Bee Collecting PollenThe Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - Draw anything and everything during your coffee break. I saw this wee bee out at his local wildflower supermarket collecting pollen from a foxglove. He was there with his buddy, buzzing about in the warm summer day, and to be quite honest, I was transfixed. There was something balletic, and graceful, yet workmanlike in the process. Last time I witnessed such fluidity, was when I was filming workmen fitting solar panels on a factory roof in Kintore, Aberdeen. Each person operating independently, but becoming part of a total 'machine'. If you look closely at the wee bee's hind legs, you can see the little basket that he pops the pollen into. Just there on his tibia. The latin name for this pollen-basket is the 'corbicula' - if it ever comes up in a pub quiz question. We really have to look after our bees. They are such hard wee workers keeping the eco-system going. As Albert Einstein once posited, "Mankind will not survive the honeybees' disappearance for more than five years." For more information about how we can help bees, click the button below. See ye tomorra,
Davy Father's Day DinosaursCoffee Break Sketching Challenge - Draw anything and everything during your coffee break! A huge Tyrannosaurus roar to all the fathers out there.
It's that day of the year when sleepy daddies get wakened by excited kids with home-made cards. Sales of ties, slippers and hip flasks go through the roof, the world over. So a happy father's day to all those auld guys who once raised us upon their shoulders so that we could see what lay beyond the horizon. And a very special hug to all those friends whose fathers are no longer with us, but looking down from that great bar room in the sky! See ye tomorra, Davy DecoratingThe Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - draw anything and everything during your coffee break. When the 15 minute break ends - the sketching stops! I think there's someone in everyone's family that's the 'go to guy' for decorating. For us lot, it's my Dad's brother Martin.
I am most definitely not the guy. Alas, here I am stuck indoors on this beautiful Scottish summers day, running amuck with the sugar soap and scraper. Trying to get my kitchen into some semblance of order for painting. It reminds me of an anecdote by F Murray Abraham, when he was waiting to be cast as the role of 'Salieri' in 'Amadeus'. You can tell how much i'm desperate to get back to the scraping, when i'm actually coming oot with someone else's anecdote! Though I did use Salieri's monologue for an audition piece once - so maybe there actually is a tenuous connection. Anyway, F Murray Abraham is waiting to hear how he's doing in the casting process for the part of Amadeus. Now, it's the role that every actor in the English language wanted, so he was obviously on tenterhooks. The director, Milos Forman, phoned him up, and he was like, "You're my first choice." (and i think there was a bit of humming and hawing, and to-ing and fro-ing), and, well, to F Murray Abraham, that doesn't pay the rent, so he snapped, "Tell me what I have to do next because I'm busy painting my kitchen." My, my, that was shoehorned in there..okay, okay...I'm going back to get this decorating done. See ye tomorra, Davy My Grandfather's Tobacco PipesThe Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - draw anything and everything during your coffee break. Today's wee sketch shows a couple of my grandfather's tobacco pipes.
My grandfather lived and worked as a shepherd down in Skipness, on the West Coast of Scotland. No matter the weather he would be out on the hills with his sheepdogs taking care of the 'tups', ewes and lambs. He'd usually be laden down with a packed lunch of my Granny's baking, which would include all manner of scones, fruit loaves, and Victoria sponges. As kids we would gather round the scullery table to watch her bake and see if we could lick the cake mixture that was left on the whisks! Who needed a dish-washer in those days when you had us three wee kids, the odd pup, sometimes a poorly lamb, and a cheeky hen, who had ran in to jump at the remains! Of all the smells that take me back to these care free summers on my Granny's farm, it has to be the aroma of the brand of tobacco from my Grampa's pipes. The tobacco would come in a wee red wax wrapper which he'd cut open and go through the 'ceremony' of filling his pipe. We'd watch wide-eyed, as he'd light the tobacco with the sparks leaping onto the hearth. The puff, puff puff, until the smoke rose into the air, and then 'himself' resting back on his chair and getting settled down...well settled for about five minutes until he'd be back off his chair and outside moving the aerial around to try and get a 'reception' on the television. That television - it was more of a snow globe than a television, but I'll tell you more about it another day. See ye tomorra Davy Hercule Poirot's PussycatThe Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - Paint anything and everything over a nice cup of coffee! Sometimes I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to draw until my pencil hits the paper, or my stylus hits the ipad.
This is one such occasion, but, from out of nowhere, the character developed on his own. It's little 'Hercule Poirot' as a pussycat! I'm going to give this idea some more thought, and see if it's got 'legs'. One thing's for sure - I certainly enjoyed drawing him, which is always a good sign. See ye tomorra, Davy Artist Cat And His "Miaowsterpiece"Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - draw anything and everything over a cup of coffee! Ooh la la! This little French bohemian cat is proudly standing outside the Louvre selling his latest "Miaowsterpiece" painting. Hopefully someone will buy it soon, or it will be less of the fine wines and fromage for him, and more of the beans on toast, instead! Today's been such a busy day sorting through, and editing footage for my youtube channel. I'm really quite excited about the way it's shaping up, and look forward to sharing these films with you soon. In the meantime you can check out my speed sketch work and subscribe to the channel by clicking on the button below. No matter how busy my day gets, I still make time for the Coffee Break Sketching Challenge. It's fast becoming a habit, which I hope you are all enjoying too!
See ye tomorra, Davy Lifeboat Crew HelmetsThe Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - draw anything and everything during your coffee break! Today's wee sketch shows a couple of helmets, as worn by the Campbeltown Lifeboat crew.
