30x30 Direct Watercolour - numbers 2 and 3

Number 2 - The Evening gnus

Number 3 - Blue Brando

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).

Oe Sketch 301) Rohan Daniel Eason

I have to be honest,
I can see it would get you down
Waking up halfway
Between a cyberman
And a clown.

Featured artist on Sketching Every Day today is the ultra-brilliant Rohan Daniel Eason. This man is a master of monochrome. This is an inferior copy of an illustration he made for Doctor Who Tales of Terror. All that talent, and he illustrates Doctor Who as well. I'm in total awe of the man.

One Sketch 282) Featured artist Fernando Botero

How wonderful

How calm, serene,

How beautiful, how wise you are

You'll always be the same to me

Whatever shape or size you are.

OKay, so today's prompt was the work of featured artists Fernando Botero. This is a watercolour and watercolour pencil attempt to copy is own reworking of Leonardo da Vinci's Monda Lisa. I like it. Well, Fernando Botero's, I mean. This copy of it is a bit pants, although the photo of it does it not favours. Trust me, the scan of it looked even worse. I'd probably have been a bit better off trying to render it in acrylic, but there we are, pushed for time a bit today, and to be honest I was feeling a bit crook. My wife's mother and stepfather are staying with us until the 8th January, and my wife and her mother are both suffering from viruses (should that be viri?), and I'm starting to feel the onset of it myself. Fear not though, I have no intention of not completing a sketch of some kind tomorrow, even if I don't get round to actually posting it tomorrow. 

One Sketch 256) The Parthenon

The older, and more ruined
She gets
The more beautiful
She becomes.
For most of us
It works
the other way.

Another Sketching Every Day prompt. I love the Parthenon. Visited it for the first time in 1982 - love at first time.

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 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 #170) Sir Tom (Tuesday 11th September)

In the land of song
You gotta be something special
For other people to call you
The Voice.

Stuck for ideas I followed the prompt from Sketching Every Day. In September 6 days are consecutive letters of the alphabet with every seventh day being a specific artist. I decided at the start that each of my letters was going to pay some kind of tribute to South Wales, where I've made my home for the last 3 decades. So, J is for Jones, Sir Tom of that ilk, sixties survivor, and The Voice's The Voice. Now come on, you might not be a big fan, but admit, 'It's Not Unusual' must bring a smile to your face when you hear it.

One Sketch #163 - Ddraig Goch (the red dragon of Wales)

Mythical symbol.
Of the proud spirit of Wales
Real spirit,
Strong spirit
And that's no myth.

D is for Ddraig Goch, or, the Red Dragon of Wales. This symbol of the proud spirit of the people of Wales features most prominently on the national flag of Wales.

One Sketch #156) Dali Mixture

Forgive me, but I feel
Much love for the surreal.

Oh dear, terrible verse, whose one saving feature is its brevity. Another prompt from Sketching Every Day, where we were offered surrealism. When I think of surrealism I often think of Salvador Dali. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I loved the old narcissist and all his works.

One Sketch #129) The Elizabeth Tower - Big Ben

Nostalgia
Homesickness
One man's meat
Another's poison.
Maybe it's because
I'm a Londoner.

Another prompt from the Sketching Every Day Facebook group. This one was to make a sketch using an iconic symbol from any country. Well, mine's as good a place to start as any, I would say. I live in Wales - and in fact I've spent more of my life living in Wales than in England - but the fact is that I am English, and still think of myself as a Londoner. So an iconic symbol of London it was.

I've produced a sketch of Tower Bridge in the past, so I didn't really want to do that again just now.

 Which still left Big Ben, the Tower, and St. Paul's. What I liked about this was that as well as the iconic clock tower, it also shows a red double decker London bus, and the framework shows us looking out from inside a red phone box. Incidentally, I didn't actually plan it this way, but the red framework is suggestive of the Cross of St. George, as on the English flag.

One Sketch #120) Del Boy

Effervescent he (that means bubbly)
My opinion of the show?
Lubby jubbly.

I may have mentioned this before, but just in case I haven’t, let me start by saying that my ‘day’ job, as it were, is that I’m a teacher in an 11-16 Secondary School in South Wales. Not an Art teacher, no. I have no qualifications in Art at all. I do, however have a Postgraduate Certificate in Education – a PGCE, which is one of several qualifications, any of which enable you to teach in the UK. I also have an honours degree in English, so that’s what I’ve spent a little over 30 years teaching. Today (Monday) and tomorrow are the last two days of this academic year, after which we have a break of just over 5 weeks until the new year begins.

