Day 315 – Kirkwood Spring Fling

May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Random people at last weekend’s Spring Fling in Kirkwood in Atlanta at Bessie Branham Park, a beautiful spot with lots of shade trees around for sitting under as well as an open green space where a band played.

I actually like this odd assortment of people. Originally there were more tents planned in the background but I didn’t paint them because dark large leaks from from other pages in the book. The guy in the hat had green on his face from the leaks. 😳 Got out the flesh gouache to fix him but it was not to successful. It was a dark green. Sigh. No feet. Not sure why other than people were just whizzing by. I couldn’t ask them to stop. Lol.

Noodler creaper Ahab loaded with Carbon Platinum black ink in my Strathmore 500 mixed media. Really not happy with the way it’s leaking watercolor washes along the binding and ruining pages.

This one was never finished. See the leaky clothes on the pages at the center? Nasty mess.

More random people at the Spring Fling. No idea why not one of these people have feet either other than they were moving so fast. They walked off before I could add their feet. Some of the people are compilations of several people walking by like the red head with the backpack in the middle. Drawing moving people is much easier to do with a brush pen. No drag on the surface like my Noodlers have when you draw with them.

Really pleased with the greens I mixed in both of these.

So here’s the tip for today. The dark greens in the trees are made by mixing burnt sienna and Inathridone blue pb60. I added Quin gold to the mix on the paper. Really like the color variations the mixture gave me.

The green in the grass was made with manganese blue and aureolin yellow with touches of Quin gold. New Gamboge would be great too instead of the Quin gold. The flowers of alizarin and purple were added while the grass was wet as were the shadows under the bench.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 314 – More Grandkids Paintings

May 20, 20155 Comments

Love the background on this spread. Scroll down to see how it was started. This is a practice painting for the next one. I think she needs a neck or her heads too big. Or maybe her head just looks pasted on becaus it has no shadows around the baby’s chin. I think that’s the problem. What do you think?!

Pleased with the way Henry turned out on the right.

Definitely more work required. Liking the drips and splatters which I actually purposefully made. Stay tuned I will show u how but not tonite. Too late posting. Sorry.

TIP: This is how I started the background in the first double spread. A wash of several soft colors Quin red Quin gold yellow yellow ochre burnt sienna cerulean and mineral Violet.

Then u tone it down by painting more washes of a variety of colors over it which is how the background in the first one was done. Just don’t go dark with your washes. You can do that later!

Here she is so far. More work required. No drips and no splatters yet. The soft pink skin is made from Quin coral and yellow ochre. Hope the dress is not too dark.

Decided to make this a journal page of our weekend together.

Henry’s head reshaped from yesterday’s post. Now I think he needs more back on his head but at least it’s not shaped like a football helmet.

I added some drips and some dark darks behind his head and under his arms to this one.

Don’t know why I didn’t do any drips and splatters. Have a few paintings from spring fling that I did drip and splatter. Wondering if that is because the kids paintings are more important to me than the others? I think so.

Do you find it freeing not to care if you mess up a painting? Sometimes the most fun happens with watercolor then.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 313 – Painting my Coloring Book

May 19, 2015May 19, 20155 Comments

best thing about sketching is you end up with a grown up coloring book.

Spent a few hours painting sketches I did this weekend.

These are my favorite so far.

Henry was so into Jake and the Neverland Pirates he hardly moved. These are stil quick sketches because you always think a child will move especially Henry. This is the only time he holds still when hes awake.

Bytw he’s wearing his favorite monster Jammies a certain Gramy gave him for Christmas.

Both of these have problems but one day it will be a nice memory of him. It’s easy to fix the one on the right. He has a little too much hair. That’s saying something for Henry. He has a haystack of thick hair. I think the one on the right needs more hair. Interesting how these things show up in a camera but you don’t notice when you are painting or drawing the person.

Here he is with a better shaped head. The shape makes a difference. And I had to add a few drops. Love drips!

TIP: Always check your picture in a camera to see where it needs improvement. This second one is going back to the drawing board.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret XXX

Day 310 – Rhododendrons

May 15, 2015May 15, 20152 Comments

Rhododendrons

Half sheet 15×22

cold press 300#Fabriano

Based on some photos I took on Valle Crucis a week ago. I am not wild about painting flowers. All the negative painting is just HARD!! I usually do something terrible to screw then up and have to get out the gouache. No gouache so far. Maybe I should quit?!

This was painted almost entirely with my Isabey squirrel mops. The stamens were done with my #6 Isabey Kolinsky sable. Love all those brushes. Their kolinskys point like no other brushes I own. Better than a rigger.

I started with a good drawing of the flowers. I still got lost painting them. All pink rhododendrons look the same.

