Woodcote steam rally

Years ago I used to visit the woodcote steam rally as an exhibitor with a traction engine that my dad built. In recent years I have become a regular paying visitor. There are 2 types of weather at woodcote, hot and wet. This year I was lucky that the weather was hot. Too hot.

At the same time as the steam rally there is usually an airshow that is kind enough to do a fly past over the woodcote rally. This year was the turn of spitfires and a Lancaster bomber. Samuel was a bit concerned that the planes would be too noisey and actually hid under a table at lunch to avoid the noise.

More interesting, from my point of view, than the planes was the expressions on people's faces and the way people were using their phone cameras to take pictures. It would seem gone are the days when people shield their eyes from the sun to watch the action, it's now who can take a picture and put it on Facebook first!

 

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Little and large

Sketched from a photo this is the first stage of a painting I may attempt in the future. I find it is always worthwhile making quick sketches (this one took 10minutes) so that when I'm in the mood to paint a watercolour I have something to paint. Too many times in the past I have been in the mood to paint but I have wasted time looking for inspiration.

The original photo was taken on Ryde beach on the isle of wight and when I use photos I generally only use pictures I have taken of places I have been. That way I can try and capture something of the mood when the picture was taken.

 

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Buckets of water

Using my three experimental colours (quinacridone red and gold plus Windsor violet), I aimed to find the lights and darks in my sketch of Samuel on the beach at Ryde. The nice thing about these colours is, they are all transparent and rarely, for me, produce muddy colours. I used a layering technique to get the darks and the final colour I layered in was q.gold to add brightness around the image - particularly on the back of Sams jacket to enrich the orange.

 

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What you looking at?

 

My son and his little friend Chloe looking at something at Chloe’s parents wedding. I always look for different things to take pictures of when I am at gatherings, people’s expressions can be really great. I have tried to simplify the faces down to basic light and dark areas. I think this has worked apart from Chloe’s eyes which I wish I had not made so detailed. I am also a bit unsure of the proportions of Samuels arm!

The original Sketchbook entry 9 May 2012

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.

Hat’s my boy!

Sketchbook Challenge - 4th May 2012

On a shopping trip to find clothes for Samuel we ended up in Debenhams where he insisted on trying hats on. He looked really cool and in advance of his age plus there were some really nice lights and darks. I think this sketch of Sam, has the potential for a larger finished painting. I am unsure of what to include in the background but feel that the loose effect of the colours drifting off works well.

Half way stage between drawing and painting. I have put in all the darks that make the contrasts with the lights of the skin tones. This is different from the normal working of light against dark. At times it can be easier to work watercolour dark against light especially if you have some light areas the you want to keep.

The finished sketch as it appears in my book.

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.

I’m a martyr to zuma…

Every Tuesday evening I am subjected to cries of, ‘Daddy no away, bottle mummy.' I then have to patiently sit through half an hour of hide-n-seek and maybe an episode of Justine’s house before Samuel will accept his bottle and go to bed. Why do I do this? Because Deborah goes to Zuma. An exercise class with her friends and some bloke called Ian Waite apparently he’s a dancer on BBC’s Strictly come Dancing. Having looked at his website I now realise he’s a bit buff and probably works out a bit. I’m not actually sure why Debs comes home all hot and sweaty. She has shown me the moves she has learnt, but to be quite honest it all looks a bit raunchy. I may have to buff up a bit and infiltrate this gang of giggling girls.

Any guys out there fancy a bit of body buffing?

click for more Samuel related images…

Damn, you Asda and your colourful checkout displays

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for supporting martinsonlinesketchbook this year.

This sketch is of Samuel at the Checkout in Asda last week as we finished our Christmas shopping. As we loaded the conveyor belt I looked up to see that Samuel had taken off his dull grey woollen hat, to replace it with a shiny Father Christmas hat from the handy checkout display. £1 a hat, that’s Asda price. Good job he can’t reach the sweats yet!

See-saw like it’s 1558

Samuel can be quite shy, but he is also has an adventurous spirit. Maybe that’s why a 6 year old talking fluent Spanish attracted his attention. See-saw’s are not as I remember them, nowadays they have springs as well as a pivot – maybe so that you don’t need equal weights. The little Spanish girl was definitely not he same weight as Sam and her enthusiastic see-saw action left her mother feeling quite ill at the thought that Samuel might be catapulted into orbit over our local housing estate.  You could be forgiven for thinking that the little girl did not know any better but she had a tiny brother, about Sam’s age and her mother who shouted – ‘ reducir la velocidad - no es 1558.’ – while looking sheepishly at us as if to explain that her poor parenting skills are only to be expected in this mean world.

Sam actually enjoyed being thrust into space…

Little sweep in the mix

Last Saturday Debs took Samuel outside to sweep up the leaves. I was indoors frantically decorating our Christmas tree as we had friends coming round for a bit-of-a-do. I couldn’t help laughing as with Deborah’s back turned to Samuel he helped to redistribute the leaves across the lawn. He seemed to be having such a wonderful time that I didn’t tell the other half why it took so long to rake the leaves. Sorry Debs – Good one Sam!

