Reflections on the 30x30 Direct Watercolour 2018 Challenge

I know that it's difficult to be objective when you're writing about your own work. O please feel free to disagree with anything I say. It's just my own opinion, and for all I know it could all be wishful thinking on my part. Still, for what it's worth . . .
Earlier this year when I undertook the 100 people One week Challenge, I was surprised to find that it achieved exactly what it said on the tin. Or to put it another way, by the end of the week I was sketching figures much more freely and much more quickly. Is that still true? Well, maybe not, since I haven't been drawing figures every day, but then maybe yes too. So what I was hoping when I undertook the Direct Watercolour challenge was to get better at using watercolours. I'll be perfectly honest, I'm in my comfort zone when making a monochrome sketch using pencil charcoal, or my preferred medium of sketching pen. But when it comes to paint, well, I'm out of my comfort zone. You see, I don't really understand about colours. Not really. I see how other members of the Afan Nedd Artists' group paint, and they've got it, while I haven't. Over the last 3 years I've become happier and more comfortable painting in acrylics, but while I can appreciate what others do with watercolour, I haven't been able to get anything like similar results myself. So the point of taking the challenge was to try to improve.

I certainly found it liberating being able to paint onto a blank sheet, without sketching in pen or pencil first. It was nice to see that, for the most part, at least my sketching skills with the brush were up to the task most of the time.

Here's the first painting:-

Now, I'll be honest, I was pleased with this when I painted it. But compare it to number 35:-

This one is comparable to some of my better acrylic paintings. We can make other comparisons between paintings from the start and end of the month too. Compare the Emma Thompson portrait:-

with number 34 - the Fisherman picture:-

Okay, they are both very different faces, but even so there's a far greater depth and more intelligent use of colour in the Fisherman painting. I'm probably more excited by the fact that I'm maybe just starting to develop some appreciation of the potential offered by use of colour in a watercolour picture. For me the standout example was this one -number 32, my Flamenco dancers:-

Now, the figures aren't badly painted, although I deliberately left them just a little indistinct. But the use of colour is so much more vibrant and exciting than anything else I've ever managed, and I think it's really appropriate for the subject matter. I think that you can see that I was starting on this road with this painting - number 15 called When We Were Kings - same fuzziness in places, but god action.

The challenge has made me experiment, and push myself - for example - painting in just one colour - 

It's helped me loosen up a bit as well: - 

- and make a couple of pictures which even tell a story: - 

It's even helped me produce a picture which my wife absolutely loves: -

So yes, even if nobody else thinks I've improved, I think my watercolours are closer to being what I'd like them to be now. But it's also been terrific fun. And would I do it again next year? Just try and stop me. 

One Sketch #97) Old Type B London Bus #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

In London streets
And Flanders fields
A rumbling presence
And a rattling good ride

I've been meaning to paint a B Type bus for a while. As it happens, I made a charcoal sketch of one three years ago -

The comment in the verse about Flanders fields is because B Type buses - nicknamed Ole Bill after a popular cartoon character of the time - were transported across the Channel and served as troop transports along the British sectors of the Western Front.  I can't prove this, but I personally feel that Londoners' love affair with the red double decker bus began with the B Type. And no, though a Londoner myself, I'm not old enough to have seen B Type buses on the streets of the Capital, thank you very much. I do remember Routemasters very fondly though. But that's another subject for another day.

One Sketch #96) Fisherman 30x30DirectWatercolour2018

He wages an uneven fight
He has his rod
And the fish?
Nothing but his wits, and frankly
Often that's enough.

Okay, two days ago on Wednesday I painted some old codgers in a pub. Whet I felt most about it was sorry that I hadn't used a bigger piece of paper and painted it bigger, to get more detail into the faces. No time to have a go at a portrait yesterday, but this evening I found a photo of a characterfull face, and went for it. Now, I don't know if you've ever watched the US reality TV show 'Hardcore Pawn', but if you have, does the face remind you as much of owner Les Gold as it does me? No? Well, please yourselves.

One Sketch #95) Nefertiti's Bust

A cultural icon
Or a gross act of theft?
Or both?

I was reading an article today about what are allegedly the greatest examples of, and I quote, archaeological plunder, and this was one of them. t's the famous bust of Nefertiti. I was intrigued because - a) I actually saw it for real in the Neues Museum last year when I went to Berlin, and b) I've long been a supporter of the movement to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, which is a similar and celebrated case.

