The company took us to Porto for a break, to thank us for the year’s work and for team-building. Travel there and back took a day and I spent 24 hours in the city. Its a great city, very scenic, picturesque port and dramatic bridges. I managed to sneak out in the evening, whilst the youngster danced in the nightclub, to a local Milonga and had a great evening dancing with some lovely local dancers. It would be great to return in April for their Int Tango festival.

In the morning only three of us made it to breakfast by 8:30 and I was soon off to the port to sketch. It was cool and there was a fresh breeze on the bridge but the sky was cloudless and a chance to get warm later on, on the other river bank. (which I did later with a coffee and sandwich) I found the view I wanted to draw and luckily there was a concrete block to sit on and it wasn’t too busy. I felt confident I could draw the scene but there were heck of a lot of windows and roofs. I did ignore some nasty concrete bunkers and concentrated on the more historic buildings and included a couple of vegetation features.

The painting went well, until I was interrupted by a cyclist who asked me to take photo for him. It took about 90 minutes to draw and paint and is in a loose style but with lots of detail.

Porto Bridge and Port

There is some odd scaling going on in the picture. The buildings get larger as you go up the hill, which is true but a bit off putting and made me rethink several times. I missed a boat on the river which I regret but cold and tiredness forced me to move on.