She may need something still. Off to another friends house who definitely needs a cheer up.
Kilimanjaro Cp 140 # Dewey inktense pencils and watercolor
Margaret whose gotta watch Big Bang. Last show. 😢😢😢xoxoxo
Category: Birds
Day 2063 The Carolina Wren
Wasn’t going to do this today. I have a friend who needs cheering up so this postcard is flying off to the friend tomorrow. 
And of course it’s drawn from my favorite photo I took last week.
Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro cp 140# derwent inktense pencils and Charles Reid palette colors. The strawberry is dotted with gouache mixed with cad yellow light. Strawberry is cad red light burnt sienna and a mixed neutral tint.
Wren mostly yellow ochre burnt sienna and burnt umber with dabs of mixed neutral tint on the eye and legs.
Margaret who is going to eat a salad for dinner. Xoxoxox
Day 2053 it’s a bird
No it’s a thrasher. The Georgia state bird. Evidently kills smaller birds. Bad bird. Have a big one 11″ or very leggy at the back porch feeders. Never bothers anyone. Maybe mine is a lady thrasher. Lol
Remember my grandson said I could sell these for $3 rofl.
Watercolor pencil Kilimanjaro cp.
Margaret whose putting her feet up. Xoxoxox
Day 928 Getting Squirrely
The back porch squirrels and their antics are always fun to sketch. A ready model. Cheap. Will work for bird seed anywhere anytime anyplace. And of course I like to imagine what they are thinking as they gobble. Really need to name them Oreck and Dyson or Hoover. Miele?!
Drawn with a Lamy Safari in a Stillman and Birn Zeta mixed media.
Colors. Background Quinn gold squirrels cerulean Piemonte ultramarine. Splattered with Quin sienna or burnt orange.
Have a go at the squirrels. The back porch birds are fun to draw too. Use some gestures. It doesn’t have to look just like a particular squirrel it just had to look like a squirrel – the way they hold their food and hunch up over thier paws or spread their tails. Fun stuff.
Ttyl
Margaret off to look downtown and see what there is to sketch in this 72 degree day of sunshine. Xoxoxo
Day 747 a Bird
Probably my favorite bird at Parrot Mountain. I am a sucker for blues and this hyacinth parrot was just a beautiful deep blue. He’s the endangered bird in the movie Rio.
And yes his eyes and beak are a bright yellow.
Painted with Ted Nuttalls transparent colors. Wet on wet and splatters after he dried.
Another sock done. I did this one in 24 hours and I exercised and cooked dinner too. Fasted sock ever. Crystal Palace mini Moochie yarn.
Thanks for reading n
Margaret xxx
Day 739!! Sunday
Mike High Overlook – Balsam point Great Smoky National Park.
And it’s my grandsons fourth birthday so still busy busy busy. Off to Walmart to buy a pool to hide dinosaur bones in. We are digging for bones this afternoon. And a bouncy house. Who needs presents??!
Oconaluftee Farm – Great Smoky National Park. If you haven’t been to the park you should. It’s truly a national treasure. So much to do and see and it’s all free.
All of these sketches were done on Strathmore 500 watercolor paper or in a Strathmore mixed media 500 sketchbook.
Most were done with a fine nib Carbon Platinum Pen with permanent Carbon Platinum ink. When I get home I will paint them and hopefully bind them into a book.
Barred Rock chickens at Oconaluftee Farmstead.
More Barred Rocks. Adding some elk prints to this one. They are everywhere at the farm eating the crops just like the deer.
Oconaluftee River with a gain sycamore. A few lines was enough. I can always add more when I am done.
Hopefully it will look like this when I get done.
Huge hemlocks at Oconaluftee.
Day 737 A parakeet
And a parrot
Rosy ring necked parakeet
Parrot that needs more work I think.
Hmm well you shouldn’t paint at midnite. What else can I say!? He should be more of an emerald green but that’s easy to fix.just another coat of darker green.
One coat of a nice green and he’s better. Not so pale and washed out.
The background is cerulean and Quin sienna. Not a big fan but the sienna works well with the cerulean. Splattered with the same colors.
Check by for a parrot update. Off to find something to draw I hope.
Margaret xxx
Day 73? – About that ParrotÂ
Hot off the paint brush. Red macaw at parrot mountain. Best sketching fun I have had in a while. And it looks so much better painted.
