Docked
Posted: October 6, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized 27 CommentsI sketched this a few weeks back and just discovered that I hadn’t posted it. I guess it’s the last boat drawing of the year, sketched in a Pentalic sketchbook with no pen lines. The boat shapes from this viewpoint are so complex that I treated it very abstractly. If you try to figure out what mast goes with what boat, or even whether certain darks are part of the boats or the water, you get lost in the details. Instead, in my mind’s eye, I try to flatten the shapes into patterns of lights and darks, horizontals and verticals, and bright and muted colours. And then cross my fingers and hope the spots and dots look like boats.
Now that I have spent time..at a yacht club..I cannot even begin to tell you how great I think this is!
I would be happy sketching boats every day Monique. I don’t know if I could sketch while on a boat, though. Have you tried that?
What a delightful way to handle that jumble of boats! All of those sailboats and masts could drive a person crazy if they tried to be to literal (unless they LIKE painting things that take hours to draw first and shift around a lot, even when docked). This is such an elegant and successful solution. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks for writing Nessa. Yes, you can go crazy trying to draw the details, unless you find a way to simplify.
This could so easily go wrong in most people’s hands and so right in yours. What I love about how you offered your thought process was the encouragement to try it – a bit of a trick but with a few tries maybe, maybe something a bit close.
Fun to try I think. Thank you
I hope you give it a try Lynn. And let me know if you find the simplification process of any use. I’d love to hear.
You should do a Craftsy class just on scenes such as this! I’d snap it up! Thanks, Shari!
I would love to do a class on water scenes/boats/reflections. Great idea.
Your spots and dots succeed admirably.
Thanks Jane. Hope you are well!
I just want to say…I really enjoy your paintings.
Thanks for letting me know Kevin.
very nice … it’s like a dance of color … light … I like very well when it’s looking abstract … place for the imagination who gets a look …
I agree with Monique. This really captures the feeling of the yacht club docks. The seeming simplicity of it belies the skill at rendering this type of scene so abstractly. Great stuff!
And they do!
Marvellous! I’m in awe of your skill. I tried something like this and got completely bamboozled. And I’ll do another of your craftsy classes anytime.
Great painting and great technique. Abstract lights and darks look like boats! Have to try this too.
It is wonderful how you convey the feeling of being at a dock. Thank you for explaining what you do in your mind’s eye before starting a scene like this. I am going to try it soon.
Excellent watercolor !
Fabulous! I have tried drawing on a boat. Results were…wobbly!
Your water scenes are my favourite Shari!
I agree with all the positive comments above and wish there were how-to exercises in achieving similar results. What I admire most with your style is that your images all look simple, and wonderfully ‘recognizable’, ‘well-put-together’, ‘colorfully unified and pleasing’, yet, difficult (for myself) to execute.
Your boats are a perfect example of conveying a picture of many boats behind the more detailed boats in front. The viewer’s eyes accept that, but how does the artist (you) translate that imagery with ink and paint? Any exercises you can suggest?
It’s great to hear from you Gia! You have given me a very hard question. I don’t have any exercises for doing this except to try to simplify what you are seeing. I know that’s not a very specific answer. I will try to think about it some more and see what I come up with.
Thanks for your reply, Shari. I guess I want a ‘magic pill’ that would duplicate your artistic vision and your skills… (hahaha)
be happy ….. they do look like boats !!
Thanks Monique!
I am especially drawn to your sketches/paintings of sailboats–a subject my grandfather often painted. (He was not an artist by trade but a life long watercolor painter for the pleasure it gave him.) Your description of your process here is delightful and helpful. I recalled an earlier boat basin piece of yours and found it–May 30th. Your blog that day makes a great companion to this one. I agree with Laura’s comment that a class on boats and water would be a wonderful offering.