Tuesday 7th August One Sketch #)135 - Madrid Cathedral De Almudena

I find that I like to take stock
Of Cathedrals so highly Baroque.
Their domes and their towers
Transfix me for hours
I'd never be tempted to mock.

This is right next door to the massive Palacio Real, and it is literally so huge that I couldn't get far away enough from the façade and the aspect on the main road to have been able to make a sketch without straining my neck. Then, on the Tuesday, I approached it from another direction and found a bench with this perfect vantage point.

Here's other sketches I made on the same day:-

Monday 6th August One Sketch #) 134 - Madrid Guitar player

I play for myself,
Most of the time,
But should you put your coins
In my hat,
I won't refuse.

This chap was playing his guitar sitting cross legged on the pavement right by the royal palace. I put a few coins into his hat, and asked if he minded me making this sketch. He didn't say that it was okay - but he didn't say that it wasn't either, and for me a nod's as good as a wink. Here are the other sketches I made on Monday:-

Sunday 5th August - One Sketch #133) Bristol Airport

Yes, dear my friends, I am still in the land of the living, and I have still been sketching every day. I'm going to post the photographs of my sketches now, but I the photo quality isn't great, so I will probably scan them all when I get back in 10 days.

These first three were sketches that I made in Bristol Airport while waiting for the flight to Madrid last Sunday.

The febrile atmosphere mounts
As we sit and wait
To get on the plane
Where we will sit
And wait.

DOn't Worry-

 - if I don't manage to post for a few days at the least. In about half an hour I'm off on my travels to Madrid. But I promise you (if anyone actually does ever read this post, or indeed this blog) that I will be sketching at least once every day while I'm away, and so if I can't get onto the blog, I will post a welter of posts when I return.

Adios amoebas!

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 #131) Hot Chestnut Seller

Cry your wares
To the streets, my boy
Those who would have you
Still your cry
Would shed no tears
If you were to die
Nor spare a coin
But pass you by.

Yes, it's another prompt from Sketching Every Day. This is a bit tenuous, mind you, since the prompt was Nut Day - yes, today actually is designated Get Some Nuts Day. By whom? No idea.

Anyway, I used an old photograph showing a street vendor selling roast chestnuts. Once upon a time I believe that roast chestnut venders and their braziers were a fairly common sight in our streets in the UK. There were still a few around when I was a little boy in the 60s, as I'm sure I remember one outside a park in Acton once. Mostly though, by that time you were only really likely to see one by the top tourist sites in the centre of town. I don't really know why, but chestnuts seem to have gone out of fashion. I can't say that I recall ever eating one myself - to my mind they looked too much like conkers. 

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.