The background is done with diluted washes of four or five colors that is eventually painted over. I tried to leave a lot of white and used light pink in the initial flower washes. Mineral Violet was used to do the negative painting on the flowers.

Beginning detail.

Masked the stamens with a throw away kids model paint brush. I used Quin red for the pink hookers green on the leaves with Quin gold and ultramarine blue and mineral violet.

Progressing

The background blue is Inathridone blue or as we call it Pb60. It’s the blue in indigo blue. Drips are made by standing the board up when wet and slamming it in the table.

The splots are deliberate and done by placing the whole mop down on the painting with a light wash of color in it, ie more water than color. Fun stuff. Try it!! I also splattered some. If I knew where my toothbrush was I would use it to splatter too.

So Far

Here it is for now. I added a lot of small dots of color with my #6 Isabey Kolinsky sable. It might need more jewelry I mean dots but it’s too late and I am tired so that’s when it’s a good idea to quit for the nite I think.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 307 Reportage?! Part 2

May 11, 20151 Comment

Love these new Isabey and Richeson squirrel mops that I got during my class with Fealing Lin. Not cheap but love the soft loose look of the paint you get with them. She paints all her landscapes with them.
Been busily painting the sketches I did during Pops under the Stars Saturday. This is Brad Means warming up the audience at Lady Antebellum Amphitheater in Evans Towne center.

I sketched in the audience as they headed to get snack or a better seat. There was a lot of movement. People standing and sitting down yakking with their friends. Sipping wine. Some people dressed to the nines. Others wore jeans and tees. I am sure there was some champagne in the crowds song with bud lite!

Gesture sketch of the orchestra warming up. The violinist was serious.

Lee Anne enjoying the calm while Drew chased the perpetual motion machine Henry.

Henry’s first concert. Every now and then he took off like a rocket with one of his parents racing to catch him. The child has a career as a future star sprinter. Get ready Decatur High School.

Tomorrow more Pops Under the Stars. I only drew about 30 fast sketches and half an accordion book.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret XXX

Day 305 – a Review of the Weeks Paintings

May 9, 2015May 9, 2015Leave a comment

As no doubt you have noticed we all loved out week with Fealing Lin at Cheap Joes in Boone NC last week. If it weren’t for Mother’s Day I think we would still be there painting. A great teacher and the set up at Cheap Joes is just awesome. Everybody has their own table. A huge flat screen tv to watch teacher demos. Awesome lunches. What more can I say. Take a class at Cheap Joes(www.CheapJoes.com) and or a class from Fealing (www.fealinglin.com).

Most still need a few more touches but will set them out and stare at them first. Then they are FOR SALE!!

Man from Shanghai or Opium smoker. 15×22 cold press 300# Stephen Quiller

The debate still rages over what exactly is in his pipe.

Ben

15×22 cold press 140# Fabriano

He recieved several proposals from mothers of single daughters!!

Kenyatta 15×11 cold press 300# Stephen Quiller

Hair needs more curls and that brown spot on the left has got to go.

Fisherman from Falmouth

15×11 cold press 300# Stephen Quiller
From an old photo from around 1900 aka out of copyright

TIP: Did you know that all government photos are copyright free. The Library of Congress has a wealth of old black and white photos COPYRIGHT free at http://www.loc.gov 

Boone

15×22 cold press 300# Stephen Quiller

I am I love with painting old wrinkly weathered guys with beards and mustaches.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret XXX

Day 301 – Feeling Fealing!

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015Leave a comment

I actually drew a sketch of her today but it’s back on my table in Cheap Joes studio. Wonderful teacher. So thorough so accessible and so thoughtful.

We started off the day with breakfast at our hotel with 6 or 7 classmates and our lovely teacher Fealing. The day was off to an auspicious start.

Then back to Cheap Joes to work. Mike and I worked till 6. And this is what I did.

The paintings are done in layers of washes.

Ben

Layer 1 should have started at the top and been colors. Blended softly together. Got in a hurry because the teacher called us to class. Pesky bubbles from painting wet into partially drying wet…groan!

Ben

Layer 2 Linking shadows softening edges.

Ben

Layer 2/3 adding more darks softening edges

Ben

Layer 3 Adding more darks and color and trying to keep it soft but focused!! Still more to do but that’s all I have done as of now. Think I am find to lift some of the dark blue on his eye. The beard was done with a wash of cerulean. It was magic the way a beard just popped off the page!! Ultramarine blue and burnt umber In the hair. Keeping the edges soft.

Boy does his mouth need work…hopefully sooner or later it will work!!

The Chinese Man

15×22 300# Stephen Quiller cold press

I call him Inscrutable. Dads photo album called him “Not Many Left.” This is how he looked this morning.

The Chinese Man

More Layer 3 – I added a lot of darks. Can you find them!? And some reds. Darkened the hands, the eyes. Added some reds. Killed some of the whites. Added darks to the frog closures on the jacket and under the right collar. Added blue to the hat.

If you want to try painting him feel free to save this photo.

Thanks for reading !!

Margaret XX

Day 299 – Silver Wyandottes

May 3, 2015May 3, 20156 Comments

aka chickens. More of the reason I drove across the mountains. Sketching chickens is THE most fun and I highly recommend giving it a go.

Silver Wyandottes are interesting looking chickens. With white diamond and a swirl of light feathers streaked with black around their heads.

Stillman and Birn Zeta with a Noodler Conrad Flex loaded with Lexington Grey ink. I am actually not sure if all these chickens were Silver Wyandottes but they are colored like they are.

The bottom left chicken was colored with a tombow pen. It’s fun to wet them and see them run. You can lift the colors. I thought it might be a good way to color these oddly colored birds. Actually I think the Tombow was a little strong for these chickens. Next I tried a black and an indigo inktense pencil. Things were going better. The blue softened the black. I drew a diamond pattern all over the hens bodies. Then I added white gouache after the inktense dried. The benefit of inktense is that once it dries its permanent and you can paint over it. White gouache was also used around the beaks and heads to eliminate dark grey lines I didn’t want especially on the big chicken on the right. That defined the face and beak better. The waddles and red bits on the head where colored with watercolor pencils- red yellow and orange! The background is 2 light blue watercolor pencils and a purple one for shadows. White gouache was brushed over the neck feathers to make them look fluffier.

My gift to you this Sunday is these chicken picture so you can join in the chicken sketching fun. At least these aren’t running anywhere. Have fun and I would love to see what you do with them.

Don’t forget to draw the silver Wyandotte earlier on this post.

Drawing chickens is like drawing bumpy triangles. The legs are two sticks with upside down trees on them.

More park sketches tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!!

Maggie XX

Day 294 – homework

April 28, 20154 Comments

I mean cars. Taking a Sketchbookskool class called stretching. This week is Lapins week.

Lapin loves to do urban sketching drawing food people and cars. He even moved from France to Barcelona because there is such an active urban sketching group in Barcelona. How’s that for dedication!?

He also likes to paint in old ledger books. Definitely a different look to that paper. More transparent but that’s for tomorrow.

Stuck getting my Prius first checkup yesterday I drew and painted cars in the dealership. Usually I draw on site and skulk off home to paint at leisure. I used my old Winsor newton field allege and a Cotman pallette I reloaded with all my quinacridones and a Niji water brush. I had never realized that using a waterbrush would make the colors more delicate. Hard to get lots of color with a waterbrush.

The Scion. A sporty model that was on the showroom floor. We drooled over it when I was car shopping last fall but was practical and got a Prius.

Painted with cerulean and burnt umber greys. The windshield is a green blue. Pen is a Staedler in my Stillman and Birn.

Still waiting. One car done so why not draw another?! A big Lincoln SUV was parked right outside the window nearest me. Have you ever tried to paint a white car that is mostly in the shade?! Careful or you get a blue car. 😁 background is cerulean and yellow ochre.

Don’t forget to cover up your car when you splatter the background.

Thanks for looking!

Day 291 – Saturday in Aiken

April 25, 2015April 26, 20152 Comments

always fun sketching at Al Beyers studio at USC Aiken. Our band of intrepid artists slogged thru the torrential rains for fun and painting in Aiken this morning. Our model was the lovely Alexendra.

Had a tough time drawing her. No idea why because I can accurately knock out quick sketches in minutes.

I also think she needs a good crop but can’t decide quite how.

She’s been through several revisions. This is the current version.

In this one her forearm left arm is too thin. The breast is too flat so I enlarged the breast hoping to make it rounder and raised the upper arm and widened the forearm. I also rounded the hip a bit.

My favorite part of the painting is her right hand. I made it pop forward using negative painting using cerulean and burnt umber.

This is one of the crops I tried. Not loving it.

Painting is done on #140 cheap joes kilimanjaro. I used DS Quin coral with Holbein yellow ochre for the skin tone. Cerulean and burnt sienna make up most of the shadows. The very dark lines delineating the body parts are burnt umber and ultramarine blue.

TIP: One thing I like to do is convert the finished painting to black and white to compare it to the shadows on my original photo also converted to black and white of the model or person I am painting. Converting the original picture allows you to see the darks and lights easily and to not worry about the colors in color photo. The darks and lights are more important than if the eyes are blue or the hair is brown. Most people don’t get the darks dark enough. This way you can.