Buoyed (pun intended) by the success of my last two sketches, I was looking forward to getting to grips with the final week of boatober challenges. I’ve got into a sketching rhythm, and have been getting up early to start my day in the studio with the day’s boat inspiration Doug posts.

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.

Boatober 2025 Day 24

I used a lot of green in the background rocks and harbour wall so changed this but and white boat into a green and white boat to create a greater sense of cohesion in the scene. Because the boat was quite detailed, I decided to simply the ground and used a wet-in-wet technique to create movement. It wasn’t that successful, but I didn’t want the ground to be distracting.

I think the rocks were my favourite part of this sketch.

Boatober 2025 Day 25

I purposely left more white areas on the hull of the boat. These were organic, and don’t bear much relation to the inspiration photo. But I wanted to create a natural feel to the hull. I really liked the gentle application of the shadows to create texture and depth in the hull and the canopy. Thanks again to a Matt Gibbons tutorial – this time about depicting shadows – I was really intentional about adding the shadows.

The boat’s colours were so bright and vibrant, I didn’t want the ground or background detail to detract from the boat as the focal point. I think the dark and dramatic sea really add a solid foundation for the boat, without being overwhelming or boring. I omitted the background detail, because I thought it would clash with the dynamic water effect.

Boatober 2025 Day 26

There’s not enough tonal variation in this sketch. The foreground, background and sky are all competing for attention. And I wish I’d done more line weight variation on the boat. The saving grace was the shape I was able to create with the brown watercolour paint on the bottom of the boat. But overall, this image is just overwhelming and confusing. I should have taken more notice of the tonal ranges in the inspiration photo. The key lesson on this one – really put your observation skills to work!

In none of these sketches did I stay true to the photo. Sometimes going in your own creative direction works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t want to be a copy-artist. I want to look at scenes, and create my own version of reality. But if I’m going to do that, I still have to pay attention to tonal values, to make sure that the end result has a pleasing look and feel to it.