One Sketch 249) Don Blanding

I never wish
For narrow fish
I'm a man who has to say
I'd much prefer a manta ray.

Now that I've completed my self imposed mission to create Christmas cards, I followed today's prompt on Facebook's Sketching Every Day group. This is a copy of a design by American artist Don Blanding. I didn't know his work before, but some of his work I've now seen has this wonderful graphic quality which just lights my candle.

One Sketch 248) Christmas Card 30 - One horse open sleigh

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
Is a hell of a lot colder
Than a roller.

That's my 30th card for this year. I set myself the target of 25 by the end of November - when I reached the target last weekend I set a new target of 30. That's all I'm going to do for now, although if I have a sudden need for more I have some blanks to work on left.

One Sketch 247) Reindeer (sort of) Christmas Card

Ho ho ho
But watch your back
And don't go near
The guy with the sack

This is my 25th Christmas card this year, so we're definitely getting there. One more, and I reach the target I set myself for November, and should have enough. Mind you, I'm giving the first of them tomorrow night at Artists Group, since its our last meeting until January.

One Sketch 246) Christmas Carollers card

What they said
Yesterday

Limited time and limited imagination combine for me to give you this. Still, nearly done with making Christmas cards for this year. I set myself the target of having 25 ready by the end of November - I already have 28, so I'm close to my second ary target of 30.

One Sketch 245) 2018 Christmas Card number 26 - Carollers

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
Now make with the mince pies and mulled wine
Or we'll break your windows.

Up to 26 individual handmade cards ready now - although 4 of them are left over from last year's cards - so I've reached the target I set myself of having 25 cards ready by the end of November. So I set a new target of 30 by the end of the month now.

One Sketch 244 (TWO THIRDS OF A YEAR!) Cards based on Norman Rockwell originals

Norman Rockwell
Proof,
(If any should be needed)
That you don't need words
To be a Poet.

Yes, today we've actually completed slightly more than 2/3 of a year. 244 days is actually two thirds of a leap year, but then yesterday was just slightly less than two thirds. I don't really have time to get out my watercolours during the week, while I can make an ink sketch while sitting in front of the telly, but there really isn't an excuse during the weekend.

I set myself the target of having 25 cards done by the end of November. I've made 20 this year and had 4 left over of the cards I made last year, so I'm very nearly there. What I will try to do is make another 6 cards, which will mean that I've made 25 in November.

One Sketch 243) Thomas Nast inspired card (5)

Santa's mistiming his call
For a kid has climbed right up the wall
He sits on the stack
His sack on his back
And waits for the bugger to fall

What can I say - I just love Thomas Nast's work. He was the guv'nor.

One Sketch 242) Hipster Geting Pelted by Ugly Kids Christmas Card

See the hipster run.
Run hipster, run.
See the hipster mutter
Mutter Hipster, mutter!
See the hipster getting really pissed off.
Get really pissed off, Hipster, Get really pissed off!
See the hipster take a riding crop to those sodding kids.

Another Victorian engraving provided the base for this card.

One Sketch 241) (Weds 21st November) Christmas Card based on Thomas Nast Engraving

Santa has said with a groan
"Oh blimey, I'm not on my own"
I've come to a house
Where the cats crave a mouse
And the dog is expecting a bone."

Yep, the great Thomas Nast again. I set myself the target of making 25 cards before the end of November, and this is number 19. Getting there.

One Sketch 240) Reindeer Christmas Card

Prancer, Dancer
Dasher, Vixen
Comet, Cupid
Donner, Blitzen
Call them what you like
They're knackered by Boxing Day.

You gotta have a reindeer card amongst them.

One Sketch 239) (Monday 19th November) - Old fashioned Victorian Father Christmas

While Rudolph is having a snooze
Pa Christmas will quite often choose
To throw off the shackles
And prepare to tackle
A steaming great bowlful of booze

This is based on another Victorian Christmas engraving, but a very English one, probably from the Illustrated London News or some such. Go back a hundred and fifty years and more, and we Brits didn't really have a concept of Santa Claus. While American cartoonists like the great Thomas Nast were creating what became the classic conception of Santa, his English contemporaries invariably gave us Father Christmas. Not always without the presents for the kiddies but almost always with the steaming wassail bowl full of very alcoholic punch to spread cheer and alcoholism to the adults. You can usually recognise the traditional English Father Christmas through the bowl and also a wreath or crown of holly on the top of his head.

