Painting boats, harbours and beaches
Ever since I loved to paint outdoor scenes my favourite subject was
the sea. I have drawn many seascapes and would presume to try and tell
anyone else how to do them. I think 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 rocks, fishermen
drawing nets, and the sea gulls. However harbours, boats, beaches and
boatyards, I find an endless source of material for water colour.
Luckily for me most of the subject material are found on the coast
and have developed a great love to paint fishing boats.
Basic form
One of the things I have discovered is that so 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, I am afraid to say from ladies, who seem to think that, as
females, they should be excused.
If you go about it in logical way, boats are no more difficult to
draw than any thing else. 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 don’t worry yourself with small details concentrate on the
proportions. Just use your observation and commonsense and don’t think
of them as difficult. Try to draw the main essential curves of the boat
using your whole arm rather than little jerky lines with a tightly held
pencil, it gives more of a flow and rhythm.
Natural hazards
 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 got 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 some times 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 in first before returning to the rest of the picture.
In and around the harbours you will find boats of 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 yachts with their graceful curves. If you are painting more than one
boat, make sure that they are not all the same size.
Nothing looks worse, compositionally, then two boats of the same
importance both vying for your attention at opposite side of a painting
make one more dominant than the other.
Unless you really know how to draw them don’t 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.
The problem is made worse because it usually becomes the object of
interest that’s why you put in. Work from site or from a good photograph
and then draw it in with care.
Observe the fishing boats I have done using ultramarine blue, burnt
umber, and Lemon Yellow with number six and number two sable hair
brushes.
Harbours
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 the boat
is pulled up on the hard 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’s out. The boats are tilted on
their sides and the harbour bottom exposed, with fascinating texture of
sand, rock and seaweed puddles of water making good opportunities for
reflections. When you are painting the harbour wall it self, don’t 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
here and there the viewer’s imagination will do the rest.
Beach scenes
When you are painting beach scenes, the main thing is to avoid being
boring. Most student paintings fail because of poor composition. Always
try and 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. Don’t clutter your beaches with too much fiddly detail. 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 to a minium, with no detail.
Observe the fishermen at a distance and how the dark tones of the land
accentuate the brightness of the sky, in the painting (left).
The first thing to remember is that rocks are solid, they have bulk
and weight. The top of the rocks faces the sky and gets the most light,
the sides are darker and the part of the rock that faces away from the
light source is darker still.
There are all sorts of techniques you can use to texture the rocks.
Apply dark colours over the wash to get the rock effect.
Also like dragging a flat razor blade or the edge of a flat card over
the damp wash but beware of overdoing these.
I enjoy painting the sea, for the ever changing conditions pose
enormous challenges and at the same time offer beautiful tones and
colours to exploit in a painting.
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 got to be patient, the one you are painting will soon
come back again to the angle you want.
- Tissa Hewavitarane
www.tissahewavitarane.com
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