30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge - update

Here's the latest - all done over the last couple of weeks:-

10) Rhino Neal - I did consider painting another elephant, after enjoying making the acrylic painting a few weeks ago. On reflection, though, I decided that variety is the spice of life, so went for this rhinoceros.

11) Goldfish. I was really pleased with this one because I worked loosely and extremely quickly. As a result the different yellows, oranges, reds and golds all blended rather well. This painting, start to finish, less than 15 minutes.

12) Dancer. In last year's challenge I painted a pair of Flamenco dancers. This time I thought about ballet. I like the pose, even if it is possibly slightly exaggerated.

13) Chanticleer - Time to do another living creature, and this time a bird. Chanticleer is the cockerel who is the main protagonist of Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale in "The Canterbury Tales". It's an anmal fable, which may well have been taken from Aesop originally. As for this painting - a curate's egg. Good in parts.

14) Summertime. I really like this one, since there's no part of it which I look at and think - hmm, haven't done that as well as I could. The only problem with it is I can only get awful scans of it, which is why I'm using this photograph, which at least gives you an idea what it looks like.

15) What the Dickens. Time for another monochrome blue portrait, this time of one of my favourite writers. I mean, it does look like Dickens, but there was something about it which was bothering me when I finished it, but I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then I realised, the eye on the right of the painting - it's just too big. It's a shame. This makes this one close, but no cigar.

16) Salisbury Cathedral. High time for a building, and they don't come a lot finer than Salisbury Cathedral. Shame I can't say the same about this painting. What can you say? Workmanlike, but rather uninspiring. Let's move on.

17) Dance - This was to meet the prompt in Sketching Every Day. The body is Fred Astaire's. The face was meant to be as well, but you know what? It looks a lot more like Dean Martin to me. Still, not a bad effort, and this one was done in the space of about 20 minutes at art group.

18) Pint - Which left the rest of the time to make this old codger. I really liked the original photograph, ad was eager to do a real face. Ach, I like the face and the pint - but the grey at the back of the head just don't wanna work. It's a shame

19) Dog Walker  - Colour wise this full figure painting works a lot better. I didn't go overboard painting in the man's features, because it didn't need it. Quite a nice piece of work - happy with this one.

20) Lisbon Almost quite good,  but not quite. Too many thick black lines around the tram itself. Shame, because I rather like that I've done with the van and the cars on the right of the picture. 

21) Ginger Tom. I love cats. I'm currently owned by a black and white cat, and a black cat. I love them, but they're not colourful enough for what I wanted to do. So I made this painting of a rather nice ginger cat with tabby markings. I'm quite pleased with this.

22) High Hurdler. One of my paintings from last year's challenge was of Sir Roger Bannister. I wanted to do another athletics subject, and thought that this one of a 110m hurdler clearing one of the hurdles might work rather well. I think it's not badly executed at all, and I really like the way that the green blends with the blue and the yellow on the gear the guy is wearing.

23) World War I Tank. I am fascinated by the tragedy of World War I, and read a very interesting book recently about the British tanks - first used in the Battle of the Somme, and their crews. So this is why I chose this. I used monochrome blue because it gives that feeling of age to it for me.

24) Michelangelo's David. I fancied doing another full face, and another piece of sculpture. This encompassed both. Like this.

#30x30DrectWatercolor2019 paintings 4-9

Here we are then: -

4) Horse racing - They're Off. I painted this at Artists' group on Wednesday. Sadly we've gone down to once a fortnight, but at least you can do a decent watercolor like this in about 90 minutes, unlike my acrylic 15 hour marathons. Not a fan of horse racing at all, if I'm totally honest with you, but I just love painting horse racing scenes, be it in acrylic or watercolor.

5) Port Talbot Docks. The scan has not picked out all of the colors, since I went very watery with this. Hence the ship looking as if it has a half white hull - the white part is actually a light rust red which for some reason just has not been picked up.

6) Rafael Nadal. This was inspired by the continuing French Open tennis, when earlier this week Rafa rolled back the years and easily dismissed Roger Federer.

7) Colin Baker as the 6th Doctor. Saturday 8th June was Colin Baker's birthday. I always felt that Colin got a very rough deal as the Doctor. Put simply, most of the scripts he was given weren't really good enough, and there's precious little that any actor can do about that.

8) D-Day Landing. Last week was the 75th anniversary of D Day. I was fortunate enough o accompany a party of school children to Normandy in 1994, which was the 50th anniversary of D Day.

9) Statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. I'm pretty pleased with this. Last year I loved the painting I made of one of Landseer's bronze lions in Trafalgar Square, so this year I decided I'd do another iconic London statue.

