2017 - 2018 - 2019 - Castle Comparison

Yes, I thought it might be interesting to compare three on the spot watercolour sketches I made of castles during the last three years. Let's start with this picture made in Kidwelly Castle in 2017:-

Actually, I look at this now, and I think that it's not as bad as I once thought it was - for a long time I hated it, and despite me having on many occasions said that you should never be ashamed or try to hide your own work, I did feel annoyed with it. Why? Well, this was one of my early line and wash pictures, and it didn't end up looking anything like I wanted it to look. Why? Well, the ink dominates everything since I think that the ink outlines are just too heavy here. Also, it might have benefitted from some ink shading as well, apart from just shading in all the windows completely. More than anything else, though, I made the beginner's error of being afraid of colour, and applying washes which are just too pale.

So let's come forward to last year, when I made this picture in Kidwelly Castle again:- Now, I'm very pleased with this one, which I made as a direct watercolour. So you can certainly say that the paint isn't overwhelmed by the ink outlines, as there aren't any. It is actually better than it looks in this scan, since my scanner doesn't always pick out blue very well - the sky is less blotchy than it looks here. The shadows within the doorway arches I like here, and generally I think it's quite a successful composition. However there are just a couple of features which ight have been a little more distinct if I had made some minimal, judicious use of ink outlines.

This last picture is the one I posted a couple of days ago, and wasn't made in Kidwelly Castle, but the rather less impressive Ogmore Castle outside Bridgend. This is a genuine line and wash picture, and I'm pleased with it. Well, I'm always pleased with a picture just after I've finished it - in most cases. I like this because I'm using the colour as effectively as in the previous picture - in fact probably a little more effectively, but also the ink complements the paint, working with it rather than dominating it. This is a lot closer to what I wanted to do with line and wash when I made the first Kidwelly Picture.
* I made the key decision when I started that I was going to take a double page spread in my sketchbook. This would mean that I wouldn't have to really squeeze the scene down to make it fit, which also meant I could include more details.
* I started on the sketch intending that I'd make the monochrome ink sketch, and decide later whether to apply some watercolour. However, in order to keep my options open I didn't apply as much hatching and cross hatching for texture as I might have done. Likewise, I deliberately left a lot of areas for the paint rather than the ink to create the texture.
* I ended up spending a lot of time working on the main layer of ink. It was only when I had most of the ink down on paper that I made the decision to apply colour.
* The first wash I applied was the blue wash for the sky. I moistened the areas where the sky was going to be with a wet brush, then applied the blue immediately onto the damp areas. It is actually a lot more even than the scan suggests.
* The second wash was the grass. I applied a layer of blue to the shadowy areas on the left. Then I waited for sky and grass to both dry before applying more.
* I worked with successively darker washes of brown, mixed with varying amounts of dark blue and crimson to the stone work, applying the lightest wash first, and allowing it do dry. Dabs with a small brush created the stone work.

Castles near Bridgend - Coity and Ogmore

I so enjoyed the sketchcrawl on Saturday that on Sunday, and again on Bank Holiday Monday, I wanted to go out again. The only tiny regret I have from the sketchcrawl is that I didn't try to put watercolour washed on the craw - I could have done, because I had paints with me.

So I did a little research on relatively local attractions, and came up with the two castles. The first sketch I made of the gatehouse at Coity. It's not awful, not by any stretch of the imagination. However it wasn't quite what I was trying to do. Not quite. There's not enough of a contrast between the front of the gatehouse in the light and the side in the shade. The greenery of the mound isn't very well done either. However, there are things which I think aren't so badly done. The small tower on the extreme left of the gatehouse has a lovely colour variation between the brown walls and the moss on it. Also I think that the front of the gatehouse is more effective because I did enough line work with the bricks and stones, but not too much, and the patches of different shades complement this. If I'd extended the wall on the right, maybe it would have been more effective. I didn't try to make another one on the Sunday because I was gasping for a coffee, and my son and daughter in law live nearby.

So, yesterday, then, and a visit to Ogmore Castle. There were generally more people about that there

had been in Coity, and that was a good thing because it meant that a few family groups came up to where I was sitting at different times, to have a look and a chat about the picture. I know that not everyone enjoys this aspect of urban sketching, but I usually really enjoy it. So, the idea was to have another go, and use what I felt could have been done better with the Coity picture to make a better picture of Ogmore.
One way that I did this was to take a double page in my sketchbook. This meant that I could sketch the ruined keep of the castle large enough to be effective. I made the ink sketch first, and used quite a bit more shading than I had on the previous. However there were still a load of spaces where the light and shade was going to appear through the use of the paint. I probably used about 6 subtly different shades for the brickwork, and the patchiness for me does convey the feeling of rough, broken up brickwork.

State Capitol Building - Nebraska USA

Today's prompt on Sketching Every Day was Capitol buildings. Well, there are a lot of American members of the group - nothing wrong with that either. So I spent half an hour or so this morning looking at photos of the various capitol buildings o each state. The vast majority of them are very reminiscent of THE Capitol Building in Washington DC. I decided to go for something a bit different. This is the capitol building of the state of Nebraska. I like it, even though, judging by some of the lists that it features on it certainly isn't everybody else's cup of tea. This particular 1920s/30s idiom is one I'm quite familiar with. Swansea's Gwyn Hall and Magistrate's Court are quite reminiscent, and the Great West Road and Western Avenue of my home town of suburban West London had several buildings in this particular 'Metroland' style.

