A history with birds

April 14, 2023April 14, 2023Leave a comment

Worked on the goose some more. Funny thought about my bird drawing. I remember in third or fourth grade making bird books. Probably traced the birds and copied the descriptions. All in pencil because god forbid the kid had an ink pen. She might be lethal then. Evidently the bird affair is a long standing one with me.

Funny the things you forget til something jogs your memory. The jog was an old paper my brother wrote about the brown thrasher the Ga state bird. It was in a bag of papers my mom saved for him that I need to mail to him along with his less than stellar report cards. His daughters will enjoy those. I for one would have loved to see my dads.

The goose before i worked on jt some more. You know i think the neck is too short. Odd. I watch geese alot. I should know better. This was not deliberate like the neck of the heron. Hmm the things u dont notice when u r in the heat of drawing.

Drawings are all done w watercolor, Caran dache neocolor ii,some prismacolor art sticks in an 8×10” stillman and birn alpha. NO PENCIL drawings aka direct painting. All done with a watercolor base first.

I have alot of trouble telling the difference in these two birds when they come to the feeder. So do others. Alot of people identify them both as flickers. Like my mom a bird nut if there ever was one. These two birds sure did get cute. Except for the ink smear. No idea where that came from.

In my dreams they would all be as good as this crow. Something to strive for right?!!

Anyway enough birdie thoughts. Nite note Margaret xoxoxo

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

#30 Bluebonnet time

March 28, 2023March 30, 2023Leave a comment

Somewhere in the Texas hill country the bluebonnets are blooming. 11×15 fluid cp

The image. Swiped from @ericrhoads who held the worldwide pleinair last Thursday. That was so much fun they are doing it again. 4300 people showed up for it. There was even a group in England staying up late to join in. Somehow i dont think he will mind. Hmm somehow i lost the glow in the foreground. Oh well. I nailed it on the big trees.

First wash. This is a graded wash. You wet the area to be washed aka the sky in this one. Start at the top with thalo blue and cerulean and don’t add more color til the bottom when i added a shot of quin rose. Gives a really nice sky that lightens toward the bottom.

Here it is loosing its sheen. I forgot to take one of it dry sorry.

When i ran out of steam last night. as usual the colors are OFF. Does not matter where or how i take it they are off. Hmm maybe i should try my big camera. Its much darker and has lost alot of transparency.

Kind of handy you can see how i painted the trees to start. I used quin gold and quin rose for them. adding in transparent blues -cobalt ultramarine and thalo for shadows. The greens were made using chrome green and same w the same blues and cad yw med. Bluebonnets only bloom in spring aka right now so greens have to be springy greens.

Done for now though i have noticed a few things i might change.

I finally added some burnt sienna and some mixed orange to the trees as well as purples in the tree tops.

Bluebonnets done w the same colors. I tried splattering them w variety of brushes. I tried the chinese brush. None of them made me happy not the effect i was looking for.

I am so intrigued by the sago palms that have had their frozen dead leaves pruned off. I think CBS Sunday Morning show can use this for one if their suns don’t you?!!

Margaret ready for a nap xoxoxox

#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

Finally Done

March 16, 2023Leave a comment

The fingers were way too short especially her thumb. Really rather amazing you can lift a figure out when u use arches. Not sure how this technique would work on any other paper but arches.

I did run across an interesting website that has a great list on which watercolors can be substituted for other watercolors like quin pink -alizarin or rose madder. I saved a copy. You probably should to.

Gorgeous day today . Spent a while outside looking for the bald eagles which according to the guys were hunting out back. Camera in hand. NO bald eagles.

Margaret xoxoxox

Marathon continues- Finishing edges

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023Leave a comment

Yeah its a thing. Spent most of the afternoon painting the gallery wrapped edge of the mountain painting w a 1/2 Winsor Newton imitation mongoose flat.

Thats a 12 FOOT strip about two inches wide trying not to get black paint on the front of the painting. Formerly stark white it’s now black. I tried ultramarine blue but didn’t like it.

I used blue tape to tape the edge off but was worried it would peel off the fresh paint.

Another problem w blue tape is that it always leaks when i use to to tape off walls. 🤪 I was NOT interested in painting it again ever. Then i realized using a damp paper towel i could wipe any leakage off the dry paint from yesterday. Zip and it was gone.

The blue tape DID help. Painting those edges is always an onerous task when you do an acrylic because they never stay clean.

One more day varnishing it w Miniwqx polyeurethane. Drying time makes the process take longer.

And i missed sitting out on the back deck today enjoying the gorgeous early spring . Tonite there are frost warnings. Brrrr

Margaret xoxoxo

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.