Welcome back to Part 2 of our tutorial. Glad you stayed with me

Back to the sea

Over the yellowy area add some white and blend it in (it adds more of a glow), then some paler yellow that's used in the sky. Colours in the water are usually deeper colours of those in the sky (as they are all reflections).

Then add some of that purplish colour from the sky under the yellow area. Now you can start giving the water movement and direction by adding this colour at an angle instead of laying it horizontally across the page. Then there's a darker band just below, we need a greyish tone here. (Click on image for larger view)

After blending, we can see that it still needs more intensity in the water under the boat and that the area didn't get fully covered.

Now I'm going to work into the water under the boat by adding some orange and perhaps a little dark red and a tinge of yellow (again the yellow from the sky and some of that neutral grey)

I lost some of that light in the bottom left corner (it became too dark a grey) so I just lifted some off with a tissue and then added some white to brighten it up again.

OK now stand away from your painting, have a good look at it. We're looking for an overall colour balance (we're not worried with shine or highlights yet). Now leave it for 10 – 15 mins, then come back and take another good look at it. If you're happy with it carry on with the next stage, or adjust your sea.

After my break, I returned, darkened the yellow area and added some purple bits to the sea above the boat.

Here I've added a lighter tone to the land and also darkened some areas, so that it doesn't look so flat.

Now we'll start work on the boat

This is where that tool with the foam ball on the end of a dowel comes in handy. (The resting tool).

I drew the boat outline and the shadow using a Derwent pastel pencil. Also I added a yellow band for the painted line.

Next the yellow undercoat on the base of the boat. I used this because my reds weren't quite the right shade and I needed it more orange.

Then I used a bright red to block in the area, but remember to go over your seam at the front with a darker red.

Add a little darker tone of red to suggest shadows and then using the same colours add the reflection.

Add some grey now to the shadow areas of the boat. Under the boat and just down to the left of the reflection, outline the reflection with very dark grey. Add a slightly darker grey to the reflection in the same places as you added the grey to the boat.

Now blend it all. It's probably best to use the touchon tool now as your finger will be a little large. You can tidy up the edges of the boat with the touchon as well. Enhance the seam at the front of the ship and also outline the back of the ship with a dark red (or a tone that shows up)

Now the top of the boat.

I put white pastel over the areas of the top of the boat. I added a Brown Ochre and Orange Earth on the right hand window. I used Derwent Indigo in the left side window. (Sorry, forgot to include it in the photograph.)Black was added as a short dark line at the back of the boat. I used French Grey to add an outline to the top of the white wood on the boat rim and also to outline the top of the white wood on the top of the cabin. Then using a brown pencil, outline the rails. The white wood at the front of the boat needs a slightly darker colour for the shadow. I used the lilac colour from the sky and added some white over the top.

I outlined the windows with a darker colour and added an extra line to the front rail. Put some grey at the back of the boat, behind the white cabin, so that you can see that it's not all solid. Add a bit more colour to the shadow on the front of the cabin. It was a little difficult to show you the top of the boat step by step as it was white and until I put on the sindows and rails, nothing showed up. (click image for larger view)

It's a good idea to view the larger picture for this and to have both windows open simultaneously, so that you can see the details. For that purpose when you click on the image a new window will open.

Make sure that you have a sharp pencil handy and a ruler and your resting tool, or something a little more rigid (the resting tool tends to roll) I ended up putting some cd's stacked at each end of the painting and used a long ruler perched on top.

On this mast I used the following Derwent Pencils (not all are included in the photograph above, but all are in the set) Deep Cadmium, White, Orange Earth, Terracota, and Burnt Carmine. Use the Burnt Carmine (or dark brown) for the left edge of the mast, draw a line using the ruler. Then draw a line for the right side of the mast with Orange Earth.

Starting above the light base of the mast use Terracota in the centre, keeping it just inside the dark line, but leaving it light on the outside.