The bangs

‘Bangs’ how Sam described the fireworks that he saw at the mother-in-laws house. A display at the end of the road gave us hope that Samuel would not be scared by the noise of a professional display that we had paid to see. We were even more surprised that Samuel wanted to look out of the window to see his bangs. In fact it has now become a request every time we turn up to collect him - that we go out side to see the bangs. Not convenient when its cold and raining and there are no bangs because firework night was 5 weeks ago...

Mooonn

One of Samuels first words pronounced ‘Mooonnna’ which now means anything that is round in shape. He also says ‘bot-al’ and can string a sentence together. The other morning he said, ‘Dad…door…away…tea’ Not impressed as it was mummy’s turn to make the morning drinks. The sketch is of Samuels grandparents house where you can actually still see stars at night. Samuel visits on a Friday and at precisely 8:36pm he will point to the door and say ‘Away…coat…bye’ Which means it’s time for bed can I go home.

When I get in from work…

After a long day at work there is nothing better than getting home and putting your feet up. Samuel has recently had other plans for daddy. When I get in, Sam will meet me at the door shouting ‘Vroom…’ An indication that he wants to play in my car. This is his opportunity to turn on all the switches, move all the dials and hoot the horn, much to the neighbours dismay. And it’s not just my car, Grandad’s van and Mummy’s car are also suitable playgrounds for our 18 month old toddler. Mummy quite often gets a rude awakening in the morning as Samuel has now learnt to use the gear stick – I wonder who taught him that!

Money Maker

Here is a great idea if you have an industrial unit and a couple of miles of old scaffolding poles. We have taken Samuel to the Madhouse on numerous occasions and he has enjoyed every visit. I have seen better slides, there is one at the Big Sheep in Devon that has an almost vertical drop to it. Madhouse is quite weird as there are sofa’s for adults to sit while their offspring go wild in the scaffolding. The Big Sheep is weird as it is all about the sheep. Lots of sheep. Sheep Racing, Sheep Shearing, even a Sheep theatre and I have a cartoon of that which I will reveal later this week…

So all I need to make my fortune is an industrial unit and scaffolding poles. I’ll just head over to ebay…

Something different for the weekend

On Tuesday I posted a picture of Samuel stood in a box and I asked if anyone knew what television programme was on the telly and what was happening in the show… I can reveal today that Sam was watching Gigglebiz (Check out the theme tune) and D.I.Y Dan was learning how to paint a wall with a roller.

Samuel was so inspired by this, that he produced the picture above and when I asked him what it was he said ‘Dooug’…I’m not sure if that’s an animal dog or a friend he has called Doug. Either way he is a boy genius.

If anyone would like to purchase a boy geniuses first attempt at art please let me know!

Samuel stood in a box

It is an amazing thing to watch a 16 month old baby walk around the house with a cardboard box on his head and without bumping into anything. Better than when he puts his potty on his head, anyway on this particular occasion he chose to stand in his box. It was only just big enough and he tried to sit down but couldn’t bend at the knees. The box originally contained lego. In the picture the television is on and it is one of Sam’s favourite shows, but can you tell which one and what is happening? I will let you know at the end of the week.

Hair cut?

Samuel has had 3 haircuts within the 16 months of his life. We decided to take him to the Barbers in Finchampstead as we haven’t been there before and also it’s a good introduction to a barbers for Sam. He was very interested and watched while a man had his head shaved and beard cut. He was very interested in the seat that raised him to an acceptable barbering height. He started to become suspicious when the apron was put over his head and he couldn’t see his arms. He cried when the he heard the snip of the scissors. The barber himself was very good and did a fantastic job he even offered Sam a sweet to distract him, but Sam is no fool and so Mummy ate the lolly and daddy tried to distract Sam with a book about dogs. I have drawn this in the style of Quentin Blake who I think is a great illustrator.

Do not feed the animals

Spent an hour entertaining Samuel with the Alpaca’s of Hare Hatch Garden centre. It was a fun filled animal afternoon also featuring bunny rabbits, goats, guinea pigs and ferrets. Samuel, who is now learning to talk, regards all animals as doggs…specifically putting a lot of emphasis on the G. I think Alpaca’s are really strange and odd looking creatures. Below is an illustration that Debs and I were commissioned to do for Hare Hatch, but sadly it was never used. If you need an illustration of a cow or sheep, please let me know.

Fun gets in the way of Gardening

Sunday was meant to be a productive day for me in the garden, having paid £60 to have my Bay tree trimmed I became inspired to tidy up our overgrown back yard. Samuel took over the planned afternoon activities, he tried his favourite hobby, eating stones. He helped me wash potatoes and narrowly avoided giving himself a shower when he tipped the bucket over. He was suspicious of the lawn mower but didn’t mind having a ride sat on the mower from the front garden. He kicked the football for a while and sat in his tent, jumping up and down on daddy! Samuel also helped to pick the green tomatoes. Very Helpful!