Alcohol

Following on from the series on the drunks in the bearpit I thought it would be logicall to document the drinking culture in Bristol, so I took my pen for a night on the town, hoping for inspiration. I have to say its the first time i'd been out in Bristol on a Friday or Saturday night and it is a real eye opener.

To be frank, it's a bastardisation of liberty. I can't tell whether it's because they feel strong or weak. Regardless it creates conflict, it's not just an innocent bit of fun, it puts mens egos in conflict with each other and it reduces people to a sexual commodity. That's no foundation for a civilised society.

Ofcourse theres always a way to rationalise it for yourself. 'Go on my son!'

Greek anti fascists

Happened apon a group of protesters, an odd mix of Greek anti fascist and Bristol Health Services.

Picton street christmas market

Just a quick drawing of the Picton street christmas market...from above!

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.