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.

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 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 330) Clement Attlee

Unsung heroes
Don't always come
in Uniform

The prompt on Sketching Every Day today was Dead President ( or Prime Minister). Well, I did consider going down the obvious path with Lincoln or Kennedy, but then I'm a Brit, and their praises have been sung often enough (and in JFK's case, his vices as well). So let's give a cheer for the memory of Clement Attlee. Maybe he suffered by comparison with the colourful and witty Winston Churchill, to whom he was Deputy Prime Minister during world war II. However many people, of whom I am one, would argue that Clement Attlee was a far more effective politician than Churchill - who was absolutely the right man in the right place in 1940, I make no bones about that. Still, it's difficult to make a case that Churchill, had he won the election in 1945, would have done so much for the ordinary person in the UK as Attlee's government did. We would certainly not have had our National Health Service, and it's quite likely that we'd have embarrassed ourselves as a nation trying to hang onto our overseas Empire. Attlee's groundbreaking Labour Government, elected by landslide in 1945, had its share of failures, but considering the almost impossible difficulties they faced, what with the country having been bankrupted by World War II, it's incredible that they achieved as much as they did.

One Sketch 319) (Thursday 7th Feb) Jim Morrison

Come on baby light my fire
(Me central heating's packed in)

The prompt on Sketching Every Day for this one was doors, so what else was I going to do?

One Sketch 314) Ground Hog Day

I hope that you won't think it's too obscene
When I confess my worship of the bean (you see what I did there?! Geddit!)

Yes, another Sketching Every Day prompt, and one for a great movie, although I do say so.

One Sketch 299) (Friday 18th January) Photo Portrait Prompt

Look at my face

And see the beauty

of the commonplace.

This does exactly what it says on the tin. The prompt for yesterday was to copy one of a number of photographs provided on the site. I like the photo of this chap, and since it's a wee while since I tried to paint any kind of portrait I thought I'd have a go. Not too bad.

One Sketch 288) Sir Paul McCartney bobble head

What a thing I've sketched today
Just like the bobble head
Of Dorian Gray

Okay, yes, you're quite right, this is a response to another prompt on Sketching Every Day. The prompt was 'bobble head day'. Now, when I saw the words bobble head, I immediately thought back to an episode of the TV show "Pawn Stars". I don't know if you've ever seen it. Basically it's a reality TV show which centres on the day-to-day business of the Gold and Silver Pawn shop in Las Vegas. I'll make no bones about it, it's a show I enjoy, mainly because I tend to think that Rick Harrison, being an incorrigible history buff and knowall is cut very much from the same sort of cloth as myself.
In the particular episode of the show that I was alluding to, a customer brings in a set of Beatles bobble heads, one of many, many items manufactured when Beatlemania hit the USA. This gave me the idea of sketching the Paul McCartney bobble head, but, as a twist, sketching his face as it looks now, more than 50 years later. Cruel? Not intended to be, just struck me as an interesting thing to do.

One Sketch 265) (Saturday 15th December) Alastair Sim as Scrooge

Ah, the unreformed miser!

Worry not, old misanthrope

The ghosts are on their way.

The prompt yesterday was Holiday Movies. For me Christmas ain't really Christmas if I don't get to see at least one version of A Christmas Carol. The best version of the novel - and one surprisingly fair to the spirit of the story (which is NOT a novel!) is the Muppets' Christmas Carol. But the best portrayal of Scrooge in my opinion is Alastair Sim's.

One Sketch 252) The Little Tramp

While Chaplin remained at the helm
So often he would overwhelm
With slapstick, with cheek
Such laughter he'd wreak
He ended a knight of the realm

Not a lot more to say - always been a fan. His silent shorts were often showed on British TV when I was a kid. Very complex and interesting personality too - at one time banned from re-entering the USA. Ungrateful sods.

One Sketch 251) The Great Stoneface

The thing I would say about Buster
- apologising for my bluster
With each new decade
The films that he made
Just seem to take on greater lustre.

At a bit of a loss today, so decided to paint this quick monochrome portrait of a comedian I have a lot of time for, the great Buster Keaton.

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 224) The Doctor

Ring out the old doctor
Ring in the new
She is the Doctor
And bloody good too

I sketched this after watching the latest episode of Doctor Who, starring the fabulous Jodie Whitaker. When it was announced that the next actor to play the Doctor would be a woman, I withheld judgement, I'm so glad that I didn't say anything stupid at the time, because she is just brilliant.

One Sketch 204) #inktober2018 prompt 15 - Weak

A girl called Elizabeth one
Was truly as chaste as a nun
Despite some men's urging
This queen stayed a virgin
Majestic, but not really fun.

Couldn't come up with much for the prompt weak. Then the Elizabeth I speech in Tilbury on the eve of the Spanish Armada. You know it - it was where she said "I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but the hear and stomach of a concrete elephant" - come to think of it, that may well have been Blackadder.

One Sketch #176) Port Talbot's Finest Actors

From one town
To the appreciative eyes and ears
Of the world.




O is for . . . Oscar Nominations. Yes, there cannot be that many towns in the UK that can boast as many Oscar nominations for acting as Port Talbot, my home for the last 32 years. The great Richard Burton, born in the Port Talbot village of Pontrhydyfen, was nominated no fewer than 7 times, although he never actually won, which must be a source of shame to the Academy. Sir Anthony Hopkins, born about a mile away from where I’m typing this now, in Margam, has thus far been nominated 4 times, winning for his unforgettable performance as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs”. Now, okay, Michael Sheen, may not have been born in Port Talbot – he was born in Monmouth, South Wales, and he may not have been nominated for an Oscar – yet – but he’s a great actor who is proud to give his home town as Baglan, Port Talbot, where he grew up. If that’s not enough or you, then maybe I should mention Reginald Truscott Jones – not from Port Talbot itself, but just a few miles away in Neath, which is part of the same county borough of Neath and Port Talbot. Never heard of him? Well, maybe you know him better as Ray Milland, who won his Oscar for The Lost Weekend.

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 #167) Geraint Thomas

I've sometimes been told
That yellow can mean more
Much more than gold

We're up to letter G then in my homage to my adopted country. Geraint Thomas is, quite simply, one of South Wales’ greatest ever sportsmen. In the summer of 2018, Geraint won the Tour De France, becoming not only the first Welshman to win the world’s greatest cycle race, but also the first person ever born in the whole of the UK to win it. Previous British winners Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome were born in Belgium and Kenya respectively. Geraint Thomas is from Cardiff, and in August many thousands of people came to Wales’ capital city to welcome him home.

One Sketch #166) Hitchcock and Kubrick inspired by Clifford Bailey

Watch their films,
And you will always know
The mark of these two men
Who ran the show.

Yes, another prompt from sketching everyday. Both of these are based on portraits by the American artists Clifford Bailey. Hitchcock's skin in my picture is far too yellow and orange, which is a shame. The Kubrick isn't bad, though. I sketched this facing the other way from the Bailey original.

One Sketch #157 Fortune Teller

Who resists the siren call
Of tarot cards
And crystal ball
Look into her eyes, you fool
She tells you nothing
But conceals all.

Now, when I think of the word sketch I tend to think of a drawing, made in pencil, pen or charcoal, for instance. But you can sketch in many other media, acrylic paint included, and so that's why I felt justified in calling this response to a Sketching Every Day prompt a sketch. It's weeks since I last used acrylic paints, and I thoroughly enjoyed executing this one. For me, it was a lightning fast job, taking about 90 inutes

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.