One Sketch 360) Weds 20th March - Burghers of Calais

In History, it seems, they have gone down
They sacrificed themselves to save their town.

These are Rodin's sculpture of the Burghers of Calais, which resides by the Houses of Parliament. The burghers of Calais were the leading citizens who surrendered themselves to King Edward III of England, so that he would spare the town of Calais from destruction.

One Sketch 359 (Tuesday 19th March) Wolf

Don't expect me
To domesticate
Any time soon
Keep your pampered pooches
While I howl
At the moon.

No idea what prompted this, but suddenly had a feeling that I wanted to sketch a wolf howling, so here it is.

One Sketch 358) Monday 18th - Selfie

I'm not an oil painting

That is true

But decades worth of teaching

Would do the same to you

What it says on the tin - Monday's prompt on Sketching Every Day was a self portrait.

Announcement - One Week 100 People is back!

Yes, a year ago when I started the blog I found out about this event. I took part and I'm glad to say it's happening again this year! Here's the official announcement : -

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For the third year in a row, artists Marc Taro Holmes, Suhita Shirodkar and Liz Steel bring you #OneWeek100People2019.

The simple goal is: Draw 100 people in one week.

The real goal is PRACTICE. Not perfection. Every artist needs to sketch as much as possible, but we want to have fun and just stretch a little. To get 100 people in a 5-day week (we don’t like working weekends) you’ll need to draw about 20 people a day. But they don’t have to be more than a one-minute gesture drawing.

We just want everyone to see what it feels like to follow through on that advice ‘practice every day’. It’s a big commitment. But it’s possible to do without completely disrupting your life. Or at least you can choose how disruptive you want it to be.

Here’s how to participate:
– You can do it any way you want – just have fun with it!
– Sketch from life, or from any reference material. Use any media or size, as draw as fast or slow as you like. Whatever you’d like to practice most.
– Post your work during the week of April 8-12, to the dedicated facebook group.
– Please don’t post on other Urban Sketchers groups. We don’t want to flood the regularly scheduled activities. In previous years, there was a lot of art!
– You can also post on your personal social media of choice, (Instagram, Twitter) using the hashtag #OneWeek100People2019. That way everyone can find your work.

Some suggestions on reaching that goal:
– Aim to get to a 100 sketches. But don’t skip the challenge just because you feel you won’t get there- hey, 25 people sketches that week is better than zero
– Maybe plan to swap out any ‘free time’ for drawing. Tivo your shows, skip the gym or video gaming night – just for one week.
– Be prepared! Make a list of crowded places to draw people. Visit a park, the public library, go shopping, or to a sporting event. Maybe search out public performances. Live music at a pub, a lecture, or reading.
– Go drawing in groups! If it looks like you’re a club or a class, people give you the benefit of the doubt.
– If you don’t want to do it live-on-location, cue up a YouTube play list, sign up for Flickr, or download the iOS app SKTCHY.
– Give yourself permission to succeed. Don’t overthink the results – just draw! I promise you’ll see results at the end of the week. No matter how fast you sketch, over a whole week, at least ONE will be amazing 

One Sketch 357) (only 8 left to go) Guinness Poster

I'm not fond of bitter, cider
lager, Guinness too
The evening that I downed three pints
I ended on the loo

- shouting downstairs to ask my mother to put some toilet paper in the fridge for me, as I recall. Well that was decades ago, and for all I know it might well have been the ruby murray that I ate afterwards. Still, I've never touched a drop of Guinness since. Well, I don't drink alcohol at all now - that's not from a moral standpoint or anything like that, I just don't like it very much, and I'm to old to do something I don't want to just to make other people happy.

So coming to this, it's a copy of an old Guinness poster. I'd lay odds that they wouldn't be able to make claims like this about the product now, although I don't know, since I'm told that Irish stout is actually a good source of iron. Whatever, the prompt in today's Sketching Every Day was Slainte - and being the Gaelic for good health/cheers etc. Guinness just seemed to suggest itself to me.

One Sketch 356) Featured artist Germaine Arnaktauyok

I'll tell you, if truth must be told
I really have never been sold
On the idea to go
And live in the snow
I never would cope with the cold.

Another Sketching Every Day prompt, this is a copy of part of a work by Inuit artist Germaine Arnatauyok.

One Sketch 355) Statue of Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Anderson would often write
Of mermaids, and of a duck
He didn't look like Danny Kaye
I couldn't give a hoot.

Now that's just rude, isn't it. Sorry, I think I'm getting a little demob happy - just 10 more days to go to complete the year. Today's prompt in Sketching Every Day was a choice of photo prompts - this one is based on a photo of a statue of famous Dane Hans Christian Anderson (and whenever I hear that name I seem to think of Danny Kaye singing it).