One Sketch #25) Exeter University (Thursday 19th)

Yes, sorry I didn't post yesterday, but I was taking a group of pupils to an event at Exeter University yesterday. 7 hours on a bus, and so although I did make this sketch yesterday, I didn't have the oomph to scan it and post it last night. This is one of the older buildings of the university.

Exeter is a very beautiful university, and I think we saw it to its best advantage yesterday in brilliant warm Spring sunshine. As fort the kids, they were fantastic - we were on the bus 7 hours all told yesterday, and they were a pleasure to be with. 

The Sun is shining

And the world is kind

To give me such pupils

With young and eager minds. 

One Sketch #24) Komodo Dragon

I was stuck for inspiration for today, so I thought about sketching a creature I really like.

It goes back to a children's encyclopaedia I had when I was young, which had a photograph of one in it, and also watching a David Attenborough documentary. What brought it to mind again was a couple of days ago watching Stephen Fry's excellent "Last Chance To See " series.

Not dragon,
Nor dinosaur
Not the stuff of legend
Nor a living fossil.
More than both
I am the stuff of nightmares
Made flesh.

One Sketch #23) Classroom door

As I said in yesterday's post, this is my first week back in work - school - since the Easter break. It's been a hard day. Part of my problem is that the older you get, the less tolerant you get, and the harder it is to put up with the niggling little darlings.

I am too old
A fossil from the chalk age
Too old to do something else
And too young to finish.

Gosh, that's miserable isn't it. Sorry, it's been that kind of day.

One Sketch #22) Abbaye de Hambay in Normandy

No, I haven't been off on a jolly to Normandy. But I did sketch it today, and so it therefore qualifies. I love Normandy, and I love this particular Northern French brand of gothic ecclesiastical architecture.

Pourquoi les batiments Normands
Sont si belles?
It would take a far wiser fellow
Than me to tell.

One Sketch #21) Baby Alfie's bear mat

Right, this is a little bit of a change of pace after all the excitement of the Kaunas sketchpedition. I have 3 grandchildren, and the youngest one, 7 week old Alfie, is spending the night with my wife and me for the first time. I sketched this when we set it up just before he arrived. It's a large, soft, furry mat in the shape of a fat, flat teddy bear, with dangly bunnies and things suspended overhead. He loves it. I'll be honest, I can see the appeal, and wouldn't mind if I was small enough to fit in it myself.

Young man
You'll not stay this way
I know
You'll grow
And learn
And all too soon
Become what you will be.
We'll see
How you will change
But all the same
Stay perfect, as you be.
For perfect's what you are
To me.

Sketchbook Revival

I've just been over to Liz Steel's blog, and seen this free online course offered - called Sketchbook Revival. I followed this link, and signed up. You might want to check it out yourself.

Sketchbook Revival Sign up

One Sketch #20) Street traders near Kaunas Railway Station (Saturday 14th April)

So, yesterday my sketchpedition to Kaunas ended. I'd already planned the journey to the airport the night before, and decided that ideally I wanted to leave the hotel at 8, and that at the latest I needed to leave at 8:30. I was ready by 7:30, so that was it, I was off.

This gave me actually a good three quarters of an hour between arriving at the Railway station, and catching the bus to airport just outside it, and so I took a wander towards ton. Just round the corner I saw these guys. This wasn't a market, they'd just placed their goods on the pavement and were selling them to anyone who seemed at all inclined to buy.

It's nice from time to time to try to catch figures in poses. There's three distinct pairs of figures here. Each pair was done very quickly in one go, which means that this exact scene never quite happened - it's a composite sketch to that extent, although still faithful to the scene itself. Also I did the filling in of shapes after I'd done the outlines.

Life passes,
In all shapes and sizes.
My life is here
On the pavement before it
And I offer it to you
For Euros.

* To see ALL of my Kaunas Sketches , use the link on the right to visit my sister blog, Sketching Around Europe