Sketches on a plane (and elsewhere)

And I'm back. Normal programming will resume shortly, but until then some short messages.

I don't have any short messages of course, but I do have some sketches I did while in the UK; which is where I've been for the last three weeks. I didn't sketch as much as I may have liked, mostly because I was either too busy running around with the family or I was drunk with friends (or of course recovering from being drunk with friends before running around with the family...). So, I'll post most of what I did and divide it up into relevant topics - From Life, From Photos, From Memory and Free Sketching; with a little write up after each. Ok,let's do this.

FROM LIFE

As usual you can click to maxify the image.

So these are the images I drew from life. I didn't get around to getting any one to pose for me (except the cat) so these were done quick and dirty as people have a terrible habit of not staying still. In fact they have an amazing tendency to move even when they're not doing anything, or are fast asleep. The majority of these were drawn on the plane home (which gave me some interesting angles to work from) or at a barbecue/party my mother and brother threw a couple of days before we had to leave. The ones drawn on the plane were made more difficult by some of the worst turbulence I've ever known - in fact right under the cat you can see the words "Turbulence Cat" as he was drawn while we were bouncing around the sky (he's one of my son's toys).
OK, I'll go through them quickly, working clockwise:

Turbulence Cat, unknown guy in terminal, my son (bad likeness), the guy in the seat in front of me and to the left (good likeness), My friend Chris (bad likeness), my friend Robby (moderate likeness - but good given I was working around a rubber plant to see him), Michelle (poor likeness), My Brother Rob reading my Son a story (dreadful likeness), Chap sleeping on the plane (so-so likeness), the girl across the aisle from me (not a bad likeness, but doesn't do her justice), some bald guy rows in front, a guy waiting for the loo (comic likeness), my son (better likeness), man next to me on the plane (worlds worst halitosis, not a bad likeness), a horse (not on the plane, or at the BBQ).

FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

These ones were from photographs, where I could slow down a little (still done pretty quickly though). Not much else to add - I'll mention the sources as I go along (clockwise again).

Asian girl; From a post on Kotaku (I neglected to note the exact link - if I find it I'll link it); I had the photo up on my Mothers laptop on the arm of one sofa while I was sitting on the other across the room - I liked the expression on her face. A picture of me looking fat (as usual). A picture of George Raft from the book Legends by Terry O'Neil (more on this book in the future). Sketch of a girl loosely based on Beth Willis (former Doctor Who producer) I've lost the link to the original. Terrible sketch of Lee Marvin, again from Legends. Sketch of the 2nd Doctor (Patrick Troughton) from a picture on Tachyon-TV. A sketch of my Brother - a far better likeness than the one drawn from life.

FROM MEMORY

So I saw a lot of people that I wanted to draw but didn't have my sketchbook handy (and they weren't in a position where I felt I could photograph them) so I drew them later (probably poorly). I actually saw far more than this but didn't get around to drawing them.

Two sketches of a girl I saw at the breakfast Buffet at the Park Inn hotel. The first one was drawn second, and captured her pose better. A guy reading from his phone in a pub. A guy reading a book on the Tube (though he looks like he's on the toilet :/). A sketch of a girl I saw in Regents Park Kensington Gardens (Hush, I'm jetlagged) - looks nothing like her, but does look a little like my school friend Nichola who I bumped into in a pub a week later (weird). Some bloke on the Tube. An ink drawing of a girl from a fitness add on the net - I clicked back but the advertisement had changed. That girl from the park again - looks slightly more like her, but not much (I wish I had a business card at times like that, I would have handed her one, she had a great face). Some crying child at the airport. A grumpy looking woman on the tube - she was much more attractive than this, but since she was kind of a cow to us this is a good likeness of her soul.

FREE SKETCHING

These were just general doodles I drew over the time, not based on any particular inspiration or source. I won't go through them all, but as you can see some of them are good, and some of them aren't.

So that's it, my trip in pictures. This trip will likely resonate through the blog a little over the coming months as we took lots of pictures I may refer to, brought the Legends book home with me and I may refer back to some of the events or sketches in the future.

I mentioned business cards up above and I may have to get some printed (even though I'm not in this for the business... hobby cards?), as in addition to the girl in the park I also met three girls in a pub and wanted to paint/sketch one of them Since I was drunk at that point they wouldn't believe I just wanted to do that rather than get them into bed - I gave them the blog address and my email in the vague hope they'd get in touch, but it hasn't happened and the whole thing was rather difficult and totally mortifying. If I'd had a card it would have made things an awful lot easier. Ah well, live and learn. ;)

Coming up I have some more RFA stuff to post, some more sketches (From June and early July) and some speed paints, so stay tuned. It probably won't be three weeks until the next post.