COVID Birthday

Been stuck in Lockdown and unable to shop properly we rely on a friend to get us treats from Marks and Spencer. On my birthday to my surprise I had a nicely brought shop card. In handing me my card Debs announced that I owed my friend £14 for a selection of cards... 

Whistling throw

 

Seeing through on a promise to Samuel I brought him a toy for being good. Debs was in the toilet and I was guarding the handbag and stuff. The whistling toy was just inside the shop and I gave Samuel the money to buy it himself. I could just about see the shop counter and he managed brilliantly.

On the beach the whistling toy worked great, but it was a really hot day and we kept dipping our feet in the sea to cool dow

Debs drank coke leaning against the rocks.

 

Coppet beach location sketches

Little red ice cream van

 

Walking from Wisemans bay to Saundersfoot is hungry work. We stopped daily at the little Ed ice cream van and sat to watch the tide. It wa a handy half way stop to the heritage park where we were staying.

The pathway itself is the old narrow gauge railway that took coal from hertiage park to the harbour at Saundersfoot. I imagine the pathway has been made wider with the sea defence, but the two tunnels that you pass through on the way are 100 per cent original. Apart from the LEDs in the path.

Location sketch of Wisemans bay.

Crocs on rocks

 

It was a windy day when we stopped on the south Tenby beach in front of the harbour. The tide was coming in and the jelly fish were collecting on the sand.

It turns out I'm not great with heights and when three young lads stated to climb the rock on the beach I became queezy. The fact they were wearing crocs didn't help. Who wears crocs to climb? Bear feet would propbably be better.

Fortunately they made it to the top and down again without any incident. I'm thinking of buying some crocs to see if they help my fear of heights.

Location sketches of Tenby harbour.

 

High tide

 

The town of Tenby is split into a north and south beach. The yellow sands stretch a far a the eye can see almost drawled by the towering cliffs that the town sits on. Even the holiday brochures highlight the magnificent beaches.

It was with high expectations that we took our locally made pasties to that wonderful beach. Which seemed everso slighlty over crowded. It was high tide at Tenby and the beach had all but disappeared. We found a very small place to sit and eat lunch as the hundred odd steps back to the top of the cliffs seemed like an incredibly long journey.

A sketch of the steps that I did after lunch, listening to two medical students discussing their morning...

 

Bottle top glasses

 

There is nothing like fish and chip when you are on holiday. Saudersfoot has 2 marvellous establishments and we found ourselves waiting forever in the main one on the harbour front. This led to some serious people watching.

The main person serving had the biggest glasses that I have ever seen, and I lived through the eighties. Along with this she has an eye watering squint and the ability to see into next week. I lost my train of thought several times as I tried to stare into her eyes and realised I was having to look through my ear.

The old woman serving in the back ground was mainly holding boxes while a shirted man shovelled chips in rapid fire. It was a well oiled machine with orders flying into the restaurant and to the take away point. Pity then that our order had been forgotten and we sat and waited for theee quarters of an hour.

I'm sure this was revenge by the squinty-eye girl who found my staring quite obnoxious.

Paper planes

 

Paper planes sketch

Oscar and his little brother were frequent visitors to our cabin.

To stop them reengineering Sam's Lego and because we had started origami in the evening - I made three paper planes for racing across the room. I mean where is the danger?

Chaos quickly ensued as the first plane landed in the lampshade. The competition soon changed to who could land the plane in the lampshade.

Swiftly followed by, 'oops my plane has landed in the washing up bowl...and it now flies like a brick.

When a spider lands on your face...

I like to think of the noise I make as a manly sound, a strange high pitched screech, when spiders attack. And by attack I mean swing round in front of me. (I'm sure at the right pitch spiders hate this sound).
In the Welsh cabin in the middle of the night it was a different story. With a swift but firm dusting off action if sent the spider that had been dancing on my face and arm, flying to the bottom of the bed. Or so I thought.
'I just killed a spider', I said to Debs.
'Yeah, right', she responded and proceeded to take advantage of me waking her by going to the toilet. Taking her lead I went to the toilet in the second loo in our rented cabin. (Very posh, two loos in a cabin).
On returning to bed Debs remarked, 'What's that mess on the sheets?'
Far from anything inappropriate it turned out to be the unfortunate remains of a squashed spider body and inexplicably two spider legs.
Did this experience help my phobia...Apparantly not. A spider recently leapt out at me from the rabbit hutch whilst I was cleaning it - to a round of manly screams.

 

Dave had made some money finding car keys, but what he really dreamed of was Dorset Gold!

During our Epic coastal walk – which might have been as far as 6 miles! – you get to see all sorts of people.

