One Sketch 364) Jo the Crossing Sweeper from "Bleak House"

Sometimes we should just
Thank God we live now
Not then.

I mentioned in the previous post that I haven't liked any of the recent Sketching Every Day prompts - well, not so much not liked, but just not felt inspired enough. SO this morning I returned to a couple of old favourites - Victorian engravings, and Charles Dickens. "Bleak House", which doesn't seem to enjoy the same popularity as Copperfield and Expectations, is actually a masterpiece as well.

One Sketch 363) Saturday 23rd March - Toucan

When it comes down to sketching , well who can
Copy what I have sketched? You can!
So pick up your pen
Again and again
How many can play this game? Two can!

It's a pun, geddit! In this last run along the home straight of my year long challenge I find that in just these last few days I don't fancy any of the prompts on Sketching Every Day. SO I decided on a whacky kind of bird, and, should you pardon the pun again, the toucan really fits the bill, or vice versa. This was one of my quickest sketches for ages - didn't take more than about 10 minutes. What's that you say, looks like it? Bloody cheek!

One Sketch 362) Friday 22nd March - HMS Victory in Dry Dock

Sleep sound, oak warrior
Your day is done
But your twilight
Is magnificent

Not sure why I made a sketch of HMS Victory in dry dock in Portsmouth Harbour. Well, you gotta sketch something, I suppose.

One Sketch 361) Things that go bump in the night

I think that everybody
Except the most stupid foolies
Would rather be caught by the ghosties
To being caught by the ghoulies.

Now that's just childish isn't it? This is a response to the Sketching every Day prompt - things that go bump in the night. It's a copy of the illustration on an old postcard, illustrating the old saying - Ghosties and Ghoulies and Long legged beasties and things that go bump in the night.

One Sketch 360) Weds 20th March - Burghers of Calais

In History, it seems, they have gone down
They sacrificed themselves to save their town.

These are Rodin's sculpture of the Burghers of Calais, which resides by the Houses of Parliament. The burghers of Calais were the leading citizens who surrendered themselves to King Edward III of England, so that he would spare the town of Calais from destruction.

One Sketch 359 (Tuesday 19th March) Wolf

Don't expect me
To domesticate
Any time soon
Keep your pampered pooches
While I howl
At the moon.

No idea what prompted this, but suddenly had a feeling that I wanted to sketch a wolf howling, so here it is.

One Sketch 358) Monday 18th - Selfie

I'm not an oil painting

That is true

But decades worth of teaching

Would do the same to you

What it says on the tin - Monday's prompt on Sketching Every Day was a self portrait.

Announcement - One Week 100 People is back!

Yes, a year ago when I started the blog I found out about this event. I took part and I'm glad to say it's happening again this year! Here's the official announcement : -

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For the third year in a row, artists Marc Taro Holmes, Suhita Shirodkar and Liz Steel bring you #OneWeek100People2019.

The simple goal is: Draw 100 people in one week.

The real goal is PRACTICE. Not perfection. Every artist needs to sketch as much as possible, but we want to have fun and just stretch a little. To get 100 people in a 5-day week (we don’t like working weekends) you’ll need to draw about 20 people a day. But they don’t have to be more than a one-minute gesture drawing.

We just want everyone to see what it feels like to follow through on that advice ‘practice every day’. It’s a big commitment. But it’s possible to do without completely disrupting your life. Or at least you can choose how disruptive you want it to be.

Here’s how to participate:
– You can do it any way you want – just have fun with it!
– Sketch from life, or from any reference material. Use any media or size, as draw as fast or slow as you like. Whatever you’d like to practice most.
– Post your work during the week of April 8-12, to the dedicated facebook group.
– Please don’t post on other Urban Sketchers groups. We don’t want to flood the regularly scheduled activities. In previous years, there was a lot of art!
– You can also post on your personal social media of choice, (Instagram, Twitter) using the hashtag #OneWeek100People2019. That way everyone can find your work.

