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 315 (Sunday 3rd February) Feed the birds

Feed the birds
Tuppence a bag
Tuppence
Tuppence
Tuppence a bag
(Then they'll crap on your funny hat.)

Feed the birds - that was the prompt from Sketching Every Day.

One Sketch 294) Illuminated letter D

Believe me , it must be quite a sight
To see such lovely letters
Made of light.

Sketching Every Day prompt today - illuminated letter. I copied this D, but I'm not feeling well today with my winter cold, and so didn't have the oomph to try to colour it in.

One Sketch 276) (Weds 26th December) Ledger Art

Big chief sits so silently, wow
While the sun beats unmercifully now
His horse bows his head
While the only thing said
A one syllable question - how?

OK, up to a couple of days ago I knew nothing about ledger art. Then it was given as the Boxing Day prompt on Sketching Every Day. To quote Wikipedia -"Ledger art is a term for Plains Indian narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth. Ledger art flourished primarily from the 1860s to the 1920s. A revival of ledger art began in the 1960s and 1970s. The term comes from the accounting ledger books that were a common source of paper for Plains Indians during the late 19th century." I rather enjoyed the challenge of making this one. First I found a page from a vintage manuscript, copied it, and printed out a page. Onto this I used a 0.5mm ink sketching pen to copy elements from two very modern ledger art designs which I found. The painting in was done using watercolour pencils. 

One Sketch 194) #inktober2018 Prompt 5 - Chicken

Run, Colonel, run Colonel, run run run
Fetch a semi-automatic gun, gun, gun
That cock's nuts
And boy he hates your guts
Coz you stuck his mum in a bun, bun, bun.
(with apologies to Noel Gay and Ralph Butler)

I just wanted to do something different rather than just drawing a chicken, and this image popped into my head.

One Sketch #161) (Saturday 1st September) Cardiff Museum Dinosaur and Cardiff Castle Animal Wall

When looking at dinosaur bones

Remember, they're more than just stones

They've teeth and they've claws

And those powerful jaws

I'm warning you, don't go alone.

Yes, urban sketching in Cardiff again. The top picture is a composite sketch featuring some of the animals on the stone Animal Wall outside the façade of Cardiff Castle. It's a 19th century creation of William Burgess - as are large parts of the castle itself. I just love it.  

When I was a kid I was a little obsessed with dinosaurs, I still try not to ass up the opportunity to have a good look at one. This is a partial sketch of a complete skeleton in the National Museum in Cardiff. To my chagrin I couldn't find a sign to identify the exact species. 

Sketching Tips 9) Sketching Living Creatures

Sketching any member of the animal kingdom is tricky. That includes human beings. The very thing that makes living creatures so interesting - their life and energy – is exactly the same thing that makes them so difficult to sketch. Living creatures often move. This creates huge problems for the urban sketcher, and as with human figures, it does necessitate finding a method which works for you.

Here’s some things for you to consider doing:-

* Cheating

OK, I say that tongue in cheek. Basically, by this I mean using a photo. Now, as well should all know by now, if you sketch from a photo, however nice it may turn out to be , it isn’t an urban sketch. I want to stress this now. In my opinion, if you possibly can sketch something from life, then you should. Intrinsically a sketch made this way has far more value than a sketch of a photograph, which is at least a stage further back removed from life. However, sometimes you are just not going to have the opportunity to sketch a particular creature from life, and I freely admit that sketches such as these next few were made from photographs:-

The attraction of sketching from a photo is obvious. The animals have been caught by the camera in a particular stance, and they aren’t going to move from that stance. I’m unlikely to encounter most of them without going to zoos or in the case of the Komodo Dragon, taking what would probably the most expensive sketching expedition of my life. 

* Sketching stuffed animals

Is this cheating? Not as long as you’re clear when you’re writing down what it is that you’ve sketched. Now, personally I’m not a great fan of taxidermy. But I have to say that it enabled me to make this sketch of a coelacanth (ironically a ‘living fossil’) in the Zoological Museum in Kaunas in Lithuania. 

Due to the conditions required to keep a coelacanth alive, it’s highly unlikely I’m ever going to see one living, so I don’t feel too guilty about sketching this one. 

* Sketching creatures that don’t move around a lot.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to my cat, Hero. 

