4c. Reflections and Rigging

This is where I left off in my last post as I was starting to put the reflections of the blue boat on the water. 

I kept going with the reflection of the boat's front windows and then started adding in the warm tones of the sun hitting the clouds.

Next I started putting in the blue sky reflections from above the clouds on down to the bottom of the canvas. In this phase I am quickly placing shapes of the water movement. When I come back to this area I will make changes as I see how it develops.

Now, I'm bringing down the reflections of the black boats cabin and front windows. My photo reference shows the cabin reflection breaking apart like this, but I'm not sure it is working for me. I can change it later. I'm tired of reflections at this point and believe I will start working on the boat rigging.

As I usually do, I am starting from left to right so my hands don't screw anything up while I rest them on the canvas when I need to. I'm starting with this rope coming from the front of the blue boat to its tower. I want to do the rigging on the boat behind the black boat so later I can place things on top of things with less hassle.

I am using a number two flat nylon brush. It is about 1/4" wide and when wiped along the paint on my palette it gets a nice thin lineup of the brush bristles for my line work. Sometimes I like to tilt the canvas in one direction or another in order to draw these lines. But, I don't have the easel I am used to so I will just have to do the best I can do.

Holding my breath I start painting down the faint pencil lines that still show under the sky paint. I've tried to leave as much as possible, but some of then are just flat gone. As you drag the brush along the lines you have to keep the exact same pressure on the brush in order to keep the width of the line the same. Takes practice and somewhere along the line you screw up and have to fix it.

I keep going with the lines and put in the main post. While I'm at it I put some grayed tower structures in the background. I'm moving to the right.

I put in a grayed telephone pole in the background and the main dark rear pole of the blue boat. Well, whatever those things are called. I kept myself an observer of these boats all these years, but never really wanted to work on one, or learn much about that either. 

Once I got that dark thingy painted, I started on the grey thingy of the black boat.

I come on across the rigging of the black boat with more tower details, complete with ropes. Oh, did I mention that I substitute rope for steel cable. Most of the boats you see in the harbors use steel cable. I like to use what looks like rope. Mainly its just thicker and I like that it shows up better in my paintings, particularly in the reflections. With rope I can add some highlight details on it as well, and I think I will do just that to this painting towards the end.

I keep moving right and have this part of the black boat's rigging going well.

The ropes that come off the bow of the black boat.

Here's a closeup of the tower of the blue boat. I don't know much about what all this stuff does. So many of the boats I have painted have different configurations of all this rigging. It's like a free for all. Thus, some of my rigging I just make up as I go. It all looks very industrial, mechanical and functional. Certainly none of these riggings are there for looks!

I enjoy making some of this stuff up. I have to make sure that every rope and pulley actually is connected to something else that looks like it might work.

I can't always see from a photo where things go or what things look like. I like the little rusty light fixture hanging here. It was in the photo, but not this color. 

Pulleys everywhere! I left the radar at the top for later. There are several in the scene and I will clean my palette and do them all at one time towards the end.

Now I know this wooden thingy is called a "trawler door." They look something like this, but I made mine look like something Long John Silver might have on this ship. I like the look. I'm a "romantic" when it comes to painting these harbor scenes. My goal is to make people melt when they walk in a see one of my pieces on a wall. I want to make an immediate impact on them. I've witnessed it happen in our gallery when they didn't know I was the artist. Now that's fun!

Now back to reality. I've gotten the rigging pretty much done. I still have to go across the top of both boats and add whatever goes there.

At a stopping point once the rigging was done, I stepped back and took a look at what I had. I took this moment to think about warming things up in the background. The metal building in the background started out to be a cool bluish grey. I wanted the rising sun to put its glow in this along with everything else. I looked for places to add the yellow cast and started here. Then, I added the yellow metal railing across the scene and added some yellow to many of the lighter areas. 

Everything is starting to look like it has that golden glow.....except of course the parts that the sun doesn't hit......like the sides of the boat that are in the shadows. Even though they are white, they appear in shades of blue and violet –– the cool colors of my palette.

And thats where I'll stop for this post. Here is where I stand right now on the painting. The boats are taking on a realistic feel. The warm glow is hitting the right background. But, the left background still looks cool because of the cool gray color of the metal building's roof. I'll fix that quickly tomorrow. 

You should know I guess that this post took me one day to paint. I did work on it a lot that day (yesterday to be exact) spending about six hours I'd say. I don't like to keep exact track of my time since I had to do that for most of my advertising career. I no longer wear a watch either. Go figure...

First thing I will do on my next post is to add some darker bluish water movements in the foreground that will reduce in size (due to perspective) as they get closer to the boats. Then, I have to start putting in the reflections from the rigging onto the water. I enjoy that part and it goes fairly quickly. So, until then...

Pura Vida from Costa Rica!