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 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 #132) Clown

Why is it
That we take such a pride
In the idea that clowns
Are all sighing, and crying
And dying
Inside?

Yes, yet another Sketching Every Day prompt. I actually did two for this prompt - the second one, coloured, is a direct copy of a Norman Rockwell cover illustration for the Saturday evening Post, in HB pencil watercolour and watercolour pencil. The top one is from a photograph which was part of an old advert for Schlitz Beer, which I believe is a popular intoxicating beverage from the United States of America.

What is it about clowns? When I was a kid I actually really rather liked clowns. The couple of times I went to the circus, or the many times I watched Billy Smart's Circus on television, my favourite acts were always the clowns. Yet now, I find them rather sinister. What is that all about?

Partly, I suppose, due to the television adaptation of Stephen King's "It" - Tim Curry was rather brilliant as Pennywise. Partly lingering memories of the Joker in the Batman comics when I was a kid (mind you, this was offset by Cesar Romero's dreadful Ronald McDonaldish interpretation of the character in the Adam West TV series). Partly, I guess because in the media and popular culture we've been fed the notion of the sad clown crying on the inside in popular culture for a long time. It surely goes back beyond Cecil B. DeMille's film "The Greatest Show on Earth". I guess also it's maybe because of all the make up and the clothing. Anyone hiding their true face behind that makeup could be up to anything.

One Sketch #130) Self Portraits after Shelly Wilkerson

Although, as a selfie sketch
I think it's fine
I really should admit
I don't like wine.

Yes, Dearly beloved - it's another prompt from the Sketching Every Day Facebook group. Today's prompt was to do something inspired by feature artist Shelly Wilkerson. Now, ok, I admit, I was not aware of Shelly Wilkerson's work prior to this. In some ways her work reminds me just a little of the work of the late Beryl Cook. Not in terms of style or execution - they are very different artists in that way - but in terms of subject matter, and of the effect they have on the viewer. A cursory check of Google images shows that a lot of her pictures have people who are, shall we say, not in the first flush of youth, and involve cats and drinking wine.

What I did to make this painting was I used a Shelly Wilkerson original as a guide - like this it had three men on a yellow orange background - two of them drinking wine, and two cats. I tried to be as faithful to the original with the cats and the clothes as my limited skills allow. However I did take three selfies of myself in roughly the same positions as the three figures, and used these to replace the original heads with my own. I did a basic sketch in graphite pencil, painted in the background, cats, clothes, wine glasses and base skin tone in water colour, then added the details and the variations in tone with watercolour pencils. I quite like it, although I don't think Shelly Wilkerson has anything much to worry about if I'm brutally honest.

One Sketch #49) Eurovision

Eurovision Song contest -
I do not mind the singing.
The problem is my waking up
To find my ears still ringing.

Like a lot of people, every year we have a party to watch the Eurovision Song Contest, which took place last night. My kids, grandkids and spouses were all present, and that's a lot of us. Eurovision occupies a unique place in British cultural life, I would suggest. I wouldn't want to try to define exactly what that is, but love-hate just doesn't get it.

My favourite was the Austrian entry which came third, although I like dthe Israelis entry - pictured - as well. Incidentally, this is a sketch I made with watercolour pencils, which I've only ever used once or twice in the past.