Learn to draw by Tissa Hewavitarane

Painting fishing boats on the beach

If you are interested in painting the sea, you will be attracted to boats, which is a part of it. The beauty and their shape and strong colour make an absorbing and detailed study. This painting is of a broad beach with a rock in the distance. A warm late afternoon light illuminates the beach. The two boats provide the subject.

Many people have a fear of drawing and painting boats. If you go about in a logical way, boats are no more difficult to draw than anything else.

First, understand the basic form of the boat, which is the same whether they are big or small. Do not worry about small details, concentrate on the proportions. Try to draw the essential curves of the boat. There are two natural hazards in painting boats.

In water, the boat swings a lot so that they seem to be constantly changing 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 boat owners are some times very inconsiderate to the needs of the artist and want to sail off in them, usually in the middle of a painting. 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, river or seashore.

Study the painting related to this article. First make a fine pencil drawing to locate the boats and provide some indication of its proportions. Then add a light wash indicating the sky and surrounding warm colour of cloud and beach, working on a damp ground.

It is important to do an overall light wash with raw sienna and a little mixture of Prussian blue, as it cannot be introduced later. The warm tones of sienna and brown and sharp turquoise blue of the boat provides attention and helps to project the boats back into the middle distance of the picture.

Lay in cool shadow under the boat with Prussian blue over brown. The painting should have a sense of depth at this stage, if the values are in the right relationship to one another and also in overall context. Apply thick washes of burnt sienna mixed with Prussian blue to create the shadow areas under the belly of the boat. Then lay in the blue bands on the side when the rest is dry and pick out fine detail with a small brush.

Boats are found in all shapes and sizes divided roughly into two classes, working boats and pleasure craft.

The old fishing boats bear character and dignity and the yachts with their graceful curves for the drawing use Kent 180 gsm/90 lb. Colours - raw sienna, brown madder, sepia, Prussian blue using sable hair brushes No. 9, 2 and 1.