Painting boats, harbours and beaches

by Tissa Hewavitarane

Ever since I loved to paint outdoor scenes my favourite subject was the sea. I have drawn many seascapes. They are very much a specialist subject better left to people who live by the sea and have time to study wave action day in and day out, waves breaking on the rocks, fishermen drawing nets and pushing the boats to the water.

However, boats, harbours, beaches and boatyards are an endless source of material for watercolour. Luckily for me, most of the subject material are found on the coast and I have developed a great love to paint fishing boats.

One of the things I have discovered is that many people have a deep fear of drawing boats, their normal intelligence seems to desert them and they produce some awful monstrosities.

"I can't draw boats and I don''t know anything about them," is such a common cry from students, especially from women, who seem to think that they should be excused. If you go about in a logical way boats are no more difficult to draw than anything else.

Details

First of all, get to understand the basic form of the boat, which is the same, whether they are big or small. Learn to draw the basic form of the hull and to think of it as a shape.

As usual do not worry yourself with small details, concentrate on the proportions. Just use your observation and commonsense and do not think of them as difficult.

Try to draw the main essential curves of the boat using your whole arm rather than jerky little lines with a tightly held pencil, if it gives more of a flow and rhythm.

There are two natural hazards in painting boats. Moored dinghies swing about a lot so that they seem to be constantly changing their shape, but you have to be patient, the one you are painting will soon come back again to the angle you want.

The other hazard is that boatmen are sometimes very inconsiderate to the needs of the painter and want to sail off usually in the middle of a painting.

When painting waterfront scenes with a row of yachts, one learns to keep half an eye open for signs of preparation far off and quickly paint the potential absentee the first before returning the rest of the picture.

Shapes

In and around the harbours you will find boats of different shapes and sizes divided roughly into two classes, working boats and pleasure crafts. I love the old fishing boats which have character and dignity and the yatchts with their graceful curves.

If you are painting more than one boat, make sure that they are not of the same size. Nothing looks worse, compositionally than two boats of the same importance both vying for your attention at opposite sides of a painting make one more dominant than the other.

Unless you really know how to draw them do not ever try to put in a boat quickly from memory in an otherwise empty lake or seashore, I have seen so many otherwise well-painted scenes ruined by badly drawn boats, obviously done without knowledge or reference material.

Problem

The problem is made worse because it usually becomes the object of interest. That is why you put in work from site or from a good photograph and then draw it with care.

Observe the fishing boat I have done using burnt amber mixed with ultramarine blue using No 6 and No 2 sable hair brushes. Notice the number of fishermen bear bodied pushing the boat to water.

I have used burnt amber for the entire body with light wash of ultramarine blue. The body movements of the men bring character to the picture.

There is always something busy going on in harbours, men doing all sorts of interesting things, like giving a new paint for boats, lowering buckets, carrying oars, climbing ladders, loading and unloading or just standing around in groups gossiping. You must learn to put them simply and directly without any detail.

Get the essential movement or silhouette of an action. However, harbours make a very good subject for painting when a boat is pulled up on the sard you can see the whole boat not just the part that is above the water line.

In the yards there is so much fascinating junk to paint rusty oil drums, piles of rope and old propellers. Harbours are always much more interesting and paintable when the tide is out.

The boats are titled on their sides and the harbour bottom exposed, with fascinating texture of sands, rock and seaweed. Puddles of water make good opportunities for reflections.

When you are painting the harbour wall itself, do not try to build it up by painting individual stones, but indicate it as a solid mass in good rich colour and then just suggest the texture of the stones and the viewer's imagination will do the rest.

When you paint beach scenes, the main thing is to avoid being boring. Most students' paintings fail because of poor composition. Always compose your scenes with a simple foreground which makes it easy for the viewer to enter your picture and be led to the centre of interest.

Do not clutter your beaches with too much fiddly details. Keep it very simple and put on the paint with authority and leave it fresh transparent.

A few simple figures on a beach give life and scale but be careful where you place them and keep your strokes minimum with no details. I enjoy painting the sea beach for the ever changing conditions pose enormous challenges and at the same time offer beautiful tones and colours to exploit in a painting.