Combustion Engine Construction

This is my Dad making an attempt to convert my son into loving engines just as much as he does.  He did a really great job in fact and Michael, still wearing his Man U kit, kept going the whole time.

Well done Dad, but I'm not sure if you've converted him just yet!

This is a cut down version of a larger picture doesn't seem to work.  It's just about ok in this form but the original I really don't like and I'm not entirely sure what went wrong.  

The sketch was pretty well executed and the characters seem well connected, which was important in this piece.  

Coventry Cathedral Carol Service 2014

This is my effort down at the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Carol Service Saturday 20th December 2014.  Live sketch during the preparations for the service.  The Jaguar Landrover brass band were spectacular.  I'm used to sketching to acoustic/rock music so this was quite a bit different.  I wasn't going to colour it, but did so in the end although the photo looks a bit washed out.  Key features in the pic are the guys on the trombones, the chap on the drums quite often wasn't playing.  The girl in the middle was from the Coventry choir and the lady above the trombone players was from the cathedral.  Oh, and the lectern had an golden eagle on top of it.  A great service - definitely worth the trip up to see the folks! 

A Dynamos Christmas - Poem

One thing you don't know about me

Is that into the future I can see
When you're tucked in and they turned out the lights
This is the tale of one Christmas night

It was late at night on the eve of Noel
That coach Ben heard the sound of his doorbell
A neighbour called by and said that he saw
a mysterious shape by the pavilion front door

Lucy said 'Ben you must get down there fast
there's no way we're letting a robber get past'
Ben said 'I'll go there

without a delay'
'I'll not let some villain
ruin my Christmas day'

Before he left he rang a number
it was Jon who got woken from his drunken slumber
Jon called Steve and he called Ben
till everyone knew, even Coach Glen

5 minutes later the team were in place
they were all ready to see what they faced
they crept over to the pavillion grounds
and stealthily treading didn't make any sounds

'What’s that?' said Richard and there they could see
someone was moving over by the trees
'I'll sort this out'

Tom said 'This looks wrong'
'No way' said the others 'we'll all come along'

And so it was that the Dynamos team
some on all fours

they approached unseen

When Lloyd said 'go' they all did charge
and into the figure they all did barge

'Ow' said the victim, and then with a shout
'I've slipped a disc and my back's been put out'
One coach looked closer, I think it was Steve'
'It is father Christmas,
he was gathering leaves'
'I cannot believe it,
enough of this banter
I'm afraid to inform you
that we've just mugged Santa'

'That's right' we we're stopping to get reindeer fuel
'But I can't continue
and now feel a fool'
'I think that because
my back has just popped
Christmas this year
will have to be stopped'

Ben rubbed his chin in a thoughtful way
he opened his mouth and was heard to say
'We'll sort it Santa
never mind your back
just show us where you keep
your Christmas present sack'

He pointed to the side of the Pavillion
The sleigh was right by where the story had begun
'I'm really not sure, but go if you must
but first you'll need some of my magic dust'

So the coaches were sprinkled and started to glow
and their coats did sparkle a green dynamo
The reindeers seemed friendly and ate up their leaves
and after seemed ready to fly through the trees

Glen grabbed the reins as he knew what to do
The night would be long, but they would all pull through
Ben was on Rudolph and Jon was on cupid
Tom said 'I must say we look a bit stupid'

'Heya' Glen cried and rattled the reins
'To win through the night you'll need all my brains'

But Rudolph wasn't ready

and just as they started
The red nosed reindeer
unfortunately farted

The sleigh started moving faster and faster
With Glen at the helm like a chariot master
And before they reached the dynamos drive
The sleigh lifted off
And flew into the sky

'Whoopsy' shouted Jon as he didn't like heights
but the rest were enjoying the bright christmas lights
so their journey had started
and though coach Ben shivered
a world full of presents
had to be delivered

First they did France and then Japan

Glen was the driver but was lacking a plan
and slowly by slowly countries were ticked off
by China coach Jon

had developed a cough

In New York Ben MH cut the top of his knee
This happened as he was shot

out top of the chimney
But this was by no means a delivery disaster
As Stupples had a green dynamos plaster

