Category: Bird

Nest time

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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

Mark Making!!

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Bluebells 2
20×22” Arches cold press 300#

May be a wip aka a work in progress.

First layer watercolor. Lots of yellow and green ultramarine. Slinging paint with the sword brush. What fun.

Makes a lot of Texture

Adding some darks. More paint slinging.

Waiting for some purple and blue pastels to show up from Amazon because I really didn’t have the any good purples or blues.

And I made quite a mess. Paint all over the floor and the tv screen. Oh and me. But still loved doing it.
Done for now. What do u think?! Margaret xoxoxox who should be slinging more paint.

Tweet Tweet Twice the Fun

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A fun ink and watercolor sketch of a sparrow. My fav kind. Wet on wet splattering. Been in Jackson Pollock mode splattering and slinging paint. .
And I did two because it’s twice as much fun. Lamy EF Carbon Platinum Black ink and a permanent fine liner.

Thanks for looking.

Margaret xoxoxo

You Can’t Have Enough Blue!!

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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.

The head shot. So dinosaur looking

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!!

Zoe who the kitties love but she does not love them back.

Margaret xoxoxo

Jalopy truck time

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Drawing an old trucks is fun. I decide this one needed more rust.

So I added some burnt sienna to it.

First ink lines

Adding more ink lines

Finally done. I do love a Good chicken. Do u suppose she laid eggs in the cab?!

Colors used burnt sienna burnt umber ultramarine blue And PRussian blue quin gold cad red

Permanent fine lines .03 and .01 Tombow markers Fabriano hot press 140#

Margaret xoxoxo

Monday can be Funday too

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Looking at this boat makes me smile. Love the silly birds on top. Clyde and co!

The photo. I was trolling YouTube this am and discovered an Ian Fennelly paint along and I thought way more fun than listening to NPR and doing the Aigusta National golf club.

And I was right. Always fun to listen to Ian natter on. This is an old sailboat on the river Dee in Cornwall. Something about the river isn’t there anymore just the marshes?!

Stage 1. The pen layout.

Stage 2. Drawing the boat and environs with a Tombow fine tip end. A number 65 I think.

Stage 3. Coloring the boat w tombows and fine liners.

Stage 4&5. Color added then some more marker detail. Also the silly gulls. Limited palette Ultramarine, Burnt sienna, Orange, green gold, white gouache.

Margaret who almost forgot to post. Xoxoxox

Too tired too

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To finish today.

A day spent in Prague. Still lots to do. List too long to write but… it needs a lot. Oddly I actually like it for once. Usually I don’t like them til the next day.Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev

Vlads photo

The drawing on a half sheet of Hahnemuhle 140# cezanne.

First wash

Plus the sky. Took about an hour and a half to get to this point.

Really hated it at this stage. Yuck.

Added some details but there are sooo many to do. I will work on it some more manana.

Silly geese started honky at us. No clue why. Must be close to a dozen.

Margaret xoxoxo just tahred.

Another foggy day

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Arches 280# cold press paper Cheap Joe’s American Journey paint colors indigo, ultramarine, burnt sienna, dioxzine, quin gold and lots of water.

A fun painting to do. I could change several things and betting I will do another one with green fir trees next time.

What would I work on?! Less striped sky. Better firs. But all in all I like it. Masking the birch trees to preserve the whites before I started painting.

I would wear rubber gloves. Eeek. Time for scrubby dubby.

Also might try using some of these paints on another one. “. L-R Daniel Smith Payne’s Grey, Cheap Joe’s Payne’s Grey and Cheap Joes Moonglow

Love the blues in the Daniel Smith and all the purples and blues in the moonglow. Last one is so yum.

Zoe posing like the pretty princess she is. She does love a scarf or two.

Margaret xoxox

Calling It Scrubby Dubby

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because I scrubbed at this for over an hour I think. Maybe call it Mountain Mist?!

Before I started scrubbing. Everything was painted wet on wet. The trees were done with the liner and a chunk of kitchens sponge plus splattering. Only two colors were used. Payne’s grey and ultramarine. Arches 140# rough.

I had no idea how to do the fog which I wanted to do the fog because I live on a river that is frequently heavily fogged. I was following a YouTube video with David R Smith to practice for class tomorrow with my new liner brushes.

All my tools used to paint this. Red handled brushes are the scrubbers.

I was scratching my head when o realized his supply list for tomorrow said two scrubbers. On the video he did a tree with a Mr Clean Eraser. After scrubbing with the scrubbers for about an hour I realized duh. Use the Mr Clean. If it could lift off a birch tree it could lift off mist. I finished not long after that.

I used the scrubbers to make wispy strands of fog floating off the river. Yes there are wisps if you look. 😘

And done. Time to use the palette knife to loosen it from the block of paper.

Margaret xoxox

On a roll

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Some of my favorite British birds from Paul Dinnings Videos and Sounds for Cats: Garden Birds. They really are the best bird videos I have seen on YouTube. Some people use them for a good nights sleep.

Another new Favorite is Prowalking tours. I went to Rome and Montmartre today. Think I will try Venice next. Just the beginning of it is gobsmacking.

Stillman and birn alpha pentel brush pen uniball micron Caran d’ache neocolor ii watercolor pencils and a teabag to wet the Caran d’ache.

Margaret whose going to try Wendy’s for dinner. Xoxoxox