Put yellow highlights on the right side with Deep Cadmium, white highlights 3/4 up the mast and on base of mast. Where you put the highlights just add a faint dark brown line to the outside edge, so that it appears that the mast is round and doesn't just bleed into the sky.

To the left of the mast is a cloth sail wrapped around, but I think it wouldn't read well. To my mind we'd wonder what the blurry line was doing there, so I'm going to treat it as a rope instead.

I used the Derwent French Grey pencil for the lines

Here you can see that when I tried to go over the line to make it darker, I wasn't careful enough and ended up with a double line. Using your putty rubber … Pull off a bit of putty rubber. Knead it to make it a bit tacky, squash it into a fine edge and try and lift off the offending second line (without damaging your sky)

Gently line up the edge of the rubber against the line of the pencil. Put it onto the paper, press lightly and lift up. Then knead the rubber again (as that piece of putty will be coated and won't hold more pastel) until it's tacky and reshape and repeat the process until you have removed all of the line. If you inadvertently lift off some sky, just drag the putty rubber lightly over the area (horizontally) and it will blend the sky again, so that you can't tell.

Successful removal of the double line.

Close up detail of the base of the mast. Here you can see that I have a mistake on the rails at the front of the boat. They should only reach the top of the white wooden band. They should sit behind this. So I will use a putty rubber to remove the unwanted bits. See the next photo.

(Click image for larger view) Here I've completed the wires for the boat and have added the reflections of the mast and rails. I've also removed the base of the rails, so that they now look like they are sitting behind the prow of the boat. For the reflections, use the flat end of your white pastel and make short vertical strokes. Where the right hand side window is, use some dark yellow in the same method. Make some vertical brown lines for the rails over the cabin. Angle the mast as a mirror image to the main mast and use the same colours, but have the left side a little darker and put in the reflections of the ropes and the front rails.

Now once again it's time to stand away from your painting. Spend a minute or two looking at your water and at the photograph.

(Click image for larger view)

Now do a little to the water by adding some extra lines for ripples and strengthen the colour of the water in the foreground. Allow the pastel to go over the reflection of the mast as this will give the impression of some movement in the water. I added some purple lines, some dark yellow lines and near the front some extra orange and dark grey. To the little ripples at the left I added dark grey, purple and white. Now it's up to you if you want to smudge those lines back in. If you leave them they add interest and texture to your painting. Or if you wish you can blend them again.

(Click image for larger view)To finish off. Level with the land, just on the horizon of the sea, I added a dark line with the edge of a Boldmere pastel. I used a colour from the sea in that area. Check your land and see if you need to enhance it, by darkening it in places to make it look less flat.

This is the finished painting. Well done!

I decided to add two very tiny birds just behind the boat and they're a little higher than the top of the land. I thought it would add a bit of distance and I tend to like triangles. It's just a personal thing and if you wish to include them feel free.

If you ever wonder about adding something and you're not sure, remember those thumbnails from the 'composition' section, well you could always do a quick thumbnail and add whatever it is to see if it will work. You could also add it to the line drawing we have, (if you've printed it out).

If you want to spray your painting, do it in a well ventilated area and follow the instructions on your can. If not, and you would like to have it framed, I would leave it on the board to transport it to your framer. Tell him that it's not fixed, so that he knows to take extra care with it.

If you don't want to spray it or frame it, you need somewhere flat to store it. I tend to keep mine on some hardboard and then put a mount over. Before putting another on top, I use some spacers (I have some strips of card that I stack around the edge of the mount and then put another board on top. Some people put there's flat with newspaper over the top in direct contact with the painting. Providing you keep it still this shouldn't be a problem, but once it gets heavy the weight will press the pastel onto the paper.

I hope you all enjoyed the tutorial and more importantly enjoyed doing the painting!

If you would like to send in photos of your finished paintings, I'll be happy to put them on a special page. Please send them to my contact address.

Please put for the subject. Tutorial 1, My painting. Don't forget to include your name ( the way you want it to show to everyone) with your photo.

back to Part 1.