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 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 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 335 (Saturday 23rd) JAcobs Antiques Cardiff

There's loads of antiques there
On every self
I can't say much
I'm pretty old myself.

First sketchcrawl of the year that I've been able to attend in Jacob's Antiques market in Cardiff - yeah, I know, Cardiff again.

One Sketch 334) Route 66 Gas Station

Get your kicks
On Route 66.
Shame about global warming.

Yes, the prompt for today was Route 66. What else could I do other than an American Gas station?

One Sketch 332) (Weds 20th February) Fleet Street

City of Smoke
Frozen in monochrome
Between two wars.

Now you know that I love street scenes, don't you. You might also know that I love Old London - although anyone who says I grew up in Old London is unkind and technically inaccurate. Born in the 1960's, don't you know. I was looking at some old photos looking down Fleet Street towards St. Paul's, and was very struck by the one which I based this sketch on.

One Sketch 321) The Dulais Rock

There's little else
That's quite as sad, I'd say
As a pub that's left to mould
And rot away.

This is the Dulais Rock. It stands on what used to be the main road from Neath to Resolven and all points beyond. I don't know if it was the 'new' road opening (it's well over 20 years old now) but the Dulais Rock, in which I will admit I did once have a pint in my drinking days, closed for good over 10 years ago now. I don't know how much, if any, of the building is original, but I do know that the pub dates back to the 17th century.

Here's a curious thing. I'm teetotal. I never drank a great deal anyway, not having any kind of tolerance for alcohol and not wanting to put in enough practice to develop any. But quite a few years ago I found I was drinking so little anyway, because when you get right down to it I just don't like the taste of it, that I might just as well go the whole hog. But this is the curious thing. Considering I was never much of a drinker, and don't drink at all now, I do still really rather like pubs.

This probably has something to do with the fact that I've been a serious pub quizzer for over 30 years - although to be fair I think of myself as semi retired now. And it's a sobering thought to see just how many pubs that I've played at least one quiz in have shut their doors for good over this time.

One Sketch 316) (Monday 4th Feb) Iron Bridge

Let the waters flow
In this bridge we trust
Been there since 1781
Hope it's safe from rust.

I visited Iron Bridge in 1781. It's a hell of a lot more impressive than it looks in this picture, and a great place to visit. Being the first actual iron bridge, a lot of the techniques used to fit pieces of the bridge together were actually techniques used in wooden bridge making - mainly because there were not metal bridge making techniques yet.

One Sketch 311) (Weds 30th January) Westminster Abbey

For a thousand years
My bells have tolled
For kings,
And their dust,
Is my buried treasure.

Not a lot to say, other than I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the good old Abbey in my home town.

One Sketch 310) (Tuesday 29th January) Exeter Cathedral

A house of worship
Laying heavy bonds
On the surly earth,

Not sure what that means either, still, when I posted the York Minster sketch a few days ago, one of my fellow group members asked if I'd ever tried sketching Exeter Cathedral. Have now.

One Sketch 307) York with the Minster

Grand Old Lady
Beams down benignly
One the city which gave her
Birth.

I like York. I first visited in 1977. I remember that was the year, because it was on the very same day that Red Rum won the Grand National for a record third time - there were notices up in a supermarket we went into. The purpose of our visit was to go to the National Railway Museum, and let's be honest, I still haven't outgrown my love of trains. Yet there's so much more in York. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't go into the Minster that day. In years to come I would visit the Minster, and because I was studying Old Norse literature I got to visit Jorvik Viking centre. Then there's the Castle Museum, and the Shambles . . . I could go on, but the simplest thing would be for you to go and see for yourself. Go on then, go. I'll wait until you get back.

One Sketch 306) Tintern Abbey

Dissolved, to satisfy
Old Henry's lust
- Yet still it stands,
While that fat git is dust.

Couldn't believe that the prompt today was Wales. Blimey, where did I start? Over the last 2 years I 've made literally hundreds of sketches of Wales. In the end I plumped for one of my favourite Welsh buildings, Tintern Abbey.

One Sketch 305) (Thursday 24th) Tikal Pyramid

I've always been the kind
To flip my lid
For a central American
Pyramid

Maybe you look at this and think Mexico. Well, close, but no cigar. This is actually found in Guatemala, the city of Tikal.

One Sketch 300 (THREE HUNDRED!) - Murcia Cathedral

We've come so far
Well, what d'you know?
300 down
And 65 to go.

The prompt on Sketching Every Day was - I was here -. Well, this is Murcia Cathedral, and I actually was here, back in August. You may even recall me posting pictures sketched on my day out in Murcia back at the time.

How about that then? 300 days! I'm really happy about it, especially since that second hundred, since that second hundred, between July and October, seemed to take forever, while this third hundred seems to have gone much more quickly. I'm tempted to start discussing now what Effect I think it's had on me that I've made at least one sketch of some kind every day for 300 days in a row, but that would be premature, and it can wait until the end of March when I will complete the challenge, providing that I can keep it up for 65 more days.

One Sketch 293) Prague Tram

Want to know why I'm happy
as I am?
Cos it's Spring
It's Prague
And I'm sketching a tram

Well, not now obviously, but I did while I was there, and that was the inspiration for today's sketch. Well, that and the fact that I was so pleased with yesterday's Budapest tram sketch. What, you want a comparison with sketches I made on the trip itself. Oh, go on then, ere you go:-