Saturday did not go as originally planned, so my sketchcrawl ended up being local - down alongside the Thames just east of Tower Bridge. I started just east of Wapping Station and walked down Wapping High Street towards Pier Head with diversions to the Thameside Path.A brief description of each sketch follows - with links to a more detailed and individual post about each of these historic sites in my Travels with a Sketchbook blog. Click on a link to read a more detailed post of the view in question. Click on the images to see a larger version and/or visit the River Thames section of "Travels with a Sketchbook in London" on my website.
- a view of Rotherhithe and the place from which the Mayflower set sail with the Pilgrim Fathers on its journey to Plymouth Massachusetts:
- Wapping Pier Head and the Old Customs House
- Shad Thames, Tower Bridge and the Pool of London from Wapping
Over the River Thames is Rotherhithe. This is a site associated with the start of a famous journey. The Mayflower which carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. was based in Rotherhithe. The Mayflower set sail from close to the very small white building just to the left of centre - which is the Mayflower Inn. The ship's co-owner and captain, Christopher Jones, lived in Rotherhithe and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church in 1622 whose steeple you can see to the right of my sketch. You can also see the chimneys associated with the Brunel Engine House and the Thames Tunnel which the Brunels (father and son) built under the Thames between Rotherhithe and Wapping. Visit my other blog to find out the link between this view and "The Fighting Temeraire".
Next Wapping Pier Head and the Old Custom House for the London Docks. This is a view of the east side of Wapping Pier Head which comprises fine Georgian town houses built for officials of the London Dock Company between 1811 and 1813. These are located just a stones's throw from Execution Dock.The next sketch is of the grand door and entrance the Old Custom House (No. 3 Wapping Pier Head). This one is pen and sepia ink with a bit of CP added when I got home. It's a double page spread in my A4 sized Daler rowner hardback black sketchbook which means it's about 11" x 17" in size.
The Old Custom House, 3 Wapping Pier Head11" x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
Finally a view (at the top of this post) of Shad Thames, Tower Bridge and the Pool of London - lots of places in this one (details in the other blog) - but I had to sketch in the middle of a gale so the sketch was not as well developed as I would have liked - although the view has great potential. Another 11" x17" double page spread - pencil on site and CP added afterwards. I shall be returning to the same spot!
As well as using my Travels with my Sketchbook Blog for a more detailed narrative about travel sketches in the UK, I've also decided that I'm going to revise my 2007 plan in the light of the number of Thameside sketches I've now done to develop "The Thames and its environs" as a bit more of a theme in the future for sketches of London and the rest of the UK.
Links:
- International Sketchcrawls Forum
- International Sketchcrawls - Saturday 17th March 2007
- Pastels and Pencils: Travels with a Sketchbook in London
- Making a Mark in 2007 - the plan
- Travels with a Sketchbook in.......
blogging, 
drawing, ,
international sketchcrawl 
making a mark, 
sketch, 
sketchbook
i really like the style of these sketches, very colourful and individual. Inspiring. Brings a lot of life to those London buildings. Nice one!
ReplyDeleteHey Katherine, just put a little shout for your blog on my diary one, I have got some travel sketches on my web site, but plan to put loads more up as soon as I have a bit of time, am liking your travel sketch books very much.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pete - it's such a joy to have so much to sketch when living in London!
ReplyDeleteSarah - I'm really looking forward to seeing your sketch books after seeing that painting of China today. I have no doubts at all they'll get a spot in my blogroll of travel sketchbooks over on my other travel sketchbook blog!
I love the new drawings. especially the top post. It's loose, energetic and alive. I admire the simplicity of it - how it seems to be all about the shapes. Very nice!
ReplyDeleteI really like the doorway sketch with the punch of red. I'm jealous you have such a variety of things to sketch where you live. Even the churches here are more modern.
ReplyDeleteWhen the scavenger hunt had a church window, mine was a plain ordinary window. You couldn't tell it was from a church or a house. Unlike what Nitsa got with a lot of stained glass.
I used to love seeing the Italy sketches of MrsSnowy. It is really nice to see sketches from other countries. Like traveling along.
Katherine, it looks like you covered quite a bit of ground - with beautiful results, as always I didn't get out for much crawling - fighting off a virus here - but maybe I'll try a postponed one on another day.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeanne - I enjoy visiting other countries and seeing what they look like throigh other people's illustratd blogs.
ReplyDeleteI guess all the places we live have their pluses and minuses. We have the history and the architecture and you have the sunshine!
Dee - it's funny, that was the most difficult and fastest sketch of the lot. And because it was so difficult I really had to focus on the big shapes and getting the values more or less right to make a complicated scene a bit simpler - and I think it's probably the best of the lot. It's certainly the one that persuades me that I'll be back. Just got get the tides right do that the foreshore is exposed!
ReplyDeleteDitto what DF wrote -- I was just knocked out by the loose strokes and the lovely massed tones.
ReplyDelete(Also was delighted you found, and liked, my "meditation" on your qarrtsiluni flowers! Thanks for popping by, and thanks for giving the writer in me something fine to work with.)
Lori - your poetry was stunning and I'm so pleased you found my Bart's lily so stimulating.
ReplyDeleteThese are great to see since I've never been to London. My favorite is the Rotherhithe.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, your lovely deep space sketches in tiny sketchbooks never cease to amaze me! I can't make that mental leap from actual large scale to small-scale drawings--just can't do it! I love the insouciant tree in the customs house sketch.
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