Day 93! Zoey

August 11, 2023Leave a comment

Day 93! Zoey A sweet selfie! Ready for a party!

Quin rose, quin burnt sienna, ultramarine all the usual skin colors. Quin rose. Cobalt shadows

Andrews turquoise and yellow ochre left background. Other side is cerulean and burnt sienna.

Burnt sienna and ultramarine for the dress. Makes a more vibrant brown than just burnt umber. Ivory black hair, cobalt shadows.

9×12” superaquabee sketchbook.

Thanks, Judith @jyportraitchallenge and Zoey @zoeykriegmont

Margaret tared again after painting four portraits today. #Knockingthemout! xoxoxo

Thursday is @pencils4tea day

August 11, 2023August 11, 20232 Comments

Link @pencils4tea in her bio On ig. Every TH at 1 pm EST in the US.

@pencils4tea Thanks Kirsty and all of our models. Live on instagram from Dundee Scotland!! Always fun and challenging.

Anna w a hale brush . Her hair is white.

Michelle from California w a handful of butterflies

My cheap general HB charcoal pencil drawing w watercolors over it instead of pencil. Superaquabee sketchbook

Flesh Daniel Smith quin burnt sienna and MGraham quin rose. Blue shadows mostly cerulean and some cobalt and Andrew’s turquoise. Brown burnt umber and ultramarine to make black. Greys whatever blue brown mud i had sometimes adding ivory black.

Gorgeous Alexandra 2:46 a failure she so lovely. Does not do her justice

I confess i spent another hour titivating these aka tweaking them. Added all the backgrounds and painted some of the people later always spending at most five min on them per person.

Lily and Angela Shannon –
5+ min LOVE this one!

Liz always a pleasure to paint 3:20 min. Love her top! 4 diff patterns on it.

Ursula from Germany who i chat w alot on ig. One of my favs 3:46. She might need a background. Only 1 i didn’t give one to.

Rafael- Il es Français and he looks like it!❤️ 3:30 min

Daniella 1:19 min i confess i drew the cat and painted her after it. I had just started the cat when it ended.

Maggie immensely tahred xoxoxox

Day 91

July 29, 2023Leave a comment

Done. Oddly the face is the same painting in both pics. All I can say is go figure.

Day 91 Donella @darealsdonella really like painting animals and who could resist this kid?! An armload of adorable fuzziness. I want one, please!!!

Lighter background otherwise everything is the same.

Forgot process pics. Managed to use alot of quin burnt orange in the goat. Perfect for him plus burnt umber and cerulean for the fur. Doneallas hair barely used yellow ochre. My current fav skin quin burnt orange and quin pink. Cobalt and quin pink top. Cerulean and burnt quin orange for the background plus andrews turquoise.

9×12” superaquabee sketchbook.

Thanks! Judith @jyportraitchallenge and Donella @darealsdonella

Better color in this one. IPhone is reliably unreliable for accurate color.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox

Day 88!!

July 27, 2023July 27, 20235 Comments

Tomorrow at 1EST @Pencils4tea on ig. Free zoom drawing lots of people for an hour.

Our fearless substitute leader Fun zany poses and lots of music. The hour will zip by!

Day 88! #jyportraitchallenge Joyous Stella! Approaching 100 portraits. Never thought I would make it but the goal is in sight now.

My Chinese brush. So useful for stringy bits and plaids

Andrews turquoise and ultramarine for the plaid using my big fat chinese brush splayed so u get lots of small thin points. M Graham perlene marroon for the purples in her face.

Skin is quin burnt orange and quin rose. Andrews turquoise cerulean and ultramarine shadows w dabs perlene marroon. Hair yellow ochre w burnt sienna cerulean and burnt umber a little quin burnt orange.

9×12” superaquabee sketchbook.

Thanks! Judith @jyportraitchallenge and Stella @ mrs_booksart

The geese out back enjoying some breakie this am. Evidently watermelon is tasty.

Just for laughs. The unicorn float disappeared from our pool. A unicorn thief?? No our granddaughter who loves them took it home. This pic was sent by her dad with her unicorn collection floating in the float in her pool. Rofl. Who puts stuffed animals in the pool??!??🧐😳

Margaret tahred. Xoxoxo

Tomorrow! Be there!! Day 56!

June 11, 2023Leave a comment

LIVE from Paris! Drawing is Free at Noon EST on Zoom!! NO Nudity. Just drawing heads. GREAT practice

**Day 54-** My fav painting so far.

Keeping it fresh i hope and not overworked. I used Mary Whytes fav flesh combo M Graham raw sienna and quin pink for the flesh tones. Works well for all skin tones just varying the amounts of raw sienna and water to lighten or darken the mix. Its the only combo she uses for skin tones. Sweet face w her fun two tone hair. Fun painting her curly hair again today. While i remembered to do the hair wet on wet it ran too much. Thicker paint next time.

