Is this the final drawing?

Part of my view before it was interrupted

I had been settled into my pen and ink drawing for some time when my view was interrupted by a small film crew. They walked passed me and were pondering where to film, having exchanged views about the position of the sun, when they decided that the exact point I was concentrating on was going to be their special spot.

They politely apologised for inconveniencing me and promised they wouldn't take long (famous last words) and set up their shoot. They filmed their sequence numerous times so it was just as well that I had managed to complete enough of my composition so that I could easily concentrate on another part of the scene.

Some random clutter on the roof of a boat

I had initially been standing to the side of the towpath so I wouldn't be in other users way but I was getting a bit tired by this point, and since the film crew didn't mind at all about hogging the space, I decided to sit on my wee sketching stool. This means that half of the drawing was made at one angle and the rest of it at a lower angle. I decided this didn't matter too much and pressed on regardless.

The filming was going on to the left of this composition

Before the film crew had rolled up I had been considering this image as the final one in this series of drawings. But the more I worked on it the more I came to realise that there is at least one more to do before I can call it a day and this will have to wait until I get back from holiday.

The White Building

My view of the Hertford Union Canal meeting the River Lee Navigation

You can see in the distance of this photograph on the left of the bridge stands the White Building on White Post Lane which, although it is dwarfed by larger buildings nearby, is a significant arts venue in the area and they brew their own beer and make great pizzas.

The day I chose to make this sketch was very warm and sunny and a plant had bloomed over most of the water thereby changing the colour palette from predominantly grey to an amazing neon green.

I found a bench to sit on this time which was more comfortable than my sketching stool and to my left I was entertained by a running conversation between a father and his young son as they discussed how to fix their boat.

I was happy with the way this composition came together

Rusty staples or nails (I can't decide)

Saturday night's party revealed on Sunday morning

I've returned to my travels along the towpath with renewed enthusiasm now I feel more rested. I usually draw on weekdays but this time I've ventured out on a Sunday morning and look what I found en route to my destination. The party leftovers are not what I had in mind to draw but they are lying on top of the same wall that I planned to concentrate on.

These rusty objects attracted my attention a few days before

I decided I would try using the candle wax resist again to represent the cement between the bricks and then use an Indian ink wash over the top of it. I was in the mood to experiment and see what happened. I could have been more patient and used more wax so there would have been more of a contrast between the ink wash and the white cement, as it is the result is quite subtle. Then I wanted to include the rusty, naily things and some of the foliage. The finished result reminded me of the paving and mud drawing from earlier on in the series.

My finished sketch where I just wanted to experiment

It was on this occasion that I had something of a breakthrough. This part of the towpath doesn't have a grass verge to sit on so I had to stand by the wall which meant that I was very close to all the foot traffic that was passing back and forth. For the first time ever (I think) I was completely relaxed about people watching what I was doing as they went on their way, happy to chat if they wanted to and just as happy to be ignored as well.

Looking back at where I've been

Looking back along the Hertford Union canal

I haven't posted anything new on this blog for the last couple of weeks because I've been suffering from drawing fatigue. I'm not used to drawing several times a week and it took its toll on my stamina. Anyway, I am happy to report that I have recovered and am in the mood for more drawing and more writing.

The view above is more-or-less the view I had when I made this latest sketch. I was sitting at the edge of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and by the side of the River Lee Navigation. This view has given me the chance to look back at the towpath that I've been drawing for the last few months. You can see that on the left hand side the developers have built their architectural dream and there's a good chance that when the right hand side of the canal has been developed it will look fairly similar. 

I took this photo on quite a dull day a few weeks ago. The day I made this sketch the sun was so bright and there was so much glare I couldn't see what I was doing so taking a photograph proved impossible. I've realised that it is as hard work to draw in harsh sunlight as it is to work in rain and wind so I was quite pleased to have been able to continue as long as I did and still produce a recognisable composition.

This is same footbridge linking the canal to Roach Road that I drew a few weeks ago

Candle wax resist

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the distance

Since my previous drawing ended up being so dark I thought I would try to take this sketch a stage further and make it even more dark. I like the idea of a sketch which is almost entirely black but it would have to make some kind of visual sense. I did this in my previous sketching project and really liked the result.

Some more canal-side art

I had also decided to try using candle wax as a resist to the Indian ink. I didn't take the trouble to try this out at home in my sketchbook before I left the house so I had to experiment as I went along. I found that if the Indian ink was diluted enough the resist worked well and produced some interesting results. If the ink was straight out of the bottle and very black the wax resist was so subtle it was practically invisible.

When I began this series I thought I would be making conventional drawings but as the sketches are stacking up it seems I am venturing into painting. I have been using, amongst other things, a half inch decorating brush which has loosened up my approach. I'm also enjoying using Indian ink which I have learned was being produced in China as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC although the source of the materials to make the carbon pigment was later often traded from India, hence its name.

Beyond the bridge

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the distance

The vista beyond the bridge begins to broaden to the left and the right hinting at the wide expanse of water where the Hertford Union canal joins the River Lee Navigation. When I chose this spot to work in I imagined I would be concentrating on the view you can see above but I found it rather dull and it didn't grab me.

So I started looking around and my attention was drawn to this boat on my right. I began this sketch by describing the boat as a line drawing having no idea which direction it was going in. I often find that the emerging drawing seems to know where it wants to go and all I have to do is follow along behind.

My labours were accompanied by the lively sounds of some small children yelling at each other in one of the nearby flats. Sometimes their yelling would abate and then would crank up again until they were yelled at by an adult and meanwhile I just kept adding tones and marks until I had practically covered the paper and then I run out of steam.

