Day 1074 Dog Days?!

July 2, 2017July 2, 2017Leave a comment

My kids pit bull Briard mix Lucy Dog. Just the sweetest dog but a pain to paint. She’s a tawny brindle. So how do you paint that.

I think I tried every color I have I. The. Brown range burnt umber, Quin Sienna and Quin gold and piemonite. None worked well. Too dark to red too gold. All worked for small areas. I finally used quin Sienna w a bit of burnt umber. Ultramarine for the darks with the burnt umber.

Cerulean for greys mixed with Quin Sienna and Andrews turquoise with some Quin Sienna for the throw.

Mr Clean erasers were my friend to lift highlights lost.

The sketch done with a 6B pencil.

Ttyl. Thanks for stopping by. Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1069 Mary Alice Munroe

June 27, 2017Leave a comment

Went to a great book talk at AB Browns today by Mary Alice Monroe for her newest book in her Beach House series the quintessential summer beach book based on Isle of Palms near Charleston.

Though I have read some of the books with the turtles in them has no idea they are really to educate us about her latest passion. I tend to read the story for the story not to find hidden meanings.

That said I always enjoy them.

The latest book is about pelican rescue her latest passion. The raptor center even named a pelican that she rescued after her Mary Ann so I decided to draw Mary Ann to fill up the page.

The notes are just things that she said about her passions pelicans shorebirds.

She’s also an excellent palmetto bug stomper. One was running around the room the talk was held in. It’s a skill u acquire when you got to SC Low country beaches. I won’t tell you how I know.

The lunch was excellent. HEirloom tomato soup.

Shrimp and grits and a peach cheese cake for desert.

Ttyl. Off to Atlanta! Thanks for stopping by!! Margaret xoxoxoxo

Day 1068 Fathers Day at Pine Lake

June 25, 2017Leave a comment

It actually poured on us before we left so not a bright sunny day BUT who wants a swimming hole with no sun?!

One thing about painting you can make it sunny or overcast.

Pine Lake is the smallest town in Georgia with a population of less than 800 and used to be a weekend escape place for Buckhead elite when all the roads were dirt.

The lake is the center of the town with charming cottages and small houses built on the surrounding small hills.

Painted with my Ted Nuttall transparent palette plus green apatite in the trees and grasses.

Happy Sunday!

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1061 -how many more?! And a beach party!!

June 17, 2017June 17, 2017Leave a comment

Still quite a few!!! 🤗We have no shortage of talking heads in this country. They offer great drawing practice. If you can pause your tv it even takes the pressure off of trying to draw them quickly.

And all they do is talk. And talk and talk.

And pass a lot of laws that half the country don’t like no matter which side you are on making the other half is unhappy!

The Decatur Businesses Beach Party in downtown Decatur on the square. Ponce de Leon became a giant beach!! Free beach buckets, beach balls and balloons oh and washable tattoos for all!!

An amazing stilt walker. The kids had no idea how he could be that tall! Several people on top of each other was their best guess.

And there he goes legging it down the block or should I say stilting down the block?!

And a rare shot of the old Decatur Courthouse with sun on its face. It usually sits in the shade. Bytw this is now an art gallery.

Off to play with my grandkids. Hugs!!

Day 1059 – How many did I draw?

June 15, 2017Leave a comment

12 I think. As my friend Ruth pointed out I probably spent at most five minutes drawing each person since they only spent ten minutes taking.

I will say they took longer to color than five minutes. I spent the last two days coloring them in the evening.

My friend Dee asked me why in a gen cent Target notebook. I didn’t want to look back in a sketchbook and see some if these faces.

Bytw I did get out a sketchbook for the next time I get the urge to document this madness.

And people love to look thru my sketchbooks.

This sketch of Susan is the worst one I think. She’s much more attractive than the drawing. Chalking it to I had to warm up!

I do think they look better colored which I find odd because I love ink sketches.

Colored with my Prismacolor art sticks. Thick juicy color like their colored pencils but cover a lot of area quickly. The scribbles are grease pencils. And or a 6B pencil.

