Trial of Stephen Farrow

Today I went to the Crown Courts in Bristol for the trial of Stephen Farrow accused of murdering an elderly lady and a reverend in a sadistic and aggressively anti christian set of attacks. I came late into the trial. The prosecution was beginning to sum up their case. He admits the killing of the reverend with diminished responsability due to mental health but not to the killing of the elderly lady, although the evidence weighs heavily against him. He has refused to leave his prison cell so I couldn't do a drawing of the defendant but I did manage one of the prosecution.

Im pleased with the facial expression particularly so ill include a close up of that.

Interestingly I got chatting to members of the reverends church which usually you wouldn't do due to the circumstances but they were very open positive characters even under these conditions which I guess is testament to the power of religious belief.

Court drawing,

I thought I would start posting my court room sketches as it fits in with the theme of the blog, I haven't done many and the Post took one of my drawings and didn't give it back (I gues I have a lot to learn about these media types) so ill post an early one I did of Ricky Smith who was sentenced to 28 years for the murder of Keith Soons with a screw driver.

 

I don't have the best pastels but as far as im concerned I got a good likeness. The Paper didn't use it because they said he looked too old, but I thought he looked about 40, It turns out he's 27. What could I do?

Rally against the badger cull

On the 11th of September a rally was held in Bristol by the Coalition of Badger Action Group, C.B.A.G. With his shockingly white head of hair and dark eye brows, Brian May made the ideal spokesperson for this cause.

The coalition's statement was that the government is going ahead with a cull of Badgers using high powered rifles; a cruel an unreliable method of execution, as a means of controlling bovine Tuberculosis. They claim that poor farming practices are to blame instead and that the cull is wholly unnecessary. The leaflet fails to explain why the government chose to go ahead with this action but I think it was because they are avoiding the costlier method of Badger vaccination, although if badgers aren't to blame why spend our increasingly precious tax money vaccinating them? Perhaps they are carriers but not the main cause? Yeh that sounds right. To be honest the reasons why the government chose this action seemed ambiguous from the speeches and leaflets but I suppose the intent of the coalition was to avoid animal cruelty which, of course, is an important issue.

Bristol Balloon Glow

Last night I went to the Bristol balloon glow. If you've never been, you must! Its around 30 hot air balloons firing their burners in sequence at night so they glow like giant lightbulbs.

on a technical note the challenge with this drawing was the short time scale, (the show lasts maybe 20 minutes or there abouts) and it was at night for which I had one of those clip on book reading lights.

An argument over a stolen phone

The other day I saw a drunk having an argument with an officer because someone accused him of stealing their phone, a phone someone else tried to sell me an hour prior to the argument. The issue didn't resolve itself that quickly.

Muslims at prayer in Queens square

Hello!

I was in queens square the other day taking some rest when I saw some of the foreign students from the language school doing their afternoon prayers and I thought 'Oh my god the Islamification of England!' Nah not really, you see no matter much I try to get inside the heads of an E.D.L member it still doesn't make much sense does it!

Seriously I really like seeing this I find it reassuring. Being able to humble yourself is a great virtue and whether you believe in a deity or not it should be practiced somehow. Otherwise people walk around thinking their life is more important than someone else's which is an unhealthy mind set that is encouraged in our society... you know, because 'you're worth it!'

E.D.L Rally and a conspiracy among short people.

Well the English Defence League came to town, did you notice? Alas I only managed one drawing due to the rain and fast pace of the event.  I went to meet them at temple meads but only a few came out the front entrance so we all went to meet them at Redcliffe wharf where they had gathered at the Colosseum bar for a pint or two or more.

I have to admit I thought the police did a fantastic job, all groups were contained and kept separate and no one did anything questionable. They turned the whole area around Kings street and Queens sq into a no go zone that had all of the anti-fascist groups wondering where to go.

When the E.D.L were having their rally in Queens sq I had a few people from the opposition; who couldnt see past the police barrier, tell me that there was actually no one in there, it was all a ruse. But I am tall and could see them past the barriers, not to mention you could hear them on the loud speaker.

The EDL were marched out of the center and the police got in their vans and left and everyone went home. now that's a tidy protest!