Ta DAAA! 30 x 30 Watercolour Challenge 2022 Completed!

 Here we are then. Here's the last few stages for number 30 then: - 

The most obvious developments here are that I've extended the tree on the right, painted the house wall beneath it, and turned the station building green. I did some research today, and every picture I've found of the tram stops seems to show that they were green. Good enough for me squire. You might also notice that I've painted in the trackbed and the grassy verges either side.

I had a clear plan this evening. Sort out the right hand side of the painting - did that. Sort out the track bed. Did that. Apply the railings on top. This picture shows that I did that as well. I extended the railings as far as the back end of the tram, which meant that I could finish . . . 

the tram itself. Or at least, the body work. It still needed the windows filling in. Being realistic though it only needed this, and the stuff to the left of the tram, and we had a finished article. . . which looks like this : -

30) Mumbles tram at Southend stop. 

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed the challenge, and I'm so pleased with myself that I gave myself such a challenging subject to finish, and didn't wimp out of it. I'm going to give myself a day or two to get my thoughts together about the challenge as a whole, and then I'll post again. 

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge 2022: 29 and 30 in progress

 Coming into this weekend I'd completed 24 direct watercolour paintings. My target was to produce 5 by this time on Sunday. I started the next on Friday evening, but this, being a more complicated subject and and A3 sized painting took a bit longer. I worked on it on Friday evening, but didn't finish it until yesterday morning. 26 followed on Saturday, and I did the lion's share of 27. For some reason Sunday has proven to be a productive day in each of the June weekends this year, so I finished 27 this morning, knocked out 28 very quickly, and then relaxed, knowing that one more would see me reach my target. So this is 29.

29) Windmill

I really liked the subject matter but I've been avoiding it for a couple of weeks. Why? Well, it's those blades. I knew that I was going to have to use the negative space to make them. Well, as you can see, I did it. I like this one.

So, we have until Thursday to make number 30. I have managed to make at least one painting between Monday and Thursday in each of the weeks of the challenge. And, if worse came to the worse and I hadn't done anything by Thursday I could dash off any old rubbish then. But, after having seen what I think is a big improvement in my watercolours  during this year's challenge, I don't want to cop out. I want to finish with something I think is good. 

So, having said that, I have bitten the proverbial bullet, and am doing another Mumbles tram, in what I think is a more complicated view to paint. 

I started it this evening, not thinking for one minute I would finish it tonight, and indeed I haven't. The thinking behind it was that since I've already started it, then I think this will give me the push to work on it over the next couple of days. I thought that you might like to look at the process of what I'd like to refer to as 'coaxing the picture onto the paper'. Yeah, that's pretentious, isn't it. Still, if you're ready, here we go:-

I'll be honest with you, it didn't occur to me to take process photos until I'd got this far. Now, as I try to explain my thought processes, please remember that I haven't had any lessons, and I'm just having to make it all up as I go along. So my first priority when I do a painting  of an outdoors scene is to get the sky down first. In more than one of this year's paintings I've had some success painting directly n top of the sky. In this case though I thought it would be a better idea to paint in the top of the tram first, This allowed me to try to judge the size of it, and in order to get this right I did paint in part of the tram's basic skeleton. In the foreground you can see one of the biggest challenges in this painting, which is the railings. 

It would make a lot more sense, I'm sure, to complete one part of the painting before moving on to another. But I primarily paint for pleasure, and when I paint I get whims to move on to a different part of the painting. Actually there was a sort of rationale behind doing part of a large tree, and part of the station building. They provide reference for me and help me plan out the rest of the composition. The pavement leading to the station also gives me another perspective line. even when I'm not making a direct watercolour I don't sketch out perspective lines, but I draw them with my eye. Having painted some of the skeleton of the tram I had a couple of perspective lines, which enabled me to work on the railings. In these early stages of a painting, you have to have faith that what you're trying to produce will eventually appear, and not worry that your painting really doesn't look much to write home about right now.

So, by this third photo I've added roofs to the station, and done more work shading the front of the tram. Whenever I paint a tram it's always a watershed moment when you first add interior details because it really starts to show you whether it is going to work out . . . or not. At this stage I was still worried about how I was going to fill the amount of white space.

