Closing the gaps

Well, despite good intentions, I have inadvertently managed to leave a big gap again since I last posted here, despite my continued art activity. I have done a fair bit of drawing, though falling short of my minimum one piece a day target, which has sometimes slipped. Well, you know, I'm only human! Some days haven't presented obvious drawing or painting opportunities, due to being busy at home with work, decorating in the house, other odd jobs or just plain miserable days outdoors. I certainly need to rekindle my pursuit of doing more and improving my painting, though (here comes the excuse...) my one space for spreading out my materials and painting - the dining room table - has been occupied of late, while Sue has moved her work computer set-up from its usual spare room place, because it was being decorated in there. That's finished now and things should revert to their previous state and I should be able to get my sometime space back (when we're not eating at the table).

In the meantime, I made this sketch in pencil a little while ago of the cottages on the Slade in Fishguard viewed from just below and behind the Royal Oak pub. The Slade is a delightful, steep little road which leads from the town directly down to Lower Town Harbour and is home to higgledy-piggledy collection of houses and cottages and myriad styles. It was once a place where lower down, ships and boats were built and at the top, on the opposite side of the road, is the side road called Rope Walk, where rope, mostly for marine use, was made and then hauled down The Slade to the water at the bottom.

And a few days ago, also in pencil, I made this sketch of the boats in Lower Town harbour. Sometimes I find myself avoiding drawing boats as they don't always turn out how I want and they get binned. It's sometimes a case of wrong perspective and other times it can just be disappointment in my technique, so I do have a tendency to have a mental block with the boats and I sometimes avoid them. That's probably a good reason to draw boats and conquer my fear of failure.