Day 1128 Cheap Joes Hurricane Harvey Relief Program

September 3, 2017Leave a comment

100% of your donation thru Joes goes to Hurricane Harvey relief plus Joe will kick in a percentage of sales and you don’t have to buy a thing.

Joe dressed as Theo Van Gogh giving us his Van Gogh presentation A real treat if you get a chance to see it.

Boone NC

I was not aware of the fact that Joe Miller founder of Cheap Joes takes charity work so seriously til John Salimen shared with me that after every Hurricane like Katrina and Sandy Joe goes thru their customer database and sends gift certificates to any customer that lived in the disaster area.

Joe recently got a Humitarian award from the American Watercolor Society because of his charity work. He employees mentally handicapped people and then brags on them when you tour the warehouse. It makes them glow with pride. Just a lovely man.

Which is the reason I ALWAYS recommend Cheap Joe’s when people ask where to buy their art supplies.

Soooo

Here’s how you do it!!!

Think I will get some of that fabriano hot press I have been wanting while I am at it.

And while you are there treat yourself to a Cheap Joes class. You will get treated like a Prince or Princess and have a lovely time.

Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1115 -It’s Saturday

August 19, 2017Leave a comment

Emily 90 minutes watercolor pastel and 6B lead on strathmore Bristol.

A little thin thru the shoulders and body. And HOW did I forget to paint her other leg. An easy fix.

The sketch. About 30 minutes.

First break with a wash of raw sienna and Quin rose.

Second break? 80 minutes. Used a huge 16 Legends Sable. And a Golden Fleece Cheap Joes 2″ flat.

Added sepia Quin sienna Quin gold aureolin cobalt violet and dioxazine violet

Added white pastel stick for highlights.

Al Beyer oil 3×4′

Katie’s pencil and pastel. Love the flesh tones.

Jeremy. Red conte crayon?

Coach. Always does nice charcoal sketches.

Tom Needham’s small watercolor 10×14

AC Daniels small not quite done. Second break.

Fred the dentist having fun.

Margaret xoxoxox who better paint that leg.

Day 1113 – Urban sketching at Starbucks

August 16, 2017Leave a comment

Really pleased with the way this one turns out. Don’t know why I didn’t post it sooner. I had a lot of trouble with pens. Four in my purse and NO ink in any of them. How is that possible. Met some friends at the new Starbucks on Bobby Jones. Really nice BIG Starbucks. I drew the people in front of me. Some walked off some walked in.

The cars were a lot of fun to draw. Next time I am drawing my Prius in the painting lol. Artist car 🚗 self portrait.

Even like the way the crepe Myrtle turned out. I painted the whole thing wet in wet letting the colors melt into each other.
Strathmore 400 sketchbook Lamy Safari Ted Nuttalls transparent palette.

Ttyl !Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1103 Its Saturday

August 5, 2017August 6, 20172 Comments

Katie Well this was not great. I forgot my watercolor brushes and didn't have a canvas so I played with my neocolor ii for first forty minute session.

All my sketches are on 16×20 Strathmore
Bristol.

I moved for the next forty minutes. Used my 6B chunk of lead and a bit of the 9b chunk of lead. Hmm wonder if you can get lead poisoning from it?

Third session drawing. My favorite although I think I made Katie look too old.

Drew Murphys. Acrylic 24×30" My favorite of the rest.

Jeremy's lovely sketch.

A lovely pastel by someone named Al or Alex maybe.

Also really liked this one by Marilyn Hartley. Oil

Al Beyer's HUGE oil.

Dawns oil 24×30"

Dr Fred's. Such a happy acrylic.

And the lovely Ilaina in her Matisse phase. Oil!

That's it. Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxo

Sunday – Jour ??

