Drawing Tuesday - Docklands

I was early, the sun was shining, and there was a sunny bench just behind the Change Please coffee van 

 So I sat with my coffee and - emboldened by the sketchbook course the previous weekend - had a go at the van, and the building (but not the trees, thanks) -

Soluble graphite, and coffee wash

And then what? I wandered through the Crossrail gardens ...

 and looked at ever so much architecture, especially those wonderful cranes, remnants of the days of Britain's empire, when goods flooded through London from all around the world -

 But now we have offices, and intangibles. Ah well ...

I find that if you start with a small point of interest, the rest can grow outward. The turquoise rope caught my eye, and as I got into position, the two birds deflected my attention. So I started with the one standing on the convenient rudder, and both soon moved out of sight ... not to mention he's now in the wrong place AND too large. The architecture of the boat took over, and I felt very bold using wash over such large areas with the small waterbrush on a quick-drying day -

Grey Posca pen, indigo Inktense pencil

I deliberately took along only water-soluble materials, in order "to boldly go".

 As we sat outside with our sandwiches, this machine was grinding and thumping at the building site across the water; what a relief when it stopped! Jo had the fortitude to sit with it long enough to catch its image -

 Judith had been making order from chaos in the gardens -

 And Sue perched on a bench to get this multifaceted under-bridge view -

Janet B found a chair -

and also brought along her work from last week, when she went to the Design Museum -

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