By this stage I'd worked on extending the tree. The contrast between the different greens of the tree, and the pillar box red of the tram are nice. I've added just a little more definition to the station, and to the left of the station, between the building and the tram, I've painted in the first of three parked cars in this space. I've also extended the pavement and put in the framework of the station sign. Look between the crown of the tree and the tram. I also painted in the mountain behind,

This is where I've finished for the evening now. Now I've painted in the upper front interiors in the windows the tram looks miles better. The front end of the tram is pretty much finished now. I've also painted in the other 2 cars and the buildings between the station and the tram, To the right of the station I've also extended the platform to where it ends, and also painted in the van  and the post box beside. So the centre of the painting might not be finished - we still have work on the track bed to do and railings to add - but there's enough there that I'm starting to have a pretty good idea what the centre of the painting will look like when it's done. The right and the left, not so much yet. Watch this space. 

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge 2022: 26- 28

 Yes, one the one hand we're nearly there now, good people, but on the other hand today is the last non working day of the month for me. And we have to be done by Thursday. So I've been cracking on this weekend. Here's 26:-

26) The Waverley

The Waverley is quite a famous old lady, although she's maybe not s old as you've maybe expect, having been built as recently as 196. She is the world's last sea going paddle steamer. 

27) Port Talbot Plaza Cinema

This is the art deco frontage of the Plaza CInema in Port Talbot. I've sketched this one many times, and even painted it in acrylic, although never before in watercolour. The acrylic version was actually based on exactly the same view, although you'll notice that I did change the message on the board to an advert for Gone with the Wind in that painting. 

Acrylic Port Talbot Plaza - painted c. 2016

As for number 28, well, I followed the prompt for the day on Sketching Every Day, this being Elton John Playlist. I loved this one because it meant that once I'd done his face, I could just go mad with the colour which made it a very quick painting to complete.

28) Sir Elton John

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge 25

 Okay, so here's the latest on the challenge. You remember number 17? No? Oh, do pay attention 007. It was the Mumbles tram I posted last weekend. That has become the second of this year's direct watercolour crop to be snapped up, and the first to be sold. Enough of such boasting.

So, I've already done two of my favourite transport subjects, a tram and a train. Yesterday evening I started this racing car that I finished this morning. 

25) Practice at Goodwood

I'm pleased with this one, not least because it's so much better than last year's attempt at a racing car - 

I mean, it's not terrible, but it's sketchy and it is only really half a picture. One of the differences between what I've done in the past, and what I've been doing this year, is that I've been making a conscious attempt to 'fill the paper' or, put it another way, to paint the whole scene rather than just the main subject of it. Of course, it does mean that the paintings take longer. Last year's racing car took less than an hour. Altogether I don't think that this year's took much less than four or five hours.

Shal I let you into a little secret about today's painting? Why not? This is the first that I've made on A3 this year. I just felt that even simplifying the details from my reference as I have, it would still be easier to work more of the details in if I went for a larger piece of paper. I think that this has been a sensible choice. 

2022 Watercolour Challenge 24 and Mumbles Sketch Meet

What with the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge 2022, it’s been a little while since I made any ink sketches. Last night there was a sketch meet in Mumbles. That’s the other side of Swansea and must be a good dozen or so miles from home. The idea was to take advantage of the light evenings, and it just so happened that yesterday was bathed in glorious sunshine. There were just three of us who met, but that was fine. I hadn’t met either of the others before, but I’ve known one of them, David, on the internet for a few years, and admired his sketches of Swansea and the local area.

Okay, so if you’ve never taken part in a sketch meet, or a sketch crawl before, here’s how it works. You start off meeting at a particular location at a pre-arranged time. You agree together when you’re going to meet up, and then you go off on your separate ways to sketch, well, whatever takes your fancy in the locality, really. I made three sketches in an hour and a half, which is pretty much lightning fast for me nowadays.

I suspect that for most people, the meeting up at the end and sharing your work and chatting is the highlight of any sketch meet. It certainly is for me. And when we did meet up last night, I surprised myself with something which just slipped out. The others had both used watercolour – bloody well too if you want my opinion. I forewent the opportunity for direct watercolour urban sketching, and just used pen. Feeling I should say something by way of an apology I explained that I was doing the 30x30 direct watercolour challenge, and so felt watercoloured out. Then this came out,

“I feel I struggle with colour in general. I know who I am as an ink sketcher, but I don’t know who I am as a watercolour painter.” Written on the page like this it sounds pretentious. But it really wasn’t meant that way. As an ink sketcher, I do know who I am. I know what I can do, and when I look at something I want to draw in ink I know how I am going to approach it. Usually, what I end up with looks pretty much the way that I intended when I started. This doesn’t mean I can’t get better, and it doesn’t mean I can’t ever try something different with it. What it means is, the core of what makes me whatever I am as an ink sketcher is set, and that’s not going to change.

