Thursday, April 10, 2008

Mersey Ferries



As made infamous in the song by "Gerry and the Pacemakers", here are two Mersey Ferries quietly dozing in a sleepy little dock.

The Mersey Ferries are an important part of my past. We used to take the train to Woodside, then the ferry to the Pier Head for a day's Christmas shopping in the big department stores in Liverpool.

When I finally got my drivers licence, the Wirral fast became a favourite haunt. We used to ride the ferries in the evening. During morning and evenings the boats operated a commute service, but during the day and weekends they offered cruises up and down the river, taking a large oval between the three terminals, rather than the triangle. This is a good thing for day trippers, but the recorded commentary opened and closed with Gerry Marsden's classic song. A good song, but on a tinny Tannoy, six times in a half hour...

I believe this sketch was drawn from a postcard of the Liverpool waterfront, though it may have been one of my photos I used as the source. Actually I think the Isle of Man Packet steamer may have been from a different picture, added to fill in the blank.




The actual size of the picture is about 10"x6", and would have been drawn with a 2H 0.5mm mechanical pencil, if you are interested.


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2 comments:

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Ah, at first I expected to see drawings of FAIRIES. :-)

Very impressive effort. Great level of detail. I bet this must've taken you a lot of time to complete. Architectural drawing was part of your engineer training?

Interesting new avatar, also. (Though it DOES make you look like a bit of a square...)
I also intend to post on my blog sometimes an avatar which I made myself. In 3-D, no less. Took me just one evening to do it by hand.
(How, you may ask? Well, I took a Max Steel action figure and did some nip-tuck sculpting on the head. Had to change the whole shape...)

Alex said...

At the tender age of 13 I had to elect classes. The choice structure meant that I had to give up art to do tech drawing, physics and chemistry. Kinda annoying considering architecture was an interest of mine.

I also learnt, but could not accept, the fickleness of art within the context of the school system. I went from a straight A art student to a straight C student on the change of teacher. I guess I always strive for realism, and couldn't abstract worth a damn.

The Avatar was put together using Chris Doyles Iconmizer over at www.reasonablyclever.com.