One Sketch #192) #inktober2018 Day 3 - Roasted - Roasting Chestnuts

I think that you couldn't rebut
The fact that it must take some guts
To stand in the street
And ask folk to eat
Their fill of your steaming hot nuts

The roast chicken route was just too obvious for this prompt. I did a sketch a couple of months back based on a photo of a chestnuts seller from about a century ago, and I did say then that you could still see chestnut sellers with their braziers in the centre of London when I was a young boy in the late 60s. Unless memory fails me, I think that the last time I saw one would possibly have been New Year's Eve 1981.

One Sketch #191) #inktober2018 Day 2 - Tranquil

Sleep,

And dream of bones,

Chewed slippers

And walks.

Actually, like yesterday I could have included another tram sketch, but I thought I'd continue to share with you my inktober sketches. This is what I came up with for the prompt 'tranquil'. My blank Christmas cards arrived yesterday, so it occurs to me that I'm going to be wanting to go into production of this year's cards pretty soon. 

One Sketch #190) #inktober2018 Prompt 1 Poisonous

Scorpions - nasty wee things
Just think of the pain that they brings
They scuttle around
On the dry sandy ground
Just waiting to strike with their stings

Yes, it's the first day of inktober. Basically, if you take part you get 31 prompts - one for each day of the month - and commit to producing an ink sketch each day of the month. I heard about the event right on the last day of October 2017, too late to take part then. But for now, it's absolutely perfect! (BTW, I DID sketch another tram today as well, of the Great Orme Tramway. But I decided to give you all a day off, even if I didn't take one.)

Sketch #189) Manx Electric Railway

Guaranteed to make me smile
Old fashioned trams
On the three legged Isle.

Now, if you look on Wikipedia, which is my internet encyclopedia of choice, for some reason it doesn't include the Manx Electric Railway on the Isle of Man. The only reason I can think for this is the fact that it isn't a city tramway. I mean, yes, it is called a railway, but surely the vehicles like the ones in the picture are tramcars. Doesn't matter, anyway. I may be wrong, but I think that the Manx Railway is the world's oldest which is still using its original cars. This year, 2018, it's actually celebrating the 125th anniversary of it's opening in 1893. Fair play.

One Sketch #188) Tram on Westminster Bridge

Am I happy with this?
You bet I am
What more could I possibly want
Than London, a bridge and a tram.

Sorry - couldn't resist. (Not bad though, is it? Acrylic paint heavily watered down and used like water colour on watercolour paper.

One Sketch #187) Indiana Jones

A top treasure hunter? Not half,
Who often could do with a bath
Who shoots from the hip,
Is a whizz with a whip,
Archaeologist? Don't make me laugh.

You have to take inspiration where you can get it. In this case, having finished my series of trams and trains. I was watching "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with my grandson, and there was inspiration. I love the Indiana Jones films ( apart from Temple of Doom) I even like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and those of us willing to admit this are a small but select band. How much do I love them? Well, two or even three years ago there was an exhibition in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, which was aimed at getting kids excited about archaeology. As a lure they had a small number of exhibits from the films - a hat, jacket and whip, and the actual crystal skull (or one of them, at least) used in the film. I went the day the exhibition opened.

One Sketch #186) London Underground Railway

Wherever I go
Wherever I might be
When you get down to it
The Tube's for me.

Yes, dearly beloved, this completes my set of sketches of the current city tramways, light railways and underground railways of Great Britain. I don't intend to say that much about the London Underground, since a few months ago I sketched an old District Line train at Ealing Common, and I tried to explain my love of the Tube then.

Well, this makes 12 sketches altogether - which, come to think of it, is a full calendar. Would you like one? Drop me a line and we'll come to some arrangement.