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 
Picking what goes in and what is left out- much like in writing. I never considered that artists deal with that same issue. Intriguing.
It’s not long before you realise how much you pick and choose if you’re drawing outside. How many landscape paintings have people, cars, tractors or pylons in them? Many urban sketchers don’t include the people. It’s the people that make my sketches and I get a bit put out if a bench doesn’t have many people passing in front of me.
This does give the feel that it could have been sketched over two hundred years ago – it reminds me of a little sketch my parents own of a gypsy encampment done over 150 years ago very near to them – the movement in the people – a snapshot in time. Really lovely – I am so enjoying your blog posts for this A to Z Challenge 🙂
I hope you’re not implying that I’m ancient.. Glad you like the sketches.
cool word! Just found you via the AtoZ challenge. Love your sketches and your stories about benches. I will be back.
Thanks Mary-Anne. I have far too many stories about benches than is good for me (becoming rather boring..) and am collecting more.
very joyful j thought…
Thanks Morton. I’m not sure I was aiming for joyful but we can use all the j words we like when we’re just juggling j’s.
That must have been really interesting to sit and watch pass you by. I can imagine it must be tricky trying to capture all the different people in such a short space of time. 🙂
Sooo true. Strange how it didn’t occur to me how hard it would be till I was doing it. I think I drew slower than I expected and they walked quicker than I realised..