August 3, 2017Leave a comment

No idea if this published. I did try yesterday and Sunday.
This posted yesterday on that OTHER blogsite I have…now HOW did I do that. I used the computer so I wouldnt do that but I did anyway. DUH-I know its the cold I keep trying to get…Scratchy throat sneezy and a drip that comes and goes…gone today…wheres my vitamin A but I have a headache. SIGH!!

Happy Sunday!!!

Which one do you like best?? I think the second one?!! For me at least.

Catching up diet journal pages and only have 6 more days til I can eat more food. YEAH!! Good news is I am down 23 pounds. AND even better news I can resist the treats like cake and cookies. HURRAH…and that basket of bread at Carrabas the other nite…did I say I DEARLY LOVE bread?? That said I dont think it loves me…my joints would get a flu like ache two three times a week before I gave it up…havent had it since. Another HURRAH!!!

This one is done with Winsor Newton Markers and some regualr watercolors. It was a pill . Mostly because there is so much paint in those WN WC Markers that they will leak into the other colors if you are not careful.

The “title” is colored with Tombows a dark blue on and caran dache neocolor ii crayons… a bright orange and then the brightest yellow I had…still not bright enough but OH well I am done…only messed with this two three hours…

I finally got a piece of ledger paper and glued it over the title of the page…I really had wanted orange letters but that was NOT to be. Ledger paper does not make bright colors sadly but does add a nice texture and a change of pace.

I also had hand lotion on my hands when I started painting this which acted like a resist…eeekkk…finally got around that by wiping it with a kleenex…not one with hand lotion either lol…

Anyway coming down with a cold..another new way to loose weight?? NO I refuse…loading up on vitamins…

Day 1096 Those Dogs

July 26, 20174 Comments

Last page in this sketchbook. Hurrah. So I decided to draw another page of Zoe.

Zoe is always up for a modeling job. She's cheap. She works for treats! She is NOT good at holding a pose. Her ears are always listening. Rotating line radar to see what you are doing.

I really like the way this head turned out. Both the sketch and the watercolor.

This is my second favorite head. I was drawing fast.

I still had not filled up my pens and reached into my purse to see what I had. Pulled out a 6B Charcoal pencil and drew with it.

After I painted her I set the charcoal with fixative. So far it seems to not be smearing. Cross your fingers.

Strathmore 400 sketchbook. Colors used. Quin burnt sienna cerulean cobalt Andrews Turquoise.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxox

Day 1095 The Flowers

July 24, 2017Leave a comment

Flowers 20×30 Strathmore Bristol paper

Flowers Riechison 300 lb cold press After my friends loathed my sweet little Chinese doll I decided to have another go at this bouquet on some Strathmore Bristol paper. Since it acts like hot press it lets the colors slide around on it and mingle like no other paper I have tried.

That paper meant aLOT of fast painting. Smallest brush I used was a 10 Da Vinci Kolinsky Sable.

Despite that you will get runny drips which I love. It also meant using a lot of paint.

I had to leave it at this point. I will say it was easier to continue the background without hard edges like would have happened with hot press.

I got this far by about 8 pm and decided to quit because I couldn't find my masking fluid.

There was no way I was going to paint this saki pot without it. I finally remembered that I had put it up when I cleaned out my paint box before going to Charles Reid's class. He NEVER uses masking fluid.

Here it is ready paint. I used the tip of a paint brush handle to do this. Made great dots.

Just as I was finishing I got a smear of Quin gold which is staining even if you are using cold press paper let alone this type of paper. Eeekkk! Ruined?! I thought.

My friend Mike said NOPE looked awesome. Leave it alone.

So it's done.

Want to buy it?!

Colors used : Ted Nuttalls transparent palette plus cerulean and cobalt.

Margaret xoxoxo who went sketching at Starbucks today and had to resort to a pencil. FOUR pens all out of ink.

Day 1092 WIP

July 21, 2017Leave a comment

Thought this would be done by now. What was I thinking painting a 20×30?! I should have switched to a larger brush-maybe my 16 kolinsky especially for the background.

