Working with soluble pencils

I toyed with this view of the pedestrian bridge which was one view from where I was sitting

I always like to have a selection of materials to work with because I never know in advance what I might want to respond to and how I might want to work. Today's sketch is a good example of this. I've been using pen and ink for the last few drawings but today I started with charcoal and then moved onto soluble pencil.

I liked this view too and might tackle it later

I considered the view of the bridge above and then the weeds under the stairs but neither of those views quite worked. I looked straight ahead and decided that the boats were just right so do you know what, I drew the path to the right of them instead!

I have the clumsy habit of tipping water or ink all over my paper while I'm working. When that happens I just incorporate it into the drawing and keep going. Fortunately it is a warm day today and the paper dried quickly.

The view I thought I was going to draw

There were a lot of dog walkers around today and one young woman was walking with about six dogs of all shapes, sizes and ages so I assumed she was doing this for her job. The Guardian newspaper ran an interesting article on this subject just a few days ago and while the idea sounds appealing I don't think I would have the patience to chivvy my charges along the tow path exhorting them to 'get a move on!', 'this way!' and 'Fido there's nothing wrong with your leg and you can run!' as I heard today. This episode did cause me and a passer-by to share a laugh.

So here's the finished piece using a different approach

I like to try and be experimental with my approach to 'making marks' when I am sketching because that way I can avoid repeating the same technique over and over again. I quite expect to employ a different method for the next sketch but that's a job for next week.