One Sketch 290) (Wednesday 9th January) Cathays Cemetery

While all around
The dear departed sleep
Carved in stone above them
Angels weep

I rather like cemeteries. Didn't used to, but then that's hardly surprising is it? Cathays cemetery in Cardiff is a very good place to go if you're looking for a bit of peace and solitude, and some fine statuary to sketch as well.

One Sketch 289) Sir Quentin Blake - Dragon 3

What a sight indeed
A dragon who likes
To read.

The prompt on Sketching Every Day today was featured artist - artist of your choice. I didn't want to pick an artist whose work I've already copied, so that ruled out Thomas Nast, Sir John Tenniel and Norman Rockwell, all of whom I absolutely love. I considered going for a classical 'fine' artist - ad believe me there are plenty whose work I love - Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and the greatest English painter, JMW Turner to name but a few. But well, with time a consideration I plumped for someone whom I also love, but whose work I could make a reasonable copy of in one evening.

Sir Quentin is probably best renowned for his work illustrating the works of Roald Dahl, whose unique works he so memorably brought to life. In 1999 he was the very first Children's Laureate in the UK. Incidentally, in the 1970s, he became the first person other than Dr. Seuss to illustrate a Dr. Seuss book.
This is a straight copy of Sir Quentin's Dragon number 3. It's a one of a series of ten drawings that he made in 2014 for the corridors of the Dragon Centre which treats young people and children in South London.

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 287) Aeolus statue

What's he got on his head?
Must be often said

This gentleman here is Aeolus. Today's prompt on Sketching Every Day is Wind Chimes. Well, I gotta be honest, that left my boat unfloated and my candle unlit. Still, I did enjoy sketching the statues as part of my stamp design yesterday, so my imagination did start working on how I could combine sketching a statue with the general idea of wind. This was the best I could come up with.

Aeolus is an interesting character. At some times he is depicted as a man and at other times as a deity- at some times a personification of wind, and at others as the keeper of the winds. He's probably most well known for featuring in Homer's Odyssey. In this he is a man, the keeper of the winds. On his way home from the Trojan War, Odysseus stopped off on the isle of Aeolia (in the Lipari - or Aeolian - Islands off the coast of Italy), after his escape from Polyphemus the Cyclops. After being blinded, Polyphemus cursed Odysseus and begged his father Poseidon, the God of the Sea, for revenge. Poseidon was told by Zeus , King of the Gods, that he may not kill Odysseus, but decreed that Odysseus would not be able to return home until all of his companions were dead, and ten years had passed.

Odysseus stayed for a month in Aeolia, at the end of which Aeolus promised him a west wind to carry him home to Ithaca, and tied up all the other winds in a bag which he gave to Odysseus. This is presumably the bag that the statue is holding. After several days they come in sight of Ithaca. Odysseus, who has vigilantly guarded the bag night and day, falls asleep, and the inquisitive crew open the bag thinking it may contain gifts and valuables. The winds let loose blow the ship all the way back to Aeolia. Seeing that Odysseus was obviously not favoured by the Gods, Aeolus refused to provide any further help. Which is all to the good, since the Odyssey would have been a much shorter poem otherwise.

One Sketch 286) Llandaff Cathedral Postage Stamp

Cathedrals
Stone poetry
and
Music, frozen in time.

The challenge,as you might guess, from Sketching Every Day, was to design your own postage stamp. Well, I'll be honest, I wanted to go urban sketching again today, and so I took the opportunity, and just added the Queen's head, 1st, and perforations after making the sketch. I like Llandaff. It's a nice area to be anyway. Claim to fame? Well, apart from the Cathedral, it was also where Roald Dahl grew up, unless I'm very much mistaken. The green statue is actually outside the cathedral, but not in that position, and the Madonna and Child are in the interior.

One Sketch 285) Eltz Castle

The stuff of fairytales
Made flesh
and bones
In stones
And slate.

This is Eltz Castle, a real place, rising above the River Moselle between Trier and Koblenz in Germany. Now, today's prompt in Sketching Every Day is castles. Well, one thing we're not short of in wales is castles. However I've sketched and painted several Welsh castles before, so out of perversity I decded to say stuff it, and go for something from a bit further afield. When I found a couple of photos of Eltz Castle I knew that this was what I wanted to go for.

Right, I'm a firm believer in being honest about your own work. Without being destructive, it's important to be able to look critically at aspects of your work you'd like to improve, and to admit it to yourself. The other side of the coin is to allow yourself to admit it when you've produced something you're happy with. And I have to say that I'm really happy with this. I exaggerated the perspective of the castle buildings, leaning inwards to point up at the sky, and that's given me an effect that I like. More than that, though, is the use of colour on the buildings. As usual my scanner hasn't really quite done the original justice, but it's a good enough scan that you can see what I did with the brown and violet merging on the buildings, and the blue and violet merging on the mountains. This is approaching how I'd really like to be able to use colour on urban sketches and is much closer to what I admire in some other urban sketchers. Yay!

One Sketch 284) The Secret Life of Butterflies Zine

The Secret Life of Butterflies

Each is a MASTER of disguise

each is a Ninja Glider

and loves to drink rough CIDER

They love to go to Discos

and fly to San Francisco

They knock on People's doors

- and when they sleep, they SNORES!

Basically, if you fold a piece of paper into 8, and cut it in the right place, you get a wee booklet of 8 pages which we can call a zine - from magazine, I'm guessing. I didn't come up with the idea. The nonsense rhyme on it, and the pictures, now, they're mine. I've loved butterflies since my youngest children were very little - about 20 years now - and so this was what occurred to me. The butterfly in the pages is based on the Peacock (Inachis Io) which is my favourite species.