108) Remo's, Aberavon Beach

I meant to do Remo's last year as one of my original 100 sketches. I never quite found the time. Today I was one of the teachers accompanying pupils from the school on a sponsored walk to Aberavon beach in aid of Alzheimer's charities, and I made this sketch at Remo's, our turnaround point.

Off the point a little - last year I made a sketch of Franco's on Aberavon Beach.

I'm very proud to say that this image currently adorns the menus in Francos.

107) "Mortal Coil" Sculpture

Yes, my first post of 2018. The thing is, I knew that if I was going to continue sketching around Port Talbot, I was going to start repeating myself. However I am so unreasonably pleased with this sketch that I decided that I just had to post this one.

Now, one of the very first sketches that I posted - I think it may even have been the second, was a watercolour sketch of "Mortal Coil" a sculpture by Sebastien Boyesen which is in the centre of the town by the post office. This is the sketch: -

Let's call a spade a spade, it really isn't great, is it. To be fair, I actually made this one two years ago in 2016, and it was my first attempt at line and wash. Also I hadn't yet found a sketching pen I really liked yet, and this was sketched with a Tesco biro, and a child's cheap watercolour set on very cheap paper.

Well, I've groped my way forward with watercolour since, and although I'm by no means the finished article yet, not even close to being, I think that I have made some progress in two years. Today I had another go at "Mortal Coil" and this is what I came up with: -

Now, this was made on better quality paper, with a better sketching pen, and a set of Daler Rowney watercolours. so it should be better anyway. Yet I think it's a better composition, better sketched and better painted. That's my opinion, anyway.