One Sketch #94) Whose Round Is it Anyway? #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Ale flows
And so does nonsense

Sorry about that. I don' really know what possessed me to paint these old codgers in the pub, but I rather like it. I painted this at artists' group last night.

Fame! Sort of.

Last year I set myself the task of making 100 urban sketches of Port Talbot, the town where I now live. You can see them in my sister blog 100 Faces of Port Talbot - the link is on the right of the page.

One of the sketches I made was of Francos restaurant and takeaway in Port Talbot. You can see the original here: -
Francos sketch 100 faces of Port Talbot
A couple of months ago the owners of Francos contacted me out of the blue to tell me how much they liked the sketch. To cut a long story short they have used this sketch on the cover and another new sketch inside their new menus. Proud? Not half! Here's the menu cover: -

One Sketch #93 Forth Bridge

More than just a symbol
of a Sisyphean task
A thing of majesty,
Might and beauty
Cantilevered arms embrace
Across the Firth
And people move
Across the face of the waters.

You may recall earlier this year that I said that I have a thing about bridges. Well, this is one of the greatest - not just in Britain, but of the whole world. Having said that, it is a thing of Scotland - and being of Scottish ancestry myself I have to admit a certain swell of pride every time I look at it.

One Sketch #92) Flamencole! #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Passions whirl like satin
to the staccato heartbeat of Spain.

I love Spain - in fact I'm going there during August, starting off in Madrid before making my way to the in laws in Alicante. I like flamenco as well, and today, having completed the 30x30 challenge I just really fancied letting it all go and painting a real 'explosion in my paintbox' picture. And you know what - I rather like it!

One Sketch #91) Ice Cream Van

He's obviously very blessed
Our local ice cream man
A modern day pied piper
In a psychedelic van

Yes, it's been a scorchingly hot weekend here in sunny South Wales, so what would be more appropriate to sketch than an ice cream van - although in a slightly perverse mood I've sketched the customers wearing rather more usual apparel for the British summertime.

I've just noticed. When I've made tomorrow's sketch I will be just fractionally into the second quarter of my one sketch a day challenge. Yay!

#DirectWatercolor2018 - paintings 27-29

27 - Walking on the Moon

28 - main entrance of Swansea Waterfront museum

29 - Swansea Marina Pump House Restaurant

One Sketch #90 #30x30DirectWatercolour2018 Swansea Marina

I'm blue,
Dabadee dabadoo
So are you, you and you
(in this sketch anyway)

This is a momentous picture - not so much because of any inherent quality, but because it is the 30th direct watercolour I've made in June, which means I passed the 30x30 challenge! Yeah! I had about 20 minutes of the South Wales Urban Sketchers Group sketchcrawl in Swansea Marina today, and just suddenly hit upon the idea of making this sketch of the tug Canning and surroundings in shades of blue. I think it was a serendipidous choice - I rather like this.

One Sketch #89) Manchester Town Hall #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Built on the produce
Of Cottonopolis.
Buttery stones stand out
In this red brick city
A civic castle
And a symbol of pride.

I've always liked this particular kind of Victorian, overblown neo-Gothic architecture. St. Pancras Station (alright, the Midland Hotel) and London's Natural History Museum are two of my favourite examples, and this, Manchester Town Hall, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.  This is actually number 26 of my 30 direct watercolours in the month of June, and I think the practice is starting to pay dividends. This is far more ethereal, far looser than I was painting at the start of the challenge, and far closer to what I was actually trying to achieve in this picture.

One Sketch #88) Sutton Hoo Helmet Replica

I sing of a dark age
A wind age, an axe age
I speak of the splendour
Of kingdoms and kings
The wrath and the rage
Of the warriors' wyrd
And the cunning and craft
Of the art of the smith.

No idea what inspired me to sketch this today, but it's an artefact I'm really fond of. The original isn't quite as photogenic as this one, in the British Museum near the original, which was made by the armourers of the Tower of London, I think, but it's a faithful representation of what the original would have looked like originally.

One Sketch #87) Giant Tortoise (Wednesday 20th June) #DirectWatercolor2018

Time passes slowly
So do I
What's the rush?
When you are long gone
I will still be on my way.

