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.

One Sketch #129) The Elizabeth Tower - Big Ben

Nostalgia
Homesickness
One man's meat
Another's poison.
Maybe it's because
I'm a Londoner.

Another prompt from the Sketching Every Day Facebook group. This one was to make a sketch using an iconic symbol from any country. Well, mine's as good a place to start as any, I would say. I live in Wales - and in fact I've spent more of my life living in Wales than in England - but the fact is that I am English, and still think of myself as a Londoner. So an iconic symbol of London it was.

I've produced a sketch of Tower Bridge in the past, so I didn't really want to do that again just now.

 Which still left Big Ben, the Tower, and St. Paul's. What I liked about this was that as well as the iconic clock tower, it also shows a red double decker London bus, and the framework shows us looking out from inside a red phone box. Incidentally, I didn't actually plan it this way, but the red framework is suggestive of the Cross of St. George, as on the English flag.

One Sketch #128) Hay Cart

Time accelerates.
Years ago it moved
No faster then the hooves
Of a horse
Tethered to a farmer's cart.

Yes, another prompt from the Sketching Every Day group on Facebook. Looks appealing, doesn't it. And that from me, who think of myself as a confirmed city boy. I like the effect of the blue grey shadows beneath the cart.

One Sketch #127) Penarth Pier and Carousel Horse

Stand at the edge

Of the world

And let the grey green waters 

Carry your soul

While your body hugs the rail

Safe, but empty.

I was at a bit of a quandary today, which image to post, and so that's why I posted the Carousel horse as well. I really wanted to post the Penarth Pier line and wash sketch, but I am fully aware that I sketched the pier in sepia ink from a different vantage point only a couple of months ago.

I try not to repeat myself too much. However, I had the opportunity to meet Gary, one of my internet sketching friends and a man whose line and wash work I really admire. Gary is currently visiting Wales, and waited to sketch the pier, so we agreed to meet. Unfortunately Gary couldn't make it for reasons beyond his control. Still, another member of the South Wales Urban Sketchers did come, and we sketched and also had a cuppa in the coffee shop inside the pavilion on the pier. While talking, Andra mentioned that she had met Gary last week, and passed on a couple of tips and observations about the way that Gary constructs a line and wash picture. I applied these and made the line and wash sketch above which, though I say it myself, I'm really pleased with. It's closer to how I'd like to use line and wash than pretty much anything else I've managed before.

The carousel is my response to the Sketching Every Day prompt today - State Fair. Okay, here in the UK we don't have State fairs - well, be fair, we don't have states. But I just took it to mean a traditional fair. I chose to go back to monochrome blue, partly because I like it - I guess I'm in the middle of my blue period - and partly because I used an ink sketch yesterday, and I don't want the group to figure out just what a one-trick pony I am just yet. I did think about trying to make a verse for the carousel, but to be honest anything I came up with as the germ of an idea was too close to my ferris wheel verse a couple of days ago. As it is, the challenge only requires me to come up with one verse each day, so I thought stuff it - it's my game so I can play by my rules.

One Sketch #126) Jimi Hendrix

It's never much of a chore
To gaze
On the guy who gave us
Purple Haze

Okay, so it works like this. Facebook, as it does, when it sees you belong to a specific group or groups - in this case South Wales Urban Sketchers and also the global Urban Sketchers group - likes to suggest other related groups that you might like to join. I've taken them up on it, and one of them I've joined is called Sketching Every Day. For me the huge attraction is that, as the name would suggest, every day the group is given a prompt for a sketch. Which is fantastic because there are days, like today, when inspiration totally fails me. I've used various internet sites from time to time, but I have to say that I generally find their suggestions pretty unsatisfying.

Anyway, to cut a long story slightly shorter, I just noticed today that my application to join the group has been approved, and so I checked out today's prompt. It's rock icon. Well, I tend to take prompts pretty literally, and so when I see the words rock icon, the first person to pop into my head is Jimi Hendrix. As it happens I have made a quick sketch of Jimi Hendrix before, as part of the 100 people One week challenge - he's number 80, in half silhouette, just behind my own ugly mug.