Day 574 Place de la Concorde

January 27, 20162 Comments

The perfect ending to a gorgeous fall day exploring Paris, the Louvre and the Orangerie. Sitting with my feet propped on a bench overlooking the place de la Concorde Parisians swirling around us walking dogs and enjoying the late afternoon sun I had to draw the scene in front of me.

The tall ornate fantastical gold leafed street lights all by themselves were amazing. Nothing like that in Georgia or South Carolina. Add in fountains and statues and obelisks, the hustle and bustle of city life. Time to draw!

Madame guillotine who used to reign over the Concorde has been replaced with beautiful fountains statues the obelisk and the fantastic lamppost on the left. The Concorde is so vast that the cars and bus near the fountain were tiny. It’s truly an enormous vast open space near the Louvre.

The obelisk is one that Napoleon brought back from Eygpt on his conquests.

Can you find the Jack Russell in the sketch? Who knew they were all ver Paris. Such an English dog for a Parisian to own. I even met one in Rouen walking his mistress one early morning.

Colors used winsor yellow and Quin gold, Andrews turquoise from cheap joes, Holbein marine blue and the usual suspects. Quin red orange, burnt umber and sienna. Inathrodone, Quin magenta Quin coral Inathrodone Quin magenta.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret off to paint. Xxx

Day 574 Place de la Concorde

January 27, 2016Leave a comment

The obelisk is one that Napoleon brought back from Eygpt on his conquests.

Can you find the Jack Russell in the sketch? Who knew they were all ver Paris. Such an English dog for a Parisian to own. I even met one in Rouen walking his mistress one early morning.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret off to paint. Xxx

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 568 – The Seine at Mericourt

January 22, 2016January 22, 2016Leave a comment

There are huge locks at Mericourt to let the boats sail the shallow Seine River. Everybody on the boat was up top to get a good view of our trip thru the locks. Did you knw it’s a good way to get a bath? As you pass under the lock gate it drenches you with the water accumulated as its raised from the river.

Again a compilation of houses. Mostly from Mericourt and Roche Guyon.

There was almost a disaster. There was a big black blob of ink fell on it in the pine grove. Eeeekkkk. I managed to save it by watering the blob down and painting the pines dark. Can you find it??

The locks.

When painting these it’s necessary to use a lot of negative painting and contrasting colors to get the light buildings to show up. They can get lost on the riverbank if you don’t.

TIP: I check values by using my phone camera and turning the painting black and white. You will see if you have lights and darks or if everything is painted in a midtone which is what most people tend to do.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret whose hoping the Savannah doesn’t flood Augusta again with all this rain. Xxx

Day 558 – Which do you like?

January 11, 20162 Comments

Background 1

I spent most of yesterday repainting the Ilenia’s background. This is the current background and my favorite so far. I also did a lot of work on the bottom background adding alizarin here and there to tie it to the background. Trying to loose some edges and get rid of the pasted on look of the figure bits of the purpley dark was added to her hair to blend it into the background. I had to completely paint out the blue background 2 with titanium white to get rid of the blue and paint the background as it is in the first picture.

The background colors are burnt umber, alizarin and ultramarine blue. I also added touches of burnt sienna and yellow ochre. It always seems that I scumble backgrounds a lot. And of course some of it was just painted with a sable paint brush which gives a smoother finish than the hog bristle that I used for scumbling.

Background 2

I thought I would like this color better than I did. It’s cerulean, nickel azo and titanium painted over background 3 which is really the first background I tried out and another I usually like. I thought it was too over powering.

Background 3

Burnt umber and ultramarine blue with some nickel azo over brushed or scumbled over the darker colors.

TIP: if you get tired of getting up and walking back from your painting to look at it you cab use your home.

Here are a few other versions of background 1.

So my question dear readers is WHICH do you like? As I said so far background 1 is my favorite.

Thanks for reading!

Margaret who is off to class to make great art tomorrow. Xxx

Day 549- Cheese cheese cheese

January 1, 2016December 27, 2015Leave a comment

Journal page done during our tasting of local Normandy cheeses and Calvados. My kids all got Comte cheese for Christmas from Zingermans because of this cheese tasting. Pricey but they pronounced it delicious. Comte is the most widely eaten cheese in the EU.

Colors used. Cobalt background. French ochre burnt umber, and burnt sienna. Inathrodone blue and burnt .

Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, deartementis document brown ink.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx

Day 548 – a goodie or two

December 31, 2015December 27, 2015Leave a comment

They like to keep you well fed on Viking cruises. After our trip to Auvers we were met with this amazing hot chocolate with Baileys Irish Cream. Deliciousness. And I discovered the endless supply of meringues at the snack station. Yummy crispy bits of sugary fluff Aka diabetic coma makers. Lol.

I meant to tape the dried flower in my book. Turns out it’s illegal like my sycamore leaf. Now down the garbage disposal into the septic tank so no diseases could be spread. I like to collect leaves and feathers for my journals.

Note to self. NOT WHEN ABROAD!!!

Colors used. Winsor yellow background. Inathrodone blue and burnt umber. Flower alizarin, inathrodone, and hookers green.
Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 547 – Viking Pride

December 31, 2015December 27, 2015Leave a comment

Aka up the Seine
In the Viking Pride lounge moored at the Quai Greinelle near the Eiffel Tower after lunch when I should have been resting for more fun all I could do was draw draw draw. This is our new friends Jane and her husband Dennis though we didn’t know them when I drew them.

Really like all the runny wet on wet color in this sketch.

Colors used. French ochre w Quin coral for skin cobalt shadows. Hair French ochre and burnt sienna. Grey hair cerulean, burnt sienna. Black inathrodone blue and burnt umber. Chair alizarin and French ochre.

Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx

Day 546 – Sycamores

December 29, 20152 Comments

Line the streets of Paris. The French like to prune them into odd shapes. I don’t like trees that Americans prune like this but in France there are so many I grew to like them. They line the Seine River and many streets.

In the 1880s it became fashionable to take the air but one did not want to get a tan so trees were planted and pruned to indulge this whim especially in Paris.

Colors used. Leaf French ochre w Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange. Cerulean. Splattered with whatever soup was on my palette. Strathmore 500 mixed media journal, Konrad Noodler, carbon platinum black ink.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 545 – Summer Madonna

December 28, 2015Leave a comment

A large watercolor commission that it’s finally safe to share with you. Delivered on the 26th to the mom as a Christmas present. Oddly this picture looks best at a distance which is the way you view most paintings unless you are an art geek like me whose never happier than when she’s nose to nose with a Van Gogh or a Cezanne.

Paper is crescent watercolor board. Color used Quin coral, Quin sienna and Quin burnt orange with French ochre for skin and skin shadows. Be careful ! Strong staining pigments!! Shadows burnt umber and inathrodone blue with some mineral violet very lightly applied. Lips alizarin. Hair Winsor yellow, yellow ochre, burnt umber. Water Cheap joes Andrews turquoise, burnt umber, inathrodone blue applied wet on wet. Black bathing suit is burnt umber, inathrodone blue

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx