Day 150 worse ways to

August 12, 20204 Comments

Spend the pandemic than virtual painting travel with Vlad Yesilesev

St. Martin du Mont

Almost done. Had to put my light pole back in. Oopsey.

Before I scraped the light pole in.

This paper loves to be scraped. Not sure what it is. Thinking 300# Kilimanjaro cold press.

I scratched the pole in with an xacto knife point. Doesn’t leafs work well but this paper loves it. I don’t like the way the same knife acts on Fabriano or arches.

The photo

Vlads value sketch

The sketch which I kept rearranging.

First wash.

Cad yellow and red, cobalt, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, Alizarin with a little dioxzine purple and a grey mix of those. Aka stir up your palette. Some yellow ochre gold.

Orange roofs added. Cad red and yellow

Dark greens added. Neutral tint, yellow, cobalt, and vandyke brown for tree green. Scraped wit a chunk of old credit card. Greys are palette soup.

Windows added. Cad red yellow and dioxzine purple. Cheap Joes turquoise on grey car windows.

Tree alizarin dioxzine purple and neutral tint shadow.

End of class

And now w the light post scraped out.

Zoe guarding my painting.

Back to my scarf. Only about 3 feet long now.

Margaret w her feet up xoxoxo

Day 149 in the corner

August 10, 2020Leave a comment

Is what it feels like when the power keeps going out from our crazy thunder storms. On the other hand we are getting plenty of rain. In the past years August has been a month of drought. The whole world a large dust pile.

Somebody please tell me why so many books are boring colors. A few red and orange ones. A blue one here and there but most are white black or grey. Wonder why?!

Same tools as yesterday except I paint this one with water to release the neocolor ii s power.

Here are the jays with water added to the neocolor. They darken a lot.

A fun art toy to play with. Beware heavy ink will smear sometimes. Darn it. Even if it’s waterproof.

Margaret whose been binge watching Professor T on PBS Passport. A quirky odd crime show set in Antwerp with subtitles. I think I am beginning to understand the language. Part Dutch part French and a lot of English slang. Xoxoxo.

Stay dry in this crazy summer weather.

Day 148 Jays

August 9, 2020August 10, 20204 Comments

Been feeding the birds on the back porch rails. I have been giving them red hot seed that the squirrels won’t touch. Not do the raccoons seem to.

Twins My fav pic of the jays. There are up to four at a time on the porch.

Keeps them out of range of the back porch wild cat Gus who loves to be fed but won’t let u touch her. Got to catch that baby making machine and get her fixed.

Lamy EF Namiki Fude

Caran dache neocolor ii

Eelskin Black Noodlers Ink

Margaret Xoxoxox

Day 147 always meant to draw

August 7, 2020August 13, 2020Leave a comment

Vultures on the side of the road as they fed. Today was the day. You know when u like to draw birds any bird will do. Vultures aka Buzzards hold still longer as they either eat or HOPE to get a turn at dinner.

Did you know their heads are naked so nothings from their dinners will stick to them?!!

Nature is interesting isn’t it.

These sketches only took about ten minutes in my small Venezia sketchbook. 4×6″ Drawn with a fat juicy dark Derwent sketching pencil. Love those. Kinda fond of the Venezia too. It was too nice to use for quite a while. Almost full now.

Here’s to vultures cleaning one roadkill at a time. Very interesting to watch as one defends the dinner from the others who lurk in hopes of a taste or two.

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 144 Paris Barges

August 5, 2020May 19, 2021Leave a comment

Nothing better than walking by the Seine in Paris passing the barges under the fabulous bridges, Pont Alexander, and by such landmarks as Les Invalides and my fav – le tour Eiffel aka the Eiffel Tower.

Vlads picture

A wild paintalong with Vlad. I bet his wife, his manager, has to wear track shoes to chase him around.

Vlads value sketch.

Seems I forgot to take a pic of my sketch. This is Vlads.

First wash. Almost done.

And the washes are piling up. Pointy brush w Paris grey to the Eiffel Tower and the Pont Alexander.

Sliding toward home. Pulling the masking off the boat lines and a few other whites I wanted to save.

Going to have to fix these lines now the masking gone. Can’t leave them stark white.

Lines

Looking better. Really need to work on softening my lines.

Calling it quits for tonite.

What a difference a few minutes makes in the sky.

Margaret Xoxoxox

Day 143 Giverny 2

August 4, 2020May 19, 20212 Comments

Notice the numbers have gone down. I counted today exactly 143 days since IT started. I had been using Gov Cuomos count. I guess NY started before Ga.