Yes, Hero is a gorgeous looking long haired black and white cat. He can sit in the same position for hours . . . until you try to sketch him. So even with a rarely moving creature like Hero, I find I have to use a technique to capture him. The thing that a creature like Hero is most likely to move is his head. So that’s where I would start. Eyes first. Then outlines of nose, mouth and shape of the head. No shading at this stage – once the outlines are in, then you can capture the shading gradually. In the space of 10 – 15 minutes Hero is going to look away three or four times, so each time he turns back to me I just keep adding a little more, building the picture. I know that unless he gets up to leave, I can easily sketch in his body when I’m happy with the head.

Basically, this is the method I would use to capture any creature. If you look at this one:-

It should illustrate the point. These guys came barrelling down my street one Saturday, in the opposite direction. There were a huge number of them. So when they started coming back, I knew that a lot of them would be coming past. I quickly sketched the moving parts – in this case the front legs of one horse – the back legs of another, and the body and heads of the next 3 or 4. Then another composite of the guys riding in the buggy. Now, when there’s only one of the creatures you want to sketch, the principle still works the same, as long as it doesn’t run off completely.

Whether you’re sketching people or creatures, even when they’re moving they do tend to repeat the same movements, and this fact is your friend. So if we take this sketch I made one lunchtime :-

It pretty much illustrates this point. Both of these were moving their heads about quite a bit, but would repeat pretty much the same position as they did so. I didn’t even start on the bodies until the heads were done, and this worked pretty well. 

Sketching living, moving creatures is hard, and it can be very frustrating. However, if you want to improve your sketching, it really is wonderful for training your hand-eye coordination, and also helping you to loosen up, and get a decent impression of what you’re sketching more quickly and with fewer marks on your paper. 

A few random points:-

·       Make the distinction in your own mind between an urban sketch and a detailed animal sketch. If the animal you’re sketching is just a part of a moment – for example, like the horses and buggies barrelling down my street – then please try to resist the temptation to photograph it now then sketch it later. Sketch it now, then you won’t need to photograph it. On the other hand, if you sketch a photograph of an exotic creature you would never normally meet, well you’re not going to try to pass it off as an urban sketch made the time that you actually met this creature, so I can’t see any issue with that.

·       Sketching a living creature from life – start off by sketching in the parts of the animal that are most likely to move. Go for quick outlines, and you can worry about shading later on.

·       Don’t panic if the creature moves. As likely as not it will repeat the same position if you’re patient. This won’t always happen, but this is what makes it so rewarding when it does.

·       You may have the opportunity to make a composite sketch of two or more members of the same species, so don’t despair.

·       When you first start sketching creatures from life – I’d start out trying to sketch it as quickly as you possibly can in as few marks on the paper. If you work on speed from the start, accuracy will come later.

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One Sketch #107) Traditional Cuckoo Clock

Isn't it ironic
That a bird which builds no nest
Should find such ornate housing
Is the kind he likes the best?

Apropos of nothing my wife, out of the blue, mentioned yesterday her grandmother's cuckoo clock. As it happened I remembered this item quite well. It was very like the one in the picture - a traditional birds and leaves design, with a little blue and yellow bird which had stopped coming in and out and cuckooing before I came on the scene. They're funny things, aren't they, cuckoo clocks? I mean, they are just a tiny bit ridiculous. . . and yet, I really rather like them. As for my wife's Nan's clock, well, sadly she passed away well over 20 years ago and I have absolutely no idea where it ended up.

One Sketch #102) Little Owl

I'd have to say a little owl
Would rank among my favourite fowl
It may not be so much in size
But who's to say it's not as wise?

Yes, this was another lunchtime at work 15 minute special. I like owls generally, and little owls especially. Made this with my parker pen.

One Sketch #71) Penguin (Monday 4th June)

Antarctic bird
You're quite a sight
And that's a fact
In black and white.

I wasn't very well yesterday at all - I had throwing up bouts every two hours. For all that, though, I forced myself to go into work, and did made it through to the end of the day. I was so tired when I got home, though, that I knew I was only going to want to make a very simple sketch. So this is what I came up with.

One Sketch #26) Seagulls

Yes, I was looking for inspiration at lunchtime, and these little buggers were standing on my windowsill. I snatched up my biro and a piece of paper.

There's pickings to be found

On the grass, on the ground

Everywhere, all around

It lies.

With my claws and with my beak

I will gather what I seek

I am neither shy, nor meek

No surprise.

So before my verse is through

I should ask, is it not true

- If I'm vicious, aren't you too?

Tell no lies.