I know that the long summer holiday for teachers is a bone of contention. I may come back to this before I’ve finished this post. Still, once you get to the last couple of days, a much more relaxed attitude sets in. For one thing, attendance takes a nosedive. My first class today is usually one of my more ‘challenging’ classes. (translation from teacher speak –challenging = bloody awful)There were just 4 of them in school. On the principle that Art has charms to soothe the savage beasts, I gave them each a piece of paper, and told them about my challenge to make at least one sketch a day for a whole year, and showed them some of the pictures on this very blog. I asked them if they had any suggestions for what I might do for today’s sketch. One of them suggested a V12 Dodge Charger. Now, okay, I don’t have anything against sketching vehicles in general, and cars in particular. However, this just didn’t really light my candle. Then another of them suggested Del Boy. This surprised me a little, but it does at least show the lasting affection for the series “Only Fools and Horses”. I mean, these kids surely weren’t around when even the last Christmas Special was broadcast. 

There’s a couple of things I remember with great affection. I remember in one episode when Del’s father turned up from Heaven alone knows where, and Del, very much against the old rogue, described him with the memorable phrase “He sold his soul for half an ounce of Old Holborn!” Both my younger brother and I fell off our chairs laughing at that one, since we had often used such a phrase to describe our own father. Long story. 

When my kids were a lot younger, the only family holiday we could afford was taking the 26 hour bus to Calella in Spain, and staying in a ‘2 stars and lump it’ hotel. The drivers had a deal with a transport café somewhere in the south of France, and would stop there at stupid o’clock in the morning on the way there, and stupid o’clock in the evening on the way back. Well, the last time we took most of the kids must have been about 2005. The bus happened to stop while it was halfway through showing the 2002 Christmas Special of Only Fools and Horses. There was a mutiny. Seriously, all the passenger refused to get off the bus until the DVD was finished, even though these later specials weren’t really as good as the series had been in the 80s. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree. Finally, in 1985 I took my then girlfriend, who has been my now wife for the last 31 years, to meet some of my extended family in Brighton. As we were walking out of the station, who should we pass in the street? None other than David Jason. Sir David, I hope that you appreciate the way we smiled and nodded, but didn’t ask for autographs, or stop you to talk to us, or jump up and down shouting OMG it’s Del Boy etc. 

Hmm, I'm burbling again. I might say something about holidays tomorrow.

One Sketch #115) John Wayne (Wednesday 18th July)

He had staying power
That's a fact
A constant superstar
(Who needs to act?)

You might be wondering why I painted John Wayne for Wednesday’s sketch. After all, he’s another movie icon, but I painted the first two – Laurel and Hardy, and Marilyn Monroe whole England were playing in the World Cup, but the World Cup is now well and truly over. Well, the fact is that I had cast around for suggestions whom I should paint should England reach the finals , and the Duke was a suggestion I really rather liked.

Which is odd. For I have never been anything that could even remotely be described as a fan. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I hated John Wayne – I didn’t – but it’s a little complicated. 

It all stems from my father. A lot of blokes born in the 30s and 40s – my Dad was born in 1940 – loved Westerns as a genre, and John Wayne in particular. With my generation, it was different. For a lot of blokes who were born in the 1960s, I’d guess it was space stuff and science fiction. After all, I was 5 years old when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon for the first time, and that made a huge impression on me. I was 12 or 13 when Star Wars hit the UK, and that also made a great impression. So I can understand the affection my Dad’s generation had for the Western genre, I just never felt it myself. As for John Wayne, well, I don’t want to upset anyone, but I don’t think he was the world’s greatest actor, for all that he won the Best Actor Oscar for “True Grit”. For the record I rather enjoyed that one. 

Whenever I was in the same room as the old man when he was watching one of Wayne’s films, it always struck me that he was playing the same character in all of them, which was probably what he was like in real life. But looking back, I guess that this is the point. A huge number of people liked that character, and didn’t tire of seeing it in film after film after film. I did read that John Wayne stayed in the top 10 box office stars for the best part of three decades, which puts pretty much anyone else you can think of to shame.