Like lifeboat men and women the world over, these folk are ready to launch into the stormiest of waters, and most perilous of situations. Every day on the news we hear of some rescue operation carried out by these unassuming heroes. Whether it's rescuing shore trapped kids from rising tides, yachtsmen with a collapsed mast, or refugees fleeing to 'safety' on our shores, these crews launch as soon as the alarm is made. If you ask any of the crew why they do it, they'll just shrug their shoulders and say, "It's just what we do!" If you look closely at the helmet it reflects the camaraderie of the crew - I'm not sure who 'wee yin' is, but thanks to them the seas hold a bit less fear. It's truly amazing to remember that these men and women are volunteers! In the UK the Royal National Lifeboat Institution relies entirely on donations by the public. So if you visit Campbeltown, take a walk down to the lifeboat station, where the station shop is, and give them a wee bit of support - they'll be in 'great order' to see ye! You can find out lots more about the work of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution by clicking here. See ye tomorra, Davy Gay Rabbits - Pride!The Coffee Break Sketching Challenge. Draw anything and everything during your coffee break! The news of the Orlando shootings at gay nightclub, Pulse, is still sinking in.
Slowly we are being shown the faces of our dead brothers and sisters, as the news companies find out who they are. Photos appearing on screen of happy smiling people, heading out for a night of excitement, partying and joy. 50 vibrant people. 50 families left devastated. I'll try to explain why it's especially gutting for our gay family, by relating it to my own thoughts about the gay scene. If you grow up 'the other way', as my dear old mother once called it. Your younger years can be a bit of a confusing nightmare. You've already got the hormones rushing through your body and mind as a teenager, but you're taught from birth that the gay thoughts you are thinking are morally wrong. Everything you see around you is geared towards a hetero lifestyle. Remember, I'm going back to my teenage years, when the national press used to hound gay people, 'exposing' people for being gay and in 'responsible' jobs. When gay people on television were seen as limp wristed, camp, 'oops pardon' types. And when words like 'poof', 'shirtlifter', bender, flowed freely from people's mouths in normal, everyday conversation. And who can forget Section 28, where you were preached at from the pulpit to Westminster, to Brian Souter funded Billboards, that you really had no place in polite society. And that's where the gay pub, or nightclub, comes in. It's always been a place of sanctuary. A place where everyone was like me! I had moved, from a small town, up to college in Glasgow, in 1993, and I can remember reading 'The List' magazine, looking for the addresses of these 'exotic' places. Whereas the national press had done 'exposes' on bars like the Waterloo, and Bennets, with headlines blaring "THIS IS WHERE A MAN KISSES ANOTHER MAN!', it was a different story in 'The List'. In the student pullout section, it made the gay pubs seem like cool, fun, and exciting. I plucked up the courage to go and find one. I must have walked around Virginia Street for ages looking for a big sign that would basically say 'CAFE DELMONICA's'... ...I couldn't find it. Round and round the block I walked, like a teddy bear. And then I noticed it - the little rainbow flag poking it's shy wee head out of the doorway. You would think I would have ran inside like John Mills, in 'Ice Cold In Alex', but my wee feet kept walking past. Round three times more, until I summoned up the courage to go inside. It's now more years than I care to remember since going through that door, and friendships made within are counted in decades. There's been fun, laughs, tears, romance, breakups, gossip, celebration, drunkenness, and too much bad karaoke! But there's always been an overriding sense of safety, a place where you can just 'be'! And you see, dear reader, that's what the clubbers in Pulse, had expected - had a right to, on Saturday night. And that's why we're all feeling like we've had the 'stuffing' knocked out of us, a wee bit. But, we've been fighting for so long, to get where we are. And make no mistake, we have made a lot of progress. We will all, as a family, get through this. We're made of strong stuff, and if you see someone that needs a wee hug, then do it! I'll leave you with love and positive thoughts! See ye tomorra, Davy x Supermoo-del Friesian CowCoffee Break Sketching Challenge. Draw Anything, but pencils down at the end of the coffee break! This bonnie wee holstein friesian cow is the same lady I photographed and sketched in May*. She was amazing the way she kept coming up to the camera and posing away. She could have walked straight out of a Disney film, she was so friendly.
What I like about drawing is that you get to interract with the subject in an in-depth way. For example, until I started drawing cows, I didn't realise that they had those wee nobbly bits on their noses, or that they had 'whiskers'! I thought i'd best google to see if the 'nobbly bits' had a proper name. According to Frandson et al**, the area is called the 'planum nasolabiale', and the bumps and grooves are distinctive enough to allow nose prints to be used for positive individual identification! So, if there's any wee coos intent on a life of crime the police can catch them through their noses! I'll leave you with that 'fascinating fact' to chew the cud over! See ye tomorra! Davy *The same wee coo from May here **Anatomy and Physiology of Farm Animals By Rowen D. Frandson, W. Lee Wilke, Anna Dee Fails Sheep At Glenramskill, Campbeltown.The Coffee Break Sketching Challenge - Draw anything and everything, but when the 15 minute coffee break ends, the sketching stops. This hardy wee sheep lives down at Glenramskill, in Campbeltown, Scotland.
I’m really enjoying the 15 minute time constraint of the Coffee Break Sketching Challenge. In each sketch it’s a case of deciding what to focus on. For example - how much time to spend on each part - should I put more detail into the horns…how much fleece, how much shading..would anyone notice if I only drew three legs? Whatever you’re sketching, yourself (and I really hope you are picking up a pencil, pen or stylus), I hope you’re learning similar lessons. Most importantly, I hope you’re having fun with it. It’s just a short part of the day - a wee bit of you time. Fifteen minutes to blow away those arty cobwebs, and get in touch with your inner artist. See ye tomorrow. Davy @ brodyquixote.com |
Whit's he up tae noo?The blog posts of David Brodie, a Scottish artist based near Glasgow. Archives
October 2018
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