret xoxoxox

Robert Dutton, Yorkshire Artist

January 25, 2022January 25, 20224 Comments

I took an online zoom pastel class with delightful North Yorkshire artist Robert Dutton a while back on ShopKeeparty.com and been meaning to post this for a while but as you know when I think of how annoying Word Press is and I just don’t do it.

Anyway Robert is my new fav teacher. So enthusiastic so sharing….he’s one of those teachers that wants to pour everything he knows into your little brain.

He’s extremely supportive. Will chat with you on Facebook and on Instagram and answer all your questions. I just need to hop a plane and go take a class with him in the wilds of Yorkshire, don’t I?!

In the meantime I will make do with Shopkeeparty and a new site he’s teaching from. You can sign up for that class here. It’s £15 and will be worth every penny!!

Starting with a piece of vine charcoal.
Fabriano rough 20×30”

This is a large drawing on a full sheet of watercolor paper. Fabriano rough. 22×30″. Starting off with vine charcoal sketch and a few pastels.

Adding more details and colors. More pastels . I have an assortment of Senneiier(if they were good enough for Degas Manet and Picasso they are good enough for me-sold on the left bank in Paris or on Amazon), Unison both soft pastels and some Rembrandt pastels which are much harder.

We also used water on some of the charcoal to get the grey on the top right and sanded some charcoal to paint with on the bottom middle…great fun but what a mess!!!

Anyway..its done. Might be my fav…as soon as omicron calms down I am taking it downtown to frame…so I can hang it on a wall and not worry about the dog or the cat smearing it….

I also highly recommend Roberts book which is selling like hot cakes on amazon. Drawing Dramatic Landscapes for $21 and worth every penny…jam packed with how tos and what to dos. Heres a link to Robert talking about his new book on YouTube.

There are ten more videos you can purchase on ShopKeepArty with Robert along with my other fav cutie Ian Fennelly. You feel like you have run a race when you are done drawing with them both but you have learned a lot from both of them especially Robert….take a class you won’t be sorry!!!

There are at least three of Robert’s videos available on Shopkeeparty’s YouTube. Here’s one of them – the one that hooked me.

Kitty Ecstasy I
It’s what you do in a cold winter day.

Kitty ecstasy….Weenie Cat found her love Zoes bed and was in seventh heaven wallowing in it today in the sunshine. Too funny.

I think she wants to be a house cat. What do you think!!?

Margaret who just told Word Press tech support that on. a scale of 1-10 I give their new user interface a big fat ZERO. I would NEVER recommend WordPress to anyone…maybe I need to go back to blogger. time for bed!! XOXOXO

Nuff said

January 23, 2022January 25, 20225 Comments

Snowy Morning
Hahnamuhle 140 Rough
15×20

Been a busy week. And I am tired.

Dada with a D. Aquaboard 11×16”
Think he’s finished. I also think I hate the way WordPress doesn’t work anymore. Makes everything harder. So I don’t want to use it because everytime I do it’s A royal pain.

Won’t load photos. Won’t let you type. “Corrects” words and makes them misspelled. Sigh.

Zoe my live model posing with her portrait. Lol.

Mostly sennelier Pastel on mi teinte 15×20”also used a few Unison. And a variety of other hard pastels.

Did I say I bought a new bigger set of pastels from Amazon. Sennelier of course. Yes I did!! I bought that. It will be here first of February. Can’t wait.

One set of Sennelier wasn’t enough. If Sennelier was good enough for Degas Monet and Picasso – well I need.

So nice and creamy but don’t drop them on the floor. Oops!! Hmmm maybe I need to put a rug down?! Or a towel??

The trees are brown for Pete’s sake yet my phone takes them as black. What the heck?! And the background is much lighter though not as brilliant as in the first picture. What do I need an $800 phone for if it won’t take accurate colors?! Please tell me. Thanks.

This is suppose to be the second to last block but uncooperative Word Press won’t let me move it. Finally got it to move. So aggravating. Makes me
Not want to post for another month or two. Sigh.

Got off my tired self off the sofa and took a picture with my iPad Pro. Much closer to the actual colors though it darkened a bit on the left. If it’s not one thing it’s another right?! See below. I told u the trees weren’t the right color in the photos.

I drew a penguin on this screen shot I took of a Porkchop Zimmerman’s sidewalk crack drawing. It’s a thing like looking at clouds and seeing Mickey Mouse. You can look at sidewalk cracks and draw whacky animals from them. Pork chops side wall cracks probably have SEVERAL animals in them. Lots of fun to do. I have a whole sketch book of them.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox tired from drawing all day.

A quick sketch

November 13, 20212 Comments

What I was looking at. Now in the trash. They always seem to mold before Thanksgiving.

