Inktober 2018

I missed out on Inktober 2017, as I didn't discover it until right at the end of the month. Basically it's an online challenge to produce 31 ink sketches in October. One for each day of the month, ftting with a specific prompt. As with the One Week 100 people challenge, and the 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge, all you have to do is to make sure that you post your sketches online under hashtag #inktober and #inktober2018. This ties in beautifully with my own challenge to produce at least one sketch every day for a year. By my reckoning the first sketch will be my one sketch a day 191, and the last of October will be one sketch number 221.

If you're interested, here is the prompt list,

One Sketch #162) Barry Island Woodham's Scrapyard

Steel hulks
Unregarded, unloved
Waited for salvation
From the gas axe, and blow torch.
And saviours came.

My first visit to Wales in the summer of 1976 was on an excursion train from London specifically to go clambering about Woodham Brother’s scrapyard, and I returned in 1980. 

In the late 1950s British Railways decided to phase out all of its steam powered locomotives and tank engines. Woodham’s scrapyard in Barry Island, South Wales, just outside Cardiff, won one of the scrap contracts with British Railways. Eventually purchasing 297 steam engines, Dai Woodham decided to cut up the many hundreds of coal wagons he had also bought first. Throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, Woodham’s scrapyard became a tourist attraction in its own right, as other scrapyards quickly cut up their locomotives. Woodham’s had actually scrapped a number of steam engines during the 60s, but from 1970 onwards only two more were scrapped. Of a total of 297 steam engines bought by Woodham’s, 213 were rescued, with the last leaving the yard in 1990, 4 years after I moved permanently to South Wales.

One Sketch #161) (Saturday 1st September) Cardiff Museum Dinosaur and Cardiff Castle Animal Wall

When looking at dinosaur bones

Remember, they're more than just stones

They've teeth and they've claws

And those powerful jaws

I'm warning you, don't go alone.

Yes, urban sketching in Cardiff again. The top picture is a composite sketch featuring some of the animals on the stone Animal Wall outside the façade of Cardiff Castle. It's a 19th century creation of William Burgess - as are large parts of the castle itself. I just love it.  

When I was a kid I was a little obsessed with dinosaurs, I still try not to ass up the opportunity to have a good look at one. This is a partial sketch of a complete skeleton in the National Museum in Cardiff. To my chagrin I couldn't find a sign to identify the exact species. 

One Sketch #160) Fred Calleri

There was a young lady called Kate
Who went for a drink with a mate
When offered a gin
She said, "It's a sin
A milk shake? Now that would be great!"

This was a response to the Sketching Every Day challenge to produce a picture influenced by the work of Fred Calleri. Well, this isn't so much inspired by as a very inferior copy. Never mind, it's the second acrylic painting this week, and doing something like this just reminds me how much I love painting in acrylic.

One Sketch #159) Swansea Quaker Meeting House

A slabby, concrete nightmare
just always
Looks so wrong.
I hope the meeting house
Will still
Be there when it's gone.

Swansea is just so handy for urban sketching. Last year, when I made my 100 sketches of Port Talbot (to see the accompanying blog, click on this link 100 Faces of Port Talbot ) I did pretty much exhaust my local town as a source of inspiration. So when I have a few hours for sketching, I'm just as likely to drive into Swansea, park the car, and go off exploring. What struck me about this in particular is the contrast between the Quaker Meeting House - which looks like it could be late Victorian/Edwardian, and the horrible 1970s concrete block next to it.

One Sketch #158) (Wednesday 29th August) Quadrant Coffee House Swansea

I don't like booze
Although this may seem odd
To me, a cuppa coffee
That's drink of the Gods.

Out urban sketching in Swansea, and I noticed that this interesting building - formerly a pub called the Quadrant Gate , is now a coffee house. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't like alcohol but I like pubs - after all, pubs are where quizzes take place. However, I can't hide the fact that I do think that another coffee house is something to be celebrated.

One Sketch #157 Fortune Teller

Who resists the siren call
Of tarot cards
And crystal ball
Look into her eyes, you fool
She tells you nothing
But conceals all.

Now, when I think of the word sketch I tend to think of a drawing, made in pencil, pen or charcoal, for instance. But you can sketch in many other media, acrylic paint included, and so that's why I felt justified in calling this response to a Sketching Every Day prompt a sketch. It's weeks since I last used acrylic paints, and I thoroughly enjoyed executing this one. For me, it was a lightning fast job, taking about 90 inutes