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.
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.
Chesky Krumlov, Czech Republic according to Rick Steves a charming cobbled city. One of the chase alongs for WatercolorLive 2023 was to chase Vlad Yesileyev as he painted this charming street scene. You had to paint like mad or get off the Vlad Express Train as it briefly stopped in the Czech Republic.Mike and I entertained ourselves today by virtually painting together. My power went out just as I got the program working. Sigh. No Wi-Fi no show. So we waited. Then I had to wait til the Murdaugh trial had a break. My palette finally ready to paint. Exciting stuff right? My uh tracing. There I said it. I had 18 of these to do. Eeek. This is on Hahnemuhle. I agree with Vlad it’s awesome paper. First layers. Lots of greys. Zipping down the line. Adding some darks. Then I kept going. When I get to the end and don’t know what to do I use a thin paint brush and just draw on it so that’s how I got to here. Not my best but it’s growing on me. I am rusty at chasing Vlad. I got thru the pandemic letting him entertain me on a lot of Sunday’s. He’s so funny and his classes are reasonably priced. I highly recommend them so just go along for the ride on the Vlad Express.
In the dining room madly painting. I signed up for watercolorlive 2023. It’s all my friend Mikes fault. She talked me into it. What a mad three days of wild fun painting. Classes and seminars lasted from 10 am til 9 pm. Will be posting them the next few days.
My Swan from the hour Paint along with Shelley Prior one of 18 teachers we had . She was awesome. She held our hands and walked us thru it step by step. I am in love w my swan and will be checking out her extensive YouTube feed. Her instructions were clear step by step with no need to rush to keep up. This swan just glows. My favorite out of my stack of paintings. Most of the paintings I did. There are TEN still left to do that I didn’t get around to for various reasons.
This took abt five minutes and was Julie’s tip. A fun way to start the day and to loosen up. We were all tense. I mean 18 teachers and all those hours. Eeek. Out agenda. We were VERY busy. No potty breaks no lunch breaks. A good way to diet. Lol.
Next up the great Thomas Schaller. Now almost all the teachers supplied a sketch for us to draw before class started. This was NOT a drawing workshop but a painting workshop. For some reason. Thomas didn’t think we needed a drawing. Hmm. Off to a rocky start. I madly drew it and started flinging paint around.
On a half sheet. My perspective was off. Supposedly his odd idea of firefly houses. Who knew they don’t have fireflies in S California where he’s from. They got his attention in his new home in NYC. My husband loves it Me not so much. Fireflies half sheet 140lb. So I had to cram in time to tinker with it. It was really bothering me. The perspective was wonky. Hate that and all that glaring white paper on the top left screamed at me. Better. Still won’t be my fav. He can hang it in his mancave. Lol. Still may need more tinkering. Time will tell. Next up a portrait with Patricia Guzman a lovely painter from Mexico who specializes in indigenous people. She’s a realistic portrait painter not my bag but she was a great teacher. At some point I got tired of painting every wrinkle and quit. LOVE the way this painting turned out. 1/4 sheet arches 149 Cold press I think.
Every artist had a different kind of paper or color of paint so I just used what I had and matched it up as closely as I could from my stash. Did I say I have way too much paper?!
My friend Mike my cohort in art crimes I mean classes. We met at a Charles Reid class in Boone at Cheap Joes 8 9 years ago and been friends and Charles Reid worshippers ever since. we are going to have a weekly zoom meetup til we finish out pile of not done drawings. There are quite a few. EekAnother day another sunset. More tomorrow. My fingers are tired. Xoxoxox Margaret
Dada with a D. Aquaboard 11×16” Think he’s finished. I also think I hate the way WordPress doesn’t work anymore. Makes everything harder. So I don’t want to use it because everytime I do it’s A royal pain.
Won’t load photos. Won’t let you type. “Corrects” words and makes them misspelled. Sigh.
Zoe my live model posing with her portrait. Lol.
Mostly sennelier Pastel on mi teinte 15×20”also used a few Unison. And a variety of other hard pastels.
Did I say I bought a new bigger set of pastels from Amazon. Sennelier of course. Yes I did!! I bought that. It will be here first of February. Can’t wait.
One set of Sennelier wasn’t enough. If Sennelier was good enough for Degas Monet and Picasso – well I need.
So nice and creamy but don’t drop them on the floor. Oops!! Hmmm maybe I need to put a rug down?! Or a towel??
The trees are brown for Pete’s sake yet my phone takes them as black. What the heck?! And the background is much lighter though not as brilliant as in the first picture. What do I need an $800 phone for if it won’t take accurate colors?! Please tell me. Thanks. This is suppose to be the second to last block but uncooperative Word Press won’t let me move it. Finally got it to move. So aggravating. Makes me Not want to post for another month or two. Sigh.
Got off my tired self off the sofa and took a picture with my iPad Pro. Much closer to the actual colors though it darkened a bit on the left. If it’s not one thing it’s another right?! See below. I told u the trees weren’t the right color in the photos. I drew a penguin on this screen shot I took of a Porkchop Zimmerman’s sidewalk crack drawing. It’s a thing like looking at clouds and seeing Mickey Mouse. You can look at sidewalk cracks and draw whacky animals from them. Pork chops side wall cracks probably have SEVERAL animals in them. Lots of fun to do. I have a whole sketch book of them.
Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxox tired from drawing all day.
Was bored on Friday and decided to take a class from artist network taught by Johannes Vloothuis Paint Along 84. How could you go wrong to get three classes for $18.99 on three consecutive Saturdays?! One is acrylic and the last is pastel. What a deal right??!
The reference photo. He also provided a template to trace onto your paper if you needed too. But it was quite easy to draw it. My sketch.
To quote my friend Mike it was the best watercolor class she had ever taken. I think she might be right. You could text with him on live messaging during the whole class. He explained everything from how to alter your photo to painting a tree. The class was thorough well prepared and the video broadcast was excellent quality. No racing to keep up like you have to do with Vlad Yesileyev or Don Andrews.
People would say demo a fir tree or a palm and he did. Five solid hours of how to at a terrific price.
I finally left while he was demoing a wave. Zoe had to go potty!!
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.
This is Michals painting. Before I took it out on the front setups and took another photo. The iPhone just takes crap pics as a whole. Still had to lighten it even outside. Yesterday from the front porch. Love my trees. And the bright fall sunlight glancing they thru themFrom where I was painting this am. Chad really has to get over here and get his overspray off my windows. Always one thing or another right?! Sweet Weenie dressed in her fall coat.
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 Starting to look done. And now. Time to put my feet up. Color me tahred. Xoxoxox Margaret
Well maybe …in the gates but waiting for the race to start. Hoping not to be an also ran.
The sketch kind of sort of done. Peachtree Road. The cars need some more work and I think I will add some more people.
Maybe. Half sheet Hahnemuhle 15×20” 140# roughThe Value sketch
Can I just call this done?!
This is my primary picture I am using. I have a ton of photos of the Fox. I snap them when traffic backs up at the light or just put the phone on the dash and take a surreptitious pic or two.
Using this one to add the tall background building. I think it could be a good painting too. That bright sunlight and great shadows in it. Currently looking at it upside down to see if anything outrageous stands out. Sometimes they do. Like no focal point. The right hand tower of the Morrish influenced Fox will be my focal point.
Try upside down. You will see it works.
On another subject. New cat on the back porch. Eeek. Worse my cats who are bigger than it are afraid of it and run when it tries to eat their food. Dummies don’t know they are suppose to run it off. Sigh.
In the meantime some good news. Still like this painting. Might be my new fav. Hurrah. I didn’t change a thing today.
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.
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 