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The Old Luggers online-Academy

of Marine Painting:  Demonstration

This page features a four stage demonstration of how the home page picture was painted.  It will make additional points by commenting on some of the pictures in the thumbnail gallery - just click on these to enlarge them - click 'back' to return to this page. This first  demo  of the 'Lurline' picture emulates the style of a fairly standard ship portrait of the 1870's.  Depending on demand and 'hit rate' new demonstrations will be added from time to time.(See The Newfoundland  Project)

.	Stage One Stain the canvas with a thin mix of raw sienna and burnt umber. Use synthetic gel medium plus turps for oil painting,  or water and matt gel medium for acrylic.  Rub on with a rag.  This drawing was done in soft pencil and 'sealed' with a paint stick.  Keep the drawing simple.

Stage Two Block in the main areas of colour  working quite thinly. The sky is in prussian blue and white - lightened towards the horizon, with a little turquoise added.  The sails are white plus raw sienna,  the sea is cobalt blue plus raw sienna and a spot of burnt umber with bold brushwork in the foreground reducing to the horizon to help perspective.  The hull is cobalt blue plus burnt umber.

Stage Three The sky and sea have been strengthened.  Masts and spars have been better defined. Sails have been toned and modelled with raw sienna and glaze while cloth seams and reef bands have been drawn in with a fine rigger.  Some accessible parts of the rigging have also been defined.

Stage Four - Standing and running rigging defined (Note - Lines shown dark over light areas and light over dark).  Distant shore defined and some distant sails - left horizon - a few small highlights on the water and some wash around the hull in cobalt blue greatly reduced with white. Finally the Red Ensign, an almost obligatory point of red in any marine painting. Click the thumbnail to see the finished picture in close-up - click BACK to return to this page.

To give a 'brush-strokes' close-up of these pictures, the thumbnails enlarge to above screen size when clicked.  For the best possible view change to 'Full Screen' view.

From left to right the pictures are:

Top Row

• The 'Lurline' demonstration.
• The 'Malcolm Miller' picture from the foot of the Introduction page.  This was painted on a late afternoon in July.  Note how distance is achieved by clear definition of the fore, mid and background areas and by the use of perspective described in Drawing and Composition.
• 'A Dash for the Downs - A Freshening Breeze off Dover' - this shows two sprits'l barges heading for the shelter of quiet water between Deal and the Goodwin Sands with a freshening south westerly in pursuit.  The picture is included to show several painting 'devices'. Firstly the basic perspectives helped by the aerial effect, ie. things getting fainter and bluer in the distance because of the intervening air.  Secondly, because the picture is painted against the light,  many surfaces appear in silhouette against well lit areas in the background.  This produces what are called 'counterchanges' which in turn can suggest a three dimensional effect - as between the shade side of the leading barge and the well lit view of Dover Harbour in the background.  Thirdly a device I call pseudo animation. By putting two similar vessels in line ahead, with a slight variation of attitude between them, the visual effect of progression is reinforced.  ( Painters of horse races use the same idea.)  Strong direction in the cloud and smoke from the steamers all help to promote the the impression of movement.  

Bottom Row Thumbnails( Left to Right)

• 'On the Thames at Maidenhead - above Boulters Lock'  -  This picture shows the effect of looking down on a subject.  The horizon is high because we're standing on the bank and we have a partial top view of the foreground cruiser with deck detail visible.
• 'Lady Daphne of Rochester' - watercolour portrait of a Thames barge in the silted waters of the Thames Estuary.  Note the effect of having the vessel well-lit against a rain darkened sky -often used by traditional marine painters looking for drama.
• 'A South Hams Slipway'  - nothing actually afloat in this picture but it's included hopefully to show the benefits of colour economy ie. not too many different ones - also how to reinforce a feeling of depth in your painting.

A detail from 'The Sea Trials Committee' by Austin Hill

A model yacht on your garden pond makes a good study object for reflections and shadows!

     © Austin Hill 2000      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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      The Old Luggers online Academy of Marine Painting is an ENTIRELY VIRTUAL establishment, a FREE -TO -AIR leisure and recreational site which we hope you'll enjoy and even pick up some useful painting hints.  Any of the Old Luggers material can be downloaded and copied for recreational and private but not commercial use.  Apart from the many illustrations reached via the links,  all the images in Old Luggers are from copyright work by British marine artist Austin Hill.  And finally - a  LUGGER is a traditional small working boat carrying a loose-footed four sided sail  hung from a yard,  but you knew that of course !