The night was long and to keep spirits alive
Jon started singing some subrosa 5

And as they were passing Miami Beach

Ben gave them all a motivational speech

Glen thought it handy
That there was so much brandy
But by-the-time that they

got the sleigh to Brazil
Some of the coaches were feeling quite ill

although to be fair there was a valid suggestion

that the mince pies they’d eaten had caused indigestion

By now there was chatter and some conversation

about Glen and his skills in world navigation

They'd been to Egypt, Hawaii and Finland

But weren't too sure 

if they'd ever find England

But all was well as where drinking's concerned

back home is the place that we've all returned

So they finally saw England

the last on the list
Steve said 'tomorrow I'm definitely getting a nice cup of cocoa'

But the police pulled them over 

as they flew in to Dover
Glen said 'it's ok my flying is fine'
But he failed to walk in a very straight line
In the end it turned out that the cops let them off
As Jon was not well with a worsening cough

So They covered Great Britain East South and West

Nat was quite worried and was feeling distressed

But they landed back down at the pedestal pitch

All presents delivered with hardly a hitch

Santa was happy and his back was now sorted

Fortunately Christmas had not been aborted

He got on his sleigh

giving all a high five

and 10 seconds later was off in the sky

So kids when you see your friends in 20 15

and tell them about what you've done and you've seen
you can tell them all

with dramatic pause
that you've kindof seen Mummy kissing Santa Claus

So this is the end of the Dynamos story
Next time one of you'd better call Rory

Sepp Blatter Ethics Poem

I'm wondering about
Mr Blatter
and why ethics to him
don't seem to matter

I'm confused about
the cup in Qatar
and changing the dates
not before but after
It would appear that
the country's too hot
to allow the players
to hit the right spot

The review by
Mr Michael Garcia
may hide a side
to his career
for it is a choice
of a strange sort
not to release
his lengthy report

So Sepp when you go
to bed tonight
wake in the morning
and set things right
for it's never been
anyone's intention
to waste time on
a 'legally appropriate version'

Ballerina by Emily

This isn't by me but by my neice Emily - it was taken from a bronze of a ballerina.  I think it's fantastic!  I bask in the reflected glory of this pic :D

Dave Bellevue acoustic open mic 14/12/14

This is Dave getting into things at the Bellevue

Kassie the Forest Faerie

This is a mini commission so to speak from a relative over in Ireland (say hi, Kassie) I took a photo from her, the log from the Eden Project and the wings of a swallows butterfly, put them all in a big bucket, sloshed them round a bit and then into the oven for a half an hour on gas mark 7 a came out with this.

I like to think of her as a teeny tiny fairy sitting on the horn of some long dead beast from the forest.

100th art post - a retrospective!

Ok so this is my 100th post so it had better be good.

I thought I would go for a very brief retrospective!

So I used to do this sort of thing - an oil reproduction of a Van Gogh

 This is all quite attractive, but they were never my experiences, just copies, but I did learn plenty from them along the way.

This was a live sketch of the dog we were looking after - can't believe it was 2 years ago.  I'd still be happy with this sketch now.

Oils take a long time to produce and this was one of my early pen and washes.  It's not good at all! I was using watercolour pencils which I though were great to begin with.  I should say a big thanks to the urban sketching community http://www.urbansketchers.org/ at this stage as I wouldn't have got started on this without them.

 It was when  did this one that I realised that me and watercolour pencils would never get on that well

 Looks like I slotted in a little oil on the way - in many respects this is one of my most significant pieces as it was the first one where I started to use 'triangles' of varying size etc in order to construct the image.  In this case it was relatively straightforward, but the principles still apply today when I do live sketching only the triangles only exist in the minds eye.

 My first watercolour with artists colours.  Not amazing, but without going to a massive amount of trouble I could see a lot of potential

,

 This is the first watercolour that I really liked - still with winsor and newton colours, but works all the same

 This was a medley of live scene sketches whilst the tide came in and a construction of images that I still quite enjoy, especially with the odd labelling in the middle

 Realy fond of this one. By this time I was onto white night watercolours as it was impossible to mix skin colours with the 12 colours I had available to me with the winsor box.  It was also good because the sketch took about 2 minutes and needed all the techniques developed with the triangles and so on.

Not the greatest of photographs, but this was another lightning quick sketch which seems to say plenty, including the fact that winter is coming (although not in the Game of Thrones sense)

This was the first 'statue brought to life' picture.  I really like the whole idea of it.

 Some proper urban sketching - 2 minute of sketching, but says a lot

Another statue brought to life.  This was very strange as I wasn't amazingly pleased with it immediately, but grew to like it (before giving it away)

The next one really says to me that although I previously looked down on watercolour it is great to have a medium that however detailed the microscope the image remains complex.  I also like middle earth!

