So far there’s been a couple of sailboats for boatober, and each time I’ve seen Doug post one, my heart sinks a little. For some reason, this type of boat doesn’t really appeal to me. But surprisingly, I’ve actually enjoyed sketching and painting this sailboat one more than the one painted for Day 3.

Could it be that now we’re on day 17 of boatober, I’m getting more comfortable with painting boats?

What is Boatober?

Boatober is an annual art challenge hosted by Doug Jackson. He posts a different inspiration photo each day, and artists around the globe, sketch the scene in their own style. This is the first year I’ve participated, and I’m using it as an opportunity to experiment with different ink and watercolour techniques.

My Boatober Sketch Day 17

Enjoyment Level: *****

Creating the Water and Sky

I had fun painting this water. I accentuated the boat’s wake to add additional drama to the scene, and used warmer blues on top of a cooler blue to give the water depth.

I was going to paint the sky in a very pale wash of manganese blue hue, but it looked a bit blah, so I glazed another layer of blue on top which has a drop of opera rose/pink in it.

I did wonder if this warmer tone of blue would work with the sky, Theoretically, cooler blues recede into the background and help to add depth to a sketch. But I think because the water was so much darker but there was a lot of white at the left on the front edge, I was still able to achieve a good level of depth.

I used the splatter technique to add paint to the sky, and then joined the dots up loosely and roughly with a brush and clean water. I’m really loving this technique for my skies. You never know what you’re going to get, but so far it seems to create an interesting sky.

Creating the Foliage

For the foliage I used broken ink lines, and created greens using the same blue (FUM) that I used for the water to create a cohesive feel. I don’t paint a lot of landscapes of foliage, so I’m always worried that my foliage will ruin a scene, but I like the way it was rendered. It’s bold, but not overpowering. I would have usually left the foliage a lot lighter, using a diluted set of greens, but I wanted to create a stronger contrast between the sails and the foliage.

Overall Impression

I was quite surprised that the water, foliage and sky all have a lot of variety, movement, and texture in them, but they all seem to work together.

Maybe it’s because the boat has so much white in it, that the boat doesn’t have to fight with those other three elements to retain its status as the focal point.

I didn’t want the various figures in the sketch to be a distracting element, so I just rendered them in ink with a bit of tonal shading.

Today’s sketch developed into a pleasing composition, more through trail and error, than intention. But hey – I’ll take that!