Today I decided to repaint Giverny on different paper with different paint. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev. I spent an hour this am talking to a customer service rep at Cheap Joes. Great guy, very helpful, stuck out in the boonies near Boone NC where Cheap Joes is located. We talked each other’s ears off.

The gist of the conversation was I don’t like my cream colored Fabriano rough because it’s c ream colored. Great paper except it’s NOT white. And it takes the brightness away from the watercolor.

Turns out there is Fabriano rough white. Some is wafting it’s way to me as I type.

So I pulled out that annoying arches 140 block. Did I say it’s bright white. Paper may be rotten but it was the right color.

It was taped up ready to Paint. I also used my Fealing Lin palette full of non Chalky Daniel Smith M Graham and lovely Holbein plus A bit of cheap Joes Andrews turquoise and his alizarin permanent.

I think the whole thing is much brighter due to the white paper and the paint. The bottom one is the one from today. Top is the Fabriano cream w Lukas paint.

I should have listened to my friend Mike abt Lukas paint. Best I can say is it’s cheap.

I splattered the flowers while the green was wet like Charles Reid used to do. I may had a bit of pink w some gouache.

I also got better darks w my regular paints than I can ever get w the Lukas.

Wild storm tonite. Power out again. Sigh.

Goodnite all Margaret and Zoe tucked up in bed. Xoxoxo

Day 150 Giverny

August 3, 2020May 19, 20212 Comments

Our brushes lifted over for Giverny Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev today in Normandie France. One day I hope to go. Giverny closes in October and we cruised by on our Viking longboat in November. We did get to tour Auvers sur L’Oise where Van Gogh lived and painted and finally died-even visiting his attic room where he drew his last breath and the cemetery where he’s buried. The sketch 300lb Fabriano rough

10×15

First wash. Off to the paint brush races.

Sprinting for the finish adding dappled shadows. Watercolors all about thinking light to dark.

Trees have grown zip zip so fast.

Cad yellow and cobalt neutral tint burnt umber.

Done for now though I think it needs more darks. I may resplatter. I wanted Monet pink. I got a red. Hmm and yes I added white gouache to the splatter. Oops.

How cute is this Downey?

Margaret back to her knitting. Xoxoxo

Day 146 River Bend Days

July 30, 20202 Comments

Pronouncing it done from a photo out my back window a couple of weeks ago. I added the tiny kayaker. They go by in droves when I am painting.

The photo

First wash with very thin cerulean and cobalt mix. Yellow ochre alizarin and neutral tint thinned down with water. 90% water 10% color.

Moving along.

Then I forgot to take another photo. Opps.

So done I also added some white gouache splatter in hopes of giving it a focal point. Probably should have been red to give a contrast w the reflected area on water.

I sprayed the edges of the trees with the mister to soften the edges. Added more blues and greys to the sky.

Scratched tree and bush branches with a chopped up credit card. Did a great job but hard to catch it in time to do it. Too dry it won’t scratch. Ditto if too wet.

This is 140# rough Fabriano which waffled like crazy with all the water I dumped on it but amazingly dried almost flat aka flat enough as my friend Kristin would say.

Finished this one up. Added more darks especially in the shadows and on the trees. Some whites for highlights.

Margaret

Day 144 Mellow Mushroom

July 28, 20203 Comments

Today’s painting. Mellow Mushroom On Broad St. – FOR SALE 10×15” watercolor

Might be done. We shall see. Course I say that all the time so could be I will change it by this time tomorrow.

I started it a few weeks ago. So glad I can scratch it off my to do list. I should always have an espresso in the am. Get so much more done. House squeaky clean and a new painting. Not bad for one days work.

I also worked on Dubrovnik some more. Tried to take some of the purple put of the wall. And wipes out some color on the right. I might need to wipe out some more. Who knows. It ak be done when it’s done right?! Lifted the handle of the par with some tape and a sea sponge.

Wipes out the signs dark shadow with the tape sponge trick and the black shadow under the truck.

Those two black shadows under the truck and around the sign screamed look at me. As did that white shirt on the girl in the foreground that had to go too.

Margaret contentedly tired but who needs to do her Powerplate xoxoxo

Day 140 Kitchen counter

July 24, 20202 Comments

Hard to believe it’s been 140 days since our lives changed. Hope you and yours are staying safe and wearing masks.

These sit on my kitchen island. A bank for my change and of course the now required hand sanitizer because sometimes I just get sick of washing my hands. I do think I am slightly addicted to hand washing though.