Day 569 – Rolling down the River -Moisson

January 23, 2016Leave a comment

I was really into the sketch out the window by the time we got to Moisson. Or should I say floated by Moisson.

If you go there you won’t see this exact landscape started with the church and kept adding interesting houses as we passed them. The foreground trees were added last.

A fun challenge to see how quickly you could draw the passing buildings.

Odd now that I think about it we didn’t see people in the landscape. Or maybe I was so fascinated with the unique character of the buildings I didn’t notice the people?

The trees lining the riverbank were often a frothy light green and always loaded with mistletoe. As one of our guides said ” We French like to kiss a lot so we leave the mistletoe in the trees.”

Colors used Apatite green and hookers. The apatite green granulates into lovely purples and Browns. Quin gold and red orange in the rusty trees. Winsor yellow to lighten the greens. Greys are burnt sienna and cerulean or Inathrodone. Blacks Inathrodone and burnt umber. Sky water blues cerulean.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret watching the grey muddy Savannah River rush by during another deluge. Xxx

Day 567 – Up the Seine to Rolleboise

January 21, 2016Leave a comment

Don’t you LOVE the name??! Rolleboise!!!

As we floated up the Seine to Normandy the most charming scenery floated by. Every building was unique but they whizzed by so that I could only draw one or two at a time.

The a light bulb went on!! I could compile buildings on the hillside just like I do people. I drew several pages of them before I was done.

This is the first one I did. And yes the hillside was surprisingly green for fall.

Hillside is Hookers green and green apatite with Quin burnt orange and Quin gold with bits of Inathrodone blue.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret off to painting class. Xxx

Day 562- Happy Anniversary

January 16, 2016Leave a comment

My blog is one year old today!! WordPress has been great!! Already twice as many followers as I had on my old Blogger blog after 9 years.

I have been putting off painting this sketch I made one Saturday nite when we sat under the Eiffel Tower enjoying watching it sparkle.

So many people were there including the guys who hawked these twinkling Eiffel Towers and bottles of champagne. I imagine someone would be busy picking your pocket while you bought one.

Pick pockets are terrible at the Eiffel Tower but we had nothing with us but our room cards, a sketchbook, and a pen or two in my pocket. No money.

They gave up trying to sell us one when I sat down on the curb and started drawing. Once again I drew the people as they drifted by.

So Happy Birthday blog. Thanks for following me.

Oh TIP: How I painted this. Wish I had taken photos. First I painted the tower with Winsor yellow and let it dry. Then I painted the people with a mixture of mineral violet and cobalt and bits of burnt sienna and burnt umber.

Then I painted the ground and the tower with Quin gold. Shadows got added wet on wet violet and cobalt.

The dark sky was painted TWICE Inathrodone and burnt umber mixed. Let it dry between coats. If this were not in my sketchbook I might paint it again. Last I added shadows where the girders crossed.

Trees. Ooops forgot them. Quin gold and Daniel smith green apitite with some of the night sky color painted over it.

Is the tower accurate? NO! But it does give the feel of standing under the tower on a dark nite enjoying it twinkle with the rest of Paris.

Day 561 – Rouen returns?! Changes!!

January 15, 20162 Comments

Final for the moment – Place du Vieux Marché – the Old Market Place in Rouen

Can’t remember if I posted this since I have painted on it for a couple of days which is why I am calling this Changes. See if you can find the changes. I know I posted it on Instagram but not sure about my blog.

Earlier this evening

This is the the market place where Julia Child first tried French cooking in one of those buildings in the background. It’s also the place where Joan of Arc was burned and the large grey roof is the church dedicated to her in the middle of the market place. Rouen is also the capital of Normandy and forty miles or so from the coast or La Manche – the Sleeve – as the French call the English Channel.

About three pm
The customers were sketched in as the drifted by doing their shopping. A lot of them had dogs or small children. It was a holiday – Armistice Day which is a big deal in France still.

Yesterday!!

This was the original. Some of the figures and the trees did not stand out. So I spent the next day off and on brightening or darkening the surroundings to make the painting pop more. I used my camera a lot taking photos of it to see if something else was needed.

Too tired to post the colors. Maybe tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 501 – Photoshop Express

November 23, 2015Leave a comment

Another free download is Photoshop Epxress. Great for doctoring those thousand photos you took on grey days in France. Easy enough that my three year old grandson had fun using it. He loved clicking on the different photo effects and changing the pictures.

Watermill at Bayeux France

Before photoshop express

APanorama shot of the same mill.

Before Photoshop express. Big difference.

Before Photoshop express- taken into the sun. Never a good idea but sometimes the only choice.

Ranville church panorama – dream in photoshop express

Before photoshop express. Late afternoon dark gloomy afternoon.
A lot of fun. Go download it and have fun exploring.

View from the Eiffel Tower on a grey rainy day.

Before pse

Can’t decide which I like better. I think the second one.
Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 500 -Sky rockets?

November 23, 2015Leave a comment

Old Watermill at Bayeux, France – Bold

Ce Tour Eiffel – Vibrant

Mushrooms at Pegasus Bridge, France -?
I almost forgot today to post today. Spent the weekend with NO wifi and NO internet. Notice a pattern here?! Is it a sign time to stop posting?!!

Henry -Vibrant

Drew and Henry

Leeanne and Livia. All vibrant
500 days of posting and I only meant to do 50-100 daily posts. And here I am at 500 daily posts. What a journey. No idea when I will stop.

Bold
On the I planned what I would post. Two pieces of software- Waterlogue and Photoshop Express. I have them on my iPhone and my iPad. I think they are both FREE which is always a plus.

Color Bloom

So what is Waterlogue?! You can turn any photo into a watercolor painting. How fun is that. I have seen some on Instagram that are unbelievable.

Blotted

I think it does a better job on architecture than people. It seems to leave out features such as an eye. Oops.

But I just started using it and it has a lot of options I have not figured out yet. 12 different wc styles and then u can darken them or lighten them. Change the size. Fun stuff. I made a dozen Eiffel towers in seconds.

Blotted and illustration