I put in too much background again. Even though I used cobalt instead of cerulean it’s the same tone as the old mason jug which is why the mason jar gets lost.

So will have to darken either the background or the jar.

I will say I like it much better this am than I did last nite. Sometimes things look better the next day. Last nite I thought it was pretty bad. But I think it’s fixable

This little saki pot made me quit. Looked high and lo for my masking fluid. Only found a dried out bottle. Noway was I paintingnit without masking those dots.

Like the painting looked better this am I realized I had unloaded my paint box when I took Charles Reid’s class (he never uses masking) and left it in my big box that was Dads. Sure enough it was there.

So how did I do all those dots?! The end of a cheap model paint brush dipped in. If the dots were smaller I would have used a BBQ skewer or a toothpick. I also tried to make those farther away smaller and keep them lined up and in concentric circles. 😱

Loving the start on the flowers.

Laid in background in a hurry. Should have been thinking less is more.

The Strathmore Bristol makes those flowers run together and look positively delicious. It’s swirls on the surface similar to yupo. Hmm maybe I should try yupo next?!

So far. It needs something to the left of the hot sauce. Maybe the trim on the bridge cloth its sitting on!? Maybe more fruit?!

It will tell me sometimes soon. In the meantime stay tuned. Ted Nuttalls transparent colors plus cerulean and Andrews Turquoise.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1091 A definite HMM

July 20, 2017July 20, 20172 Comments

Half sheet on Richeson 300# cold press 15×20. Everybody hates my antique Kowloon doll in the painting so I tried to knock him back by loosing my whites on him and making him darker with ultramarine. I also washed his head with Quin burnt sienna and cerulean. I did the same to the background to make the light flowers pop more.

I also added a bunch of blobby bits a la Fealin Lin to it to define the flowers more. Like it better now but still don’t know if it’s done.

One friend thought my little guy was creepy. Lol. He’s actually a mandarin dressed in a black Silk jacket and beautiful blue silk pants w touches of bright saffron yellow which have faded over the years.

Last nite it looked like this. I actually liked the bottom half. I just didn’t like the way the flowers were lost in the background.

I think it’s because the values were too close. When I converted it to gray scale in iPhoto not much difference in tone. Which is why I darkened the background.

The sketch. Bytw this was painted upright on an easel.

Having another go without the doll on Strathmore Bristol board which is like hot press watercolor paper but even slicker making the colors slide around on it. This one is 20×30. Why not make my screw ups bigger?! 🤗

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1073 Its Saturday

July 1, 2017Leave a comment

Sweet Emily! 18×24″ What happens when you use a two inch flat brush on Bristol!!

Charles reid watercolor hand held palette which put my hand to sleep. #allaprima #nude #lifemodel #watercolor #aquarelle #aquarellepainting #pencil #pencildrawing #lostedges #emily

1″&2″ Cheap Joes Golden Fleece Flat brush and #10 Da Vinci and that’s it.

Tip: curling thinner paper. To get it to lie flat, paint it w water on the back and it will flatten out.

First break 40 min.

Painted on strathmore Bristol 100# which is like hot press paper but cheaper.

Wash of DS Quin coral and yellow ochre w some cerulean and burnt sienna. Background, hair, drapes burnt umber ultramarine

Drapes Aurelion, Winsor Yellow, Quin Gold w burnt umber ultramarine darks

4B and 6B pencils

The crowd was thin today. So not many paintings. A lot of people on vacation but I do love to paint Emily!!

Drew Murphys acrylic. The quips were flying between us. One of the things we paint for. I told him his was a little grey this time. Usually they are bright and vivid.

Fred the dentist. Oops he left early.

Als lovely huge oil. Amazing what he gets done in two hours. This is four by 3 FEET!

Rachel who’s only been painting anyear or so but she draws at every meeting. Drawing practice gets the job done! You WILL improve. Like anything else you want to do well you have to practice. ALOT!!!