Some suggestions on reaching that goal:
– Aim to get to a 100 sketches. But don’t skip the challenge just because you feel you won’t get there- hey, 25 people sketches that week is better than zero
– Maybe plan to swap out any ‘free time’ for drawing. Tivo your shows, skip the gym or video gaming night – just for one week.
– Be prepared! Make a list of crowded places to draw people. Visit a park, the public library, go shopping, or to a sporting event. Maybe search out public performances. Live music at a pub, a lecture, or reading.
– Go drawing in groups! If it looks like you’re a club or a class, people give you the benefit of the doubt.
– If you don’t want to do it live-on-location, cue up a YouTube play list, sign up for Flickr, or download the iOS app SKTCHY.
– Give yourself permission to succeed. Don’t overthink the results – just draw! I promise you’ll see results at the end of the week. No matter how fast you sketch, over a whole week, at least ONE will be amazing 

One Sketch 357) (only 8 left to go) Guinness Poster

I'm not fond of bitter, cider
lager, Guinness too
The evening that I downed three pints
I ended on the loo

- shouting downstairs to ask my mother to put some toilet paper in the fridge for me, as I recall. Well that was decades ago, and for all I know it might well have been the ruby murray that I ate afterwards. Still, I've never touched a drop of Guinness since. Well, I don't drink alcohol at all now - that's not from a moral standpoint or anything like that, I just don't like it very much, and I'm to old to do something I don't want to just to make other people happy.

So coming to this, it's a copy of an old Guinness poster. I'd lay odds that they wouldn't be able to make claims like this about the product now, although I don't know, since I'm told that Irish stout is actually a good source of iron. Whatever, the prompt in today's Sketching Every Day was Slainte - and being the Gaelic for good health/cheers etc. Guinness just seemed to suggest itself to me.

One Sketch 356) Featured artist Germaine Arnaktauyok

I'll tell you, if truth must be told
I really have never been sold
On the idea to go
And live in the snow
I never would cope with the cold.

Another Sketching Every Day prompt, this is a copy of part of a work by Inuit artist Germaine Arnatauyok.

One Sketch 355) Statue of Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Anderson would often write
Of mermaids, and of a duck
He didn't look like Danny Kaye
I couldn't give a hoot.

Now that's just rude, isn't it. Sorry, I think I'm getting a little demob happy - just 10 more days to go to complete the year. Today's prompt in Sketching Every Day was a choice of photo prompts - this one is based on a photo of a statue of famous Dane Hans Christian Anderson (and whenever I hear that name I seem to think of Danny Kaye singing it).

One Sketch 354) Madam Butterfly

Pinkerton
What a rotten guy
Left poor Madam M
High and dry.

Today is National Butterfly day - and I absolutely love butterflies. But the thing is they're too important for me to just dash off a quick sketch, so I did this human butterfly insetad.

One Sketch 353 (Weds 13th March) E.H. Shepard's Mr. Toad

What a fool was Mr. Toad!
So K. Grahame's book once showed

Featured artist yesterday on Sketching Every Day was E.H. Shepard I was tempted to do Winnie the Pooh, but in the end plumped for Mr. Toad. Exceptionally busy all day yesterday, but managed to grab 10 minutes with biro and lined paper to produce this.

One Sketch 352) Coral Reef

My only beef
With life on a reef
Is huge great sharks
With razor teeth.

Yes, another Sketching Every Day prompt - and it would probably have been better to go with vivid colour - but sorry, pushed for time and lacking energy. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

One Sketch 351) (Monday 11th March) Magic

The magician is making a show
Nothing up his sleeves, like so
He seems far too fond
Of waving his wand
Is this really magic than? No.

Sketching every day prompt on Monday was Magic. I found a Victorian/Edwardian engraving and this is the copy I made of a rather unsuccessful stage magician.

One Sketch 350) (Sunday 10th March) No 2 Thames St. Windsor.

