Practicing for my class with Mario Robinson next weekend. He’s been compared to Andrew Wyeth.

The grisaille layer. Grisaille means greys in French. You start with that layer and then lay in the flesh color over it once the greys are dry. Supposedly you are finished when you get to that point.

Typically Grissaille is used with oils not watercolor. This method is known for being highly transparent.

And a problematic approach when you only have two hours to paint the portrait.

As my friend Mike said NOT my favorite of Macy.

I decided I was annoyed with her face being too dark and whipped it out with a damp Kleenex and daubing at her face. Also the right eye was too low. One of the great things about the board is you can literally wipe it off.

Right now leaning toward putting this in the recycle bin. Can’t paint on the back or maybe I should put some gesso juice on it and see what happens. Aka Fun Sunday.

One pair done.

Margaret hot on knitting another sock and watching the Hour on Acorn-Riveting-I should be getting a drawing for class tomorrow. Oopsey.

Hmm who needs wool socks when it will be 70 all week?Xoxoxo

Macy- 11×16” Canson Plein Air Watercolor board #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #canson #aquarelle #southcarolina #aiken #artist #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #drawing #sketching #cansonpaper #charlesreid #lifemodel #pleinair

More of the EarthFare ladies. Twisbee seems to be a hot pen for me the last few days really enjoying the D”Artrementis Document Brown Ink. Hope it does NOT run out in the near future because it’s scarce as hens teeth.

We wandered into a. downton abbey tea today at La Dolce after sketching. Who knew!? Such great photos and of course I had to draw a couple of the ladies with their fascinator hats.

Margaret trying to finish a sock today. Xoxoxo

#twisbee #stillmanandbirn #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #georgia #artist #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaugusta #urbansketching #augusta #earthfare

Really like the way this turned out. I also got another water tower inked. Ready to paint when the mood strikes.

Most of these ladies were intently listening to the lady on the bottom right. Charles Reid palette colors. Twisbee pen, deartrementis document brown ink and stillman and birn Alpha journal.

One sock done and the last one underway. The book has the pattern for it in it. My go to vogue sock book.

Margaret who whipped up a Pepe’s Coconut Cream pie for sketching tomorrow. Yum Xoxoxox

Meetings at EarthFare #twisbee #stillmanandbirn #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #georgia #artist #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaugusta #urbansketching #augusta #earthfare

I hadn’t just sat down to draw people in a while. So today I went to EarthFare for a few groceries and drew the people in the cafe. Loved doing it.

Haven’t done in it in a while. This is how I learned to draw people – sitting in a coffee shop or cafe a doctors office a public place and drawing the people.

Going to post these on urban sketching on Facebook and see if they bounce them. I did get out and draw them in an urban environment right?!

Twisbee Pen deartementis document brown stillman and birn Alpha.

Only a few pages left til the book is done. HURRAH.

Did I draw that last watertower aka Porkchops Tower 3. Yes but not painted yet.

Had to take care of the thriving squirrels that knocked the top of the bird feeder and SAT in it gobbling.

New bird feeder with a screw on top. So far they can’t even slide down the plastic wire wrapped cord to sit on the roof.

Brown thrasher on the old one. I taped the top on with packing tape. Won’t be attractive BUT I bet the squirrels can’t get tape open.

Zoe and I went for a nice walk and collected photos of the Canadian geese in the old rice paddies in our neighborhood. I even took the BIG nikon with the telephoto lens. Better pics still on the camera card.

Too pretty a day to stay inside painting all afternoon.

Like my sketchbook almost done!! One more inch til the toe!!!

More manana. Back to my sock.

Margaret Xoxoxox

Meetings at EarthFare #twisbee #stillmanandbirn #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #georgia #artist #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaugusta #urbansketching #augusta #earthfare

Porkchop Tower II 9×12

One more go at the water tower. I redrew it this am. It looks better BUT sky wash is NOT what I wanted.

Hmm maybe this will be a series. Try another sky tomorrow?!

So other things to try.

Lay it down at a slight angle instead of almost a 90 degree angle when I paint the sky.

Also ink the holes in the ironwork legs after I paint the sky color in.

Maybe a quin gold sky?!

Leave more white so I don’t need gouache.

Only paint that was different today was I used white gouache. ALOT OF it.

Number 3. It IS a series!!

Margaret who has a headache and is quitting for the day cause she can’t paint. Blaming the headache. Xoxoxo

Porkchops Tower II. MORE Crusty Rust in downtown Augusta or is it vintage!? 13th & Ellis St #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #georgia #artist #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaugusta #urbansketching #usk #globalsketchers

Drew this Augusta Icon when I was downtown picking up some of my framed paintings at Art on Broad.

The old Whites water tower was gleaming in the midday sun glowing against the bright blue winter sky.

I know I should get up and go paint it. Wouldn’t take long since it’s small. 9×12″ cp fluid paper.

Twisbee pen Dartrementis document brown ink

#ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #georgia #artist #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaugusta #urbansketching #usk #globalsketchers

I got three of the small fluid blocks to do urban sketches on with my gift certificates. Light weight so highly portable. Always dries flat. Three to always have one blank. Thanks

I have one of the stuff backed fluid sketchbooks but it was so heavy my arm got tired before I was done sketching that’s why I think these are a great alternative.

On the news front two of my paintings were juried into a February March show at the Atlanta Artist Center.

