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.

96) McDonalds Aberavon

Yes, friends, if we're trying to show Port Talbot - and indeed any UK town of any size - in all of its many faces, then we cannot ignore fast food, in this case McDonalds, the daddy of them all. I'm old enough to remember the first McDonalds opening in the UK in the mid 70s - believe me, before that burger bars in the UK were a disgrace to the name, and I arrived in Port Talbot quite a long time before McDonalds did. I know that a lot of people dislike McDonalds because they are a symbol of the corporate world which is robbing towns of their individuality. Thing is though, if people didn't like it, then it wouldn't be here, and if it IS here, then it's fair game for a sketcher.

94) Garage behind Talbot Road

Over the years I've had a number of second hand cars - in fact my current car is the first ever one I've been able to buy new. So much for teachers' exorbitant salaries, eh? Over the years my wife and I have had to adopt a 'make do and mend' attitude to keep a succession of used cars going for as many years as possible, and this particular garage has been a godsend. It's a little bit of a hidden gem, since it's situated in a back alley between a main road, and the main railway line. 

75) Margam Abbey Chapter House

Well, look, I know that I already sketched quite a similar subject(Number 65) Margam Abbey Ruins and Margam Castle) I have to justify it to myself for two reasons. That particular sketch wasn't a real study of the ruins as such, they may have been in the foreground, but it was more a case of making one part of a frame for Margam Castle and steps in the distance. The other reason is that it's another attempt at line and wash, and in some ways I quite like it, I think it's got enough for me to be able to tell myself that I'm making a little progress with line and wash. 

40) Nat West Bank Station Road - Line and Wash

I made a video of the way that I made this line and wash sketch. Some you win . . . I know it’s not great. As I said, sometimes I just don’t get colours, even though it’s not for the want of trying.

30) Tata Steel works from Tydraw Hill. Line and Wash

The steel works had already featured in the background of a couple of earlier sketches, but it was high time that I produced a sketch in which the steelworks was the star. Put simply, if you want to show Port Talbot, then sooner or later you have to show the steelworks. It’s not overstating the case to say that the steelworks has been absolutely vital to the town for well over a century now. I made this sketch standing on the top road from Taibach to Cwmavon in the Afan Valley. It’s a great vantage point, and this was only the first sketch I made from this position.

29) St. Joseph's RC Church, Water Street. Line and Wash

St. Joseph’s is a Roman Catholic Church, which was built in 1930 to replace a building from the 1860s, and it belongs to the Catholic diocese of Menevia. For a 20th century church, I like this a lot. I believe that it was built largely through the efforts of Port Talbot’s Roman Catholic community, including my wife’s grandparents.I made a video, currently available on Youtube, which shows the different stages I went through to produce what I think is possibly my favourite line and wash sketch.

26) Boat high and dry, Aberavon. Line and wash

If you walk along the path from the plate girder bridge up onto the Beach, you pass the estuary of the River Afan, and you can often see boats upon it. This boat was on a sort of platform affair, out of the River, and I liked the look of it, so I couldn’t resist sitting down and making a quick ink sketch with a couple of watercolour washes over the top of it. I ignored a few stares from cyclists and dog walkers as I did so. I think that this is one of my better attempts at applying watercolour to an ink sketch. The greenery is actually quite appealing.

25) Aberavon Beach, Mariners Quay - Line and Wash

Turning round on the spot on the vantage point from which I made the sketch with the cyclists, I made this line and wash sketch. The buildings on the right, collectively called Mariners Quay, are a residential development from the early noughties, which was partly built on the site formerly occupied by the Jersey Beach Hotel. I like Mariners Quay. The buildings do have a uniform quality, in terms of colour and style, but they have enough character to make them easy on the eye.

As a line and wash, I wouldn’t say that I’m completely happy with it, but then I never am with my watercolours. I think that I just don’t quite get colours.