Chasing the train with Vlad

February 17, 2023February 19, 20232 Comments

Chesky Krumlov, Czech Republic according to Rick Steves a charming cobbled city. One of the chase alongs for WatercolorLive 2023 was to chase Vlad Yesileyev as he painted this charming street scene. You had to paint like mad or get off the Vlad Express Train as it briefly stopped in the Czech Republic.

Mike and I entertained ourselves today by virtually painting together. My power went out just as I got the program working. Sigh. No Wi-Fi no show. So we waited. Then I had to wait til the Murdaugh trial had a break.

My palette finally ready to paint. Exciting stuff right?

My uh tracing. There I said it. I had 18 of these to do. Eeek. This is on Hahnemuhle. I agree with Vlad it’s awesome paper.

First layers. Lots of greys. Zipping down the line.

Adding some darks. Then I kept going. When I get to the end and don’t know what to do I use a thin paint brush and just draw on it so that’s how I got to here.

Not my best but it’s growing on me. I am rusty at chasing Vlad. I got thru the pandemic letting him entertain me on a lot of Sunday’s. He’s so funny and his classes are reasonably priced. I highly recommend them so just go along for the ride on the Vlad Express.

Margaret xoxoxox who is now tahred.

The daily bird

February 16, 2023Leave a comment

Available. Today it was a house sparrow. I do think they are so cute. My husbands favorite because if you feed them they will sit on your foot. Well his foot. Watercolor pencil on fabriano postcard. This little birdie would love to fly to your house.

Yesterdays Daily Bird A Chickadee. Also available! They are too cute.

Daffodils in full bloom around here. Spring is springing the pollen is flying. 😵‍💫

Out my back door tonite. What can I say but WOW!

Margaret xoxoxox

Practice practice.

February 13, 2023Leave a comment

Flamingo from Zoo Atlanta. 9×12” cp fluid. Mostly quin gold and quin rose w cobalt cerulean and pimonite. Oh inanthrodone and Payne’s grey on beak.

Practice for a larger half sheet Flamingo. Also practice to make Shelley Pryors technique my own.

Margaret watching the super bowl. Xoxoxo

Irresistible

February 11, 2023February 14, 2023Leave a comment

The drawing went well. 1/2 sheet of some or other cold press 140 that was handy. I was drawing fast.

The Artist. I think I used my Mary Whyte palette colors. Off to paint another watercolor live class. Only seven left to do. 😳 I thought I had done most of them. 😵‍💫I really want to paint another flower painting I do like those a lot.

Margaret xoxoxo

Painting w Stan Miller

February 11, 2023February 11, 20232 Comments

Griffith 140 cold press arches. Not my favorite painting. Stan Millers grandson. Stan does phenomenal portraits and has some great YouTube videos.

I will say that by taking his demo at Watercolor Live I have saved myself the trouble of taking a class from him in person which Mike had wanted to do before covid. Stan doesn’t want you to interpret the person but to paint an identical likeness. He’s very 123 so easy to follow but as my long time teacher Al Beyer said don’t worry abt the likeness unless they are paying you for it.

That said Stan has some absolutely gorgeous watercolors and rightly so he has made his living for forty years selling and teaching it.

I should add that I could soften a lot of edges with the Mr Clean eraser if I wanted to. I did the one on his right cheek with it and the arches paper was just fine with it. I pulled it down his cheek a couple of times and they did the trick. I will say one of the things I don’t like abt this portrait is all the hard edges which of course I could soften.

TIP: I cut the Mr Clean Eraser up into smaller wedges so I don’t have to deal with the whole big eraser which is sponge sized.

Sometimes I seem better at drawing paintings than actually getting them painted. Hopefully tomorrow.

Margaret in rainy SC xoxoxo

Hand is now cramping

February 6, 2023February 6, 20234 Comments

Almost done. Twelve hours or so just today on this 1/4 sheet. Fabriano Artistico cold press 300#

Endless drawing. Third time. First trace was wrong second draw was lifted by masking. Spent three hours redrawing. Or was it four. 🙃🙃🙃😵‍💫

Now to figure out where to put the masking on the bottle. 😳😵‍💫

Jar masked. Kept dipping the brush in soapy water and drying it off. Also dumped the masking in the lid. Went much easier after I did that. I think asking the whole letter and lifting the mask to paint the dark will be easier than masking the highlight around each one. We shall see

Masking on jar removed. I think it looks awful. so hard to soften those edges that masking leaves.

