Day 426 Costco

September 8, 20152 Comments

Last week I sat in the corner at Costco’ s cafe area drawing the lunch crowd. There’s one table that has a 180 view and SCORE. I hid behind my purse.

I really like the way the wall of boxes turned out in the background. And the way most of the people turned out. I actually painted out one guy whose drawing went astray. Can you find him!?

It was also hard getting all the bodies with legs as they came and went.

Next time I will draw something easy like my polish sausage and the drink.

This should be a fun place for urban sketching. Or at least getting pics of the roustabouts working. Check their webpage for when they visit near you.

Thanks for reading. Class tomorrow. Busy day!!

Margaret xxx

Day 425 -a Tutorial – That bacKgRouD

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015Leave a comment

Ilenia Kilimanjaro #140 cold pressed 22×30 -for sale email me at m c m h u n t @ me.c o m of you need her.

Or how many ways can you spell disaster?! Disasters are hard to fix when you paint with watercolor but sometimes you can if you are patient.

Yesterday I said I would post how I did the backgrounds on these two paintings of Ilenia. It involves ALOT of water and dripping paint.
Ilenia Fabriano #140 cold pressed 12x 18-for sale email me at m c m h u n t @ me.c o m of you need her.

This was the background originally on last weeks painting. What was I thinking?!

Try lifting color next time you have a disaster. If it’s cold pressed paper you can lift the color. Some paper does it better than others. Fabriano does it best. The cheapest source of fabriano I have found is Cheap Joes. Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro also does a good job of lifting though not as good a job as Fabriano.

Don’t forget Hot Press papers will not lift at all. Worst ever including my beloved Fabriano. I once mixed up some hot press fabriano with my cold press and used it accidently. How many ways can you spell disaster?!

This is basically how I did the backgrounds in the pictures. You may have to repeat the steps. hookers green size 12 sable legend I had the same reaction to that hookers green in this weeks paintings background. What was I thinking. Even worse the green is staining so I had to use other colors to get rid of it.

Blotting off that Ick green.

So how to do that? First how I arrived at the background.

Adding more water to lift the paint.

More blotting with Kleenex. No puffs allowed. They have lanolin on them.

Adding yellow ochre to kill the green.

And a little burnt umber.

Splattering soupy burnt sienna with my Legend 12 sable.

The spatters melt out because the paint is wet.

Then I repeat the above steps blotting off color and adding more til I like it.

Now what did I do to get rid of this too dark color. I hit it with the spray bottle, let it sit a few minutes and started blotting it off with Kleenex or paper towel. It gets to be a drippy mess and it usually ends up on the floor.

And it ended like this. I did splatter the background again. I think the colts I used were alizarin, mineral Violet, burnt sienna, Inathradone blue and cobalt.

Ps don’t forget to wipe the drips off the floor before you track them everywhere.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 424 – Yes it’s SuNdAy!!!

September 6, 2015September 6, 2015Leave a comment

Ilenia full sheet 22x 30″ 140# Kilimanjaro for sale. Email me at m c m h u n t @ me.co m if she needs to come live with you.

As you may know I usually post the life modeling session on Saturday but Miss Ilenia was misbehaving. Or maybe it was the painter?! 😳

Before I start wanted to remind you that if you haven’t seen Mr Yow doing Chinese painting on my Facebook wall you should. It’s only 4 minutes. https://m.facebook.com/MargaretMccarthyHunt?ref=bookmarks

I am going to make a mental checklist or maybe I should write it down to review before I start painting. Meditate on it. Put it under my pillow and sleep on it. Put it on the bathroom mirror.

She was drawn with a #4 Isabey sable watercolor brush w a grey that was mixed with everything in the corners of my palette. Twenty minutes sketching. When you use a paintbrush on watercolor paper you have to think about where each line goes. Trying for no do overs.

ChEcKlIsT:

No head smaller than 4″ EvEr!!

Shoulders even?!

Arms the right length?!

Eat in the right position?!