Lots of great lost edges in this painting

**Day 55** #jyportraitchallenge. Definitely a TOUGH paint. All that shadow and the pic is black and white so what to do with the background?! Lots of dark blue since its the compliment of peach/orange and makes her skin sing. The blue also let me loose her left side in the shadows.

My fav part is where her left hip meets the background.

**Day 54** #jyportraitchallenge. Another crazy busy day so i just did our lovely model in profile. Hmm got the ear too far foreward otherwise fun painting her hair and the lovely lights on her chest.
I used a big cheap chinese brush and a Cheap Joes Scroogys Loose Goose for her quin gold and quin burnt sienna tendrils. The Cheap Joes Scroogys Loose Goose is a very long very skinny saver brush that is almost impossible to control. You have to trust it it will make perfect curls.

**Day 52** #jyportraitchallenge. Love her eyes. Fun painting her curly hair. Forgot to soften the hairs edges by painting into the background wet on wet. Hopefully next time. Works so well w fluffy curly hair. Drawing went well. Done quickly.

**Day 51** #jyportraitchallenge.
Miranda. So many details to paint. Need i say more!? Drawing went well. Done quickly. Painting wasnt bad either just too many things to paint. Note to self. Do not tape the corners. Duh!

**DAY 50!!!** of the #jyportraitchallenge. Did not ever think that i would get this far. David @gotsix2 flew off my pencil and brush. Glad he’s done. Beard could use some more grizzle in it but hey done is good.

M Graham and a few Daniel Smith quins – gold burnt sienna and scarlet.

11×14” Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook OR Meeden cp 140. Or Fluid cp 140.

Painted w a Mary Whyte fav paint M Graham and her fav brush a cats paw, #10 Charles Reid kolinsky sable (both brushes and paint at Cityart in Columbia, SC @cityartsc ) and 1/2” Robert Simons synthetic flat, arches 140 cp 9×12”

Maggie who wanted to be sure to post today. Xoxoxox

@drawingisfree_org

May 30, 2023May 30, 20234 Comments

Thanks Chloe @drawingisfree_org We were live from Paris sketching!! The Zoom link is at the top of this page. What a great FREE opportunity!!

A marvelous face on this old man sitting almost in the dark en Paris. My Fav sketch! All of these were done in my superaquabee 10×14” sketchbook with two Derwent sketching pencils a lightwash and a 4B I got at Blick Atlanta. Lovely dark soft pencils with a thick lead. Love them.

These are all two and a half -3:14 minute poses. The length of the great music she played. Different song for each pose mostly Francais, mais oui!

In case u r wondering where I have been now on day 43 of the #jyportraitchallenge on IG. Check them out at @maggieinsc.

This is a totally FREE drawing session. His first time attending and she asked him to pose😵😵😵. His glasses really were crooked.

Every Monday @drawingisfree_org has two sessions at 4 am EST and noon EST. Short 2-3 minute poses w different attendees being called on for a quick pose. So fun. Great music for each pose.

Her 80th coming up but shes still drawing! Hopes to spend it in Paris sketching. I

Lots of hands to practice on. A challenge when the pose is two and a half minutes. Great spikey hair and yellow glasses which i didn’t get to.

Despite a Zoom collapse which was a total reboot and a power outage right before the end best fun i have had sketching since BC Before covid.

Used two Derwent sketch pencils a 4B and a lightwash which had been languishing in my pencil box. Yes I have a PINK pencil box. Lol. Actually i have several to store my watercolors in my color.

Not my best but only two and a half minutes. 🙃Grwar curly red hair.

Chloe our fearless leader. Started is off posing to some great French music. When in France do as the Francai do, n’est-ce pas??

A Bientot! Margaret xoxoxo whose gotta go paint. #jyportraitchallenge

#28

March 25, 2023March 28, 20234 Comments

Done. **Painting #2**8 done since January.
Quitting. I like this one. A little too realistic because of the hard edges would be my only critique. The roses went well. Did them with alot of wet on wet to keep the edges soft. I seem to be painting alot of leaves lately. Ready to NOT paint leaves. Lol.
Half sheet fluid 140# which performed so well I wonder why I ever use anything else. Lifted like a champ.

**The photo**
Johannes Vloothuis did a free class on artist network today. While he was doing oil i painted watercolor. Really not painted in the same way at all but i enjoyed. He runs a very well organized class. his prices are so reasonable as to be ridiculous. $25 for three upcoming classes. I may take them although i really need to be doing my own work but i am a sucker for a deal.

He provides a very easy to print sketch for the class. On the pay classes he even provides a how to transfer it if u don’t want to draw it.

