Day 1043 – Chuck and Judy 3 or is it Brenda and Judy?!

May 30, 2017May 30, 20172 Comments

I don’t know about you but I can’t take enough classes with Charles and Judy Reid. I highly recommend them.

Did I say I own all of his books but one and several videos?!!

Brenda and Christine Again! – Charles Reid class

And evidently I can’t draw Brenda the Blonde- enough either.

The third time in Charles class.

Brenda and Rebecca – Peggy Habets class

. I have drawn her at least FIVE times because she stands and watches the teacher paint and she’s handy to draw. Some turnout better than others.

Oops way too dark.

I usually draw her pretty well but sometimes thempainting goes astray like in this one. Too dark.

But the sketch was great.

One more Brenda in Ted Nuttalls class May 2016.

Christine in Ted Nuttalls class May 2016.

Margaret whose going to paint raisin and Harley if I can quit watching the Keepers today on Netflix’s. Riveting show. Highly recommend.

Xoxoxo

Day 1040 – Canyons – Blowing Rock!

May 27, 2017May 28, 20172 Comments

Mike and I had lunch at the Canyons in Blowing Rock because as she said the view of the mountains was spectacular from dining room. The food was delicious too and the service was great.

Spring green was the key color out the window covering the trees and the mountains.

Painted with Charles Reid palette leftovers. He only uses 12 colors. All Holbein. The greens are hookers and Oxide of chromium. He also likes cobalt violet. Uses all of those a lot on flowers.

I guess I need to do a sample of them so you can see the colors. Just normal old colors. No Quins though I added my favs Quin gold and burnt orange which I sub for ochre and burnt sienna at times.

I kept trying to get a pic of this interesting guy when he was sitting at the bar inside but he was back lit which does not work in a photo. Don’t u love all the trash can background?!

Funnny story. I went to the trash cans when we got in the car to throw some junk out that I pick up like a pack rat and guess who was there!? The guy. And a waitress who had been watching me draw she told him to pose for me because I was a really good artist. Lights not great but it might work. I have more of him not smiling. Do t like painting teeth showing.

Should have told him to take off his hat but that would have ruined his charm. I did get him to turn around but still no light.

The Mountains from the porch.

In the restaurant from our table. What a view. Love this place.

Ttyl Margaret xoxoxo

Day 1036 – The Farrier

May 23, 2017May 28, 2017Leave a comment

I took a great photo of Raisins farrier when he was showing Harley and Beau a couple of weeks ago.

He has luxurious mustaches.
Here’s the photo I took in the barn when he took a quick break.

Filing shaving who knew it was such a job. Not to speak of holding up the foot of such a large beast. Harley is 17.2 hands. A big fellow!

As you can see it’s hard work shoeing horses. They have been known to sit on farriers while their shoes are being changed.

I was surprised he was all done in about an hour. Busy guy!!

The sketch. Drawn on 140# cold press fluid paper.

Marking progress.

At this point he’s pretty scary looking. The shadows on his cheek look too dark.

Not fond of the no lost edges look of his head. Every thing was too hard edged. Not what I had envisioned. So I left him here to think about it overnite.

Besides I had to watch the last show of Call the Midwives. LOVE that series. Now I can watch it all over again. Yes I have it on DVR!

Here he is with the beard in progress and some background added. Starting to loose some edges. I decided to do him what I do when I don’t like the way a painting is going. Add some sloppy dots.

Once you don’t like a painting it’s a good opportunity to just mess with it.

I started reading this great watercolor book that Raisin gave me. Ran across his art at Cityart when I went on the Vista Gallery Walk last month and was thrilled to find he had a book.

One of the things he suggested was spraying the hard edges with a spray bottle?! WHAT?? Yes SPRAY the edges to loose them.

So I hit the background with the spray bottle. What a great effect. Juicy runny spotty color. LOVE The effect.

Did the same thing on the left background. And swished it with a big brush.

Love the speckles the runs and then the light areas. Try it. Such fun!!

It did leave a few horizontal drips on the left that I didn’t like but a few swipes with Mr Clean and zip they were gone.

See?! All gone! Got to love fluid paper for its liftability.