It’s not the same for me with paint. Even on a bad day I feel competent as an ink sketcher. Even on a good day I rarely feel competent as a painter. That’s something I’m learning to live with. And the ironic thing is that the more I accept my limitations and start to enjoy watercolour painting just for the fun of doing it, the better my watercolour painting becomes. It’s not just me who sees an improvement between what I produced in the 30x30 challenge in 2021 and what I’m producing this year. If we take my favourite so far this year, the Swansea Mumbles tram, it isn’t just that it’s so much better than what I produced last year. It’s that it’s so much better than pretty much any watercolour I’ve painted – even when I’ve sketched the design out first in pencil. Within a day of me putting it up for auction, I already had an offer to buy it.

So here we are, with 8 days left in the month and 6 paintings left to produce. Now, I could just dash off some quite simple things and even if they were total rubbish, taking the 30 pictures as a whole they would still exceed 2021’s in quality, if not in terms of monetary value. Well, be fair, I did have that extravagant tube station commission last year.

So - number 24. This is an illustrative piece of Scottish folk hero Rob Roy Macgregor. 

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge - 22 and 23

 I'm not very well at the moment, I'm sorry to say. I've got some kind of virus which has gone through everyone in my house in the last few days. We're all covid negative, but it gives you a bad chest, a sore throat and a head in a bucket. Still, a prompt on this month's Sketching Every Day is National selfie day. So here it is:-

This is so close to being god. That bloody left eye is just slightly too low. If it was just a millimetre or two higher up then I'd be delighted with this. So I decided to have another go at a portrait for number 23 - here it is:-

Yes, someone slightly more famous than me. Considering the fact that this is direct watercolour, I'm pretty pleased- I don't think you could mistake who it's meant to be. Also I really like the way the out of focus, shadowy guys in suits behind her have come out. 

Not the first time I've depicted Her Majesty the Queen, but the last time was an ink sketch: - 

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge - 18 - 21

 Now, you might be asking yourself, what is he doing posting  all at the same time? Well, the fact is that I finished number 18 this morning, and painted all of the other three today. 

18) Metropolitan Railway No.1 at Ealing Broadway Station

Yes, having painted a tram and been delighted with the result, yesterday saw me begin this painting of a steam excursion pulled by a restored original Metropolitan Railway locomotive into Ealing Broadway, my home borough. This took me ages yesterday and I didn't even finish it. Mind you I was coming down with a virus. That's my excuse. Still, it did cause me a certain amount of anxiety, since my strategy for the 30x30 challenge is to go like the clappers at the weekend and produce as many paintings as I can. One alone on a Saturday won't cut it.

19) Hippo

So, as I said, the plan is usually to go like the clappers on a weekend. So as soon as I'd untaped the previous one from the board, I taped another piece of paper down, and knocked out this hippo in double quick time. And I'm really pleased with it too! Considering how quickly I knocked it out, it's pretty much what I was trying to do.

20) Puffin Billy

When I was thinking about what to paint before the start of the challenge, I did promise myself a couple of simpler subjects. This is one of them, and it was even quicker than the hippo. I've been keeping Billy the puffin in my back pocket just in case I was starting to feel behind schedule and he was just what I needed today. So much so that I felt fresh enough to do one more today:-

21) Menai Bridge, Anglesey

3 weeks ago I took a wonderful road trip with my youngest daughter, Jess and my son in law Dan. On the way back we drove over this, the beautiful Menai Suspension bridge. As it happens this is a subject I've done for the challenge before, back in 2019. I know which I prefer, but you see what you think:-

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge Nos 16 and 17

 This next I actually painted on Sunday evening: -

I call this one the lowdown about the showdown after the hoe down. Neither the title, or the picture are that great. Oh, I think that this one would have counted as one of the better ones had I painted it last year, but this year as a whole my work has been so much better. I think. Hence this next picture, which I began on Tuesday, but only finished this evening - lot of distractions this week - 

I'm really pleased with this, in particular with the colours. To prove my point, here's the Swansea Tram painting which was one of 2021's direct watercolours: - 

Yeah, the tram itself is okay, but the rest of it is really nothing to write home about. It still sold, mind you. 

