Draw boats and harbours

Draw boats and harbours - The instinct to draw is strong in all of us, beginning in childhood. Too often it is suppressed later, and many people who haven't put pencil to paper since their schooldays would surprise themselves if they made serious efforts to sketch now. Before mankind learned to write, drawing was the only medium, apart from speech, through which he could communicate and, with a little perseverance, anyone today can draw, even if his results aren't as good as an expert's. Drawing is a pleasant, relaxing experience, which encourages you to look at everything more closely and so get to know it better than you would normally do. Much of it too can be done out of doors, so you get the benefit of fresh air. Just as people's handwriting has individual characteristics, no artist: draws or paints exactly like another. Even if you start by copying a particular artist's style or technique, your own characteristics will gradually creep in the more you draw, and you will develop a style and technique of your own. Most people find harbours and boatyards fascinating places to visit. A sense of adventure and romance surrounds every boat and piece of tackle, and the air is full of smells (salt, seaweed, fish and tar), as well as such noises às the wild screeching of gulls. Always keep a sketchbook by you- both because sketching is fun in itself, and in order to record what you see for future use in a picture. Some of my smaller sketches are like pictorial shorthand notes, recording an unusual pattern that caught my eye, or a fleeting trick of light. Before finally committing a drawing on to a good quality paper or board, I make numerous sketches of such things as interesting shadows, types of building materials, and textures. Enlarged details of important or elaborate boat construction are carefully noted, and anything else which might help the lay-out and composition of the final drawing. For more finished sketches I use a smooth-surfaced white paper.