Maiden voyage ...

Well not quite the maiden trip, but some pictures of our first major run down to Shackerstone ...

Finish ...

Well you never really finish of course, but see below a few pictures of the completed product ...

Boat lettering part two

See the images below of a second full day of shadowing work on the panels ...

In this first image you can see that, whilst it was good already, the dramatic effect that letter shadowing has on the panel ...

And of course it is all repeated - and incredibly in an identical form - on the other side ...

Just look at that finished main panel ...

And the boat name panel ...

Boat lettering part one

There was only one choice for us for the external lettering (or signwriting) of the boat, and that was Dave Moore.  There are a small number of good signwriters out there but Dave is a master and absolutely second to none, and it was a pleasure to have him letter our boat.  See below some of the progress on day one ...

In this picture, at about 8am on a day between Christmas and New Year 2013 Dave makes a start, with marking out and taping-up of the general style that we wanted.

You can see some of the panel here start to take shape, with the wonderful scroll-work in the top corners ...

Just look at the painstaking nature of the work ... here he starts on the script-style lettering which will says "Canal Carriers" ... 

If you look closely at this picture of the boat name panel, you can see the pencil sketching of the lettering ... 

See the completed panel on one side, but note no shadowing at this stage ...

And once one side is done, he makes a start on the other ...

And as it gets dark and late, he nearly completes the second side ready for shadowing tomorrow ...

End of day one ...