Day 367- A Few More Favorites

July 10, 2015July 10, 2015Leave a comment

Day Dream 1/2 sheet 300# fabriano

This one just squeaked in last year but she won’t be finished for a while. I love the way she’s going so why not show her off?!!

She needs more jewelry aka dots in the grass and more done to her hair more curls and frizz aka dots. Not sure if I will do more to the left side. Will think about it a while. They always tell you what to do if you are patient and don’t hurry them.

My favorite part of the field. I love all the negative painting. The batchelor buttons are cerulean and Inathradone blue painted wet on wet as so much of this painting is. The stem is DS green apatite added while the flower was still wet so it bled. The small white flowers are alizarin, cerulean and a touch of orange added all while wet. Love the way it looks like tiny white flowers in the grass.

My son Ben.12×18″ All wet on wet on 140# fabriano artistic cold pressed. Love all the drippy runny colors. Let me know if you need a portrait commissioned mcmhunt @ me.com!!

A quick dirty journal page. Major excitement here. Booked a Viking cruise from Paris to Normandy yesterday!!

I am going to sketch the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame oh and did I say Giverny?!😳 Good enough for Monet good enough for me!!

Pentel Brush pen in my SuperBee

Buy something!! I have a cruise to pay for!!

Thanks for looking!!

Margaret ️xoxoxo

Day 365 ONE YEAR

July 8, 201510 Comments

of daily blogging.and creating art. I have grown a lot as an artist in that year which included a class with Charles Reid and one with Fealin Lin four online Sketchbookskool classes. Highly recommend them all.

Currently seemed to be obsessed with painting girls. Making progress on the latest one. She’s big. A half sheet of 300# fabriano which is about 15×22. That’s a big watercolor.

ALOT of negative painting. And a lot of wet in wet.

I added a lot of why Fealin calls jewelry which are light blobs of paint. Most of mine are small but may add more larger ones to the girl before I am done.

Painting the background has been a lot of fun. Colors used green apatite marine blue cobalt ultramarine cerulean mineral violet alizarin a bright yellow green.

More to do.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 364 – Another girl

July 7, 2015July 7, 20153 Comments

Since I already did this post once on the WordPress ap I am hoping it does not post twice or disappear like the last one which disappeared when I tried to schedule it. I guess because I am getting a little crazy…tomorrow will make 365 days of continuous daily blogging AKA ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! My grandsons third birthday is Saturday – I am in charge of making the cake AND we are leaving for Key West right after the party…HELP HELP!! And making arrangements for pet sitting….oh MY!

After wiping out the girl yesterday I decided to just start a new one. I think I have about 25 sheets of 300# cold press paper so WHY not use them…thats not counting at least two blocks of it..one arches and one Richeson block or is it Stephen Quiller?? Time to use the paper up!!

So I started another girl. She is done on Fabriano 300# cold press and painted with Isabey mops, #2,#8 and brushes, #4-#8…and one #12 Cheap Joes Legends…LOVE all those brushes..start collecting yours NOW!!

Here’s the sketch. Next time I am changing to a darker pencil EVEN if it smears. I didnt notice the chin was a touch too long because the pencil is too light. That is UNTIL I painted it…had to do a little plastic surgery….oops..

The first wash…its one of my best I think …Skin done with Quin Coral and Winsor Yellow which are both transparent.Burnt Sienna and Cerulean for most of the shadows. Hair is any reddish paint I had and a few golds and yellows like Quin gold, quin sienna, burnt Sienna and a little purple a little burnt umber and even orange.

I did surgery on her chin…it was just too long…I used a straight edge brush and clean water and a kleenex to wipe it and lift it…its easy to do on Fabriano which is amazingly forgiving….

Well if it won’t upload on my laptop u can always add it after it’s posted on the ap. Thank goodness it’s done. Between the slow computer the crashing so and my neighbor jack hammering his swimming pool deck I have gotten quite the headache. Sigh.

Then I decided I hated her hair and used a mr clean wedge to just wipe it out….all gone. I actually like it better now….who knew but you cant see it because WPress will NOT upload the image…sigh…only one day to go only one day to go ONLY ONE DAY TO GO…Imagine theres a picture here!!

Next to soften some of the hair around her face…wet and blot!! Sigh….

Helmet hair is NOTTT a good look is it!?

And now her chin looks a little dirty…opps…an easy fix…what i love about watercolor…it will drive you nuts!! :>

I seem to go straight to the dark side with watercolor…I need to stop. I am trying to stop…i wonder if there’s a meeting for that.

Thanks for reading!!!

Margaretxxx

Day 363 a Change of Plan

July 6, 2015July 6, 20156 Comments

the only things I seem to do consistently is make art and post on my blog.

While watching Bloodlines last nite I realized I could improve this by lifting some of the too orange orange and widening the area to the right of her eye. So I got up this morning and started scrubbing off color. You can lift off kilimanjaro but the paper gets roughed up. Wish I had painted her on fabriano the paper that takes a scrubbing and keeps on going. It’s super. Oh well.
The krinkley bit to the right of her eye is caused by the roughed up kilimanjaro.

Here’s the eye before I widened it by scrubbing.

I also darkened her background so her hair would not look so pasted on. Probably should have scrubbed it out too.

. Before surgery.

This is the one I was going to post today but instead an FYI!!! Cg. I scrubbed this one off with a mr clean type scrubber that I got at cheap joes. A pack is $2. It scrubbed the paper back to just about white. And since this is fabriano it’s still south as can be. I actually did paint the flesh color back before I took this pic. It was much whiter.

This is what she looked like before I scrubbed her off. I like her below the waist but NOT above. All that dark color on her cheek is G O N E!! Amazing.
Thanks for reading.