I'm quite pleased with this one. It was a very quick sketch made in the last 30 mins or so of last night's Artists' Group meeting - I'd spent the most of the evening finishing off an acrylic painting of a choo choo train. This is looser than my usual watercolours, and none the worse for that, I think.

One Sketch #86) Tall Ship (Tuesday 19th June) #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Driven across the world

By the engine of the wind

Like a wandering albatross

Wandering

But not lost.

I just fancied trying a tall ship with this one, especially since I thought I could probably do it almost (although not quite) entirely in shades of blue. I rather like this. 

One Sketch#85) Aberavon Rugby Ground (Monday 18th)

A place for shouts and sighs and cries
For up and unders
Scrums and tries.

This was made for a present for a big time Aberavon supporter. I've sketched the Talbot Athletic Ground before, but from an aerial view looking out across the ground and the town from Tydraw Hill.

#DirectWatercolor2018 Painting 22 -Hummingbird and 23 - Pele in 1970

One Sketch #84) Racing Buggy (Sunday 17/6/18)

I do this under protest
I did not ask
For my blinkers or harness.
Don't think for
One minute
That I'm enjoying this.
(Don't tell anyone
But I am.)

Okay, so on Saturday, all of a sudden this convoy of horse drawn racing buggies went trotting down the street in front of my house. Seriously. A couple of hours later they all came back, and I captured this one in a photo and used it to make this sketch. As a postscript, two of the silly buggers got drunk in the night and went for a jolly along the M4, and ended up having what I believe was probably a very awkward conversation with members of the South Wales Constabulary.

One Sketch #83) Prague Tram

Simple pleasures here
A city in the sunshine
Seen through tram windows.

April last year I paid a city break to Prague. This is inspired by memories of the trip, where my love affair with Central European trams was consummated, as it were.

One Sketch #82) Amsterdam Windmill (Friday 15th June)

Arms akimbo
Harnessing the wind
Which sweeps like a wave
Across the flat lands.

No difficulty explaining this choice. yesterday, Friday, was my birthday. My family have bought me a city break sketching trip to Amsterdam in October - and Amsterdam is one of my top 2 must see destinations. They are simply the best.

One Sketch #81) Swansea Tram

Alas, we are reduced
To little more than
Rattling ghosts.
Fondly remembered
Perhaps even loved
But gone.
Not for good,
But forever.

I couldn't help returning to one of my favourite subjects. When I moved to South Wales in 1986, I'd never heard of the Mumbles trams before. Well, to be fair the tracks were ripped up before I was born. But the Mumbles railway was the first ever passenger railway in the world - horse drawn, but nonetheless, the first.

One Sketch #80) (Wednesday 13th June) Giraffe #30x30DirectWatercolorChallenge2018

Some may think me ugly
Some may think me pretty
But please don't say I look like
A horse, designed by a committee

I don't know really why I picked a giraffe, other than I think that they have really interesting features. Sorry - not a lot more to say than that.

One Sketch #79) Buzz Aldrin in Biro

Who can imagine
The incalculable worth
Of taking those first firm steps
Beyond the Earth?

Why Buzz, I hear you ask. Why not Neil? Well, there were very few photos actually taken of Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon. But it's more than that. I have a brother who is a year older than me. He was 6 and I was 5 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. His name? Neil. So whenever we'd play at being astronauts, he got to be Neil Armstrong, and I got to be Buzz. Could have been worse. I also have a brother 18 months younger than me, and he had to be Michael Collins back on the command module.

Why did I suddenly think of this? Well, in yesterday's post I made mention of childhood visits to London's Natural History Museum. Well, this would always be accompanied by a visit to the Science Museum next door, and one of the star Exhibits was a mock up of the lunar module, and the actual Apollo 10 capsule.

One Sketch #78) Triceratops Skeleton #30x30DirectWatercolorChallenge2018

It's mightily impressive

And that's to say the least

It really must have acted like

A very horny beast.

I loved dinosaurs from about the age of 5 onwards. for the 5 year old me, my idea of a good day out was being taken on a tube train from Boston Manor to South Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum and see the dinosaur fossils. Of course, Dizzy the Diplodocus isn't there at the moment - he's on a tour. Still I loved the triceratops skull as well. 

