There’s something about the AtoZ Blogging Challenge that brings out the worsmiths in us. There are some letters which are more challenging at times, and we all want to find that letter which challenges some of the better wordsmiths out there.. and there’s lots of those participating in the AtoZ challenge.
I was struggling with finding a J which related to my sketches so, in the tradition of my first AtoZ, I went to my family dictionary and jumping around the J’s found this one.
Jan i zar y
- Turkish Soldier in the Sultan’s guard from the 14 Century until 1826. Janizaries formed the main fighting force of the Turkish army.
No I haven’t sketched some ancient soldier but it does justify (see what I did there..) me showing you these sketches of other representatives of soldiers I did last November. Unusually I stayed in the same place for two sketches as groups of armed forces passed by the bench I was sat on one Sunday. As with all my sketches they’re quickly drawn in pencil first, over about a 15 minute period.
These were quite challenging as when that amount of people pass you by and the reason is so sobering and serious, it’s much harder to pick and choose what goes in and what is left out. You have to rely so much on your memory of what they were wearing, what they looked like and what the colours were. The finished sketches, as usual, are an amalgam of what’s passed me by over the time I have my pencil in my hand.
Hopefully these sketches give you a flavour of some of the different troups which marched through Peterborough on that day and if I’d been sat on a bench in the 17th century in Turkey maybe there would be a Janizary or two amongst them.
My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about sketches I’ve done this past year and some benches I’ve met along the way. Most but not all of the sketches were done from benches during my walk to work and around town where I shop.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2015 AtoZ Blogging Challenge.
lynnelives 