Drawing and painting boats

If you love marine pictures you will want to draw boats. Many artists have a deep fear of drawing boats. "I can't draw boats" and "I don't know anything about them", are common cries especially from students. If you go about it in a logical way, boats are no more difficult to draw than anything else.

First, get to understand the basic form of the boat, which is the same whether they're big or small. Learn to draw the basic form of the hull and to think of it as a 'shape'. Keep looking at your drawing and back at the boat itself, over and over again.

Lightly draw in the centre of the boat from bow to stern. This will stop you drawing bits of the boat, such as the mast off balance. It helps if you draw a box as shown on Fig. 1 and put the boat within it, it will certainly help to get your perspective right.

Don't worry yourself with small details, concentrate on the proportions. Try to draw the main essential curves of the boat. Just use your observation and commonsense and don't think of them as difficult. Outline the sketch of different boat designs shown in Fig. 2.

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

The other hazard is that boat owners are sometimes inconsiderate to the needs of the artist and want to sail off in them usually in the middle of a painting.

If you are painting more than one boat, make sure that they are not of the same size. Fig. 3 shows you a simple study of a fishing boat on the shore. This one should be easy for you to draw and paint.