Done I hope

February 20, 2023February 20, 2023Leave a comment

After much lifting this is how she looks now. She’s a big girl on a piece of cold press Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro 15×20”. An imperial half sheet as Vlad would call it. Trying to make Shelley Priors technique taught at Watercolor Live 2023 my own.

if your like watercolor painting you really should sign up. Exposures to about twenty artists for a reasonable price. Well worth the cost and it just goes up the closer it gets to the start of the next years class.

I literally had rivers of paint swirling around.
I darkened the wash because I hate the too even spikey feathers I had drawn on its back and it was the only way I could get rid of them. @ericrhoads @shelleyprior

Taping to do the stripping. I had to strip off the dreaded thalo green run with a lot of tape and lifting with a Mr Clean sponge. Also used a stiff brush to clean off the little lumps and bumps where the green background thought abt overflowing.

After I cleaned it with a Mr Clean. Better but still a slight mess. I also lifted bits of green that has overflowed into the flamingo here and there. They were everywhere.

With the tape off. I am signing her and saying she’s done and available.

I added some quin rose and quin gold plus some cerulean to her head to fix it. Tried to keep it soft. I also softened a lot of edges. It was feeling a little cut out to me which happens when the edges are too hard.

Colors used quin rose, quin gold, cobalt, cerulean, DS pimonite genuine, burnt sienna, aureolin, thalo green

Margaret xoxoxox

Day 144 Mellow Mushroom

July 28, 20203 Comments

Today’s painting. Mellow Mushroom On Broad St. – FOR SALE 10×15” watercolor

Might be done. We shall see. Course I say that all the time so could be I will change it by this time tomorrow.

I started it a few weeks ago. So glad I can scratch it off my to do list. I should always have an espresso in the am. Get so much more done. House squeaky clean and a new painting. Not bad for one days work.

I also worked on Dubrovnik some more. Tried to take some of the purple put of the wall. And wipes out some color on the right. I might need to wipe out some more. Who knows. It ak be done when it’s done right?! Lifted the handle of the par with some tape and a sea sponge.

Wipes out the signs dark shadow with the tape sponge trick and the black shadow under the truck.

Those two black shadows under the truck and around the sign screamed look at me. As did that white shirt on the girl in the foreground that had to go too.

Margaret contentedly tired but who needs to do her Powerplate xoxoxo

Day 2128 More Wet Paint

August 10, 2019August 9, 2019Leave a comment

The models were dressed as 80 s rock stars. Did I say that yesterday???

Think this is Elvis. But wasn’t he dead in the 80s?? So who could it be dear reader.

Last but not least Michael Jackson in his trademark red jacket that my oldest really wanted one of to wear when he moon walked all over the house. Really needs his jacket painted.

Margaret hugging grandkids and off to Cats. Excitement!! Xoxoxo

Day 1044 – That Dirty Dried out Palette

May 31, 2017Leave a comment

Now that I am home for a day or two I wanted to use my Ted Nuttall palette. This is actually Teds Palette.

All those lovely transparent colors.

And it helped with my procrastination mode getting started painting the Raisin and Harley painting

which is finally transferred to paper and ready to paint.

Of course my Palette has dried out and filthy. They always dry out!! It needed revival and cleaning. Another way to procrastinate!!! The spray bottle was not getting the job done. The colors were lumpy and nasty.

So how did I get it clean and get the paint smooth and ready to use!?

First I sprayed it and tried stirring each color with its own tooth pick. That did not do much for the lumps. I wanted to paint!!!

I got out my trusty old palette knife. It has a tiny blade on it compared to most so it fit perfectly in the wells of my porcelain palette.

I used a jillion Kleenex wiping wells out where there was just a dribble of old hard paint. NO LOTION On those Kleenex.

I started bending my antique palette knife in some of the paint. Oh NO!! I kept going. What palette knife is supposed to last forever!?

I decided to rearrange the colors. Here and there I had added colors I MUST have to the basic Nuttall Palette like Cerulean, Andrews Blue, Daniel Smith Piemonite and Green Apaptite.

The Kleenex and the palette knife left crusts of color in the corners.

Then I realized I could fill the wells with water and used an old brush to swirl out the bits left in corners. Hallelujah clean wells at last.

