Sail

For this week's topic of Illustration Friday I found a good example in my dusty archive. I made two drawings of sailing boats in 1990-1991. I only have this one left. I don't know where the other drawing could possibly be. I kept record of all my drawings then, whether I made them in commission or for my own pleasure or testing out a new technique. But those two drawings never made it to my little notebook. Luckily enough I found this one today.
I remember when making these two drawings I realised that drawing a seascape is very similar to drawing a landscape. I found it even more difficult. Apart of the chosen subject, for example a sailing ship, you have to carefully look how you make the shading and the atmospheric perspective. Especially when you're working with watercolors. There is not much room for errors. One stroke to many and you can start all over again.
Pen and watercolor on 300 grs Canson, 210 x 297 mm.

Ship full of questions

I am still struggling with the sketch of Cornelius Playfull's ship. Somehow I have the feeling that it's not very clear in this stadium on what scale I'm working. I mean: the scale of the ship versus the children. I am not even sure if I'll draw three or five children. I'm always told that 'three is a crowd', but on this ship I get the feeling that five kids makes more 'crowd' than three. But keeping that in mind I don't know yet where I can place five children logically. And what about a shark? Or a treasure? Or an island in the background? Questions, questions, questions.

Work in progress

Yesterdaynight I worked on the sketch of Cornelius Playfulls ship. I added C. himself, but still do not know where to put his friends. On deck, behind the wheel, swimming? There are to many options, I'm afraid. Making an illustration is not just drawing, painting or anything else, but mostly taking decisions what to do or not. Sometimes I find that the most difficult part of an illustration.

Sketching a ship

Yesterdaynight I had plans to do a drawing excercise, but somehow my pencil had a life of its own. After a while this sketch came out.
I've read a book about tallships lately. The real stuff: big sails on big ships from times longpast when men were made of steel and ships were made of wood. Somehow that subject must have been stuck into my mind. I kind of like the idea that its an imaginery ship for Cornelius Playfull and some of his friends. That's why I also made some sketches of how his friends would look like. I think I'll choose for three boys and one girl. When I was young we also had such a group to shaken up our neighbourhood.
I'll keep you informed about the progress I make with this illustration, because there's a lot of things I want to add to it. More to come, so to say!