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge: 14 and 15

 Halfway there, dearly beloved and 3 days ahead of schedule. I shan't lie to you, the next one was inspired by a prompt on Sketching Every Day coming up later this week. 

14) Tower Bridge in the fog

The prompt wasn't specifically London, but bearing in mind its lasting reputation, despite the fact that the very last of our pea-soupers happened the year before I was born. 

During last year's challenge I think I must have painted or different London Tube stations. Well, they were a very nice little earner. Four out of the five of them sold. Well, I'm not saying this one will sell, but you never know. This is Mornington Crescent Station, made famous ( in the UK) through the eponymous 'game' in Radio 's "I'm sorry, I haven't a clue." Also, although you can't see it, there's a statue of my distant cousin Richard Cobden MP nearby.

2022 30x30 Watercolour challenge - 12 and 13

 Back to proper watercolour paper today. I can see the difference.

12) Copy of an Alain Bedard Painting

I say copy - sadly this isn't very like the original at all. Again, I did my best with it, since this was today's prompt on Sketching Every Day. Google the original, and forget about this copy. It really catches something about France for me - which is a little odd as he's from Quebec City and paints scenes of he city. Well, to be fair, it is a massive French speaking city. 

13) Old Scottish Fisherman

This came out so much better than I expected. I was inspired by an old black and white photo. My 3x great grandfather, James Clark, was a fisherman from Panbride, near Arbroath. He was very young when he died, leaving behind a wife and three boys, the oldest of whom was my own 2x great grandfather.He was a merchant seaman until he met my 2x great grandfather, then he stayed on land, stoking the furaces in a steelworks. 

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge: 11) Lighthouse

 

Not a great deal I can say about this. Running out of watercolour paper I used a sheet from my current sketchpad - thought it would be okay if I stretched it. Did me best. 

2022 30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge 10) Copy of Carme Megam Prat picture of Charlie Chaplin

 

Carme Megam Prat is a very fine artist who makes collages of figures using magazines, newspapers etc. She was set as a prompt on Sketching Every Day, and I thought I'd use a sheet of today's newspaper (TV pages) and paint on it with watercolour to approximate everything else. It's not too bad, when all is said and done. 

As it happens, I have painted Charlie Chappers before for the 2018 Challenge, in monochrome blue - 

2022 Direct Watercolour 9 Ice Cream Parlour

 

This was painted in response to the Sketching Ever Day prompt for today - Ice Cream. Funnily enough, when I started painting after joining the sadly defunct Afan Nedd Artists Group, one of the first things I did was a series of acrylics of booths and boxes, and this picture below was one I sold: - 

The acrylic here is based on a booth on Blackpool's North Pier and I love he Edwardian styling. 

2022 Direct Watercolour Challenge - 7 and 8

 Two more direct watercolours today - here's number 7

Number 7) Caernarvon Castle - North Wales

I visited Caernarfon Castle on Monday with my daughter Jess and my son in law Dan. I've never been to North Wales before, and it was a great day. As well as the star turn, visiting the castle, we also took a short drive across the Britannia Bridge to Anglesey and the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngvllgogrechwrndrobyllantisilogogogoch. I don't guarantee that I've got the spelling right. 

Number 8 - Long John Silver

This is one of my favourite characters from literature, Long John Silver. Fair play to old Robert Louis Stevenson, he could write a bit when he put his mind to it. 

So it turns out that I haven't got Tenniel and Alice out of my system yet

 Pretty much what it says up there. I did think that what with starting the 30 x 30 challenge pretty much all of my art time was going to be taken up with making the paintings. Yet last night, I sat down with the telly, and the itch began. Same thing again this morning. So here's the latest 2 copies - both are from Looking Glass.

2022 Direct Watercolour Challenge - number 6

 

Number 6 - Horse Race

After the success of the last painting - my direct watercolour of Margam Castle, I decide to go for another where I paint the whole scene rather than just the main detail. In the last year's challenge I might well have just painted the lead horse and the jockey. The way that I did this was to pain the green field, and the blue sky first, covering the whole length of the paper. This has it's benefits and also its drawbacks as well. The benefits are that I really like the evenness of the texture of the sky. The drawback is that it means you're painting the details of the horses and jockeys on top of the blue sky. It's difficult to make the colours really pop. Nonetheless, I'm really pleased with the way it's come out. There's something about horse racing which I find very appealing as a subject to paint. I never watch horse racing, and don't even bet on the Grand National every year like I used to. But as a subject for painting, I love it. 

