A resident of Crescent House commissioned me to draw his block.
This is a view from the podium level, above the Golden Lane Leisure centre. The block on the left is Cullum Welch House. The yellow colour in the centre is a reflection of Great Arthur House in the windows of Crescent House.
The pavement by the wall was being re-laid. Just off the picture, to the right, people who were laying the paving stones sang merry tunes, and insulted each other. “Dean, I don’t believe how long that’s taken you. It’s a five minute job!”
Dean was moving the metal fencing around, making a sound like a drum roll. They needed to reconfigure their enclosure as they finished one section of paving and moved onto the next. I didn’t catch Dean’s repost, but the answer was, “No…no.. it’s just because you are lazy….”
Here is work in progress on this final drawing. It is made on a block of Saunders Waterford Hot Press 300gsm paper.
Finished drawing, 12″ by 9″ (SOLD) 
Work in progress 
The tapes round the edge are to give me something to hold, also they make a nice border to the picture. 
Pen and ink 
On the concrete 
Work in progress with pen and ink 
Work in progress. You can see the enclosure of the pavers in the background. 
Pencil under-drawing
I made some preliminary drawings a few days previously, to get my head around the composition and the perspective challenges.
Sketchbook and perspective study 
Sketchbook and palette 
Pen 
Pen sketch in progress 
Pen 
Working on perspective 
Sketch in sketchbook – 5th October 2020
At the bottom left of the sketch is that strange sloping block. It is pointed. I didn’t get the whole of it in the sketch as it is so fascinating that it would have distracted from the main object of the drawing which is Crescent House. But it is worthy of examination. It looks like a tank trap. But what is it doing there? There are two of them.
As you see they are wonderful sculptural objects, worthy of a drawing in their own right.
Probably they are to stop people from sitting on that convenient ledge.
Jane Sketching 