#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - paintings 12 and 13

Why a racehorse - well, I like painting racehorses. You may have seen I sketched one in ink as one of my daily sketches back in May. As for the wasp - well, it's a little bit of a pun. I had already painted the Vespa earlier, and vespa is the Italian for wasp.

One Sketch #76) Vintage Vespa #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

My daughter asked me
"Will you paint a bright red
Vintage Scooter?
I searched and found one,
Painted it,
I flipping hope it suits her.

Pretty much the verse says it all. Yesterday afternoon when I picked my middle daughter up from work she suggested that I paint her a Vespa. Well, I'm currently working on a large canvas in acrylic, so I won't do her an acrylic painting until I've finished that one. Still, I am faced with the challenge of making 30 watercolours in June, and so when I got up this morning, and I was looking for inspiration, this was the first thing that occurred to me. I'll still make her an acrylic painting of one - just don't know when.

One Sketch #75 Tom Baker as The Doctor #30x30DirectWatercolor2018

Tom was My Doctor, then
That's undeniable
My generation's one
Doctor of choice
He became instantly
Identifiable
All teeth and curls and that
Marvellous voice

Yes, I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, and since I haven't had the time to produce a watercolour since Tuesday I thought it was high time. And since it was only today that I found time to read this month's Doctor Who magazine, and Tom is on the front cover well, I needed no other excuse.

One Sketch #74) Queen Victoria (Thursday 7th)

Our least amused monarch
Since Edward the Confessor
Was Victoria Regina et Imperatrix
God Bless 'Er!

On Wednesday night I watched a channel 5 documentary which did a real hatchet job on poor old Vicky - basically saying that she hated her children. Now, alright, she certainly wasn't the world's most hand on mum, but come on!

I quite like this one, it's based on a photograph of course - she doesn't pose for many life classes these days, does our Vick - but it looks like the kind of engraved illustration you might have got in a contemporary Illustrated London News.

One Sketch #73) New Hitachi built Intercity Express train (Wednesday 6th)

The future is arriving,
Although it's rather hard if
You live out in Port Talbot
- Electricity ends in Cardiff

This is one of the brand new Hitachi Intercity Express trains which have been running on the main line from London to Swansea for the last couple of months. They run on electricity - with the only problem being that there is no electrification between Cardiff and Swansea, and there is going to be no electrification between Cardiff and Swansea. It also has a diesel engine though - dashed clever. I never thought I'd say this, though, but I'll be sorry once the old 125s are completely out of service.

One Sketch #72) 30x30DirectWatercolor2018 Merdian Tower Swansea Bay

From the top
of the tower
If you squint carefully
You can just about see
the sea
you see.

I was really trying to work as quickly and impressionistically as possible with this one. It's okay. The Meridian Tower is the tallest building in Swansea . . . and . . . that's about it, really.

One Sketch #71) Penguin (Monday 4th June)

Antarctic bird
You're quite a sight
And that's a fact
In black and white.

I wasn't very well yesterday at all - I had throwing up bouts every two hours. For all that, though, I forced myself to go into work, and did made it through to the end of the day. I was so tired when I got home, though, that I knew I was only going to want to make a very simple sketch. So this is what I came up with.