Colourize Project: Tugboat

Colorized version from two years ago of a tugboat between the two breakwaters heading out from Port Taranaki.

Up the river

Fancy for a boat tour on the Avon?  Enjoy a sunny afternoon with the family on a guided journey up the river on Christchurch. Come an see the duckling, the eels and explore the botanical gardens nature on a very romantic tour.

Roulette 63824

Here's a set of three sketches of a fishing boat out of water getting some kind of work done on it. (In the August sketch, it's not the boat in front on the left.) I've done one per month so it's been there for a while now.

Colourize Project: Security Pipe

The marina off the breakwater at Port Taranaki has a weird gate that seems to be a large steel pipe with a door cut into it. Here's the colour version of a sketch from a few years ago.

Pot Pouri

Tropical look at Pukekura Park, right in the heart of New Plymouth.  Whilst the others sketched in the warmth of the Fernery greenhouses a couple of us sat on the lawn with the wind roaring overhead in the trees, with the sun on our backs.

The 1843 volcanic andesite Vicarage houses the potters sales shop, with the potters pottering out the back.  A welcome sign hinting not to linger longer as it is an earthquake risk was well outweighed by the warmth of welcome by the potters.

Peering through the fence at Port Taranaki at all the boats parked up in various states of repair.

An indoor day at the museum.  Tuatara means peaks on back in Maori. They can grow up to 0.8m long and have a pronounced photoreceptive eye - the so-called third eye.  Uniquely they have two sets of upper teeth overlapping one set of lower. Typically they live to 60 but can reach 100!

Vintage Industries/ Vintage Lighting - originally only an online biz has now opened in New Plymouth. If you wish to buy old refurbished industrial warehouse lighting,  Japanese searchlights, Parisian pews, Dutch school desks or just Red the stuffed stag, you have come to the right place.  Decor - distressed industrial look.

Boat Launch

It was early morning down at the port and there were non-stop boats being launched. These crusty sailors have serious skills. I was watching them back a trailer into the water, dump the boat with a pilot on board and go park... all in one motion. It was like scrambling a squadron from the deck of an aircraft carrier. I drew the dock first and then was going to draw a launching in behind it, since they were mostly going in the water on that side. When it came time to sketch the boat, I started to notice how little time I had for each one. The good news (for me) was that this one boat had engine trouble. They had to put it back on the trailer and have a look at it. Without a motor it actually took quite a while to get back on to land. When I finished the dock after that, the same guys put the boat back in the salt water and they were away. All's well that ends well.

Exocet

Here's a fishing boat that is double parked to the main launching dock. I'm not sure why since there were other places to berth to. The sailors had to climb to the larger diving ship and then to the dock to get supplies loaded. Important things like fuel and hot lunches from a nearby restaurant. About halfway through this one the ropes were untied and it sailed away. This is a bit worse than when cars do this.
The name Exocet has the same as an anti-ship missile and is French for 'flying fish'. I guess this is a good name although this doesn't seem to be a particularly fast vessel.

Salt Air and Parad.ice

Battered commercial fishing boats resting over the weekend

Port Taranaki

Paradice came to town, instant rink in the middle of town.  The kids lined up in their skates to be drawn.  My mum must have passed over half a dozen sketches as they queued up.

LPC

"Lyttelton Port of Christchurch" is an important gateway to the South Island, cargo and passenger ships dock here, some unload, others wait to be packed with coal, wood or containers and some are painted in the dry dock.

I often look at the huge ships as itinerant buildings and to the port as the layout of a city, waiting for them to arrive. This "mutating city" is often the twin of a real city, one as big, busy and noisy as the other. But not here, the Port of Christchurch keeps on growing but Lyttelton has been able to preserve its small scale and slow pace of life. 

Tug Lyttleton

This is "Lyttleton" a steam boat. After some long trips is now on the dock waiting to be drawn and for some short excursions. This was one of my first attempts to try something more bright, this time I chose to use gouache. First some consistent blocks of colour, then the black pen and in the end some grey watercolour for shading.

City boat shed

City boat shed. Graham Downs.

'A' closer look

This is another attempt at 'A' which I sketched very quickly a few weeks back (below). Looks like she's in town for repairs. I love the comments you hear when people see it for the first time. Everything from 'Coooooooool! to 'Whoa, that's seriously uuuugly!' One person, sounding super knowledgable, informed her friends that it's a converted submarine!