Off to Atlanta. Stand by for more.

Margaret documenting this madness one hearing at a time. Xoxoxo

Day 1056 – the View at Breakfast

June 12, 2017June 13, 2017Leave a comment

We always stay at the Country Inn and suites when we take a class at Cheap Joes. The people are lovely even if the breakfast is not so great. The view from the breakfast area and the staff make up for the lack of the great food. After class Mike and I frequently go prop our feet up and rock the afternoon away drinking a glass of wine and looking at this view of Howard’s Knob the mountain in the painting.

Of course on a good morning we got to share our breakfast with Charles and the ever adorable Judy Reid. Always a morning treat. They are so lovely! Judy will regale is with stories of the adventures of Chuck and Judy.

There are quite a few after 60 plus years of marriage. Like the time they almost were lost at sea helping a friend sails 50 foot Chesapeake bug eye catch when a storm hit them off of Charleston. Judy and Charles were the only ones who knew anything about sailing. So glad they survived!!

Painted with Charles Reid’s palette.

Off to hem those long overdue curtains. Wonder if my sewing machine still works?! Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1055 -It’s Saturday!!

June 10, 2017June 10, 2017Leave a comment

It’s Saturday and Miss Emily is our model.

Slathering the paint on like cake icing. Lots of impasto. A little hippy and busty?! I moved that right arm at least three times. Scrapped it off and started over again and again and again.

At the first break. 4o minutes in.

Kathe playing with my caran dache neocolor ii and some charcoal.

Not sure who drew this.

Fred Mr Mondigliani Baker. A Fred funny today. Asked Dr Fred what do you call a liar a sociopath?! He said a Billionaire re our president. Thought that was great.

Jeremy’s. Gorgeousness

Al Beyer’s huge oil

Coaches great charcoal.

And that’s all folks. Still contemplating St comeys halo.

Ttyl Margaret. Xoxoxo

Day 1044 – That Dirty Dried out Palette

May 31, 2017Leave a comment

Now that I am home for a day or two I wanted to use my Ted Nuttall palette. This is actually Teds Palette.

All those lovely transparent colors.

And it helped with my procrastination mode getting started painting the Raisin and Harley painting

which is finally transferred to paper and ready to paint.

Of course my Palette has dried out and filthy. They always dry out!! It needed revival and cleaning. Another way to procrastinate!!! The spray bottle was not getting the job done. The colors were lumpy and nasty.

So how did I get it clean and get the paint smooth and ready to use!?

First I sprayed it and tried stirring each color with its own tooth pick. That did not do much for the lumps. I wanted to paint!!!

I got out my trusty old palette knife. It has a tiny blade on it compared to most so it fit perfectly in the wells of my porcelain palette.

I used a jillion Kleenex wiping wells out where there was just a dribble of old hard paint. NO LOTION On those Kleenex.

I started bending my antique palette knife in some of the paint. Oh NO!! I kept going. What palette knife is supposed to last forever!?

I decided to rearrange the colors. Here and there I had added colors I MUST have to the basic Nuttall Palette like Cerulean, Andrews Blue, Daniel Smith Piemonite and Green Apaptite.

The Kleenex and the palette knife left crusts of color in the corners.

Then I realized I could fill the wells with water and used an old brush to swirl out the bits left in corners. Hallelujah clean wells at last.

I used a sharpie to rewrite the colors on the edges of the wells and I even have a few leftover slots.

So it’s new clean and lovely at this point.

What I learned while cleaning my palette.

Wear rubber gloves while cleaning your palette unless you want to have colored fingernails. 😱
Those dollar store Kleenex with lotion have something wierd in them. They gave me a rash when I used them on my nose. 😱😱 Now gone. 🤗🤗🤗
Now I know why some people have stacks of these palettes. It might be easier to just buy a new palette than clean the old one out.

Margaret who has some painting to do. Xoxox and no more reasons to procrastinate because I even cleaned up the studio and moved to the summer one aka the kitchen table and island.

