day three-hundred-and-sixty-four - superb parrot

simply superb

© jem barratt

ohmigosh! they are also known as barraband's parrot. they are MY parrot!

well at least they belong to my band. when i start one. in the future. and convince my bandmates to name the band after me...

ok so maybe not. but i could always steal one (that's ALWAYS an option).

xj

day three-hundred-and-thirty-one - indian ring-necked parrot

another sketchy (but not dodgy) drawing, this time of parrots...

© jem barratt

and i kind of love it.

what do you (no-one) think?

oh really? thanks, you shouldn't have.

xj

day one-hundred-and-fifty-eight - rosy-faced lovebird

awww

© jem barratt

i think they look that cute to counteract how shocking their scientific name is - agapornis roseicollis. gasp! pornis!

mine looks a lot more 80s than the actual thing. and personally, i prefer masked lovebirds. both in bird form and in matryoshka form. i especially like the way they gang up on albinos.

definitely.

xj

day one-hundred-and-thirty-four - musk lorikeet

a timeline of my relationship with musk lorikeets:

four-and-a-bit months ago: i find out what a musk lorikeet is
four months ago: i paint this guy
one-and-a-half weeks ago: i realise they live in south australia!
four days ago: i stop and watch them on my walk home
today: they weren't in their home-tree, so i made my own: (uh oh, colon within a colon)

© jem barratt

hee hee hee, so cute! i like watching rosellas and rainbow lorikeets too (you can never be unhappy looking at a parrot), and even had a galah eating the soursobs in my front yard the other day, but musk lorikeets are a bit fatter and more squat than all of the above.

and... oh

it seems i have drawn a 'little lorikeet' by accident. FINE! timeline of the little lorikeet:

today: i learn what a little lorikeet is when i accidentally draw it thinking it is a musk lorikeet

no biggie - in fact i may like little lorikeets more. thanks happy accident! but for your information here is the real deal...

© jem barratt

seems i know nothing about animals. what i do know is that musk lorikeets are bandito birds, while little lorikeets look like they've been face-punched by red paint.

xj

day one-hundred-and-nine - rainbow lorikeet

i wish this was south australia's emblem:

© jem barratt

i do like it, but to be fair it looks nothing like a rainbow lorikeet. they look like this. i've seen so many this week while walking home, and it tends to make my walk a good 15 minutes or so longer. totes worth it. although i probably look like a weirdo staring at trees...

in case you don't know the existing state emblem, it looks a little like this. or more accurately EXACTLY like that.

i can't believe that took me almost three hours! it's so not good enough to have stolen that much time from me. i'd much rather have watched the real things pecking each other on their beaks. for three hours...

xj

day fifty-seven - galah

this morning as i walked to work i noticed one tree shedding much more tree debris (tree-bris?) than any other despite a noticeable lack of wind. i looked up to discover the cause and my eyes were met with seven galahs gleefully going to town on the tree's seed pods. what a great start to the morning!

© jem barratt

lately i've noticed the great power birds have to cheer me up. i am generally in a bad mood, but watching birds always makes me smile. yay!

like most australian birds, galahs are super cool. and naturally we have a big version. but galah chicks? they are something else. something younger. plus they live in holes. and they are so 80s.

this is the second galah i've ever made, and it won't be the last. although i had help from mr mantis for the first one...

so if you're feeling down, go scour the trees for a galah or a rosella and you'll be fine in no time! if all else fails, come here instead. i promise to draw you happy things.
xj

day forty-four - zoo medley

today i went to the (adelaide) zoo, and boy do they have a lot of parrots now! it's so good. not to mention all the 'zooborns' - mandrills, wallaby, tamarins, bilbies and (as yet unseen) ghost bat.

© jem barratt

i like the happy accident of the music staves showing through from the next page.

so here i drew a razor-billed curassow, a kookaburra, a yellow crowned amazon parrot, a hyacinth macaw, and an archer fish. it would probably be nicer if they were all birds, but i haven't drawn a fish yet and thought it was time.

i need to practise drawing from live animals instead of photos.
xj