30x30 Direct Watercolour - numbers 2 and 3

Number 2 - The Evening gnus

Number 3 - Blue Brando

#30x30DirectWatercolor Challenge - 1) Rock Lobster

Okay, if you were around last year you may recall I participated in the 30x30 watercolour challenge in June. I've embarked upon it again - it's a day late, granted, but there we are. This cute lobster took about 30 minutes. Why a lobster - well, it helped fulfil the prompt on Sketching Every Day today. Y'ere 'tis

What's Happening? Well . . .

Sorry. After the one sketch a day for a whole year challenge I've been sitting back on my laurels for a bit. Not that I haven't been doing anything at all. I've done a few sketches - I made a trip to Cardiff sketching a week or two ago, for instance. I've also made the odd sketch for Sketching Every Day - here's a couple of them: -

The second one was a challenge to make a self portrait based on the style of a favourite artist - being a natural show off I did 4. I pasted that self portrait sketch I made in March 4 times onto the same Word page, printed it off and sketched the additions over the top.

Since I finished my plough horses painting, though, I have made another couple of paintings in acrylic. First there was this one:-

basically my wife said, these horse paintings you've been doing are all well and good, but couldn't you do an old railway poster for me? We looked on Google images and she gave me a shortlist of three. This was my favourite, and it must have taken about 15 hours to make.

Then a little over a fortnight ago I started painting another 16x 20 in canvas in Artists Group and in my spare time. I was so taken with the plough horses painting which I made over Easter that I wanted to see if I could do a totally different large animal. They don't come much larger than an elephant, so this is what I decided to do. Here's the finished painting:-

I didn't keep a stop watch on it, but again, I'd reckon that this was about 15 hours from first putting pencil to canvas to signing my name.

Coming up though, from tomorrow it's June, and the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge for 2019 begins. I'm not committing myself in the same way that I did last year, but I'm certainly going to start it and see how far I can go with it. Watch this space.

One Sketch #108) George Michael

Not good enough
This sketch, and what a cost
The world cup semi final -
England lost.

Right, I can't bear to watch England play football in a serious tournament. Last week I painted Laurel and Hardy instead. It was a pretty good picture, and England won. On Saturday I painted Marilyn Monroe, and England won. So I asked for suggestions who to paint during the semi final rather than watching it, and my daughter's mother-in-law suggested George.

Well, we lost.

I don't blame Angela for one minute. No, I blame myself. It's just not quite as good a painting as the previous two. I can only apologise to my countrymen and women.

One Sketch #105) St. John's Church, Cardiff - South Wakes Urban Sketchers Monthly Sketch Crawl

No Gothic revival this
It never went away.
And as it nears its millennium
Still it looks down
and down
And sees
All is well.

Yes, today was the July sketchcrawl of the South Wales Urban Sketchers chapter - Cardiff again, but this time a Sunday rather than a Saturday. This time we each of us stayed outdoors, in and around the Hayes area. This is the only direct watercolour I made, but I did make some ink sketches - here they are: -

 This is a bear from Cardiff Castle's famous animal wall. I enjoyed sketching it, and wanted to do more, but I was standing up and the sun was beating down on my bald spot.

 I broke the habit of a lifetime, and asked this chap if he didn't mind me sketching him. He couldn't really refuse - I'd just put some money in his bag. Very good he was too - a selection of Dire Straits' hits, which always goes down well with me.

 The Hayes Island snack bar.

The Old library - our meeting place. It contains shops, and a museum, and a café, which was closed, so we had our post morten session alfresco today.

Fame At Last! - As seen in Marc Taro Holmes' blog Citizen Sketcher

I checked out Marc Taro Holmes blog 'Citizen Sketcher' today, and lo and behold, he had quoted several of the comments left on his blog about the 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge. Whose do you think was first? Yes, mine! I you want to check it out, then either click on the link on the right, or on this one below:-
Marc Taro Holmes - Citizen Sketcher

One Sketch #100 (ONE HUNDRED!) Laurel and Hardy

Upon the screen
They don't grow old
And don't forget
That laughter's gold.

I shan't lie - I really had no idea what I was going to sketch today. I did know that I had a hankering to do a paint sketch, a direct watercolour sketch. For some reason I'm still not sure Laurel and Hardy popped into my head. I mean, I've always liked them, ever since I as a id and their shorts used to be shown often on the BBC. But why today - not sure at all. Still, it seemed natural once I had chosen them to do them in monochrome. And I really liked the blue monochrome I did in Swansea on the last

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.