Sketching at the BoilerHouse Restaurant, Richmond

Last Tuesday evening we sketched at the BoilerHouse Restaurant in Richmond’s Craneway Pavillion on the San Francisco Bay. The building had been a Ford automobile factory until World War II when it was converted to military use. Now it holds a restaurant and a huge venue for dance, music and other events and is on the Bay Trail, a walking and bike path around the SF Bay.

The architecture is really complicated and the big smoke stack was very tall so after a false start (the black lines still visible) I switched to a brown pen and started over on the same page. I marked the top of the stack and the bottom of the building so I could get it all on the page. I also used the “plumb line” technique (where you imagine a line straight down from one thing to see what lines up along that line below it).

It was getting cold and windy as the sun was starting to set. The boat at the end of the pier is the restored Red Oak Victory Ship which served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was built by the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond.  That’s the Golden Gate Bridge peeking out from behind the hills.

At dusk we moved inside the restaurant to warm up and sketch and this huge tree filled my view through the wall of windows. The window panes provided a convenient grid for drawing the tree.

I’d read reviews saying the service was slow (which is perfect for sketchers) but our water was very nice and conscientious and my salad was good. Other reviews said the restaurant serves strong cocktails and that seemed true: While we were outside sketching a couple of different departing diners (drinkers?) stopped to say alcohol-fueled “funny” things to us and once inside there were occasional bursts of uproarious laughter and the sound of crockery falling to the floor and smashing.

P.S. This Saturday, May 15 is the 27th International Sketchcrawl and I’m planning to attend the San Francisco event. If you’re going too, I’d love to meet up with you there so let me know to look for you!