Today I sketched this Sydney Ferry “Charlotte” at King Street Wharf terminal, while I was waiting for my ferry.
I made a quick set of notes as to each step so that I could explain how I used watercolour pencils to capture this part of my day on paper. The ferry is about 6cm x 6cm on the page
Sketched the basic structure of the ferry in Faber Castell Chrome Yellow as it pulled up to the wharf, unloaded and then reloaded passengers. I did not know how long it would be there but knew this would take a few minutes as it was just after 9am and full of commuters.
Quickly added the shapes of the windows in HB pencil (to get the numbers and shapes correct) and marked the height of the passengers against the front windows
Quickly and roughly shaded (scribbled) with Faber Castell Chrome Oxide Green and Yellow in the correct areas
The ferry started to pull out backwards so I decided to draw the front of it (in green) now that I could see it all
Added light loose background shapes of buildings across the other side of the water.
on the 8 minute ferry ride to Cockatoo Island
I added a little Faber Castell Ivory pencil direct to the page on the yellow area. This is to tone down the yellow, which is a little brash for the Sydney Ferry colour. These two colours mix as the water is added and they are spread over the small area on the page .
Use the waterbrush on the page to spread the colour
Added a few finer lines and the red and blue colour with the pencil direct on the paper
Then I was off the ferry and ready to enjoy my day !
Thank you so much for your step by step description! I’m a beginning sketcher, thinking about getting some watercolor pencils, and I find this very helpful!
Hi Lin, Thanks for leaving a comment. It is lovely to know that I am introducing people to sketching and watercolour pencils.
watercolours pencils are great fun!
Have a play and see what they do on the paper as pencils and then add some water to different areas .You can drag it across the page, pulling out the colour across the page. If you let it dry you can add more lines on top. It’s all about experimenting and having fun.