Drawing Tuesday - Roof Garden, Docklands

Opened in May 2016 (via)

"The Crossrail Place Roof Garden, a 300-metre enclosed garden which is open daily to the public until 9pm (or sunset in summer). It references both the history and geography of Canary Wharf drawing on the area’s heritage as a trading hub and many of the plants are native to countries visited by ships of the West India Dock Company who unloaded their wares in this very location 200 years ago.

"Crossrail Place sits almost exactly on the Meridian line and the planting is arranged according to which hemisphere they are from with Asian plants such as bamboos to the east, and plants such as ferns from the Americas to the west. Information boards are placed throughout the Roof Garden explaining in more detail about the plants within it." (via)

It offers quite a bit of seating, and as well as the plants waving in the wind there are solid objects that stay still. Like these play-it-yourself pianos -

Representing every form of transport!

And throught the bus windows, the people jiggle when the piano is played

OK let's get on with the drawing ....

Find a seat and draw what you see

Much gnashing of teeth as the leaves waved gently in the breeze

This took 20 minutes, done standing up, starting from "the front",

 We all found the subject matter rather challenging. (But the more you do it, the less frightening/difficult/frustrating/etc it is...)

Mary tried out various new media

Sue used colour to advantage

Janet's graceful path gives depth, as does the paler distance

Carol went beyond plants to the structure and beyond

 Tool of the week - water pens. Most of us carry them, but how often do we use them?

The red one, with a solid fibre tip, seems to be a new product. The sets are available at various internet sites, eg this one.