Quitting for now. Need to work on the jar some more esp 1858 BUT my hands and shoulder are DONE.

Finally standing back from it i think it looks amazing if I do say so myself. since it’s sucked up most of my life for the last few days glad it does.

Margaret xoxoxo where’s the chocolate?

Matthew Bird Still Life

February 4, 2023February 4, 20232 Comments

Matthew Birds realistic still life. While I like the looks I am not fond of all the masking and layering. I kept making mistakes and having to start over. My fault not his of course.

Attempt #3 was best. I kept my lights on most of the apricots. The rock looks good. Background wash might need another layer. Last.

Three looks much better in person. I saved almost all the lights on the fruit but the iPhone flattened them out darn it.

Attempt number 2 screwed up the darks on the front of the stone. Painted it all alizarin. Oops off to a bad start from the first. Fabriano 300# cold press. Background washes hmm does it need more? I do like the bluey black.

Attempt #1 140 fluid cold press paper. Not great for lots of washes. What was I thinking using a 140 for all those layers of washes?! Will probably finish it sooner or later. Someone will want it.

Still think they need more background washes. Might just mix up some green alizarin and indigo and give them two layers but I do like the blue shining thru the back. Really pretty in person.

Best of all. Those Dynasty faux squirrel reservoir brushes. Have had them for a couple of years and never use them. They worked great for those endless lines on the bowl. I loaded the 12 once and did ALL THE LINES WITH IT and the hearts too. Who would have thought??

My sweet kitty Haley being a good girl this am.

Margaret tahred from painting all day. Xoxoxoxo

Where I have been

January 30, 2023Leave a comment

In the dining room madly painting. I signed up for watercolorlive 2023. It’s all my friend Mikes fault. She talked me into it. What a mad three days of wild fun painting. Classes and seminars lasted from 10 am til 9 pm. Will be posting them the next few days.

My Swan from the hour Paint along with Shelley Prior one of 18 teachers we had . She was awesome. She held our hands and walked us thru it step by step. I am in love w my swan and will be checking out her extensive YouTube feed. Her instructions were clear step by step with no need to rush to keep up. This swan just glows. My favorite out of my stack of paintings.

Most of the paintings I did. There are TEN still left to do that I didn’t get around to for various reasons.

We started off with Julie who does Cheap Joes two minute art on you tube.

This took abt five minutes and was Julie’s tip. A fun way to start the day and to loosen up. We were all tense. I mean 18 teachers and all those hours. Eeek.

Out agenda. We were VERY busy. No potty breaks no lunch breaks. A good way to diet. Lol.

Next up the great Thomas Schaller. Now almost all the teachers supplied a sketch for us to draw before class started. This was NOT a drawing workshop but a painting workshop. For some reason. Thomas didn’t think we needed a drawing. Hmm. Off to a rocky start. I madly drew it and started flinging paint around.

On a half sheet. My perspective was off. Supposedly his odd idea of firefly houses. Who knew they don’t have fireflies in S California where he’s from. They got his attention in his new home in NYC. My husband loves it Me not so much.

Fireflies half sheet 140lb.
So I had to cram in time to tinker with it. It was really bothering me. The perspective was wonky. Hate that and all that glaring white paper on the top left screamed at me. Better. Still won’t be my fav. He can hang it in his mancave. Lol. Still may need more tinkering. Time will tell.

Next up a portrait with Patricia Guzman a lovely painter from Mexico who specializes in indigenous people. She’s a realistic portrait painter not my bag but she was a great teacher. At some point I got tired of painting every wrinkle and quit. LOVE the way this painting turned out. 1/4 sheet arches 149
Cold press I think.

Every artist had a different kind of paper or color of paint so I just used what I had and matched it up as closely as I could from my stash. Did I say I have way too much paper?!