Pyrrole red alizarin Crimson maganese blue and the usual culprits cerulean burnt sienna Inathrodone blue all done wet on wet. Oh burnt umber for the blacks.
I often wonder why I can draw animals and scenery in public as people drift by but if I am drawing people I like to hide my sketchbook.
A peach cockatoo. He was too far away and people kept walking in front of the bird. Painted with a red orange soup that was on my Pallette.
Entrance to Parrot Mountain and yes those are very steep steps. Pant pant. But the flowers are lovely. Parrot Mountain takes in rescued birds of all types but most exotic birds like parrots and macaws and large parakeets. Owners don’t realize that some of these birds can out live them.
We went in this way which is I guess the handicapped access- a concrete ramp which should be labeled ramp to heaven. Very steep!
A few macaws under their hats near the parking lot. Someone asked why they don’t fly away. They can’t. The wing feathers are cropped so the best they can do is flutter a short distance. Sad for the birds but at least they are well taken care of in a lovely jungly spot.
Off for some lunch at the Plum Tea Room on the artists loop and away from the mobs of Gatlinburg or should I say herds? So many people!
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Day 735 – Parrot Mountain
I am off to draw and paint plus a little sock yarn buying therapy as soon as I post.
Parrot Mountain is wonderful. Lovely gardens filled with birds all owner surrendered or rescued. Parrots macaws parakeets and a lot of other exotic birds.
The place is just lovely with many quiet spots to sit and enjoy the birds but I was HOT to draw them and did. However the rain was NOT conducive to painting them.
The Parrots and cockatoos have perches with little straw hats on top. I wish I had one yesterday when it started raining. Finally pouring but the lovely trees in the Parrot Mountain Gardens saved me from a soaking.
What are you doing my dear? Drawing. Some of the birds were so curious.
One of the caretakers. He loves the birds and they love him.
How’s this for a family portrait you will never forget?!
Misty A highly endangered Blue Hyacinth macaw in the petting area. This is the bird the movie Rio is based on.
Misty standing on her head half the time while I tried to draw her.
There were probably 100 different birds of all types in this area.
One of the cockatoos showing off for my son. Just the best $20 I have spent in a long time. Thoroughly enjoyed the place. I wish we could have stayed longer but we had a dinner reservation at the Buckhorn Inn and had to leave. We didn’t even have time to change for dinner we stayed so long.
Drawn in a strathmore mixed media 500 journal with Noodler Konrad and Carbon Platinum plus black ink.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret off to paint something today. Xxx
Day 611 – Stick fun!
I have been playing with my stick bamboo stick all week. Done a sketch everyday. The Carbon Black ink from Gouletpens works best with my stick. Not the India ink. It seems to load on the stick better.
Anyway after I tried to shade the ibis in the back grey since he’s in the shadow I decided to do negative painting in the background letting the ink puddles bleed into the brush water to make various shades of grey.
It seems impossible to get control of that ink flow. It leaves a lot of hard edges which are great for Key West underbrush but not on a bird.
After the grey puddles dried a little I went back in and drew ink lines in for sticks on the ground.
If I could change this I would get rid of the grey on the farthest back ibis.
This is yesterday’s ibis. I actually like them except for all the black. These are young ibis and have a lot of mottled grey on their necks.
Maybe I will redraw them and add some background? I think they are funny. The Ibis at the Key West Wildlife Center are beggars and wait for snacks aka dog food that was fed to them.
My favorite still are the chickens. I don’t know why but I LOVE chickens.
Did I say writing with a stick does not produce the most graceful writing?
Here’s another chicken sketch done earlier. I can’t imagine dong this on location. I would have an inky mess everywhere. Not good when it’s permanent and very black!!
I also had a paper problem. I used my beloved 93 # Aquabee first but the ink is so thick from the stick that I got out my #98 Canson mixed media sketchbook and used it. No more ink soaking they the paper. At least not yet.
And here’s Livia again. One of the first sketches withy the stick from last Sunday. I don’t know why I didn’t notice one of her legs is smaller than the other. But that’s an easy fix. Sketching frequently had a lot of surprises like a too skinny leg.
Enjoy your day. Happy stick sketching.
Thanks for reading.
Margaret xxx
Margaret McCarthy Hunt Art 