Nothing amuses me more, (well other than people falling off of water skies), than watching people using metal detectors on the beach. Pecking around like chickens searching for feed, finding only bear cans and metal buttons.

The National Geographic website can only be blamed for encouraging these people, follow this link to see the most unusual finds including a model T ford – I Bet the AA even managed to restart it, after they emptied the carburettor of sand.

Come rain or shine dyslexic Diane ate her sandwiches and giggled at the word Groynes.

 

During our epic walk from Sandbanks to Bournemouth, we experienced a wide variety of British weather.

But with our Stiff upper lips we carried on regardless, taking shelter where possible. And during one period of sheltering I saw Diane who was sat on a bench, holding a see-through umbrella – eating ice cream.

How very British.

A groynes is a sea defence - Wood sunk in the ground to ward off the approaching tide from stealing the sand.

I’m not sure what word Diane saw.

A Christmas Gift or Special Occasion?

Are you looking for something different for a Christmas present?  Why not challenge me to produce a cartoon for you?

Do you have a family story which could be illustrated?

Let me know and I'll produce a cartoon for you. I use watercolour and the images fit within a normal A4 frame.

Here is an example of my work plus a recommendation.

 

I'm dead chuffed that I managed to keep quiet beforehand (it was a struggle). And, when he saw it, Husband was also dead chuffed. It's not often I've managed to give him a complete surprise or something that's unique. At least, not something he's liked. Helen Gazeley read the full review here

Parrots and bouncy castles at Woodcote Steam Rally

The parrot man is the UK's only travelling parrot show. I forgot to make a note of his website but he was very entertaining, especially when his untrained parrot bit him. On a more serious note the parrot man owns a parrot sanctuary where he re-homes birds. He goes round schools and entertains the children.

So with an airshow, classic cars, traction engines and the parrot man, what did Samuel like the most at Woodcote steam rally? The bouncy castle.

There were 2 bouncy castles and for a few quid you got 15 minutes but a notice quite clearly said that everyone must pay with no exceptions. I over heard one parent say, 'I'm not paying 3 quid to get my son off of that and the bloke knows it, he's on to a good thing.'

Samel enjoyed the bouncy castles and it did prove difficult to get his attention to get him off. And no I didn't pay. I waited patiently for half an hour. The I bribed him with an ice cream.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Postcards from Sam

 

I have been experimenting on ways to record the days out that we enjoy with Samuel. One of our favourite places to visit is Windsor although it usually rains as soon as we set foot across Alma’s car park.

On this occasion we had lunch in Zizzi’s, fed the ducks, I was ill in the changing rooms of Fat Face and I had to fix the brake on the buggy in Daniels superstore. Apart from that is was a fantastic day.

Birthday celebrations with Sam

I was quietly pleased with this portrait of Samuel – even more so when I showed Sam and he recognised himself! This is a watercolour sketch on cartridge paper. This was drawn from a phone I took while at a wedding.

Samuel is in the yellow t-shirt and in a row of babies born around the same time. In order from left to right, Lexi, Alex, Henry, Oscar, Samantha and Samuel.

This is a cartoon sketch of Samuel at Odds Farm on the tractor. I have created a background to include sheep – in reality there was a muddy looking pond with a solitary duck and a plastic cow. At Odd’s Farm I was the only one who fed the animals, Sam and Debs tried but left me too it!

This is a incomplete painting that I started…It’s Samuel on another tractor at Odd’s Farm but it didn’t work for me in the end.There are some nice passages of light and dark but I didn’t manage to get the wet-in-wet effects that I was after that worked well for the first portrait in this series of sketches. I might try it again as part of my painting a day for May 2012.

Beating boredom, babies and chips

Royal Brompton Incarceration Tour (6 of 6)

What follows is a series of very random sketches.

‘Mummy, Daddy missing fix it’  - Having a son and Cystic Fibrosis is a challenge when you are fit and well. Skype offers a unique way to communicate with family while you are cooped up in hospital. Sam was a bit surprised to see Daddy on the Ipad when the normal viewing was Justin’s house followed by Charlie bear. And in the sketch below I was upstaged by Space Chimps and as I tried to say hello to Sam I knew my time with him on my Sony Xperia Ray would be cut short with the words ‘…Bye Daddy, Monkeys on.’ Thanks Sam.

As mentioned before the Royal Brompton Hospital has won awards for its food. Below is what was described as fish and chips – I’m a snob and I like Haddock. This was most definitely a white fish in batter production. But in the Royal Brompton Hospital all is not lost when you have Cystic Fibrosis and the additional call menu – order from the normal rations or top up with greasy spoon tucker…Doily Hell as one person commented on Facebook.

And now some nice Town houses that I saw on some walks I managed around the Chelsea and Hammersmith area!