Ghosts tiptoe
Needle and tape measure poised
Between the bags of
Cash

This is a little self indulgent. This building, number 2 Thames Street in Windsor, used to belong to my mother's family. Well, strictly speaking, my mother's mother's family, the Cobdens. In the early decades of the 19th century a man called Richard Hayllar Cobden set up his tailors business in these premises, probably with his brother Benjamin, who would open premises in nearby Eton. Another brother, my ancestor Thomas Hayllar Cobden worked as a carpenter in the town. Richard took on Thomas Hayllar Cobden's son, Thomas Richard Cobden as his apprentice. In 1857 he made Thomas Richard a partner in the business, and Thomas went on to run the business. My great, great grandfather, Richard Edward Dawe Cobden, was Thomas' second son, and by all accounts a bit of a rogue. He may have opened a branch in Hammersmith, certainly that's where his family were living in the 1890s. As for Cobdens Ltd. in Thames Street, that eventually passed on to Richard Edward's younger brother Charles Cobden. He died in 1927, and left behind two daughters. They sold the business and the premises to Lloyds Bank, and the building is still a branch of Lloyds bank today.

One Sketch 349) Saturday 9th March - Featured artist Jessica Durrant

Admire me
Like I admire
Myself

Not a lot more to say about this one, it's based on an original picture by artist Jessica Durrant.

One Sketch 348) (Friday 8th March) Open Air Skating Kungsgatan Stockholm

Whirl around and around
And savour the
Experience
Of flying
on the ground

The inspiration for this was two fold. Firstly, the prompt on Sketching Every Day was the best part of Winter. Secondly, well as you probably know I was actually in Stockholm last week, and several ties walked past the open air skating rink on Kungsgatan. It's totally buckshee if you have your own skates. My skates - yes, I do have my own - were at home in the bottom of my wardrobe. So I didn't go skating.

Me and skating go back a long way. I used to go skating every Wednesday afternoon while I was at university in Queensway Ice rink in London, and it's where I met my wife for the first time ever.

One Sketch 347) Zygon

Don't say that I'm being too hasty
To say that a zygon is nasty
They make some folk tremble
Although they resemble
A large overbaked Cornish pasty.

The prompt for Sketching Every Day was mythical creature. Well, this maybe isn't mythical but it's fictional and that's close enough for me. I've been a huge Doctor Who fan for decades - in fact I've even written books about the TV show ( available on your kindle now.)

One Sketch 346) (Weds 6th March) T Bana (modern type) at Stockholm City/T. Centralen

T is for tunnels
And bana means bana.


Yes, it's Stockholm once again. This was based on a photograph I took in Stockholm City underground station in Stockholm. The T Bana is the Stockholm Metro, and it's pretty good, when all is said and done.

One Sketch 345) Pendeltag at Alvsjo

Swedish choo choo
One the track
Took me into town
and back.

Now that rhyme really is plumbing the depths isn't it. This is a sketch of a pendeltag - commuter train - at Alvsjo Station. This was my stop - 3 away from Stockholm city - last week when I was staying in Stockholm. These Pendeltags are great. Their layout and interior is very much that of a metro - or indeed a modern Bombardier tram. They whisk you into the city in about 10 minutes flat and are very frequent. What's not to like?

One Sketch 344) (Monday 4th March) Featured artist Josef Lada

The officer's a frightful bore
There's worse things, though
When you're at war.

Featured artist on today's prompt was Josef Lada. This is a copy of one of his illustrations.

One Sketch 343) Marine Iguana

My blood runs cold
Even when I bask on
the banks of
frozen fire.
But I can still move
Torpedo sharp
Through the colder depths
Of the sea
Until, triumphant
I explode onto the rocks
To warm.

The prompt on Sketching Every Day today was reptile. Now, I'm not really keeping count, but I'm pretty sure I've already done two reptiles since I started one sketch a day, those being the Komodo dragon (my favourite reptile) and a crocodile. So, not wanting to repeat myself I picked this, my second favourite reptile, the Galapagos marine iguana.

I first saw marine iguanas on a David Attenborough documentary. The Galapagos islands are one of those places I will probably never visit, but I'd love to - I'm very fond of Giant Tortoises as well.

I think It's probably about time to start counting down in days now, and so here we go - 22 days to go.