The fascination of gabions

The word gabion comes from the Italian word gabbione meaning 'big cage'. Gabions can be cages, cylinders or boxes filled with rocks or concrete and are typically used in large-scale construction projects like civil engineering, road building and landscaping. They are also becoming increasingly popular as structures in domestic gardens.

I could see this ceramic sculpture from
where I was sitting. There are quite a few
of them along dotted along the canal

So I was strolling along the tow path looking this way and that and then these gabions caught my eye. They are supporting the bridge that was the subject of a previous drawing. I had in mind that I would try and draw the rocks, the metal cage as well as the leaves and produce something that would be very representational. I was to discover that I had set myself quite an ambitious task and became sidetracked into something rather more painterly and achievable.

I set up my sketching stool on the grass verge by the side of the wall to avoid being run over by cyclists, joggers and dog walkers and got stuck in. I can confirm that those leaves on the left hand side of the photo above are stinging nettles and it wasn't a great idea to brush my hands over them (I couldn't see any dock leaves nearby to rub on my hands to take the sting away).

It was a breezy day so I had to contend with paper flapping around and art materials flying away. There was regular foot traffic going back and forth over the bridge and I was surprised how clearly people's voices carried. I met my friend the car mechanic walking his boss's dog. He took a good look at what I was doing and was very encouraging. Then he said 'I expect you'll work that up more when you get home' and I realised that I wouldn't do that because once I've left my location I've lost my frame of reference. So I've realised that feeling the sun on my skin, or the breeze that blew my water bottle away and the sounds I'm listening to are as important as the sights I can see while I'm working.

Here's the finished sketch

View from under the bridge

My drawing of the bridge photographed on the bridge

I wandered along the canal until I reached the new pedestrian bridge that links Roach Road with the canal. Roach Road is one of the local roads named after freshwater fish and the others are Smeed Road, Dace Road, Monier Road and Bream Street which has led to the area adopting the name Fish Island. This location, which is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, isn't actually an island but is bordered on two sides by canals and the East Cross route borders a third side so the area has a feeling of being an island.

A locked gate revealing
an intriguing view

Apparently it was the artist Paul Klee who said that drawing is like 'taking a line for a walk'. I like the idea of starting a drawing and following where it wants to lead me so I tried to follow this maxim with this sketch of the bridge. I admit that I was tempted to interfere with the route on a number of occasions but then I would take a deep breath (plus a sip of tea always helps) and let the drawing wander where it wanted to. I did feel rather helplessly confused by all the competing lines in the composition but I had to remind myself that that was what had attracted me to the view in the first place.

While I was wrestling with not interfering with my own work I met a nice man who, having crossed the bridge, spotted what I was up to and stopped for a brief chat. It turned out that he too is an artist who, like me (and doubtless countless other artists), is more interested in the apparently mundane aspects of day-to-day life than grand gestures.

Gates at lower lock

The girl on this boat told me how much she just loved all the graffiti on the wall behind me

I settled on the gates of the lower lock as my subject today and I spent quite a lot of

time eating my lunch and watching the world go by before I put pen to paper. I was sitting right in front of a wall covered from top to bottom in what I think is really uninteresting graffiti. As far as I can see its only redeeming feature is that

it is very colourful and it is always being repainted. I seem to be very much in the minority here. I was interested to see how many passers-by made a point of photographing sections of this colourful mess or having their photo taken in front of it - it is clearly a tourist attraction and all I was doing was getting in their way.

There was quite a lot of boating traffic too, going up and down the canal which I found much more riveting. The boat above moored up and waited patiently while a Thames barge came through the lock. I observed the whole process for long enough to see how slowly the lock filled with water once the sluice gates had been opened and how this determined the pace at which canal life proceeds. I was also struck by the physical effort the boating crews have to exert to open and close the gates and how many single people work the locks on their own which must be quite an art.

I used pen and a wash of Indian ink for this sketch

Paving and mud

My view from where I was sitting looking towards the middle lock

When I was a little girl I used to like playing in the back garden making what I called mud pies. I would take soil from a flower bed, dump it into a tin washing-up bowl, tip loads of water on it and then mix it up into a lovely mess. When I finished that I would pour it all over my Dad's crazy paving patio that he had painstakingly created from a job-lot of broken paving stones that had been delivered by the council. To be honest it was more like gravy than pie.

My interest in mud survives to this day and this became the focus of this drawing. The mud won out over three other possible contenders which were: the foliage near the middle lock, two narrow boats next to each other and the lock gates of the bottom lock. The day I drew this we had sun all day: it was glorious and so it meant I had to be content to study dry mud as all the puddles had dried up.

I chose to sit near to my friend the disembodied head for this drawing. To digress for a moment body parts are not unknown in the canals around London. A few years ago a man murdered his sister not far from where we live and distributed parts of her body around the canal system and they were turning up for months and only last week the body of a woman was found in the Grand Union canal in a suitcase. I can't imagine why murderers think that disposing of their handiwork in a canal is a good idea.

From where I was sitting I could see this interesting structure. It appears to be a raft with tarpaulins stretched over it. I was sitting there long enough to notice that there was smoke coming out of the little chimney on the top and it made me wonder who was in there and what they were doing there – maybe it is someone's home?

When I finally settled down to observing the mud and paving stones I realised I enjoyed looking at the contrast between the lines on the paving stones and the random arrangement of the twigs, dried leaves, stones and the lumps and bumps of the mud so this drawing is a response to that. I tried to describe some of the patterns in the mud by applying Indian ink through the sort of mesh bag that you get vegetables in from the supermarket. It worked well when I tried it out at home on paper with a different surface to this one. It worked less well on this occasion 'out in the field'.