I skipped posting Day 27 of boatober on social media or on my website, because it was an etherial photo that required using wet on wet technique and no ink lines. Not my favourite style. I had three goes at doing this sketch, but didn’t like any of them.
Still proud of myself for getting this far in the challenge without skipping a day. So I was determined to get back on track with the art challenge for day 28 – and make a bit of an effort!
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 28
I did a loose pencil sketch of today’s inspiration photo and then moved straight onto doing pen lines to anchor the composition.
Even though this is a boat challenge, I was most enamoured with the wall, so started there. I used a loose wash of natural sienna (MANS) and Burnt Sienna Light – making sure to leave plenty of white areas.
I really had fun with the hull of the boat. Even though the boat’s hull on the inspiration photo for this art challenge was black, I wanted to inject a big swath of colour so that the area of focus was the boat in the foreground and not the intricate wall in the background. I started out with a base of Colbalt Turquoise Light, and layered on Phthalo Blue green shade, and Phthalo Green blue shade. At first glance the hull may look like a single colour, but the colour variation is actually a long more intricate, and I was so pleased with how it turned out.
Because of the white areas and level of detail in the wall, I felt it was fighting for attention against the boat, MANS is quite a transparent and warm shade, so I made a really watery wash of Phthalo Blue green shade and brushed it over the entire wall. This knocked the white areas back a bit, making them less bright, and effectively cooled down the rest of the wall.
I left the water and sky until last. I wanted the sky to be light so that it receded into the background, and the water to be a lot more intricate and detailed. I managed to create another effective example of the boat’s wake, and was also happy with how the rest of the water turned out.
There is definitely of lot of detail in this finished painting. If the wall had been further in the background, I would have made it less detailed to get it to fade into the background a bit more. But because the wall was so close to the boat, I wasn’t sure how to make sure the boat was clearly the focal point, but I think the colour of the hull is more of a draw that the natural stone.
