Every October Doug Jackson hosts a sketching event called Boatober. I’ve never participated, but other urban sketchers I know have. I’ve already decided that this is the year I master the art of sketching our local seagulls and boats. So who better to learn from that urban sketcher Doug Jackson.

Using Line Weights to Differentiate Objects

This first boat tutorial I did was focused on using varying line weights. Heavier lines attract the eye and help to bring objects forward, and thinner or lighter lines help to create objects that aren’t focal points, and help to push objects backwards.

Ink Sketch of Boat Scene

For this initial sketch I used the thickest black line for the foreground, a thinner black line for the mid-ground, and a grey pen for the background.

I just started using a Sailor Fude pen that I’ve had for years, but couldn’t get the hang of using. But now it’s my go-to pen. Depending on how you hold it or position the nib means you can create multiple different line widths.

Ink and Wash Sketch of Boat Scene

In Doug’s tutorial most of his sketch is black and white, and just the bouys have a splash of colour on them. He used heavier line weight and colour to make the boat at the front a focal point. But I decided I wanted to make the mid-ground area the focal point, so I started adding colour to the other boat and the harbour wall area.

But I felt like the front boat still felt like the focal point, even though the colour on the second boat should have drawn your eye there instead. I also felt like the dark background behind the coloured boat helped to make it disappear a little.

Ink and Wash Sketch of Boat Scene

This is the final sketch. I added heavier ink lines to the smaller boat, so that along with the colour helps to elevate that boat to become the focal point. And even though the other mid-ground elements have colour, they don’t dominate the scene because they don’t have heavy ink lines.

From this rendition of the tutorial I learned how you can play around with line weight and colour to shift the focal point.

I really liked that front boat, and it would probably have been a stronger scene if I’d used colour in that front boat, and just shaded the rest of the scene in black and white. So even though I’m not 100% happy with the end painting, I’m happy with what I learned through the process.

When you do lot’s of sketches and paintings, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you’ve failed in the creative process. But I like to look at these tutorials at experiments, and take the learnings I glean from them into all future paintings.

Art really is a voyage of discovery.

Sketching Resources and Info:

• Doug Jackson on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DougJacksonArtLessons/
• Sailor Fude Pen
• Sketch Ink waterproof. Shade: Thea. Looks like black to me!