One Sketch 329) Featured artist Alphonse Mucha

Lines on a blank page
Are all I can offer
 Sometimes
That's enough.

Today's prompt in Sketching Every Day was featured artist Alphonse Mucha. He's pretty well known, but a brief potted biog is that he was a Czech artist who lived and worked in Paris during the Art Nouveau period leading up to the First World War. He was particularly known for his lavish posters and illustrations. I did toy with trying to reproduce one, but then I found the original of this pencil sketch, and decided tis would be doable within a reasonable period of time, and also would give me a chance to keep my hand in with an ordinary graphite pencil.

One Sketch 328) Gone With The Wind Movie Poster

Rhett Butler, a lusty old ram,
Did not waste a second's time, ma'am.
He grabbed Scarlett's waist
And kissed her with haste
Cos frankly, he don't give a damn.

Prompt on Sketching Every Day today was movie poster. As I commented when I posted this there, when it comes to movie posters, in fact, when it comes to a lot of things, I'm really old school. I've always liked this poster, so it was a bit of a no brainer to use it.

One Sketch 327) (Friday 15th Feb) Monsieur Orson Peluche

The teddy examines the train
"A mystery here, yet again!"
No driver, no guard
Oh isn't it hard
Such mysteries drive me insane"

I really didn't have time to make anything approaching a proper sketch yesterday. So I started doodling with a red biro on a piece of file paper during lunchtime and ten minutes later this is what I'd come up with. This is Orson Peluche (ours en peluche) the world famous Belgian teddy near detective, in a scene from his most famous case, "Orson Peluche et la Locomotive Abandonee. He has just discovered the abandoned locomotive and suspects foul play!

One Sketch 326) Hearts and Flowers

"Your majesty" he cried
"These blooms aren't dead."
" I do not care one jot
Off with their heads"

Alright, you can't always come up with anything decent to order. Prompt today - hearts and flowers. I'll be honest, I rarely need much encouragement to go back to the Guvnor, John Tenniel. This actually combines details from two separate Alice in Wonderland illustrations.

One Sketch 325) (Weds 13th February) Garth Williams

He just sits there
and grouses
This granddaddy
of mouses.

Prompt for Wednesday was a featured artist - Garth Williams. He's best known as being the artist illustrator who produced illustrations for Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web and the Little House on the Prairie books. No, I didn't know him before this, but looking at his work you can see he belongs in that fabulous line of American illustrators which stretched all the way back to the great Thomas Nast. I fell in love with the original of this sketch, and knew that it was something I wanted to copy.

One Sketch 324) Fisherman Statue

The thought alone
Sets tingling my lips
A freshly battered fish
On a bed of chips

This was today's Sketching Every Day prompt - every month one of the days the prompt offers us a choice of 4 or 5 photographs to use as the basis for a sketch - this statue of a fisherman was what took my fancy this month.

One Sketch 323) Tintin

A brave and loyal journalist
Adventurous, not showy
Did he ever have a human love?
Or only eyes for Snowy?

I say, that's a bit much. Steady the buffs. Given the prompt of Belgium, I decided on one of the two most famous fictional Belgians (Hercule Poirot being the other). Look, don't expect me to say anything (else) negative about Belgium or Belgians. I visited Ieper in 2016, which is where I became an urban sketcher, and as well as paying my respects to my great grandfather's grave at the war cemetery in Voormezeele, I was absolutely bowled over by how pretty Ieper is.

As for Tintin, well, I was given a GAF stereo viewmaster when I was a little boy(ask your grandparents), and a number of reels for it. My favourites were The Jungle Book, and Tintin Explorers on the Moon., and of the two the Tintin reel was my favourite.