One Sketch 238) Another Thomas Nast based Christmas Card

A letter to Santa

You think he's not real

And yet

You still hope

Sorry - it's another Christmas card. My aim is to finish making all of my Christmas cards by the end of November, and I've still got quite a few to do. This is another based on a Thomas Nast engraving. Thomas Nast often depicted his own children in his Christmas sketches - this is probably one of his daughters, and it may even be his dog as well.

One Sketch 237) Norman Rockwell Christmas Card

It's hard to tell you the truth
When you're getting quite long in the tooth,
You try to be kind
But it's quite hard to find
Just where in the world's the right roof.

Yes, this is Christmas card production season, and this is another based on a Norman Rockwell original. Kitsch? Probably, but then that's the whole point. I don't care, anyway, I love the work of Norman Rockwell.

One Sketch 236) Bob Cratchit Christmas Card

How strange to think
A man who died a century and a half ago
Made Christmas what it is
Today

Well, forgiveable hyperbole. Charles Dickens, who died in 1870, gave us "A Christmas Carol" probably did as much to create the traditional ideal of Christmas as any other person.

One Sketch 235) Baby Pug (Thursday 15th November)

Ladies and gents

I give you

A living oxymoron

- Ugly but cute.

Just a matter of personal opinion, of course. I didn't have a lot of time, and so dashed this off fairly quickly. 

One Sketch 234 (Weds 14th November) Christmas Card

The season just makes us feel young
So songs through the ages have sung
The fat cat has said
He'll pull on the sled
He's probably after a bung.

No idea who sketched this one originally, I just liked it. I made this during Artists' Group on Wednesday evening.

One Sketch 233) (Tuesday 13th November) John Tenniel Christmas Card

Santa s trying to skate
He seems to be tempting his fate
He's dazed and confused
He's been at the booze
He'll end in a hell of a state

Another 2018 Christmas card based on a cartoon by my favourite British Victorian cartoonist, Sir John Tenniel. Tenniel always drew a very English Father Christmas - absolutely not Santa Claus - with holly around his pointy hat, and seemingly a little the worse for strong drink.

One Sketch 232) London Tram

Slow, rattlesome
Uncomfortable
And for all that
I'd give a lot
for a time machine
to take me to ride one

Yes, given the Sketching Every Day prompt transportation, there was only ever going to be one choice for me.

One Sketch 231) Victorian Engraving inspired Christmas Card

Christmas comes but once a year
The cost is rather shocking
So make sure that you always have
A really massive stocking.

Yes, I'm well into the Christmas card producing season, for the third year in a row. I love Victorian engravings, and I try to use as many design ideas inspired by these as I can.

One Sketch 230) Norman Rockwell Christmas Card

Santa is checking his list
Which he holds in a chubby old fist
So take my advice
If you want to stay nice
Don't gamble, or smoke, or get drunk.

Every year I make my own Christmas cards. Well, I say my own. For the most part they're designs based on old depictions of Santa and other Christmas motifs. Last year I went heavily on Thomas Nast and John Tenniel. This is based on a Saturday Evening Post cover by Norman Rockwell, whose work I have always absolutely loved.

One Sketch 229 (Friday 9th November) Indian Elephant

An elephant
It must be said
Is better off living than dead
So leave them alone
When tusks they have grown
Pull out your own teeth instead.

Yes, another prompt from Sketching Every Day - don't worry, nearly caught up now. This was just India, and since eephants are amongst my most favouritist creatures in the whole world, and Indian elephant seemed the obvious choice. You know me by now, I try not to miss an obvious choice.

One Sketch 228 (Thursday 8th October) Henri Rousseau tiger

Tyger , Tyger,
Burning bright
Don't look now
Your tail's alight.
(with thanks to Spike Milligan)

A Sketching Every Day prompt again. We were set the challenge of doing something inspired by or connected with Henri Rousseau, le douanier. Well, I was tempted to do something with The Lion and The Gypsy ( or vice versa) - you'll know the one, it must be his most well known work. Instead I plumped for this tiger. Still, we had inspectors in work all week, so I didn't have time of an evening to do a sketch AND paint it AND post it. Which is why I'm only getting round to posting these today. You'll have to take my word for it that they were made on the days that I said they were ( but they were.)