2022 30x30 Watercolour Challenge

 Okay, so for today's number 3, I took the prompt from Sketching Every Day, which was featured artist Pat Katz. Pat Katz is a Canadian artist whom I wasn't previously familiar with, but I think she's just great. This is my direct watercolour copy of an original Pat Katz. Nowhere near as good as the original of course, which I suggest you search for and see for yourself. 

This I actually made a couple of days ago. Today I made the next two. An upcoming prompt for tomorrow on Sketching Every Day is Toulouse Lautrec. This is what I've made: -

I think that you should always try to be objective when you look at your own work, but I can't help being really pleased with the way this one came out. I decided at first that I wasn't going to copy a painting or poster, and so I found a black and white photograph of the lasd himself. In previous years I've had some success painting from old photos using monochrome blue, and so I gave the whole piece of paper a light blue wash, and then painted the face on the left. It was quick, and I was so pleased with the way it turned out it suddenly occurred to me to copy the poster onto the right, and make it look as if the poster is ripped at the top. I'm really pleased with the result. The scan has made the silhouetted man on he poster grey when it is actually mauve, but still, I'm really happy to have made something I really like so early in the challenge.

Going for a lap of honour, then, I made this painting of Port Talbot's local stately home, Margam Park. I own it actually. Well, sort of. The council actually owns it, but as a ratepayer in Port Talbot, that's pretty much the same thing, isn't it?

Again, I'm really pleased with this. It looks like it's meant to look - and I'm not used to that happening much with my watercolours. After saying this it will probably all be downhill from here, but I've completed one sixth of the challenge, and the Sean Connery is probably the weakest so far, and even that does lok like him (a bit). 

(Mock) Mock Turtles

 Right, so yesterday evening, after I put the watercolours away, I was watching TV and very often, when I'm watching I'll sketch with a pen at the same time. I thought to myself - what haven't I done with regards to the Alice books yet? Tenniel alone produced getting on for 100 illustrations for the two books altogether. One thing that occurred to me was that I haven't done the mock turtle yet. So I made this copy last night.

It really is the archetypal image of the Mock Turtle, and for me serves as something of a good demonstration of he imaginative genius of Tenniel. Carroll's own drawing of the Mock Turtle for 'Alice's Adventures Underground', the original handmade manuscript that he gave to Alice Liddell, it looks like a seal wearing plate armour. In the description n "Alice in Wonderland"  it says "I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is."

"It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from," said the Queen." Back in the day, green turtle soup was looked on as a delicacy. Thankfully we know better now. Due to the scarcity of turtles - hardly surprising since humans kept making them into soup, mock turtle soup was made of an alternative, using ground beef and offal. Hence Tenniel's decision to give his mock turtle attributes of both cow and turtle. 

This conception of the character has proven difficult for illustrators who came after to get away from. Here's my copy of dear old Arthur Rackham's

Again, it is instantly recognisable as the Mock Turtle, because it is pretty much the same in all the essentials as Tenniel's. Coming forward in time four decades, we have my copy of Mervyn Peake's conception of the character, here dancing around Alice with the gryphon:-

Superficially it's different. Once again Peake uses the strategy of using movement, which does have the effect of making his illustrations look different from Tenniel's. Instead of giving the character 2 turtle flippers and two cow legs, he gives him  human limbs instead. I'd dare say that the head is a sheep's rather than a cow's. Even so, though, the shell and the head are still obeying the Tenniel convention of a creature combining domesticated mammal and turtle attributes.

I don't know if Ralph Steadman drew the Mock Turtle for his Alice in Wonderland, but I haven't been able to find a copy of it if he did. All of which meant that I was beginning to despair of finding an illustration of the character other than Tenniel's which metaphorically blew my socks off. Then I came to Charles Robinson again. This is my copy of his illustration:-

Can you believe that this was made in 1907? Charles Robinson's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland are well worth finding. Some of them are very simple, and look unremarkable. Others, though, are stunning demonstrations of graphic illustration decades ahead of his time. In Robinson's illustration, the mock turtle looks like a real turtle, but what an illustration it is. 

2022 30x30 challenge 2022

 This one is a response to today's prompt in Sketching Every Day on Facebook. The prompt is 'shaken, not stirred', although I did quip that mine should possibly be called 'Shaken not Shtirred'. My scanner really doesn't do me any favours with colours - anything blue is either made grey or white, and anything with even a hint of yellow is exaggerated. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.