Day 30: Sailboat

from January 30, 2012

Sailboat, a soft pastel on 9.5x7.5 inch yellow/cream PastelMat.

1. All of the composition thus far was built with NuPastels and finger-blending. My main goals in today's piece are to get the architecture of the boat (mostly) correct based on abstracting the single boat from a sea of docked vessels and to make sure that I don't get bogged down in all the minute details, but rather the afternoon lighting.

2. Adding in the greenery surrounding the dock area helped define the negative space around the boat and turns the cream into a color perceived by the viewer as a bright white.

3. After making the draping on the sail feel believable, I wanted to add in the fenders and the railings on which they were hanged.

4. After building the fenders, their shadows needed to be cast onto the boat and in the reflections in the water.

5. After refining the details in the fenders and the engine, I added in the ladder. I used pastel pencils to refine the fine-line details, and did a little restructuring of the shape of the stern.