Margaret ️xxx

Day 362 details details.

July 6, 2015Leave a comment

Did a great hand today. But darn what happened to her eyes?!

I decided on a do over. There’s a lot I like about this painting but darn the right eye. I did try to fix tomorrow or add it to my bin pile. Lol. Or the compost heap.

A Tip! I sometimes turn paintings into a gray scale photo to check the darks. I also do this when I paint from photographs.

Tomorrow I will post version two after I tinker with her some more.

Thanks for reading

Margaret xxx

Day 361 – sometimes u should stop

July 4, 2015July 4, 2015Leave a comment

when you are ahead. But first

Happy Fourth of July! From Brian Andres storypeople.com Obviously he’s had some experiences.

Things were going well after the first forty minute session. But THEN

I started adding more purple and Orange. Maybe because I still had an hour and a half to paint and didn’t bring any extra paper. Oops.

Should have stopped at this point. Oops.

And now she’s too orange and too purple. I have plans to further mess her up but will wait till tomorrow to proceed with the painting torture.
More tomorrow or maybe I will throw her in the bin?! Stay tuned. Will Erica survive her torture or not?!

Update! I decided to torture her some more.

Lightened the purple around her left eye. Need to work inner nose some more. I also lightened the oranges on her left arm and her hand. She has fingers again. Thanks for reading.

MArgaret with only four more days till I have posted everyday for a year!! ️Xxx

Day 340 Life Modeling

June 13, 20158 Comments

Ilena

Really pleased with the way this painting turned out. Ulema the model liked it too. Done in an hour 40 minutes.

Sometimes the stars align. I picked the perfect easel almost square onto her and not at her feet or her head like sometimes happens. Colors Quin Sienna Quin red mineral Violet Inathradone blue. Flesh is Quin coral and a touch of yellow ochre. Hair is Quin Sienna Inathradone blue burnt umber.

Ilena

This is how Ilena looked after the first forty minute session. A fast pencil sketch. Unbelievably her head and body was almost the same size as her shoulders. Pays to measure. Started with bits of cerulean.

After eighty minutes. I started getting brave and slapping on mineral Violet and Quin Sienna.

I may go in and define her left eye some more otherwise she is done. The background may get some more painting. Not sure but NOT Ilena.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 335 – Thirty Days to

June 8, 2015Leave a comment

go till I make a year of daily blogging. On the downhill slide.

A sort of contour drawing of Bear who decided to move in the middle of the drawing. I have drawn him so many times I can get him more or less right even so.

He’s a big brown brindled pitty that somebody dumped. Wisely Bear attached himself to my son Ben two years ago and there he stays. He’s really a very laid back relaxed dog who would rather be petted than ever chew on you. He was fun to journal about with my Noodler Creaper Ahab in Carbon Platinum Black ink.

Once again he was painted with Quin burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, Inathridone blue and burnt umber was added for the stripes and shadows.

The background started as a dirty grey cerulean. I stood the sketch book at a 90 degree angle and let bits of Quin burnt sienna, yellow ochre, Inathridone blue for the drops and splats.

I thought about painting the background another blue layer to even put the color but decided I liked it as is and left it alone.

Here’s the whole double page spread. I thought you would like to see it.

I am going to enter it in a win a free pen and ink contest on Instagram. They like to know what the pen and ink is in writing plus a photo of the pen. The white page looked so plain I quickly wrote one of my favorite dog quotes and painted the leftpage to match the right page.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 330 – urban sketching?

June 3, 20158 Comments

is sketching a friend at breakfast at a local restaurant considered urban sketching?!

Lowered the left eyebrow. It was too high. Still a bit too high but better.

Doesn’t look a bit like Marsha. She kept moving. So I am blaming her for the poor likeness.

I did have a good time dripping and splattering the painting and that’s what counts right?!

Really like the hair. It was washed with burnt sienna and the darkened with tiny bits of cobalt, burnt umber, mineral Violet and Inathridone blue after the initial wash dried. Fun stuff.

Colors used: Quin coral and ochre for skin, vermilion, mineral purple and cobalt, Inathridone blue for blouse, mineral purple and burnt sienna for shadows. Hair is burnt sienna, cobalt, burnt umber and Inathridone blue.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 328 – Quick Dog Sketches

June 1, 2015Leave a comment

The Watch Dogs aka Pits on guard

Happy June!! Can hardly believe it’s amer again!

After one false start this one went very well. The two dogs were guarding the house while strangers were getting giveaways on Craigslist off the porch.

They will sit still barking their heads off for what seems like hours. This sketch took at most ten minutes and perhaps ten to color it. Quick and dirty. It was done with my Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with carbon platinum plus. The ink should not have run. Maybe I will make this mixed media when I get home by adding a piece of ledger paper over the lettering on the right.

Tips aka How I did it. Colored with Caran d’ache watercolor crayons wet with a waterbrush. The brindle pitty was a problem as usual with his tiger striped coat. I started with the same colors as the fawn pit bull Livia. Then I added black to Bear. I wet it down hitting it here and there with the waterbrush. If I had brushed the water on it it would have blurred the colors.

The blinds were done by coloring with a burnt umber crayon and washing the blinds with it. Then letting the wash dry and drawing new lines on the blinds with the burnt umber crayon.

I had thought about getting my fine mister out and spraying it allowing the colors to run. Glad I didn’t. I really do like this sketch. The mister spray effect is totally unpredictable.

This is the first attempt at drawing them. A contour sketch that didn’t have room for all of Bear the pit on the left or all of Livias tail or the chair. Sometimes it’s just easier to start over.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx