The Ships

 After my night at the Androy Hotel I address the purpose of this part of my journeys: visit the shipping lane at Duluth at the southern tip of Lake Superior. I've been here a few times before and it's a trip requirement. The big lakes have a ship culture. The big lake freighters can exceed 1000' in length, carrying various cargos but an emphasis on iron ore and coal. Internet has a site with the canal schedule. I have two freighters I can witness: the Hon James LO Oberstar and the American Century.

First up is the Oberstar at 8 am (give or take). She was built in 1959 and is the same class of freighter as the Edmund Fitzgerald, at around 700'. The control tower is at the bow. Therefore she probably has a fuel oil boiler that drives huge steam pistons to drive the propeller. They always have steam exhaust just like a steam locomotive has. I sketched her live (August 19) to see how far I could get. They come through the canal very slow, but still not enough time to do it justice. 

I had some time before the American Century came through so I sketched the walkway that the public can access. Trying to apply what I learned at the week workshop. People are tough but I'll slug my way through this skill. I learned here that the walkway does not fade away into the sky (like my brain was telling me) but it fades at just under eye level. Oops.

Then it's time for the American Century. She was built in 1981 at 1000' long. This is the standard modern size of the lake freighters. For her I took pictures with my cell phone so I could do a realistic drawing back home. Being a newer ship, she has diesel engines that probably drive electric motors that drive the propeller shafts. These are much quieter and exhaust is minimal. Very impressive! 

My usual sketching process uses fountain pen linework without pencil layout. Then watercolor pencil with a waterbrush. For this one I used just a little pencil layout. Then a fountain pen with a (new) fude nib. Seems to be the craze now. I hate crazes, but this one works out just fine. I can vary the thick to thin linework. I also used a trick I learned from the watercolorists at the workshop. I created a wash using pigment from the pencils in a clean half-pan with added water. This was for the water and sky. I also wanted to fade the colors of the bow as the ship gets longer and has subdued tones.