I used a sharpie to rewrite the colors on the edges of the wells and I even have a few leftover slots.

So it’s new clean and lovely at this point.

What I learned while cleaning my palette.

Wear rubber gloves while cleaning your palette unless you want to have colored fingernails. 😱
Those dollar store Kleenex with lotion have something wierd in them. They gave me a rash when I used them on my nose. 😱😱 Now gone. 🤗🤗🤗
Now I know why some people have stacks of these palettes. It might be easier to just buy a new palette than clean the old one out.

Margaret who has some painting to do. Xoxox and no more reasons to procrastinate because I even cleaned up the studio and moved to the summer one aka the kitchen table and island.

Oh wait I need to use the glass cleaner on the winter studio table. It’s looking hazy. Procrastinate procrastinate. I need some flowers to paint!!

🌼🌻🥀🌷🌷🌸🌺🌼🌻🥀🌹🌷🌸🌺

Day 609 -The Party’s Over

March 2, 2016Leave a comment

This is the last sketch done during Wet Paint party. I drew Sallie doing check out as we waited to pick up painting. Thank goodness Sallie bought mine.

This sketch started the quotes. I started to write “Even James has a cell phone” but I thought it would be more fun to write a JB quote. Did you know there’s a website with endless James Bond movie quotes?!

Hope I didn’t post this one but evidently the modern James Bond likes his cell phone! I only drew a bakers dozen James Bond sketches si it gets confusing.

Thanks for reading!!

Margaret xxx

Day 608 How many More?

March 1, 2016Leave a comment

Hard to resist drawing James with one of his many ladies. Turns out the girl in the foreground is actually newly wed to James Bond who you can see in the background.

I still haven’t painted this. It’s not very big 6×9″maybe. Lots of tiny details but who knows it might actually be fun for a big painting?

I have a few pages of these….the models changed their poses before au had a chance to finish them but I still think they are interesting especially the girl on the right. She managed to twist her hands in front of her body planting her hands on her hip bones and HOLDING the pose. Wow!

Thanks for reading. I still have quite a few French sketches I have yet to post too. Hoping to get to them soon.

Margaret xxx

Day 607 – 22 Sketches

February 29, 2016Leave a comment

When you do that many you can post sketches for a week or more never repeating yourself. The girls costumes begged to be painted and the many columns lining Sacred Heart. Great fun to paint wet on wet.

The second or third sketch I did that night. I had not quite warmed up. Gouache is great for covering the background fast. When you have 22 sketches to paint you better have something that gets done quickly besides the sketching.

One day when I grow up I want to paint urban sketches like this one by Al Beyer done in India a couple of years ago. Can you see the moped flying by? This is a big oil painting 3×4′ not a tiny sketch but definitely falls in the urban “sketching” genre. You can see more of his work here but sadly non of his urban sketching he does on his Maymester trips abroad – India – China – and this year Cambodia. Watch out Angkor Wat.

Thanks for reading!

Margaret xxx

Day 604 – Another Bond or two

February 26, 20161 Comment

I did say I have twenty two of these right?!! This is one of my favorites. I like Sacred Heart as the background. As a deconsecrated CatholicChurch it’s a great background.

One of my favorites of the Bond girls. She had a flowing black negligee on with sheer sleeves. That was a challenge to paint. I first painted the arm. Let it dry and then over painted it with a watery black as I painted the whole negligee.

I really wanted to put a bubble for two quote but couldn’t figure out how to do that. Like the red hair against the cobalt background and of course the splatters.

Thanks for reading.

Margaret xxx

Day 599 The Name is Bond

February 21, 2016Leave a comment

James Bond -6×10″ Arches Carnet de Voyage HOT Press

Lots of fun last night sketching at Wet Paint party at Sacred Heart Cultural Center.

The Vintage Olie models were styling James Bond movie fashion style. Lucky Ruth Pearl and I had a table right next to one of their six pedestals as they rotated around the audience.

I really liked this just as it is EXCEPT all my gooey only fingerprints all over it. Sigh. The light we were drawing in was terrible and my beloved Noodler was leaking as usual. Not conducive to clean drawings.