I wouldn't call this new art form in any way, but it's very much a means of expressing a time and a place - the essence of all urban sketching.  It's quite good to get people to sign their pictures, they are usually better than mine anyway.

Finally, something a bit different - a medley of images brought together - it's starting to feel like real art

Please like it share it and all that - it does keep me going!  Oh an don't suggest I go back to oils - they are a bit messy and take ages :D

over and out

Arts4Every1 open mic

Friday night at the open Mic. Great performances and there should be loads more people going!  Photo before I ruin it with colour...

Lodgings required - Bolg

This is Bolg, he's recently returned from Middle a Earth and is in search of lodgings in the High Wycombe, UK area.  Having had a successful career as a military leader Bolg is now looking to make a move to his true love - the theatre. He's a non-smoking ex Orc leader. Blind in one eye he is of course registered disabled. At 160 years of age he's also a pensioner, but he won't have any trouble on the stairs.  

This painting was taken from a scene in the hobbit - desolation of smaug.  Just after the dwarves have made their escape in the barrels. 

Beth 2

Now in colour. I'm not sure what to make of this.  Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Down the pub

They don't always work, esp as first sketch of the day, but I quite like this one.   Back to the day job in 5.

Maenad Dancers - Dionysus followers

Maenad Dancers - now in colour.

These were taken from the sculptures by Tim Shaw and are located in the Mediterranean section of the Eden Project.

The idea with this was to see how much the statues could be brought to life firstly by sketching them and secondly by adding a bit of colour to finish them off.  

The dancers are followers of the Dionysus, God of the vines and have clearly been on the red stuff!

Rooney - England v Scotland 18/11/2014

Score on the night was Scotland 1 England 3.  I painted this because it felt great to watch the second goal go in.

Quite pleased with the execution. It was supposed to be a prep sketch but in the end I just went for it. I quite like the background colours - I went with blue initially but should really have gone with England red.   The date on his boot is neat as it looks a bit like laces.   

Bellevue listener

From one of the open Mic sessions

Medusa - Lanhydrock house

Sketch of a bust that turned out to be that of Medusa - she looks a bit sad if you ask me, I don't know what she's complaining about at least she has hair and gets to turn people to stone...

Eden Project Bacchus dancers

An extract from the Eden Project sculptures.

Chen Wangting - Tai Chi Founder

This is Chen Wangting, one of the founders of Tai Chi.  He lived from 1580 - 1660.  Not bad in those days.  Did this for my brother's birthday as he's a Tai Chi tutor.

Stag beetle

Just a little stag beetle at the Plymouth natural history museum. Wouldn't want one round my house though!

Bellevue pub 2/11/14 - Mac

This is Mac - he runs the Bellevue Rock Open Mic sessions, and I do love a good honest sketch down there when I can!

Cluedo

Charlotte working out her next suggestion in Cluedo - professor plum in the ballroom with the rope...

One morning at Trecan Farm, Cornwall

Collage of sketches taken during the feeding round on the first day on our holiday.

Phillip

Nice chap I met down the falcon pub whilst sketching.  Spent much of his life as a repairer and restorer of motorcycles.

Pinewood studios - Life of Rock with Brian Perrin

Set production for the shoot on the following day.  Spent about 5 hours sitting in the same spot!

Listener Bellevue open mic Rock 7/9/14

Listener enjoying the sounds down at the Bellevue pub

Jess 2

Signed copy of Jess at the Bellevue open Mic.

Tiny pony

This pony tried to eat my son's top!

Sentinel

Meercat at porfell wildlife park, Cornwall 

Socrates - Polmartin riding stables, cornwall

This is Socrates, a very patient horse at Polmartin riding stables in Cornwall.  He had lost a horseshoe and so wasn't able to go out, and spent most of his time eating his lunch. 

George

Quick one of George in defensive duties!

Ellie - Looe, cornwall

This is a sketch of a little girl playing in the sand down at the beach whilst we were on our hols.  The only reason I know she's called Ellie is because every she kept spraying her sister in sand from her vigorous digging, causing much distress!

Sir Francis Drake - Portsmouth

Sketched this one of Mr Drake when in Portsmouth and came a across a statue of him.  Took about 15 minutes and coloured to in later on.  Drake was the second to circumnavigate the globe - an incredible feat in 1577.

Robin Williams

Nothing I can say that hasn't been said already.  So this is me doing what I do.. 

Belle Vue Rock open mic 3/8/14

Quite liked this one in amongst some fairly average sketching on the day.  Methinks colour required!