Start painting on the face first. (The face makes me nervous so I tend to start on it after I do the body. NOT good because in a two hour drawing session I run out of time. Since I tend to slap paint on when I get in a hurry guess what I do?! Not a good look on a face!! )

And last shadows even across the face?? (Aka shadows on face should NOT Be darker than the body. Gives a beard effect. Not good on a pretty young girl!!!)

Ps only use burnt sienna and cerulean on a young girls face or the shadows get too heavy. Charles Reids rule and he is THE Master!! Www.charlesreidart.com

The first forty minutes including sketching. A Quin coral and french ochre wash. Both are transparent. Raw Sienna and cerulean shadows.

Next forty minutes. Mistake number one on the face. Eyebrow and eye too dark and heavy. She had dark eyes but using burnt inner and ultramarine made them TOO dark. Next time repeat the mantra burnt sienna and cerulean only. The eyebrow is too long too. No shadows Around the eye make them look pasted on.

Also lost the edges of the back of her hair so she would not look cut out and glued down. It makes your eye look at her face not her hair.

After Life modeling. Two hours. I put her down in the parking lot and took her pic in the noonday sun.

She needs some background to make her PPP. I chose green because it’s the opposite of pink or red. But oh my gosh what’s wrong with that face?!

Lots of minor things. Eat was a little low. The mouth too down turned. The eye shape off. Forehead a hair too narrow and TOO round. Otherwise she was looking great.

After a lot of twitching around I am happy with her. Shoot me an email if she needs to come live at your house!!

Now my biggest question is crop closer or leave full sheet?! Leaning toward the cropped version. It follows the rules of thirds and I like it best. Which one do you like best?!

Tomorrow will tell you how I did the background. It too was rough for a while but really like it ALOT now.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 422?? Painting

September 4, 2015September 4, 2015Leave a comment

Update. Painted for a couple more hours.

So far

This painting had been fermenting in my brain all week. And really ever since I saw it. Love the grunge look of it.

And always liked this photo of my middle son. I started over for two reasons. The first one was on 140# and he had no feet. This is on a full sheet Crescent watercolor board. Heavy stuff.

The feet thing did it for me. Lol. Do over. He needed feet. And I had trouble with his head. Still too big. As I said on my fb wall watercolor is a roll of the die. Sometimes you win sometimes not. Like the new one better anyway.

Here’s the sketch of it. All those grey lines worried me. Hard to have transparent color and those lines not show. I think they are going away. I HOPE.

The face was a hash of lines.

Professor wants you to paint the drawing with a brush. 😳 I don’t know any WC people who do that but I was game to try.

I did draw a little with a grey watercolor pencil because toooo many grey WC lines. I erased all the grey lines I could with my moo erasure from cheap joes. We love our moo erasures.

Love the pants and the drip down the neck of the tshirt. The right arm is too wide but I think I can correct that with the background.

Pray for me !👍😃

Last page.

Thanks for reading. Back to painting.

Margaret xxx

Day 420 – Meet Me at the Rocket!

September 2, 20154 Comments

Inscrutable Half Sheet 300 # Fabriano

Why at the Rocket?!
The South Carolina State Fair Art Show in Columbia, SC is a BIG statewide event in South Carolina. And everybody meets at The Rocket, an old missile named Columbia donated to the state.

The Best in Show Professional prize is $2000!! And there are thousands more in prize money!! The paintings are my entries. I will be happy if they sell because droves of people attend the fair daily.

Tea Time 11×15″ 300# Fabriano

Artists from all over the state enter and the competition is fierce. There are so many entries that they fill up half a huge butler building. There are at least 1000 paintings in the show. Some are outstanding some are beginners and there is everything in between. The good the bad and the ugly.
I intend to sketch there. Anyone want to meet me at the Rocket?! Lots of animals of all kinds to sketch. Roz Stendahl of Roz Woundup blog (http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/) would be jealous!! She sketches at the Minnesota State Fair every year and organizes a huge sketch crawl.