One Sketch 342 (Saturday 2nd March) Fruit Crate Label

Telling a tale of
sweet fruits
of warm places
And days long gone

The prompt on Saturday for Sketching Every Day was fruit crate art. I have to be honest, I just couldn't get my backside into gear. My plan was to make this one - it's a copy of a label I found on the net - and then paint it in watercolour. But you know how it is, I started late and by the time I'd sketched it I told myself that it qualified as the day's sketch already - which it did, and I just couldn't find the oomph to take it upstairs to the studio and paint it. Sorry, but I'm not going to lie to you. There it is.

One Sketch 341) Queen Christina of Sweden

Christina the Queen was a lass
At whom one would not make a pass
She ruled as a king
But then, here's the thing
She gave it all up for the Mass.

Okay, the prompt today on Sketching Every Day was Famous Women from History. Now, I already knew a bit about Queen Christina of Sweden, but I learned quite a bit more about here while I was in Stockholm. Giving you the edited highlights version, she was the only surviving child of King Gustavus II Adolphus the Great, and he made it clear that he wanted her to succeed him. He had her educated exactly the same way that he would have had a son educated. She became queen (although she was actually given the title of king) when her father was killed in battle when she was 14. As she became older, Christina became more and more interested in Catholicism, which was not really what 17th century Lutheran Sweden was looking for in a monarch, and in the end she abdicated so that she could convert.

Just as a point I want to note - we are now in March, dearly beloved, and by the end of the month I will have completed my one sketch a day challenge. Woa.

One Sketch 340) (Thursday 28th February) Looking across to Slussen

Farewell, then Stockholm
I'll miss your spires
But not your cold wind

This is the last sketch that I made in Sweden. Instead of staying on Gamla Stan on Thursday I carried on walking across the bridge towards the area called Slussen. I saw this view as I was crossing the bridge and thought - I bet I can sketch this quickly before my hands get too cold. Sadly that bloody wind was blowing again, and so I lost; by the time I got this far with the sketch my fingers were numb, so that was that,

Enjoyed you Stockholm. Beautiful place.

One Sketch 339) (Wednesday 27th February) STockholm Gamla Stan

Island of spires
and narrow streets
Freezing wind
Aching Feet

The Gamla Stan is the island with the oldest part of Stockholm - Gamla Stan actually means old town, I think. Loads of very nice tall and narrow streets - which are fantastic to look at, but do act a little bit like wind tunnels, and on this particular day it clouded over early, and this lazy wind which went right through you because it couldn't be bothered to go round you began blowing.

One Sketch 338) (Tuesday 26th February) Riddarholmen Island Stockholm - The Vasa

Stockholm
City of Islands
And Bridges
And Ice.

Yes, even though I was lucky enough to visit Stockholm at the end of February in a little window of mild weather, it was still noticeable just how much ice there is in the sea. I made this sitting opposite the small Riddarholmen island - Stockholm actually spreads over no fewer than 14 islands. They do a very good line in spires in Stockholm, and the one in this is the Riddarholmkirke - in which you can find the tomb of Gustavus Adolphus. He was the one whom the warship the Vasa was built for (see below.)

Basically the king had it built for his ongoing war with Poland. It was made too tall, and too narrow, with not enough ballast, and it sank in Stockholm harbour on it's maiden voyage. Efforts to salvage it were unsuccessful, until it was rediscovered in the late `1950s, and salvaged in 1961. It now lives in its own museum, and over 90% of the ship is original. It is quite simply possibly the most breathtaking museum exhibit I have ever seen.

One Sketch 337) (Monday 25th Feb) Stockholm Tram

Sweden's capital
Is where I am
Can't see me here?
I'm on the tram

Ouch. That's bloody awful. On Monday I flew to Stockholm early doors, and flew back late on Thursday. Yes, I know, this was my 4th European trip since I started my one sketch a day challenge - but rest assured I have no plans to go on another before the challenge to make one sketch a day every day for a year is up. Now, you know me well enough by now. One of my priorities when I go to a new city is to find out if they have trams, and if so, to use them. I will be honest, I only found one tram route right in the middle of Stockholm - the number 7, but it's a good 'un, and I made sure that I rode it before even thinking about checking in at my hotel.