Oh wait I need to use the glass cleaner on the winter studio table. It’s looking hazy. Procrastinate procrastinate. I need some flowers to paint!!

🌼🌻🥀🌷🌷🌸🌺🌼🌻🥀🌹🌷🌸🌺

Day 1038 Drawing for days now.

May 25, 2017May 28, 20173 Comments

Finally getting the big painting of this ready.

As Charles Reid says “There are just some days I can’t draw.” And apparently this painting involved that for me.

The new painting has involved a lot tweaking. Harley is one big horse and he’s not in this painting. He’s too small.

I took a comparison pic of Raisin and Harley when I was in Bristol to see just how big he was. His head is about three times as long as Raisins plus his ears. In the first painting he was a little small. I think his head needed to be twice as big. 😳

I had already started drawing her on a whole sheet of watercolor last summer but there was no way I could stuff Harley onto that sheet of paper. Oops! I had ripped five previous inches off. Double oops.

So I traced her to transfer her to an elephant sheet(30×40″) of arches cold press. And drew one eye to low. Eeekkk. I couldn’t even trace!

I drew him and

Worked on him. Eyes too big. And her hands too small.

And tweaked him. Too narrow in this one. And what’s with that eye.

And I shaded it. And he’s too sleepy.

I drew more and I searched my fifty or so photos of Harley

and I cropped it

and lightroomed it for better contrast.

and printed out more of him.

And drew some more.

And this is Harley now. Time to transfer them to the elephant sheet I hope. Unless I walk by them on my circuit thru the house and think NO that’s not right. Sigh.

But there’s plenty of room for a bigger Harley now!!

Ttyl Margaret who needs a nap before she transfers this and paints. Xoxoxo😳🤗

Day 1036 – The Farrier

May 23, 2017May 28, 2017Leave a comment

I took a great photo of Raisins farrier when he was showing Harley and Beau a couple of weeks ago.

He has luxurious mustaches.
Here’s the photo I took in the barn when he took a quick break.

Filing shaving who knew it was such a job. Not to speak of holding up the foot of such a large beast. Harley is 17.2 hands. A big fellow!

As you can see it’s hard work shoeing horses. They have been known to sit on farriers while their shoes are being changed.

I was surprised he was all done in about an hour. Busy guy!!

The sketch. Drawn on 140# cold press fluid paper.

Marking progress.

At this point he’s pretty scary looking. The shadows on his cheek look too dark.

Not fond of the no lost edges look of his head. Every thing was too hard edged. Not what I had envisioned. So I left him here to think about it overnite.

Besides I had to watch the last show of Call the Midwives. LOVE that series. Now I can watch it all over again. Yes I have it on DVR!

Here he is with the beard in progress and some background added. Starting to loose some edges. I decided to do him what I do when I don’t like the way a painting is going. Add some sloppy dots.

Once you don’t like a painting it’s a good opportunity to just mess with it.

I started reading this great watercolor book that Raisin gave me. Ran across his art at Cityart when I went on the Vista Gallery Walk last month and was thrilled to find he had a book.

One of the things he suggested was spraying the hard edges with a spray bottle?! WHAT?? Yes SPRAY the edges to loose them.

So I hit the background with the spray bottle. What a great effect. Juicy runny spotty color. LOVE The effect.

Did the same thing on the left background. And swished it with a big brush.

Love the speckles the runs and then the light areas. Try it. Such fun!!

It did leave a few horizontal drips on the left that I didn’t like but a few swipes with Mr Clean and zip they were gone.

See?! All gone! Got to love fluid paper for its liftability.

Yesterday I didn’t like the dark ick colored shadows on his cheek. Funny today they don’t bother me. I guess time fixes paintings as well as the heart. Lol!

So he’s done for now. Fixating on his mouth and that hard edge Sean on his shoulder. Oh well nothing’s ever perfect. Going redraw him on an offer sheet of 300# paper today.