BYTW if you go don’t miss the huge sand sculpture that are two – three stories tall. They are pretty amazing. Here are a couple of them. http://scfairgrounds.com/fair/special-attractions/sand-sculpture.php and http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2014/10/11/state-fair-sand-sculpture-still-a-work-in-progress/17118097/

Another page for your drawing pleasure.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 419 – College again!?

September 1, 2015September 1, 2015Leave a comment

On Monday and Wednesday I am auditing a painting class at a local college. SCARY stuff. NO PeNcIL allowed?! But he’s the boss so NO pencil. Should be interesting.

He said if we can draw with a pencil we can draw with a brush. Hmm?! As I said he’s the boss he knows.

Here’s the sketch drawn with my paintbrush and a very watery burnt sienna. I hope I get the hang of this soon. Maybe I just need to practice sketching with my paint brush. My size 4 Isabey.

Probably needed more painted information on the page. And darker paint?! No idea.

Had a lot of trouble getting the head small enough. Not sure why but I did. Couldn’t be that I sketched it too large could it?!

Not only was his head to big his neck which is slim is massive. Oops!!

Ok so I cheated and got out a watercolor pencil because I was getting so frustrated with the head. The light purple areas around the head are where I narrowed the head. I also ended up lifting the beard and the sunglasses.

Lifting is easy to do on good cold press Wc paper like this fabriano. Just dampen it a bit with a brush and left off with a CLEAN paper towel or Kleenex. No puffs allowed they have lanolin in them. Not good for watercolors.

Another day another page. I hope I didn’t post this one already.

Onward and upward my painting partners.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

August 31, 2015August 30, 20151 Comment

I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling on it seems like a good idea. What do you think?!

This was sketched at the Inner Beab in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?! Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?!

Colors used. Almost every color I have !!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 418 – Inner Bean

August 31, 2015August 31, 2015Leave a comment

I really want to write on the background wall of this but haven’t yet because I like it as is. However journaling about it seems like a good idea. What do you think?!

This was sketched at the Inner Bean in Augusta Friday. Remember I told you you can get in trouble if you don’t plan those lines. Can you find my faux pas?! Hmm I could turn it into to a backpack on the girl couldn’t I?!

Colors used. Almost every color I have !!

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 417 – a Dogs life!

August 30, 20156 Comments

Pouring rain here today and all but one of the dogs hate to go out in the rain.

This dog appeared on TV when I paused it. Decided it was a sign to paint him. No idea what kind of dog he is. A collie perhaps?!

Here’s the original sketch done with the Pentel brush pen. It’s good for quick sketching but takes some getting used to aka practice. Also some thinking is required before you sketch aka at what angle should the lines be drawn?!

Better to do one line than try to correct the permant ink lines. They will always show unless you do some creative painting.

The dog was painted with a cheap Joes size 12 Legend sable. Expensive but worth every penny. I use it a lot.

Colors used – most of my paint is Daniel Smith or Holbein. Quin gold and Quin Sienna for the fur. Quin red for the tongue with a touch of mineral Violet. Burnett umber and ultramarine blue for the darks. Cerulean in the shadows.
Sorry I forgot to post these yesterday so doubling up today.



Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 416- It’s Saturday again!!

August 29, 2015Leave a comment

You know what that means – Life Modeling at USC Aiken. I am very happy with my painting today. Ilena might get a few tweaks but she’s done for now.

It was a great pose and the drawing went well. I didn’t even use head measurements til the end just to check if she was in good order. It took about twenty minutes to draw this sketch.

TIP: The drawing was started with the shoulders matching the diagonal line of the models shoulders. Same for the arms and leg angles. You imagine drawing a straight line thru the shoulders and start with that line.

The outline of the head was added still matching the angles of the models head.

Here she is after about an hour of painting. Still a lot to do but looking good. The rust color is Quin Sienna or burnt orange. Not sure which. Flesh is Quin coral with a dab of yellow ochre added. The Blues are mostly cobalt. Hair burnt umber and ultramarine blue.