The Little Professor is a painting of my dad when he was three. My grandmother used to dress him up and have him answer questions from her friends to entertain them.

Margaret who must have been nuts to sign up for a 9am class in Aiken. Xoxoxo

YUPO which is a kind of plastic so everything floats around on top of it. The paint does not bind to it. Who knows what it will look like when it’s dry. The paints drying on the kitchen table which means it’s moving around.

However the white spot on right was probably caused by oil from my hands or hand lotion. I can wipe it down with alcohol to remove it but too late now.

The inktense pencil also seemed to form a bit of a resist.

A good crop will take care of it.

I slathered on cad red and alizarin in the comb. Bits of ultramarine and mineral violet for darks.

Opera pink around the eye. Eye is burnt sienna and quin gold. Pupil ultramarine and burnt umber.

I lifted the highlights out w a clean damp paintbrush and a Kleenex non lotion kind.

Feathers ultramarine Prussian Blue Burnt umber viridian.

Tail Feathers viridian ultramarine.

Beak cad yellow light burnt sienna and yellow ochre.

Background cad yw light cad yw deep peacock cad red lt splatters

Blue Heaven Rooster. Key West

So far. He will no doubt change as the background dries.

Margaret starting some new socks. Xoxoxo

Blue Heaven Chickens on Yupo #urbansketching #chickens #chooks has #keywest #islandlife #yupo #fluid #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #watercolor #painter #florida #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #charlesreid #food #restaurant #floridalife

Painting Macy is always a challenge because she’s SOOO long at 5 10 1/2 with long feet and hands. Did I say she’s known to quip she would fall over if she had small ones.

The pose was a challenge with her long legs made even longer by the foreshortened pose.

a bit more drawing. I decided to shorten her feet a bit. They can get so huge if they are draw. Accurately. And I skimmed her legs a bit. Been having so much fun with the Canson watercolor board that I decided to use it this am. Get tired of stretching taping a large sheet on my foam core board especially at 8 am. So Canson was the paper of the day.

I also forgot to bring my mechanical pencil and started using a Derwent ebony. I thought it would be soft and dark. I was wrong. It was a hard pencil that did a dark line. A rare find. Second break. Macy’s also very pale. As Drew quips bring your white paint Macy is the model.

Still have to do some kind of background. Al Beyer first breakAl finished Drew Murphy first break. The is is fast. 2×3′

Drew Murphy finished.

Fred Baker first break and finished. I painted thru second break.

Amy Lockhard Ness oilLee Conte crayon Bill Daniels oil on metal Eve Charcoal

Rich KleinTom Needham Watercolor also on canson watercolor board.

Margaret done for the day xoxoxo

Macy – 12×16″ #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #southcarolina #aiken #allaprima #artist #painter #aquarelle #lifestyleblogger #lifestylechange #drawing #sketching #holbein #charlesreid #lifemodel

Done Done Done. Really no more painting on it!!😵😵😵

Never put a painting on the coffee table where you can see it while you watch tv. Been back twice more painting on Aiken Stroll. Small stuff.

So what did I do you say?! I darkened the sky with another coat of peacock blue softening the edge around the tree. The sky was just tooo pale and washed out. And yes crazy woman here painted sky into the tree asking for trouble but it worked. Did I say Hallelujah.

I lightened the sidewalk a lot. A painting should be darkest in the foreground and fade out as it gets farther away.

And no shadows from the trees on the sidewalk. Sooooo I wiped the sidewalk out wetting and blotting lifting paint to lighten it and repainted the dark tree shadows with burnt umber and ultramarine.

Back it went on the coffee table. What no tree shadows on the sidewalk?

I put it back in the easel and grabbed a couple of pieces of scrap watercolor Paper to protect where I didn’t want to splatter land. It tends to travel.

Splattered a little watery cobalt and a little burnt sienna on the far part of the sidewalk. Gave a lovely light shadow instead of that heavy dark grey thing that was there.

Tip 1- bricks. Use a flat. Makes great bricks easily. Just remember they have to recede IN PERSPECTIVE which means narrower and lighter the farther away they get. Those lines were made by the edge of the flat.

Tip 2 – Painting winter trees. I used several layers of very watery TRANSPARENT colors- alizarin burnt sienna peacock cobalt in the first two or three layers. Dry between each layers.

Peacock and Cobalt combine with the burnt sienna dots to make soft greys in great variety. The burnt sienna gives a glow as does the alizarin.

Finally adding opaque colors like mineral violet cerulean and turquoise in the last layer. All the different blues in the right layers combine to make great winter trees with a lot of interesting greys.

Draw some branches with you silver black velvet brush tip. Use different mud build up in the corner of your palette. Vary the water amount to get varying greys.

Keep the sky edges soft. Used to hate painting trees but now I like it. Well at least winter ones.

Ps that gold on some of the branches and tree trunks is quin gold.

Finished these socks that have been languishing in the knitting basket during the insane Christmas hat knitting round.

Margaret who actually cleaned her house today. 😬😳🤗 The dust was building up! Xoxoxo

Aiken Stroll. For My Art Show opening Feb 14 6pm Aiken Center for the Arts! #ink #watercolor #art #painting #artist #painter #aquarelle #southcarolina #charlesreid #urbansketcher #urbansketchingaiken #urbansketching #aiken #aikensc #usk #augusta #georgialina #csra #pleinair