Day 566 -Quai Grenelle / Radio France

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016Leave a comment

Quai Grenelle / Radio France building as the sun was setting. It does that early in Paris because it sits at such a northern latitude. That said the walk along the quai was bustling with people going for evening walks.
The people were added as they walked across the path at the top of the quai. I really think people bring a landscape or cityscape to life.

This part of Paris had a lot of interesting modern buildings which I would still like to draw. The terrorists interfered with my plan.

This is painted with a bottom coat of Winsor Yellow and bits of Quin gold.

The blue is mostly cobalt blue which is a good transparent color. Harder to get muddy colors if you start out with transparent colors.

Greys are cobalt and burnt sienna or inathradone blue and burnt sienna.

Trees are Quin gold and hookers green and green apatite with Inathrodone blue.

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

You can save a “painting” open it and add more colors like I did with this one. Lots of fun. Tomorrow Photoshop express. Also a lot of fun.

Roche Guyon a medieval castle updated and used by Rommel during WW 2 to defend the Seine.

Here’s the original photo.
Thanks for reading. Go make some watercolors.

Margaret tired from driving home from the mountains xxx

Day 496 – 🇫🇷🇫🇷 The French remember🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 18, 2015Leave a comment

The Canadian D Day cemetery at Bény Sur Mer. It seems appropriate to post it today with the fighting in Paris. War again in France. Our guides grandfather was a French resistance fighter killed by the SS when he was caught.

Today I heard a silly journalist on CNN say Parisians were not used to fighting in their streets. If you asked our guide she would tell you they still remember WW2. Bullet holes from WW2 still pock mark the buildings. The church at Ranville was full of bullet holes and huge chunks of it were missing from WW2 fighting.

🇫🇷 The French remember with three museums to the D Day invasions. This is the Canadian museum at Juno Beach were 5000 Canadians died.

🇫🇷 There’s one at the American invasions site and one at Pegasus Bridges were British paratroopers had to seize a bridge BEFORE the D Day invasion.

🇫🇷Our guide’s grandmother found bodies of 132 Canadian POWs who were murdered and buried in a mass grave in her yard. They still find WW2 bodies routinely in Normandy. So yes they remember!!

Stay tuned for more Frenxh sketches. There are at least 33 of them. 😳

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 496 – 🇫🇷🇫🇷 The French remember🇫🇷🇫🇷

November 18, 2015Leave a comment

🇫🇷 The French remember with three museums to the D Day invasions. This is the Canadian museum at Juno Beach were 5000 Canadians died.

🇫🇷 There’s one at the American invasions site and one at Pegasus Bridges were British paratroopers had to seize a bridge BEFORE the D Day invasion.

🇫🇷Our guide’s grandmother found bodies of 132 Canadian POWs who were murdered and buried in a mass grave in her yard. They still find WW2 bodies routinely in Normandy. So yes they remember!!

Day 479 Two days to Paris 😳

November 2, 2015November 3, 2015Leave a comment

Well at least we leave then. Lol. Be in Paris by 2 pm Thursday.

Been raining cats and dogs do I am posting all of the family dogs but one today.

A quick sketch of my lab Honey. She walked off before I finished it but decided to paint it this am. Painted with ultramarine blue and burnt umber.
Grant – my sons newest put bull. Drawn with a Lamy Vista using Carbon Paltinum Black ink.

Drawing a new dog is always a challenge. To top it off he’s black and white. I smeared the ink with my finger to try to make his black more solid. I actually drew him three times before I was happy with him.

I wish I could give u some dog drawing tips but the only one I can give u is that a dog like a person or a horse is just geometric shapes. Check out Richard Schmidts wonderful Alla Prima book which is what he says about drawing anything. They are all just shapes.

Livia my sons other pitty. Small sketch with a Kuretake brush pen loaded w Platinum Carbon Black ink.

Lucy dog my youngest sons Briard Colie mix. Such a good puppy.

My other dog Zoe watching me pack. Maybe I should stick her in the suitcase?! I have enough room.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 450 – Inktober

October 3, 2015October 2, 20152 Comments

All I can say is WOW!!!! 450 days of consecutive daily blogging. And I didn’t think I would make thirty.

Jan DAY 1

Noodler Konrad pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet

Decided to really drove myself nuts and participate in Inktober. Aka posting an inksketch daily for the month of October. I tend to do art everyday anyway so it’s not a big stretch just to do ink sketches all month. Takes the pressure off doing watercolors too lol though I bet I end up painting some of them.

Old Man at Panera Day 2

Carbon platinum pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet

Not happy with this sketch. This guy was in his eighties. Lots of wrinkles. Eyes set deeply in his head. He was busy giving someone his power of attorney. The things you learn when you sit and quietly draw while people yammer on about their lives on their phones.

If I had taken a photo of him I would have redrawn him. Although the carbon platinum pen has a very fine point I don’t think it gives you the range of lines that the noodlers do. And it was hard to do any fine shading on his small face.

The Smoker Day 3

Noodler Konrad pen w carbon platinum black ink Super Aquabee tablet

What a character! A lot off wild waving of her hands with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, bright pink shirt orange overdyed black hair. I had to draw her.

Notes about drawing

All my sketches are drawn from live people not pictures unlike my finished big watercolors which are usually drawn from photos. I think it gives the drawings more life. And people that know art can actually tell they are from real life as we say.

Drawings are more successful if I lay down one line and don’t fiddle with it. Original line is usually the best.

Been practicing life drawing almost daily for a year.

Faces often easier to leave them out because that’s usually where I screw up a sketch like the old man. The heads need to be fairly large to draw a good face.

