Artisitc Merits

{{ The Hobbiton hobbits drink in the Ivy Bush, which isn't exactly in Hobbiton but rather just outside on the Bywater Road, but it seems to be the closest pub as that's where the Gaffer, Sam and the other working class hobbits of Hobbiton drink and where the conversation they have about the mad Bagginses at the start of Fellowship takes place. I dont think the Green Dragon is even in Lord of the Rings save maybe a name mention, the Golden Perch at Stock gets a shout-out for apparently having the best beer in that Farthing too.}}

Oh, I'll have to check that, I thought the Gaffer was drinking at the Green Dragon. It's mentioned in Scouring of the Shire btw, with all the windows broken.

"No one had a more attentive audience than old Ham Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer. He held forth at The Ivy Bush, a small inn on the Bywater road...' - A Long Expected Party }}

Part of the reason I'd miss the Ivy Bush is because I'm not used to the idea of every small hamlet having it's own pub, so if hobbits are sitting in one near Bag End I automatically think "Green Dragon".  We need at least 2,000 residents before we get a bar around here. Is the small town pub culture still going strong in England?

(completing my two post spam run )

{{ Dunno about England but easier to answer for my own local town in picture form, here's google maps showing the pubs in town marked with red,



11 of them, and the village I grew up in about 2 miles away has another 3. }}

In an american town of that size you'd have 4 or 5 bars.

Edit: I'm off, but probably within margin of error. Picked out a town a know in central Pennsylvania with the same population as Dunoon, found 7 bars. A nearby small town used to have 4, now it's down to 2 - but since one of those was killed off by a much better place a few miles down the road it's not that much of a shrinkage.

{{ There are fewer than there used to be, by about half, not to mention there used to be dance halls then discos then nightclubs, all of them are gone too. The pubs are really struggling, weekends are still fine generally, but unless there is some big match on or some other event to get folk in week night drinking is all but dead. It's not uncommon to glance in a pubs window midweek to see 2 patrons in the whole place, many of them don't even stay open the full hours but just close when it becomes obvious there isn't going to be enough trade. No one can afford it, and even if you can no one has the free time any more. }}

{{ Last nights doodle at work. If I'd planned it ahead I could have made the windows round and passed it off as Farmer Maggots farm. }}

I like the fade into the background. Did you draw that first and partially effaced it to blur it out?

{{ Oddly no, I only start with the background when I've a complete idea of what I'm drawing, this I didn't and just started drawing the buildings. So when it came to the background (which I actually did last) its as simple as two different strengths pencil hardness, light and a darker 2B and then gentle smudging of the whole with my thumb, to get a bit of depth just made further away trees and bushes ever more suggestive using fewer lines and leaving little blank gaps. }}

{{ More nightshift doodles}}

I think those are my favorites of your drawings.

{{ Cheers Halfy. I really need to try to make the time for a proper drawing, rather than just keeping my hand in doing 20min sketches in my work break with whatever is to hand on crappy printer paper. }}

{{ Another nightshift doodle}}

I like that. It's very bucolic.

{{ Yes, its quite an English scene I think. }}

{{ long boring night at work last night, fortunately I found some colouring pencils in a drawer and whiled away my time, not very happy with it, but given circumstances it'll do}}

I'd be tickled pink if I had doodled out something like that.

{{ Thanks Halfy, but you always despise your own work, I do anyway. It's all just a bit messy and haphazard, I didn't have an image to work from so it's sort of bits pulled out of my head and then tried to capture on paper- never a great way to go about it unless you have a photographic memory, sadly I do not, I have a buckie-addled memory! Hence it's a bit, drunken looking. }}

nice work. You should frame it.

{{ Thanks Figg, but god no! It'll end up in the bin same as rest of my work sketches generally do, its just a muck about to keep my hand in. They are not good enough for anyone to want, and it'd just annoy me to look at seeing all the bits that are wrong about it (even work doesn't value them, my old nightshift they would nab the occasional one, or stick them on notice board or tourists even took them away occasionally, first one I did in this place I left it lying on the desk in reception in the morning while I did some kitchen stuff, came back to find the secretary had scrunched it up in a ball and thrown it in the bin, so yeah gives ones ego a nice nudge downwards that sort of thing!) }}

{{ Xmas present I did for my older brother, he's a huge James Herriot fan, not happy with it, but I ran out of time to do redo it or start again so it is what it is, and he seems to like it well enough so I'll take that. }}

definitely get Yorkshire vibes off it.  But I can see how you may feel it doesn't seem to stand on its own in grayscale - either it wants color or something beyond my comprehension to make it pop in grayscale.  Perhaps it's just too light?

Of course you need to hand off an original, and the colors/shades on my monitor are likely not true, but a little bit of fiddling (and you are better at this than I am):

{{ The photo isn't great, it's not properly in focus which doesn't help and makes it whiter looking than it actually is, and it should be properly mounted on a darker coloured board border which it's not. I did consider giving it a wash of colour but decided not for two main reasons, one I was running fast out of time to finish it and wasn't sure I could get it done on top of finishing the drawing, and second I was running out of time, so if I fucked up colouring it and ruined it instead there definitely wasn't time to start over. So it stayed b/w. }}