Yesterday I didn’t like the dark ick colored shadows on his cheek. Funny today they don’t bother me. I guess time fixes paintings as well as the heart. Lol!

So he’s done for now. Fixating on his mouth and that hard edge Sean on his shoulder. Oh well nothing’s ever perfect. Going redraw him on an offer sheet of 300# paper today.

Margaret who has to get drawing now. Xoxox

Day 1034 Best one yet

May 21, 2017May 22, 20174 Comments

This is number ten flower painting. And all my friends think it’s the best one. I agree. I softened all the right edges and lost some. I let it drip and run and mingle the color like watercolor does so well. I got the essence of flowers without the exact flower being painted.
I think it’s actually due to the change in paper. I used up the last of my old Fabriano block so I dug out a pack of fluid 140# cold press which is what Charles Reid recommends.

It seems to have a slidy effect due to the sizing when you add water to the color. This was painted by adding full strength watercolor on a dry #10 da Vinci brush then adding water. It uses a lot of paint but well worth it for the effect.

Of course the slidy effect could have been due to the fact that I had painted this at almost a vertical angle.

So I googled it to read reviews of it. North Light said

“Work wonders in watercolor with Fluid watercolor paper!

Fluid Watercolor Paper is crafted in a European mill (Schut) which produced its first paper stock in 1618. Mill masters craft small batches at slow speeds allowing for finer control of quality. This slow approach produces a sheet of great strength that shares much of the working integrity of more expensive mold-made papers.”

And Roz Stendhal who is diligent in her art material reviews uses it all the time. She said it’s 100% cotton hand made artist grade paper. The blocks are much cheaper than arches and you frequently can find a deal on it. Right now Cheap Joes is offering it with a free sample pack of 20 8×10 sheets with the purchase of three packs.

However she’s not so fond of the hot press. Has a slight pattern when it dries.

I will say I found it annoying when the paint slid off these fruit to make dark shadows under them but today I quite like the effect.

Time to go fruit and flower shopping. I ate the apple and the orange yesterday and the flowers well they are looking raggedy!

Next up trying the ferrier on this fluid paper. If it’s good enough for Charles Reid and Roz it’s good enough for me. Hmm evidently their paper was in the republished Audubon catalog in 1972.

Ps Cheap Joes is offering a good deal on Fluid paper. A 20 sample pack free when you buy three Fluid products. I do love JOe and his company. Great humanitarians spreading the joy of art!

Colors used Winsor yellow, ds carmine, cobalt violet, mineral violet, oxide of chromium, viridian?, cerulean, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cad orange, cad red light or scarlet lake.

Ttyl Margaret getting ready for brunch and a lazy rainy Sunday. As Oprah says no demands on a rainy day! Xoxoxo

Day 1033 Those darned teapots!

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017Leave a comment

In every class you take there is usually very useful fact that sticks out that you learn.

I have learned that rubbing alcohol dissolves and removes acrylic paint even when it dries.
I learned about Mr Clean erasers in my first Charles Reid class in Atlanta and have been using them ever since.
In John Salimens class I learned about masking taping your painting when you use a Mr Clean on your painting. That way you can hone in on an exact spot.

For some reason when I drew the above painting I decided it would be a great idea to put the teapot behind the leaf. DUHHHH!

I absolutely loathed it when I was done. As no doubt you know that might mean the painting was ruined. So yesterday I decided to lift it with a Mr Clean and masking tape. It couldn’t hurt it.

Here is the top of the teapot taped off and the star on top of it.

And here it’s all erased in one swipe and a blot with a Kleenex.

I had to do the spout twice. Once to remove the leaf over it. And once to correct my not so great painting of the inside of the spout.

This is the tape job before I lifted the color off the spout.

And here’s the spout after I swiped with the Mr Clean. Be sure to use clean water and a clean sponge.

Here’s the spout and the top repainted after lifting with the Mr Clean.

And here’s the painting now. I also went back in and added some carmine to the lilies in the left. They were too purple.
And I tried to soften their edges. Those darn Lilies are asuch a pain. Always sticking out.

Ttyl time to paint. Margaret whose thinking of giving the droopy flowers one more go round.

