Category: Charlotte

Practice practice.

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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

Hand is now cramping

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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. πŸ™ƒπŸ™ƒπŸ™ƒπŸ˜΅β€πŸ’«

Now to figure out where to put the masking on the bottle. πŸ˜³πŸ˜΅β€πŸ’«

οΏΌ

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

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Apricots and a Bowl #3

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.

Apricots and a Bowl #2

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

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??

There they are.
My sweet kitty Haley being a good girl this am.

Margaret tahred from painting all day. Xoxoxoxo

Portrait painting

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She may or may not be done. Not fond of the too loud quin gold and the too heavy pencil that won’t erase but otherwise like her a lot.

Took an online class with Fealing Lin a couple of weeks ago thru Cheap Joes online. The biggest plus is that we get to keep the video on YouTube forever. A big plus.

Another plus you can contact Edwina May at cheap joes to get put in your favorite painters waiting lists if you can’t score a class.

My friend Mike aka Linda joined me in the zoom class. Even though she was in Raleigh and I was at mine it was almost like being in Boone in one of Fealings classes. We texted each other our paintings back and forth during our class breaks.

Oops really not fond of him. Lost some of his mustache and the quin gold really got out of hand. Eyes need work and I need to lift his mustache.
And she definitely needs work. Not sure what BUT sooner or later I will.

Loving these lazy summer days. I suppose I am having too much fun just lasting with the hubs yet around the house to bother painting. My bad right??

Last evening we were floating in the pool watching the swifts dart and dive overhead for their dinner. Who knew they did that??! Or maybe it was just a whole new view of them from below instead of from the deck?

Then the next door neighbors shot off fireworks for a half an hour. Scared our feral cats to death but we loved them. I actually posted a short video of them on Facebook last night.
Tomorrow night our other neighbors will go to town with their spectacular fireworks display. He has enough fireworks to fill up a long bed pickup in his garage. Grandkids are coming and they are going to love it! So are we.
Out my back porch on the Savannah river just now.
And earlier today. I thought the rain was suppose to continue.
Update- Morning mist.

Happy fourth!! Love Margaret xoxoxoxo

It’s All About the Cherry

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Half sheet Kilimanjaro 300# M Graham watercolors w Mary Whyte colors in it per her portrait painting book.

My niece was excited about eating her chocolate milkshake at Rutledge Cab Company in N Charleston. Great restaurant bytw!!!

Why do I always make problems to fix like the light background?
Almost done
She’s done for now.
Storm blowing in from Georgia. Mostly a deluge but no tornadoes thank goodness. Hugs Maggie xoxoxo

Another Monday with Crystal

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The long pose – 40 minutes – pentel brush pen and watercolor in my superaquabee tablet. Crystal of @crystallinecreative did a terrific job as usual during this live zoom session thru Townsend Atelier. She’s doing online modeling sessions via Townsend Atelier about once a month on Monday at 5 EST. You can contact them at mailto:peggy@townsendatelier.com.
Two minute poses
Five minute pose
Five minute pose
Ten minute pose

Ten minute pose

Fishing again today. That’s my husband up at the top of the dam – the blue dot. You run up and down that hill to land fish. Not me. I sit at the bottom and paint. Of course I didn’t finish anything today. Maybe I will get them down tomorrow. Some dummy left most of her brushes at home. Duh.

Maggie xoxoxo

Been drawing

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In my small Stillman and Birn alpha w a Office Depot mechanical pencil.

The best of the lot. My sweetie Hunt. 4×6”

I measured his head when I drew this one by holding up my 2B mechanical pencil. His head is very long and narrow. Kind of like the rest of him. He’s 6’3”. Lots of whiskers. Mustache and goatee. Going grey but still has a lot of pepper in his once black hair.

Next up a watercolor or two of him sooner or later.

This is the First go round and his face was not long enough. Made him look squat. Vaguely looks like him but the mouth is his mouth. Oops. Easier to redraw than erase all that pencil. 4×6”
And Sam I Am a Siamese stray on the back porch. Sweetest of all the back porch cats. once he’s fixed he’s looking good for a house kitty. He wants in every time I feed him or pet him. Another man of good taste.

WIP Paris Cafe

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Hahnemuhle 140# half sheet

Wishing I was sitting here having an espresso followed by a croque monsieur. For now. Too tired to work on it anymore today. Not crazy abt the people but then that’s not new. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev
Vlads value sketch
First wash yellow ochre alizarin and cobalt Cad orange.
And the rest of the first wash. Cad red light, cobalt teal, cerulean w neutral tint yellow ochre and dioxzine mixed in. Funny how light the left hand buildings look now
Adding details and that darn motorcycle
Windows going in. Same colors
The shadows added and MORE windows So many windows οΏΌ
Starting to look done.
And now. Time to put my feet up. Color me tahred. Xoxoxox Margaret

The boat has sailed

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15×20” Hahnamuhle 140#

I actually like this so far. The morning will tell. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev

The value sketch
The photo
First wash

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

Somewhere in Italy

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So far 15×20” hahnamuhle rough 140#

On the whole I like it but feel it’s a little light. I will sleep on it and decide. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev

The photo
The sketch
Even before painting I managed to smear the worst color of all to remove- Alizarin- on my lovely pristine white paper.
Eeek.
I did blot it off a little. By the end it seemingly became much less noticeable. Thank goodness.
First wash. Boy that took forever. While it looks dark right now it really dried to become very light. cobalt alizarin yellow ochre and cad orange
Sky wash done. I managed to keep my fingers out of for once. Cerulean neutral tint dioxzine violet
Adding shadows. Cobalt yellow ochre dioxzine and neutral tint
Suddenly those darks make the first washed look so light. How strange is that?! The blooms aka rocks on the foreground are made by splattering water on the greys once it dries a bit.
And done for now. You can only see a bit of the alizarin smears. Handy the lady has an alizarin top isn’t it!?

Margaret all in for tonite. Michael’s tomorrow for some fixative I hope. Otherwise waiting til I go to Blick this weekend.

Xoxoxo