Jurassic afternoon stroll

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour 2012 (5 of 5)

Having signed my life away to the Foulis ward register and promised not to return drunk and be back in time for tea I hit the streets of Old London Town in search of adventure and Dinosaurs at the natural history museum where I was promised history would come alive by there website…

I have to day that the experience did take me back in time…to school day trips. There were lots of school kids running about making fun of the animatronics. Trying to find innuendo in all the items of the cleverly placed gift shop at the end of the dinosaur exhibit.

So the next sketch is the Dinosaur in the main hall of the Natural history museum.

Walking back to the hospital it occurred to me that there are a lot of mopeds in London and I stopped to draw them – completely missing the opportunity to draw the Row of Boris Battery Bikes.

I worked up the original sketch into the following finished painting.

On of the things I tried to find in the urban London jungle was hidden beauty – I think I found it in the run down garages in a side street off of Cromwell Road. I was particularly struck by the bright green doors at the end of the alley way.

 

Find more like these…

Out and about in Old London Town…

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour - 3 of 5

It is very boring in hospital especially when you are just waiting for IV drugs to be administered 3 times a day. To relive the monotony at the Royal Brompton Hospital you are encouraged to go out and about for a walk. You have to sign a disclaimer to say you will come back and failure to return will mean your bed will be reallocated after 24 hours. Apparently this is to help focus the young minds of teenagers who see the afternoon walk as an escape route to more exciting ways to enjoy London – and in the process miss their medication. I had to sign it. I am 39.

 

So where to go in Old London Town? I walked the main Fulham Road high street and came across a MandS – Brilliant for Milkshakes, a fantastic book shop and the worlds first and I believe only Virgin only fitness club – Although I may have read the sign wrong…But my favourite outings was to Albert Bridge as the last time I was in London it was being renovated. It has been painted shockingly in lime/yellow green and light blue. Despite this is remains an amazing structure and one that I sketched in pen and ink.

The Guard house on the Bridge has this rather out dated message – ‘All troops must break step when marching over this bridge’ It seems odd now, that the pounding of booted feet, should cause so much structural uncertainty that a notice was required. Yet today thousands of Lorries, cars and pedestrians pass over the bridge without a hitch and without noticing the stark warning. Maybe steel is stronger these days?

It was while I was drawing the guard house that is occurred to me the Congestion Charge cameras had been moved. I park regularly in Kensington so I looked it up on the web to find out what new technology is being used to record the congestion charge stickers on windscreens – Only to find out the congestion zone has moved and I have been paying £10 for no reason for 8 months…Not impressed. Thank –you Boris.

 

Read more from the Royal Brompton Incarceration sketch tour…

Why is frosted glass so hard to find in London?

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour – (2 of 5)

Okay so the Royal Brompton hospital Cystic Fibrosis Unit, sounds like the Hilton hotel, right? TV, computer, En suite…But I forgot to mention that after every meal time for the first 48 hours there was a small prick to test for Diabetes – regardless of whether you have the complaint or not. If a prick is missed the 48 hours is reset. So you can be sure I was ringing the nurses for my prick after every mealtime.

The sketch above is the view from my narrow window in my room. I can see across to the Nurses Quarters and the stair well. At night I developed a game to guess which room a person lived in, by watching to see what lights come on as people climbed the stairs to their accommodation. A bit like in Sneakers. I noticed that people left items on their window ledges – most notable running shoes, bottles of drink and a big red plastic bag – I’m guessing full of rubbish and part of an extreme refuse collection. A sport that seemed to start at 4 in the morning with the clearing up of bottles from the public house at the end of the alley. One day it rained and all the possessions got wet.

This sketch is of my view from my en-suite see-through window and quite a surprise for me as I am used to frosted glass in a bathroom. I guess when you are 4 floors up dignity goes out the window.

 

More from the Royal Brompton Incarceration sketch tour…

A touch of realism

The last two sketches of VW Camper vans have been stylised in my cartooning style. The front end of these images have been squarer and probably more like the original designs before the vans was put through a aerodynamic wind tunnel! This is a more traditional watercolour using layering of colour to build up the picture. I don’t often work this way preferring to use a direct painting method and mixing the colours I need on the palette and merging them on the paper. The layering technique requires more patience and drying times. I usually start a watercolour like this in the week when I haven’t much time this forces me to concentrate on each layer and to plan each brush stroke. Often to good effect.

Previous VW Camper Vans – Orange and Green

Work in Progress…

I am currently working on some ideas for a book illustration and finishing the urban sketches that I did while I was in hospital. More about that next time…

These boots were meant for walking…

Last sketch of my shoes – hopefully next week will be better weather for urban sketching!

 

Other shoe related posts :-

 

wot no laces…?

Oh there’s the laces…