I sketched “Excelsior” which was moored in Lowestoft Heritage Quay.
She is a former fishing smack, built 1921, now a training vessel based at Lowestoft.
The water was very muddy because a dredger was at work in the river channel, providing education and entertainment to those on the jetty.
It took me 1 hour 15 minutes to draw Excelsior. I was sitting on the concrete, facing away from the dredger entertainment and looking at Excelsior through a fence.
Here is work in progress.
Today was a beautiful day. It was a day to go for a walk.
I went to the river. Near Old Billingsgate I looked under London Bridge and saw Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast. This is a 15 minute sketch, watercolour-only, no pen.
Onwards towards the East, I stood on Sugar Quay, which has only just re-opened after years of being closed while the nearby hotel is built.
Here is the Shard, in context, from a wooden bench on Sugar Quay.
This map shows my walk:
Tourists congregate around Tower Bridge. East of Tower Bridge, after St Katherines Dock, there are no tourists at all. It was suddenly very quiet. I went down “Alderman Steps”. There was this great view. The wind was fierce, and my eyes were streaming. I had a go anyway. Two mallards bobbed around amongst the floating quays, chatting away, looking around as if searching for something lost.
Then I went on East. I had lunch in a hipster café called “Urban Baristas” on Wapping High Street.
A man at the next table discussed flats on his mobile phone. He said Shoreditch was too expensive, so he was looking in Wapping. He’d found a good place, a view of the river, open plan, lots of space. Maybe it was offices he was describing, not flats.
Then I went on East. The river opens out here, it starts to feel more like an estuary. There are 1980s flats, brick-built, but in the river shores are the remains of the old trade: the old chains, the stanchions, huge shafts of timber, rotting piers.
Then the river bends again, and there’s a magnificent view of Canary Wharf.
I drew this in about an hour, sitting in sunlight spiked with the smell of someone else’s fish and chips.
Here is work in progress:
In Shetland I was learning to paint clouds. Here’s one of the pictures I like best, also the simplest.
Sometimes the clouds are lighter than the rest of the sky:
Sometimes very dark:
Sometimes rather complicated:
Below is a picture drawn in the rain. I was using a sketchbook which had very heavily sized pages. In light Shetland rain, the pages became damp, and were absorbent.
The water is brighter than the sky: a Shetland phenomenon.
See how this heavily sized paper lets me put layers of colour on.
Here’s another picture in the same sketchbook. See the colours in the sea.
This was a sketchbook from the Vintage Paper Company, based, appropriately enough, in Orkney. The paper is described on their website:
“The paper was made in the 1950s in Somerset, England. It’s a 180gsm, 90lb rough surfaced paper ideal for drawing, ink and of course, watercolour. Made from cotton rag and gelatine sized, it’s a dream to paint on. “
It took a bit of getting used to.
I found it didn’t take the paint very well, until it was damp. Here’s an early attempt. See how I struggled to get the paint to adhere to the paper.
This was painted in a strong wind from the edge of a hill. At first I thought this picture was a total failure. But later, it seemed to have captured something. perhaps you can see the rocks, the dry grass, the shifting sky and sea?
Later pictures were a bit better, especially if I kept things simple:
The other sketchbook I used was a Khadi cotton paper, much more absorbent. Below is a picture of the roads of West Mainland. The roads are calligraphic strokes on the landscapes. 
Here’s anther picture of the roads:
I also drew birds:
On a day it was raining outside, I drew my boots:
Below is a picture of Burrastow Cottage, where I was staying. I swam in that bay. Despite the blue sky, the water was cold. I rate it somewhere between “refreshing” and “challenging”. That is, probably about 12 degrees Celsius.
I had a wonderful time.
I drew a picture from a bird hide, looking over the estuary of the River Blyth.
Bird Hides make good places for watercoloring. Here is the view from a Bird Hide at Minsmere.
I had a go at drawing birds too.
In the evening, kayakers made their way upriver against the tide.