Day 1032 That bouquet

May 19, 2017May 20, 20172 Comments

Thought I would change up the title! Lol.

The bouquet is definitely on the wane.

Finally one that I am pleased with everything. Well almost. Only took five years of practice, three classes of fifteen days and we won’t discuss the $$ spent on classes and art supplies! A valuable painting.

Filling up the page like Bonnard would do.

The ubiquitous tea pot is gone. It was too big and too fat. Give me a nice juicy navel orange any day. I spent a lot of time rearranging the fruit. They were all lined up either vertically or horizontally every time I drew them. And they started out way too big.

In the sketch you can see the fruit is different than the final painting.

Bytw of u haven’t got the audible ap get it and download some great books to listen to while you paint. I listened to War Brides a thrilling world war 2 story set in England. Full of spies Nazis bombings and of course a love story or two and war time marriages.

Paper Fabriano 140# 18×22. An odd sized old block that I have had for three years since my first Charles Reid class in Atlanta. Should have saved one of my first paintings I did with him. This one is a big improvement.

Colors used. The splatter was the soup in the plate under my water bucket from painting all day. Perfect grey.

Colors used Winsor yellow, ds carmine, cobalt violet, mineral violet, oxide of chromium, viridian?, cerulean, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cad orange, cad red light or scarlet lake, sap green.

Ttyl Margaret xoxox

Day 1031 How many flowers

May 18, 2017May 18, 20172 Comments

Can she paint?! Evidently a lot.

While I love most of the bouquet with the possible exception of the top is too flat aka you can draw a straight line across it I really like this painting EXCEPT that darned teapot.

Here’s the sketch again. I really liked the sketch which is odd since now I don’t like the teapot in it. Maybe it’s just that I don’t like that teapot?

Thinking about repainting it again when I get home from my meeting today without the flower pot.

Have to strike fast those flowers are getting droopy. Especially those daisies. And those lilies. Well they are dying. They are taking over the world.

Fabriano 140# cold press

Ttyl Margaret off to a meeting. Xoxox

Day 1029 -Another Flower Painting

May 17, 2017May 18, 2017Leave a comment

If at first you don’t succeed try try again. Love the flowers. The teapot not so much. So I drew another at 11 last nite.

I turned the bouquet around. Some of the yellow daisies are already drooping so better get busy painting this one. Stay tuned.

Colors used Winsor yellow, ds carmine, cobalt violet, mineral violet, oxide of chromium, viridian?, cerulean, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cad orange, cad red light or scarlet lake, sap green.

Ttyl Margaret whose playing bridge today. Xoxoxo

Day 1028 More Flowers

May 16, 2017Leave a comment

My best of the three attempts I made painting this bouquet. I thought painting white flowers was hard till I did this one. Those yellow flowers were a pain.

Funny story. When I showed it to Joe Miller aka Cheap Joe he quipped if I asked Charles Reid to sign it I would have TWO charles Reid flower paintings.

So I did. Darn he didn’t do it. 🤗He did laff when I told him Joe told me to do it.

I do have this very tiny Charles Reid sketch in my class notes where he explained to me how he would paint the yellow flowers.

Unpacking almost done. Now I have to go to the grocery store for something healthy to eat. All I have in the house is a couple of apples and I want to paint them BEFORE i eat them.

And I want to paint this great Mother’s Day bouquet before it does so off I go.

I did collage the cover of my notebooks from Charles and Peggi Habets class. It’s a Strathmore Mixed Media 500 sketchbook which has such a dull brown cover.

Ttyl xoxox Margaret glad she’s more unpacked than packed.

Day 1027 Pistol Pete

May 15, 2017Leave a comment

Such fun to paint this.

Pistol Pete (22×15″) aka Frank Eaton was a fascinating western character who became the Oklahoma State mascot where most of my dads extended family went to school.

Painted on Fabriano 300# cold press

Frank was a Marshall, sheriff and gunslinger who was faster on the draw than Buffalo Bill Cody. He was also a story teller participating in the Oklahoma land rush where he arrested the outlaws who would hide in the Indian lands and dragged them back to Fort Smith Arkansas to face the judge and often hang when it was Indian territory and probably the original person the movie True Grit was based on.