Start drawing from the shoulders and add the head- the attention getters. Then the rest of the body.

Favorite pens :

My star pens are any Noodler pen. I have several and love their flex nib. These were done with my Konrad because my big ahab is leaking. I am going to redo the rings in the ahab. It’s hard to beat because it holds loads of ink and is cheap at $23 at http://www.gouletpens.com

I am also fond of my Lamy Vista fine point and the Carbon Platinum pen.

Brush Pens Pentel and Kuretake. The Kuretake is an elegant Japanese pen. And very reasonable at $20ish.

INK hands down favorite is the ultra waterproof Carbon Platinum Black from Goulet pens. DO NOT BUY IT FROM AMAZON. The ink there looks like goulets but runs like crazy. I use CPB in my Kuretake too. It’s the reason I bought the Kuretake. The Pentel is a great brush but sometimes the ink just is not waterproof.
Other inks I like a lot are the super waterproof De artementis DOCUMENT brown and Noodlers Lexington Grey. Also from Goulet.

I have a Bottle of Noodlers Eelskin which is supposed to be waterproof it isn’t for me.

Smooth paper is a must for ink sketches. Favorites are superaquabee, Stonehenge or other Bristol and strathmore Mixed media 500 and Stillman and Birn Alpha. All but the S&B Alpha do well with watercolor too.

Ok my chickadees that’s enough for today. Hope you haven’t caught this virus half the world seems to have in Augusta Ga.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

September 29, 2015Leave a comment

A recent challenge to paint an acrylic self portrait in Fauvism style using a snake of complimentary colors with impasto brush strokes. Impasto is thick paint which can show the method of application. In this case a hog bristle brush.

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it.

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are

Strong colors but no black
Colored lines but not everywhere
The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected
Melting lines
Thick paint
White off Canvas shows thru
Not a lot of detail
Faces done roughly

We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using a complimentary color(red) to the green background.

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use. All the above colors were made from those three colors.

After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange.

Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot of the original red lines showing thru.

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 446 – Fauvism

September 29, 2015Leave a comment

This has been a lot of fun. Try it you might like it.

Fauvism means wild beast. Matisse was the best known painter in this school although Seurat’s pointilism is also a part of this school. Bright jarring colors were used by these artists.

Some hallmarks of Fauvism are

Strong colors but no black
Colored lines but not everywhere
The artist is painting color even if it’s not what expected
Melting lines
Thick paint
White off Canvas shows thru
Not a lot of detail
Faces done roughly

We started with a wash of background color on gessoed hardboard aka Masonite and then drew the portrait with a paint brush using a complimentary color(red) to the green background.

This is a color snake using two complimentary colors red and green plus white for tints. These were the only colors we could use. All the above colors were made from those three colors.

After the painting was underway it was ok to add a related color. Such as orange.

Here is the portrait after two hours painting. I left a lot of the original red lines showing thru.

I used the color bluer greens in the shadows and the yellower ones in highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 433- WIP Savannah Riverwalk

September 16, 2015September 16, 20157 Comments

pleased with progress off to class so moh later as my grandson Henry says.

Calling it done. My weapons of choice were an Isabey #2 squirrel mop and a Lamy Vista fine point with an ink converter lapsed wit carbon platinum black ink. Mop is from Cheap Joes expensive but worth it and cheaper than Dick Blick. I got the pen and converter from Amazon but the ink from Goulet. The Amazon ink was NOT waterproof though it appeared to be the same ink. Another good waterproof ink is Noodlers Lexington Grey from Sam Flaxs Atlanta and de Artrementis DOCUMENT Brown from Goulet pens.

Colors used cerulean and cobalt sky. Aurelion yellow, Quinn gold in roof. burnt sienna quin burnt orange inathradone for the Sphinx. Quin gold hookers green olive green and green hematite with burnt umber in greenery. Piemonte and cobalt blue shadows on buildings and sidewalks.

The sketch Lamy on strathmore 500 mixed media

If you like this style of sketching and painting aka urban sketching sign up for Marc Holmes class on Craftsy. Sign up thru his site http://citizensketcher.com/2015/08/29/travel-sketching-in-mixed-media-lesson-sneak-peek-silhouette-shapes/ for a $10 discount. A good deal for $20 and do it at your leisure.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 431 – Two point perspective Trick(TIP)

September 13, 2015September 13, 20151 Comment

is tough to say the least. And mine was confused on this painting. The bricks were off especially above his head. Oops!!

Al Beyer showed me a technique that is easy to do when you have two point perspective, i.e. perspective with two vanishing points.

The vanishing points are to the right and left of the painting on the horizon line which runs across the top of the OPEN letters.

ALL parallel lines should converge at the vanishing point. The runs of bricks make up these parallel lines as do the top and bottom of the window and the bottom of the OPEN letters.

So how to get them done correctly.

Get a piece of paper. Lay the straight edge along the horizon line. Then fold the bottom edge up to follow parallel line. I chose the window sill.

This is the order you fold the paper in.

Match 1 to the horizon line to get fold 2. Of course you can’t see 1 now!!

Here it is on the painting.

Make fold 3 by matching up fold 2 with the horizon line.

Then make fold 4 by folding the paper in half between the bottom fold and the #2 fold.

Ideally before you paint match the horizon line on your folded paper with the horizon line on the painting draw along the folds with a watercolor pencil to transfer the lines to your painting.

Flip the paper with the horizon line on the bottom edge to get the top lines.

Some thinking is required. And the whole thing reverses on the right side to complicate your life. 😳