One Sketch 227 (Weds 7th October) Pineapple

We all have our favourites
Pineapple is mine
Just so long as it's
More apple than pine

Yes, dearly beloved, we were set the prompt on Sketching Every Day on Facebook to draw a fruit, and so I plumped for my favourite fruit, the pineapple. I'd forgotten how much I love pineapple, so on Thursday I took some slices into work to have with my lunch. Absolute heaven.

One Sketch 226) Vincent

So much pain
So much genius
So much.

Just last Wednesday I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Spellbound. I didn't think that much could make me love the man and his work even more. I was wrong. If you're ever in Amsterdam you must, must, must take the time and trouble to visit.

One Sketch 225) Guido Fawkes (5th November)

Poor old Guido
You'll be quartered and hang
At least, every bonfire night
Goes with a bang

I literally had about 10 minutes today due to being exceptionally busy with work, and being as it was bonfire night this was the most obvious and quickest thing I could come up with. It's from the contemporary engraving of the plotters.

One Sketch 224) The Doctor

Ring out the old doctor
Ring in the new
She is the Doctor
And bloody good too

I sketched this after watching the latest episode of Doctor Who, starring the fabulous Jodie Whitaker. When it was announced that the next actor to play the Doctor would be a woman, I withheld judgement, I'm so glad that I didn't say anything stupid at the time, because she is just brilliant.

One Sketch 223) Sepia tone tram in Kingsway tram tunnel

I do like trams
I'm just that sort of bloke
I wish I'd seen them
Trundling in the Smoke.

I made a sepia toned painting of an old Swansea tram some weeks ago to christen my new studio (or spare room, to use the technical term) and I was really pleased with the results. So I decided to make a companion piece. I've been working on an acrylic painting of a London tram for weeks, and so I decided that this quick piece was going to show a tram in my own home city. The Kingsway tram tunnel was rather unique for the UK. It's a cut and cover tunnel which was exclusively built for single ecker trams, to link the northern and southern London tram networks. As you can see , they did eventually use double decker trams in the tunnel. Part of the tunnel are still there, which is how I came to read about it in the first place, since it features in several works on disused stations of the London Underground railway - go figure. What remains is now grade 2 listed. The last trams passed through in April 1952.

One Sketch 222) Warship class Loco near Dawlish

Nobody grieves
When diesels go extinct

There's a reason why steam powered locomotives are pretty much only used on heritage lines where the experience of riding in a train pulled by a steam locomotive is one of the main reasons for making the journey in the first place. Whether you like it or not - and many, many people don't like it - diesel locomotives are more efficient and cost effective than steam ones. When I started getting interested in trains, way way back in the early 1970s when I was just a wee nipper, these chaps, the British rail class42 and 43 "Warship" class were almost extinct, having been phased out a couple of years earlier. I always had a soft spot for a warship - and I guess I'm not the only one since there are a couple which have been preserved.

One Sketch 221) Amsterdam Metro Rokin Station

If Metro railways are that which you seek
Give Amsterdam a miss
It's very bleak

Yes, sorry to be so dismissive, but the Amsterdam Metro underground stations in the centre of Amsterdam just struck me as bleak and sterile. Not my favourite Metro, I'm sorry to say. Made this from a photograph while waiting in Schiphol airport this morning for my flight to be called. I was there very early before my flight, since I had a nightmare last night of waking up too late. Couldn't get back to sleep after that.

Wednesday 31st October - One Sketch 220) Canal Bridge - Amsterdam

This took an hour to sketch
Before I rose
And while I sat and sketched
My fingers froze.

So much of the centre of Amsterdam looks like this. It's all achingly pretty, and I'd love to have sketched more of it. However, my hands were so cold by the time I stopped doing thi, my fingers were shaking.

Tuesday 30th October - One Sketch 219) Amstertram

Canals, bridges, trams
And all those bikes
Amsterdam, Amsterdam
What's not to like?

Yes, amongst all of its other myriad charms, Amsterdam - which has for many a year been one of the top two cities on my bucket list to visit - amongst all of its other charms, Amsterdam is just a great tram city. Bliss.

Monday 29th October - One Sketch 218 - Cardiff Airport

Looking through the window
Watching planes
Which will carry other people's dreams
Not Mine.

Yes, I haven't posted for a few days since I've been paying a short sightseeing visit to Amsterdam. This sketch I made while waiting for my light to be called in Cardiff Airport.