One Man and Three Boats

Actually much more than three boats, but One Man and 36 Boats (yes I counted them!) doesn’t really sound like the infamous Jerome K Jerome book that was set here. I’ve not done a boat river round-up for a while, but unusually I have been working along the river, given I haven’t headed for more exotic climes (yet).

Whenever I see a new boat, I usually draw it, and even in one case spoke to the owner and sent a high-res scan of my work to hang in the boat! It’s like a welcome, because usually I know most of the boats by sight and sometimes by name. They move around, and indeed the local council has cleared most of the illegal moorings at Queen’s Promenade, that was a local fracas – but usually they are regulars.

Black Ship, Queens Promenade, Fountain Pen and wash, Daler Rowney Graduate Mixed Media Pad, A4.

One of those is the ‘Black Ship’ – I don’t know it’s proper name, I have drawn it before but that might be a different boat. and indeed had to check if I had posted this one. I think I have an earlier drawing from the side as well.

BBQ, Queens Promenade, Fountain Pen and Watercolour, Fabriano Mixed Media A4.

Not seen this one again, maybe it was a passing visitor. I am as always fascinated by the prosaic things you find on the decks of house boats – like the BBQ doing a Titanic pose. Doesn’t feel like a very safe place to have a BBQ!

I have drawn dinghies before – usually during Kingston Regatta but never as intensively as this. I did about 7-8 sketch pages in one go, of Toppers, Merlins, Lasers, Enterprises – no not that one….the old Merlins were a total nostalgic thing for me, I didn’t exactly learn to sail in one, my Dad had a Merlin which I sailed in as a toddler! I dimly remember it, was a beautiful boat.

Dinghy Studies, Fountain Pen, Fabriano Mixed Media, A4

Laser Lightning Topper, Dinghy Studies, Fountain Pen, Daler Rowney Graduate Mixed Media, A4 — Dinghy Studies, Fountain Pen, Fabriano Mixed Media, A4

These were sailing from the Minima Yacht club, and it was quite hard to capture them as they were tacking across the river so you had 10-30 seconds, maybe a minute at best (although sometimes later one they’d take the same pose going back up the river).

Also I realised after, drawing high speed with a fountain pen: I do make things hard for myself!

Merrie Thames, Queens Promenade, Fountain Pen and Watercolour, Fabriano Mixed Media, A4.

The next two images were much more sedate, taking 1-2 hours (I work fast). I think Merrie Thames is one of the boats from Turk’s, one of the many day boats that take people up and down the river. Like the boat hire, pleasure boats have been around here since Victorian times.

There are photos from that period of Queen’s Promenade and the hire and pleasure boats. Not much to talk about this one apart from the boat kept swinging in the current, making it a bit hard.

Liverpool, Queens Promenade, Fountain Pen and Watercolour, Daler Rowney Graduate Mixed Media A4.

And finally I mentioned the boat owner who wanted a copy of the painting – this is it. Quite proud of this one, although it is a bit of a rhapsody in grey (hard to do, and as always I mixed my own chromatic black and greys so it didn’t look boring. Complementary mixing, and mixing of secondaries to make muted shades. Look it up. It’s a game changer.

Weirdly not taught in schools, and what they call ‘tertiaries’ aren’t that useful.

Again fascinated by as much what’s on the boat as the boat itself – the gas canister, the chains, the fenders, ropes and planks.