Fun sketch along with John Muirs Law on Shopkeeparty’s YouTube. Give it a whirl! It goes live shortly.

I think I actually baked a perfect loaf of bread. Gorgeous and tasty.

Margaret who has a painting to finish. Xoxox

Nest time

September 28, 2021September 28, 20212 Comments

We started with an egg sketch.

From a fun paint along with the delightful Berskshire, England artist, Liz Chadderton, on Shopkeeparty.com. She’s always a lot of fun and brimming with ideas, tricks, and tips. Plus she loves to paint any and all animals. I wish I had her energy!

We started by drawing eggs off center in the sweet spot. 1/3 up and 1/3 from edge. Used a piece of rough arches.

Next we applied masking fluid to our eggs..

Then we drew the nests and applied more masking fluid. I used a bamboo stick. Masking will ruin your good brushes so NEVER use it on them.

Then we applied a light layer of watercolor using our chosen colors. Liz said to only use 6 colors. You never needed more than that.

Mine were indigo, Thalo blue, Prussian blue, burnt umber, Payne’s grey, and moonglow. I finally added raw sienna. I needed a lighter earth tone.

Then we dried it added more masking fluid for more sticks and added a middle tone layer. As usual I went a little dark.

Hair dried a lot of masking fluid today. Something ideally you should never do as it makes it tough to remove.

More masking fluid added and dried then the darkest color. I tried using Q-Tips to put the masking fluid on. DONT. Yuck.

Lots of blobs of masking were what the teacher ordered. They take a while to dry.

Then we rubbed and rubbed and rubbed off all that masking. Now it’s too white. So we used a rigger, in my case a Cheap Joes Scroogys Loose Goose brush. Don’t you love the name? It’s really a slim dagger brush. Makes the best curls and swirls. And terrific curly hair.

Last we added more color to knock out some of the whites. Mine were a little over powering. I also used my loose Goose to sling lines aka brushes on it.

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

Fun with David R Smith

July 23, 2021July 23, 20212 Comments

Stay tuned for part two.

Never wear blue readers when you paint. Lots of fast slapping paint around. And splattering water to make dots in the damp paint. Then painting again.

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. 😳😳😩

The first layer. Quin gold Andrew’s turquoise alizarin cobalt. Maybe ultramarine?! You can watch the cideo too on Shopkeepartys YouTube channel.

The photo. Just those plain rocks they use in landscaping yes those. If you wet them they are actually colors. Who knew!!

The second one on Hahnamuhle 140 Cezanne. And yes I wore the blue readers again like a dummy. Then I took them off and returned them to Costco. Nowhere on the wrapper did it say they turned everything yellow. But truly why didn’t I take them off. This one is better BUT just think what it would look like if I took off my blue readers DUH!!

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.

Hate to leave this morning view out my back window but needs musts. Off I go tomorrow.

Hugs Margaret. Xoxoxox

The boat has sailed

May 12, 2021May 19, 20212 Comments

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.

Sky wash cerulean instead of cobalt. Otherwise the same colors. Yellow ochre alizarin and neutral tint

My terrible blotchy trees that I dry brushed. Colors cobalt Dioxzine purple yellow ochre for the purple color. Indigo and cad yellow w a bit of burnt Sienna for the greener colors.

Well zap a lot more done. Too much to tell u even a bit abt it but omgoodness that dinky little boat.

Fixing mistakes. Well trying to. Adding blacks to the trees.

And done for now. So glad those overhead branches hide my terrible rigging on the boats or the blotchy trees. Thank goodness. A reprieve.

Margaret ready for a nap after four hours of madly chasing after Vlad today. Eeek.

Xoxoxoxo

Sailing away

May 11, 2021May 19, 2021Leave a comment

You might need to squint.
15×20” Hahnemuhle rough 140# Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev

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.

You Can’t Have Enough Blue!!

April 27, 2021April 28, 20212 Comments

Ultramarine Cobalt and Thalo Blue!!

Guinea fowl Acrylic 12×12” gallery wrapped canvas

The photo. I do love these funny quirky birds. So like a mini dinosaur

The beginnings. This is all done with paint not adding water to the paint.

Colors used Ultramarine cobalt Thalo lemon yellow cad red alizarin titanium white.

I noticed that my liquified seemed to have dried out much more than the more expensive golden paints.

The brushes. Used a lot of those dirt cheap house painting brushes. Make great grass like marks.

Everyone needs one of these. It opens any jar or better yet tubes of paint. Opens the small to the large size. My youngest son said he wanted to inherit mine. I found them at Publixs in the kitchen section during the pandemic. He was thrilled when I gave him his.

Go buy one. You will be glad you did.

Quitting for now because it’s annoying me greatly!!