I'll be honest, I still like dinosaurs. Why else would I look back on my visit to Berlin last year, with the visit to the Berlin Natural History Museum as a highlight - what with it housing a Brachiosaurus skeleton, and the most complete T Rex. 

I'll be honest, the first sketch I made today was this biro stegosaurus, sketched in a break at work. 

I'll be honest, when this one worked out, it seemed a natural leap of the imagination to do a watercolour of one for the direct watercolour challenge. 

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Paintings 14 and 15 - Union St. Swansea and The Rumble in the Jungle

Union St. Swansea, Holland and Barrett

Muhammad Ali v. George Foreman, 1974, Zaire - 'the Rumble in the Jungle"

The Swansea painting at least keeps up my urban sketching, and as for the other, well, I enjoyed making the horse racing painting yesterday and so I really fancied doing another sporting one - and being a lover of boxing, I thought if you're going to paint boxers, then paint the best. 

One Sketch #77) Landseer Lion in Trafalgar Square #30x30directwatercolorchallenge2018

I guard the Admiral's Column
By day, and then by night
Not bad when you consider
I have neither bark nor bite.

This is my 16th direct watercolour for the 2018 30x30 challenge, and I have to say that of all the paintings I've made so far, it's probably my favourite. This was all sketched with the brush as I painted it, and I don't think it would have been any better if I'd sketched any of it out in pencil beforehand. The only trouble with it is that my scanner is funny about certain colours - mostly blues, and so while this photo shows that the lion itself is a combination of blues and greens, in the sacan it's mostly greys.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - paintings 12 and 13

Why a racehorse - well, I like painting racehorses. You may have seen I sketched one in ink as one of my daily sketches back in May. As for the wasp - well, it's a little bit of a pun. I had already painted the Vespa earlier, and vespa is the Italian for wasp.

One Sketch #76) Vintage Vespa #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

My daughter asked me
"Will you paint a bright red
Vintage Scooter?
I searched and found one,
Painted it,
I flipping hope it suits her.

Pretty much the verse says it all. Yesterday afternoon when I picked my middle daughter up from work she suggested that I paint her a Vespa. Well, I'm currently working on a large canvas in acrylic, so I won't do her an acrylic painting until I've finished that one. Still, I am faced with the challenge of making 30 watercolours in June, and so when I got up this morning, and I was looking for inspiration, this was the first thing that occurred to me. I'll still make her an acrylic painting of one - just don't know when.

One Sketch #75 Tom Baker as The Doctor #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Tom was My Doctor, then
That's undeniable
My generation's one
Doctor of choice
He became instantly
Identifiable
All teeth and curls and that
Marvellous voice

Yes, I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and since I haven't had the time to produce a watercolour since Tuesday I thought it was high time. And since it was only today that I found time to read this month's Doctor Who magazine, and Tom is on the front cover well, I needed no other excuse.

One Sketch #74) Queen Victoria (Thursday 7th)

Our least amused monarch
Since Edward the Confessor
Was Victoria Regina et Imperatrix
God Bless 'Er!

On Wednesday night I watched a channel 5 documentary which did a real hatchet job on poor old Vicky - basically saying that she hated her children. Now, alright, she certainly wasn't the world's most hand on mum, but come on!

I quite like this one, it's based on a photograph of course - she doesn't pose for many life classes these days, does our Vick - but it looks like the kind of engraved illustration you might have got in a contemporary Illustrated London News.

One Sketch #73) New Hitachi built Intercity Express train (Wednesday 6th)

The future is arriving,
Although it's rather hard if
You live out in Port Talbot
- Electricity ends in Cardiff

This is one of the brand new Hitachi Intercity Express trains which have been running on the main line from London to Swansea for the last couple of months. They run on electricity - with the only problem being that there is no electrification between Cardiff and Swansea, and there is going to be no electrification between Cardiff and Swansea. It also has a diesel engine though - dashed clever. I never thought I'd say this, though, but I'll be sorry once the old 125s are completely out of service.

One Sketch #72) 30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Merdian Tower Swansea Bay

From the top
of the tower
If you squint carefully
You can just about see
the sea
you see.

I was really trying to work as quickly and impressionistically as possible with this one. It's okay. The Meridian Tower is the tallest building in Swansea . . . and . . . that's about it, really.