Ship in a bottle, Trafalgar Square, London

Ship in a bottle, Trafalgar Square © Peter Gander

Trafalgar Square is a walkable 20 minutes from my office in Tottenham Court Road, so I ambled down there the other day, on a balmy September lunchtime. The line drawing (Pentel NMF50, Superfine point) was done in-situ and I took a photo for colour reference to refer to later as it was not possible to both draw and paint the scene in the 20 mins I had before getting back. The Fourth Plinth has been set aside for contemporary pieces of art, though it was once destined to support a rider on horseback which hasn’t yet transpired. The Ship in a bottle is by artist Yinka Shonibare and celebrates the maritime history of the battle of Trafalgar - see http://www.london.gov.uk/trafalgarsquare/around/4th_plinth.jsp for details. The painting was applied to Daler-Rowney Pastel Paper, a little too thin (160gsm) for watercolour really, as it buckles, but the tinted colour, an oatmeal and the addition of white Conté pencil for the highlights made better use of this paper. It has a nice vertical grain and the overall texture lends itslef nicely to the mainly stone subject matter. Watercolour on Daler-Rowney Murano Neutral Pastel Paper with white Conté pencil.