I watched the crabbers on the quay.
All pictures in a Katazome Sketchbook with vintage paper, from the Vintage Paper Company, experimenting with loose watercolour technique.
Walking on Kessingland beach, the sun shone and the wind blew. The greyhounds ran about wildly, but, in the manner of greyhounds, were soon ready to go home.
Watercolour on Vintage Handmade paper 150gsm, from the Vintage Paper Company.
Here is the Lady of Avenel in aquatint.
Here is the hard ground, before the aquatint went on:
To help with the aquatint, I made a small test plate. It seemed a pity to leave it blank, so I put some sea life:
Lady of Avenel is an 102ft brigantine square rigger. I sailed on her for the swimming expeditions in the Hebrides in 2017. This is why the sea life is relevant, and realistic. Especially the jellyfish.
I drew the Lady of Avenel in Heybridge basin, see this post:
Lady of Avenel at Heybridge Basin
Lady of Avenel website is: www.LadyofAvenel.com
Etchings done at East London Printmakers, 18th January 2018.
Here is a view of the lighthouse at Southwold. While I was drawing it, standing on the path by the sea, a woman came up and told me I was very gifted. I said thank you. Her husband said he’d told her to say that, because she’d seen me on the way down, and not said anything. He said she should express her feelings.
He had a pit bull dog. Because his mother was pure Romany. I was not sure of the connection. He said this was Kensington-and-Chelsea-on-Sea. He said that people here told him “you don’t have a London accent”. That’s because he’s not from Kensington and Chelsea, but from a different part of London.
This is the picture:
Here’s a drawing from Southwold pier:
This is a sketch from a bird hide in Minsmere. The two ducks on the right are Shovellers.
This is the sunset at Walberswick:
It was misty. I drew the Church, St Andrews. There is a ruined part, from 1493, on the right. And a more modern 18th Century part on the left.
I drew the view up the river. Here it is in the mist.
Here it is in the dark.
We went home by train. I sketched the people waiting.
I did this directly in pen, no pencil, and it took just over half an hour. Outdoors it was raining.
Mud Dock Deli (@muddockdeli) is directly above a bike shop, all wooden and modern. On another table, a coach was advising a man on how to conduct himself in a forthcoming interview. Make your career relevant. Smile. Be serious but not too serious. Be keen but not desperate. I couldn’t work out what the job was, and both men were out of my line of sight. Their conversation was a sound track to this drawing..
Here is Lady of Avenel, 102ft Brigantine.
This was the third of three sketches. Here are the first two.
I have drawn Lady of Avenel previously: Outer Hebrides 2017
See also these pages for pictures of and from Lady of Avenel:
Outer Hebrides 2017
Outer Hebrides 2016
Sketch notes from maritime Holland
This is Noordermarkt, as seen from Café Hegeraad, in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam. It was a lovely autumn day, warm with a light breeze. I had the apple cake and a coffee. I had arrived from the overnight Stena Line ferry, then a sequence of trains from the Hook of Holland.
My destination was Surinamekade, to meet the boat “Lady of Avenel”. I walked through the renewed Central Station where I retrieved my bag from the luggage lockers. Here is a picture from the boat.
The “Race of the Classics” had just taken place, and they were saying goodbye to the last of the participants. The captain and crew went off to an award ceremony. On my own on the boat I drew a picture of three of the other classic boats moored up behind us.
In the morning, we set off along the “North Sea Canal”. I drew a complicated picture of “Lady of Avenel” from the quarterdeck, which took a long time.
Then, in a lock, I drew a quick picture of “Iris” who followed us in. This was much more successful.
We reached Scheveningen.
There was a long wait in the morning, while the storm of the previous night departed.
Then we left harbour, for the 36 hour trip across the North Sea.
We were taking ‘Lady of Avenel’ to her winter mooring at Heybridge, Maldon. See the blog post on this link, for pictures of her there.
Jane Sketching 