Taxi Rank

taxi rank

At first I thought that one of these top-hatted figure on the left was reaching into his inner coat pocket to pay his fare for a Hanson cab ride into town.

taxi rank

It’s a small detail in a photograph of the top end of Westgate, Wakefield, taken, I guess in late Victorian times.

cabman's shelter

They’re standing by the cabmen’s shelter. My thanks to Graham Cass for posting the photograph on the Wakefield Historical Appreciation Facebook page.

Drawn in Clip Studio Paint on my iPad Pro using the Real G-Pen, the Lasso Fill Tool and a bit of virtual Charcoal.

Book Heroes in Colour

book superheroes

Book Superheroes bursting into colour. Having familiarised myself with the storytelling suggestions in Stan Lee’s How to Draw Superheroes, I can now let these characters return to their secret hideout and get on with my other projects.

Ancient History

Ancient history school exercise book

In my grammar school days, Ancient History, with it’s epic battles and larger than life characters, always had more appeal for me than the serious, grown-up Social and Economic History from 1750-1865 that we were obliged to study for our O-level with its sober politicians and reformers and its Corn Laws, Factory Acts and Reform Bills.

Hannibal

I couldn’t remember the litany of dates, I still couldn’t tell you when the Metropolitan Commissioner for Sewers was appointed and despite my enthusiasm for history in general, it turned out to be the one subject that I failed.

Battle of Salamis

In Ossett we were surrounded by the tail end of the Industrial Revolution with plenty of textile mills, steam railways and coal mines with five miles of the school but there was no hands-on element to the course it was all classroom based and all taking place elsewhere than on our local patch, which actually had its own local luddites, reformers and innovators.

Horatio and the bridge

Unfortunately, to judge from the length of my school exercise book, we got just one term of Ancient History with our class teacher Miss Eaves. I’m still enthusiastic enough about the subject to have taken the University of Reading’s FutureLearn course on Ancient Rome twice, once before our visit there three years ago and, again, to recap after.

Battle of Marathon

Olive Tree

olive

Drawing this 125 year old olive tree reminded me of our holidays in Greece and Majorca and made me think that I’d like to go drawing there again.

olive

This one grows in a large planter in Crimple Garden Centre’s Bar + Kitchen overlooking the Crimple Valley just outside Harrogate.

Window drawn at Blacker Hall Farm Shop cafe the other day.

Crow and Newt

In the formal pond at Harlow Carr a carrion crow picks a newt from amongst water plants.

Hellebores on the Winter Walk and in the woodland.

Posturing Pigeon

wood pigeon sketches

A wood pigeon perches on the shed roof then swoops down to the lawn to chase off another pigeon that has just landed, chasing it around beneath the bird feeders with a menacing waddle punctuated with short jumps. The second pigeon soon realises that it isn’t going to get any peace and flies off.

I like drawing pigeons and that’s just as well because when they fly up from the wood the flock fills our field of vision as they wheel around, well over a hundred of them, probably 200. But we are going to have to net any seedling we plant in the veg beds.

Cascade Bridge

cascade

It was good to see water flowing on the Cascade between the Middle and Lower Lakes at Nostell this morning. We haven’t seen it in action for years. The sluice was restored but because of leakage issues the water has been diverted through a sluice and through a pipe for the last five or six years.

Stable block at Nostell, drawn as we waited in the queue for coffee.

A6 Art Bag

art bag

I started a new A6 Hahnemühle watercolour sketchbook last month and now spring’s here, I’m making a point of carrying it with me in this Trespass A6-sized bag, along with a small box of Winsor & Newton professional watercolours.

view from Blacker Hall
Published
Categorized as Drawing

Lombardy Poplar

lombardy poplar and terrier sketch

At the Coffee Stop again, which is newly extended with some stylish hand-painted graphics and decorations.

water jug

Our lunch stop was the Ego Mediterranean, our first visit since before the pandemic and our first during the subsequent event, a pointless war in Europe.

cup holder