Float your boat in Auckland

Team New Zealand's unfortunate result in the America's Cup recently doesn't seem to have dampened our love of all things nautical in the slightlest. Here are a few water oriented sketches from my sketchbook over the last month or so.

Tall Ships Festival 2013

This scene was sketched at Queen's Wharf on Labour Day morning. That's the Sydney to Russell race winning Europa in the foreground. The masts were crawling with crew making last minute adjustments to rigging and sails before they departed at midday.

There were 2 others docked on Queen's Wharf, to the left is the Picton Castle (Canada) with the Lord Nelson (UK) behind. Over on Prince's Wharf to the right are two more Dutch vessels (Europa is from the Netherlands as well) Oosterschelde and Tecla. I like the contrast the old ships made against the sleek curves of The Cloud building on the left.

It's a bit difficult to tell where one boat starts and the other stops - I got a bit lost in the detail of all those ropes. I wonder if the sailors get lost in all those ropes too or if it's one of those things you pick up after a few days - I doubt it somehow! Maybe I'll crew on one sometime and find out, it would be a fun way to get up close with the sketchbook anyway.

Here is a scrollable closeup of the sketch thanks to Lapin, French illustrator and Urban Sketcher for the code!

Nahlin

What do retro modern vacuum cleaners and King Edward the VIIIth have in common? Nahlin of course!

The 91.4 metre long steamer has been dubbed the 'Royal love boat' because King Edward and Mrs Simpson enjoyed an Adriatic cruise aboard the Nahlin in the 30's and planned his upcoming abdication.

Nahlin was sold to King Caroll II of Romania before his abdication, and then used as a museum and eventually a restaurant on the Danube. Some time later Nahlin was refitted by Blohm + Vos, (the same company responsible for the futuristic "A" featured a bit further down this post), and purchased by Sir James Dyson of vacuum cleaner fame.

'A'
The biggest super yacht to have ever berthed in Auckland arrived recently. It's a mad looking thing and at 119 meters long it's longer than New Zealand's largest navy vessels.

It's designed by Philippe Starck apparently, so think sleek, like a submarine. Almost devoid of embellishments, port holes, rails and the like. An invisible panel slid away revealing a couple of smaller boats inside. I half expected James Bond's Lotus Esprit submarine to launch itself.

She was built in Germany by Blohm + Voss, they've been building floating things since 1877 so they know a thing or two about boats having pumped out some of the world's maritime heavy hitters. A couple you might have heard of such as the Bismark and the Scharnhorst.

Auckland on Water Boat Show

I didn't actually go to the boat show in Viaduct Harbour, but there was a pretty neat display of Sealegs boats outside.

I've seen them in action before and they're pretty clever machines. I liked their floating logo too - each letter bobbing around individually.

The one in the sketch was decked out in a funky camouflage paint job - ideal for the duck shooter who doesn't like to get his feet wet. I reckon a maimai strapped to the top would carried the look off perfectly though.

So plenty of boat action already and summer hasn't really started yet. I'm looking forward to seeing what else floats in over the next few months!

Security Pipe

To get to the New Plymouth Marina, you would need to go out on one of the breakwaters at Port Taranaki. About halfway out there is this weird security gate. It really is just a large pipe with a closed top and two sections cut out of the sides to make a couple doors. As I was drawing it, some boatie arrived at the front with a couple of bags to take on board his boat. He put them down and unlocked the door. He then picked up the bags, entered and closed the door behind him. From my point of view, I could barely see the gangway on the other side that leads down to the floating wharves. It gave me the impression that he was entering his tiny windowless apartment or that this pipe has some sort of Doctor Who Tardis quality where it is much roomier on the inside.

When the boat comes in

Mario's rusty boat reminded me of several I'd enjoyed sketching.

The Auroa trawler at Port Chalmers

The Gleaner - New Plymouth - damaged after coming adrift from a storm

PB Katea Tug - Port Nelson - the crew wanted a copy for their mess room

On the hard - Capt Souza - dry dock Nelson

Nelson

I found this rusty boat when I visited Nelson.
Is really a lovely town and geographically interesting, a flat city between the mountains and a marina.