Ready to rock and roll. Used masking to save preserve my whites for the flowers.

The roses were done by saturating them with water and dropping buts of color in til I was happy with them. Probably the most successful roses i have ever done. The wood was done with my chinese brush flattened and then dry brushed. I should have used some of my old acrylic brushes that are splayed from paint drying in the ferrules.

Leaves were painted with blue and yellow i have and then i added some white gouache to a few. i used thalo blue ultramarine joes turquoise colbalt green gold cad yellow light aureolin yellow ochre to name a few. Oh and chrome green and thalo green. I tried them all. I should gave tried my beloved winsor newton filbert. Super painting for leaves.

See ya in one of Johannes classes. Margaret who is tahred xoxoxox

Do i like it is it done?!

February 26, 20232 Comments

Ballerina quarterish sized sheet arches. All done wet in wet using six colors, the hideous potters pink was one. Had the nasty color forever. Who knew it could make wonderous skin.

It was A Ken Call class that Mike and I finally did today that is part of Watercolor Live 2023 back in January. Kens website is well worth a look. His portraits are gorgeous.

This is what it looked like at the beginning. Ultramarine , Potters Pink, Burnt Sienna Sodalite Genuine Paynes Grey and Burnt Umber on arches 140 cold press. I have some 300 but i did not want to cut it up to try this technique when i didn’t know if i would like it. Arches now costs $28 a sheet. Ouch. That was before inflation.

Drips are in with Ken. Me too. I do love a good drip. You use a flat synthetic brush to lift color almost back to the white on this project. Did i say we lifted a LOT in this painting??? Really kind of an amazing technique at least in his hands.

There are two videos of him painting on youtube. Both are about an hour and a half long if you are interested in trying this technique.

https://youtu.be/rzXfr75fbPQ

https://youtu.be/10E4HPMKDfo

Margaret who is ready to go to bed! G’nite xoxoxox

Bird of the day well actually

February 18, 2023February 18, 20234 Comments

Been working on this bird for a few days. Maybe a week off and on.

This is 9×12 and done. I like a lot. So I decided to paint a bigger one. BYTW this one is available if you need her at your house.

The background wash went well but darn what was with the bird drawing. the back looks like spikes and regular ones at that. Regularity is an anathema in a painting. So how do I fix it without starting over?! So of course I kept on painting.

Starting the head. And then of course I forgot to take pics. Sigh. Really like the quin gold and the quin rose with cerulean on the neck and around the beak. But then no more pics. Sigh.

So here she is almost done but those spikes are still annoying me. So yesterday after madly painting with Vlad I thought slap some paint on the background and get rid of those spikes.

So I did. And it went well. I painted the horrible spikey look out. HURRAH!! But then I got the dreadful green run across the bottom of the beak. The 140 kilimanjaro was waffling like crazy with huge ripples making the washes run like crazy. To make it worse the green run was THALO notoriously staining of any paper. NIGHTMARE time.

Slapping cobalt on to give her some curves.

So her she is today. The paper dried amazingly flat for all the ripples it had yesterday. Maybe I can grey out the green streak. Tomorrows job! I do like the way she looks now.

Maybe a crop to take a couple of inches off on the right?? She’s a big girl at 16×20”. Did I say I have already drawn another one?! 😵‍💫

Tonite sunset was rather spectacular. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as I was heating up our dinner leftovers. We do love a good bowl of leftover soup.

Margaret ready for bed xoxoxox

Off to Paris

November 9, 2021November 10, 20212 Comments

Who doesn’t want to go to Paris for the day or a week or a year?!
Half sheet Hahnemuhle rough

I took a class today on Shopkeeparty with Michal Jasiewicz. He’s a great painter but he can’t paint and talk about what he’s doing at the same time because he speaks Polish.

Of course he speaks better Polish than I speak English but when it’s an online zoom class you don’t pay attention to what he’s doing when he’s not talking. You don’t have time to just sit and watch because he’s painting like a madman.

He would be off painting like a madman someplace I wasn’t because I didn’t know he was painting.

I only realized that after the class was over.

That’s another thing. Why do they have to paint like a madman. I can usually keep up BUT i know a lot cant so WHY!?

The drawing. Did two because I drew the first one last nite on the back. Hahnamuhle doesn’t have sizing on the back so I has to draw it again.

First wash. A mix of red yellow and blue no specific colors. Just a nice light grey.

Heading. Down the road. All this was done wet on wet which makes me a little crazy and slab happy with the brush.

No idea why I didn’t take more pics. Here it is for now. Already thinking of scrubbing the tree off some but who knows.

At this point I decided to do why I wanted. Started really slapping paint on. Drawing with my saber brush, the Cheap Joe’s scroobys loose Goose, which is always uncontrollable fun.