Or perhaps nearing completion. Having fun doing these tiny journal pages which incidentally seem to take as long as an 8×10″ spread.
Watercolor pencils pitt pen Lamy pen Ef and safari
Margaret done for the night xoxoxo
Month: February 2020
Adorableness
Is what I think of when I think of a chickadee. Even it’s name is adoreable. Such a tiny little thing. And busy. Usually darting in and out of the feeder.
This one was picky. It kept tossing the seed on the deck til it got the one it wanted. Four times til it was happy. 
This is the whole spread. Can I please have a pet chickadee??! Please please. Or maybe a gold finch or a Carolina wren. All just sooo sweet.
Margaret who needs to go exercise!! Xoxoxo
It’s Saturday
After lifemodeling at noon.
Already changing her.
So far right now. Ilaina and I continue our torture. 🤣. Think this one is the best so far though her face is a little to red and the grey stripe on the left needs to be lifted. 
The drawing at first break. Her face was still not right. And the right hand too narrow.
Second break. Before her face got too red. Sigh.
On the whole I like her But check back tomorrow for minor changes.
My favorite bit of the painting. Almost abstract.
Colors used cad red light cad yellow light cad orange alizarin cobalt Cheap Joes Andrews turquoise and mineral violet. Hair ultramarine and burnt umber but needs to go darker.
Greys burnt sienna cobalt and/or ultramarine and burnt umber.
140# Fluid cold press paper
Drew Murphy acrylic
Al Byre oil
Eve Crit charcoal
Fredliani as I have nicknamed him or Fred as everybody calls him. Rather like the wild colors in this one. Fredlianis letting his fauvism show. He’s even messed up his palette. Usually it’s surgically neat and orderly.
Ruth Pearls photo of a daff in the snow in Chickamauga Ga today.
Margaret xoxoxo
Having fun
Filling my tiny stillman and birn with memory pages. They are starting to add up. True story of a tiny mouse yesterday. It might have been two inches long.
The guys were just standing there looking at it seemingly afraid of it.
I took the broom from Fred and told him to put the dustpan down on the floor and swept it up.
Appropriately painted with my tiny whiskey painters box with a basic winsor newton set of paints that I bought years ago. The expensive plastic box broke soon after purchase but the paint endures.
I have refilled a few like cerulean and added a few Daniel Smith quinacridones but the set marches on.
Darkened Ilaina’s left eye
Added a few shadows to her hand.
Pronouncing her D O N E!!
Margaret xoxoxo
Winging her way
Her way to cheer someone up. I started her with watercolor pencils but shifted to regular watercolor. Pen is sepia Pitt pen on 140 Fluid cold press paper.
Colors used yellow ochre Burnt sienna burnt umber ultramarine.
Margaret ready to put on her jammies and warm up at her house. Xoxoxo
Nasty rainy
Watercolor and inktense pencil after I wet it.
Wet day. A good day to binge steaming tv and knit. Have I NO. I decided it would be a good day to go shopping. Isn’t that when you like to shop?!🤣. I did beat the monsoon home but the humidity was 81% til the rain. We were dripping.
Been reading a fun book called Living Out Loud today by Kari Smith and decided to do some journal pages aka make a record of all my sock knitting mania in January and continuing in February before my hand falls off from the knitting nuttiness.
Watercolor and inktense pencil. This one was before I wet the pencil. It gets much more intense when you wet it. I used a spray bottle on this one just to see what happened. Worked well except turquoise which tried to run.
Drawn with a S Pitt sepia pen and a Lamy Ef w brown Noodlers ink in it.
Margaret ready to knit abit. Xoxoxo
Staring
At a painting is a funny thing. I thought this was done when I worked on Ilaina today but now staring at her I think she might need more work on her left eye. 
It’s not dark enough. Hmmm. But I like the rest of her especially her left pinkie.
Things I worked on Eye
Lines on neck
Outline of neck
Nose
Background
Darker ground
Here she is before I worked on her. Maybe I should have left the eye alone.
one minute gesture sketches. I really wasn’t in the mood to do these yesterday but I did. 
And u can tell on some of these I didn’t care. 
charcoal pencil
But I settled down for the last one though I quit before thebfive minutes was up.
Margaret who has one more sock to knit before her hand falls off. Xoxoxo
Tuesday
Did I say exhausting?
Nothing like a sixty mile drive to paint and hanging out with friends to make you Tahred. 🤣But I managed to nap after the tenth correction after I got home anyway.
The sketch.
I thought the pose would kill me drawing it. Arms and legs going every which way. And that hand and foreshortened arm on the right. Eeekk.
I drew that arm and hand over and over again til I finally figured out you can’t see her forearm duh.
But maybe this is how she looked when I left?! Her face was squinchy but like the body.
And what about that neck. Groan.
The things you don’t notice in an hour or so of painting.
So here she is now. As Mike pointed out her eyes were NOT right. Too close together. So I fixed that. I also lightened her chin and widened her weird neck that I had given her.
Added a few shadows and called it quits. Well till I decide more Ilaina torture after I stare at it for a while.
Margaret going back to her nap. Xoxoxox
My Bird Count
Seven cardinals 30 or more finches 3 or 4 doves plus titmice and chickadees. They also fly off and lands in swarms.
Audubon back yard bird count coming up soon. How do you count them ?!! One lands and another takes off. Hmmm
Bet a few of these get some color like the cardinals predictably.
Sepia F Pitt pen aka extra fine brown. Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook
Did I say more rain predicted for Tuesday.
Margaret already onto another pair of socks. Xoxoxo
New Ilaina torture
the sketch and a toning wash of ochre and turquoise
dr bill oil
Coach Larry knocking them out. Charcoal.
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 