Doodlewash November 2021

 In response to pie! A quick pumpkin pie doodle...

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Doodlewash November

Welcome to another response to Doodlewash month! I love the mindfulness nature of drawing and creating images. Doodlewash prompts for November look very challenging...

Lets start with Acorn...This is my simple response!

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Day 4 - Doodlewash Challenge

 It's a fairytale. The Bloops are being chased by a wolf. It's a bit twee but I had nothing else!

Day 3 - Doodlewash February Challenge

 Today we are back with the Bloop's. This time swinging on time, and enjoying every second. I don't think there is any more puns to have here.

Painting demonstration - Body boarders at Saundersfoot beach

 This is a video I recorded a while back before I started using a high definition camera. Please excuse the quality. Let me know what you think. 

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... 

Woodley and Earley Arts Group October Exhibition

This year is the 25th year of the Woodley and Earley Arts Group, of which I am the current Chairman.

To celebrate this the group produced a calendar for 2018 featuring images voted by the members at the June AGM.

The Calendar is going to be on sale at the Autumn exhibition 27-29 October at the Oakwood Centre, Woodley.

Click here to see my entries in the exhibition.

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.

 

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.

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.

Skip had been following his nose all day when he realised that his master was not at his tail.

 

Skip was a little white Westie that I saw on our epic walk from Sandbanks to Bournemouth – and back again.

I used a sketch of a life buoy and rocks to add some drama to the scene.

His actual owners were not far off behind him but like most dogs he had run off ahead. At the sound of the crashing waves he would look back to check he was still being followed.

I had a black Heinz 57 dog that had a similar disposition. She never treated the fences of our back garden as a deterrent against escape. In the first year that we had her we received a constant flow of phone calls from neighbouring roads where she had escaped over our back fence. She also managed to turn on the gas in the kitchen one time but that’s another story.

We also had a Yorkshire Terrier that disappeared on Brean Sands in Somerset in search of some liberated Fish and Chips.

I guess we have a history of badly behaved dogs!

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 love affair with Bournemouth

 

Our love affair with Bournemouth started when Debs and I went to see Paul Merton’s tribute to the silent Films at the Pavillion theatre.

Separately we had both visited Bournemouth – Debs on a camping trip and I went with a friend on a day trip while I was attending a steam rally in Fordingbridge.

There is something very British about Bournemouth. I think it is the tea pot drinking eccentric Englishman with his stiff upper lip wearing his socks in sandals with pride on the seafront outside his beach hut. It’s a place for old people, young people, cats and dogs, hankys on heads and string vests.

If it’s possible, Bournemouth is my adopted home town.

Before the Evening Tide

This painting was produced at a workshop with the talented Chris Forsey. It is a mixed media technique using watercolour, acrylic and pastels. The composition was taken from a site sketch I produced while on holiday in June 2012.

I went on to produce a more stylised version of this painting using techniques from Neil Meacher. The image can be viewed here.

This was created on a very wet day after a visit to Tintagel Castle. I can remember visiting this area in the 1990's and I sat eating an ice cream on the harbour wall. During the flood of 2004 this harbour was left littered with cars some of which were washed out to sea. Read the story here. The afternoon was sunny and hot but there was a stiff breeze blowing from the sea and this was where I got the idea to produce the picture Blue Fisherman.

The various steps to achieve this image and it's sister Blue Fisherman

River at Boscastle

I created this painting from a sketch I drew outside the national trust visitor centre in June 2012. I was struck by the way the afternoon sun had lit up the buildings on the opposite bank. It had just rained and the sky behind the houses and above the hill in this view was black with stormy clouds.

I used this sketch to create a stylised contemporary art work. I love the art of Neil Meacher a member of the Royal Watercolour society and I have tried to create a work in my style using his techniques. The image can be viewed here.

It was hard to imagine the devastation that was witnessed by the flood of 2004. The house in the centre of my image was completely destroyed and rebuilt to with-stand future flooding. The rebuilt car park was also raised 12 foot to help with-stand a future flood.

This is the second time I have been to Boscastle I recorded my first visit back in 1990. You can read about it here.

Below is the original sketch book sketch and studio painting

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

Lollies and hats

Having a sketch book is a liberating experience in my opinion. You can sketch anything without having to worry about spoiling expensive papers. In the next 2 sketches I have attempted to create portraits of Sam and my mum at Woodcote steam rally.

 

The final sketch with all the finished detail. From the initial painting below I have looked to create impact by strengthening the light and dark passages.i have added darker tones next to the highlights and added detail to the shadow areas. This helps to enhance the contrast an drake the image appear to have depth.

Initial washes to establish main colours and tones.

While this sketch is not an accurate representation of my mum it has given me some valuable information that I can use to create a painting in the future.

 

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