Daily Sketch: Baglan Church

I've not been happy with what I've done with pen and ink, so I bought a very fine fineliner pen today, and made this very simple and quick sketch of Baglan Church.

This a good step closer to what I'm trying to achieve - it's really starting to look like what I understand an urban sketch to be

Daily Sketches: Man of Steel and Train Station

This is another sculpture by Sebastien Boyesen.

It's called "Man of Steel" and it too is a tribute to the men who made the steel industry which made the town. I don't know if it comes across from my sketch, but what I do think about this statue is that it's quite reminiscent of Soviet Expressionist state art. This is  our square chinned proletarian hero, exhorting his workmates on to greater and greater efforts. Here is another sketch which incorporates the statue: -

The building on the right is Port Talbot's new train station. It isn't exactly ugly, but my God, there's nothing about it to lift the soul.

Daily Sketch: Mortal Coil Statue Port Talbot: Pen and Ink watercolour

This is a statue by Sebastien Boyesen in Port Talbot called Mortal Coil.

I really like it, and it says a lot about the relationship between Port Talbot as a town, and the steel industry. Due to the very muted nature of the watercolour I used on the last sketch, I gave it a bit more oomph with this one.

Daily Sketch: Pizza Hut Building Port Talbot

This is another stage in the development of my urban sketching. I've been reading up on urban sketching, and also looking at examples on line, and I've seen that many people use a watercolour wash - or several watercolour washes to add character and depth to the original pen and ink sketch. So this is what I've tried to do. The scanner does change the character of the colours a little bit  the sky, for example does have some blue in it on the original page, while there is a slight violet tinge to the road.

Daily Sketch: Hero the Cat

Hero the Cat

I actually made this one a couple of days ago, but didn't post it in the blog, only int eh diary. So you might not have seen this one yet. I don't know that I'm going to be able to make a sketch today, so I thought I'd put this one up just to keep things going.

Daily Sketch: Mumbles Tram

Alright - confession time. I have been away all day and literally have not had the opportunity to make a sketch.

So this is the second of two sketches that I made yesterday (Saturday 20th)  in another part of the museum in Swansea. This is an old Mumbles tram, I would guess from the first couple of decades of the 20th century.

Daily Sketch: Trevithick's locomotive replica

Trevithick's original locomotive - full size replica in Swansea Waterfront Museum
20/8/16

Daily Sketch - Open Lilies in sepia ink pen

This is the same vase of lilies I sketched last week on the 10th. They've opened quite a bit more today. I was on baby sitting duties today so really didn't have the opportunity to get out to create a sketch, so I decided to use this familiar subject to make a sketch. There are some grey highlights on the flowers themselves which I did with an ordinary graphite pencil.

Daily Sketch: Swansea Pump House Restaurant

This is the Pump House Restaurant in Swansea Marina. Once again, Somebody stopped to talk to me while I was sketching it. I really don't mind this at all, even if the person talking to me is a bit of a bore like this guy was. He kept wanting to talk about his own art, and the paintings he's done, and how good he thinks he is etc. Never mind, I still quite like it that people take an interest.

There was a lady who stopped to compliment me on it, and she even asked if I was a professional! I can only dream. 

Daily Sketch: Talbot Memorial Park Statue

This is my sketch of the statue on top of the War Memorial in the Talbot Memorial Park, which is literally a hundred yards or so from my front door.

While I was sketching it a nice kid kept coming up and asking me about it, and saying what a good 'draw-er' I am. That kid has taste, (although not vocabulary).

Daily Sketch : Amelia on the beach and after

Back from Belgium. This composite sketch was made in two parts. I sketched the left hand small figure while Amelia was playing on the beach this afternoon. I took her back home, and she fell asleep in the car. So I popped her into the sleep chair and sketched the larger image on the right.

Daily Sketches: Ypres Cloth Hall and Town Hall

Daily Sketches: Urban Sketching in Ieper (Ypres)

Pen and Ink sketch of part of the detail above the entrance to the Cloth Hall in Ypres

The approach to the Menin Gate when approaching from the Cloth Hall.

How did you guess that I am currently in Belgium. As regards urban sketching, architecturally it is an embararrasment of riches.

Daily Sketch: Amelia sleeping

This is my granddaughter. I sketched this in about 15-20 minutes, which is miles quicker than I can normally manage. I've been babysitting today, and I just used the opportunity to get my daily sketch in while she was sleeping (and staying still!)

Daily Sketch: Hero - Lightship - Pizza Express

This is Hero the Cat. This was a much harder sketch to do, because he has some kind of sixth sense. The moment you settle to sketch him he deliberately gets up and changes his position. This made it really hard to get anything approaching the right play of shadow upon his fur.
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While part of it is certainly a commitment to sketching everyday, Urban Sketching is really about getting out and sketching what's all around us,and so I went out and about in Swansea today. I was only panning to do one drawing, just to get the feel of sketching in the outdoors, and this was the subject that I chose - it's a preserved lightship which is in Swansea Marina just outside the Waterfront Museum.

I actually enjoyed it a lot , so much so that when I went for a coffee from McDonalds, by the fan zone, I sketched this which shows some of the detail of a shop building currently occupied by Pizza Express. I love civic architecture like this - which I guess is maybe 1920s.

Urban Sketching - Daily Diary Sketch 10/8/16: Lilies in Vase

On a recommendation from a fellow amateur artist I've started reading a book on Urban Sketching. I'll be honest, I knew nothing about Urban Sketching as a movement, and Urban Sketching Groups before this. I've done a quick search on the net, and haven't found a local group yet. Still, one of the things it gave as a piece of advice is that if you want to become an urban sketcher, you really have to try to commit yourself to doing at least one sketch every day, and to think of a sketchbook in terms of a diary. So, sitting here, waiting for a phone call, I've taken up an ordinary HB pencil, and a sketchpad, and produced today's daily sketch - a vase of lilies sitting on our telephone table. Here it is on the right.

Ollie - finished painting

Portrait project - Oliver

Having recently made a portrait of my granddaughter Amelia, I though it was high time to try to paint a proper portrait of my grandson Ollie, showing his face. Here's my reference photo: -

I really like this one. It was taken while I was in Spain, and shows he is really growing up. This is the sketch onto canvas: -