Drawing a Sailing Boat with Indian Ink and watercolors

Hi everybody! In this short post I just want to give you some ideas for drawing a sailing ship with a mixed technique
of Indian Ink and watercolor pencils.

This is a list of the tools I used:

1 smooth A4 sheet
2B/3B Pencils
A couple of rubbers: a big one and a smaller one to erase small details
A ruler
Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen (Indian Ink)
Faber-Castell watercolors
Watercolor brush

For the drawing I was inspired by some photos of sailboats that I found freely
on the Internet. I started using the 2B pencil first and I defined the space inside the sheet by
drawing the horizon line to delimit the sky from the sea. You can also use a a ruler to do it.
Defining the spaces is very important because it helps to position the subject you want to draw inside the sheet.

I started drawing the hull and the sails without focusing too much on the details. First of all I defined the shapes and
the volumes of the boat then I started to add more details like the ropes and some waves.
Drawing straight ropes with the help of a ruler gives the impression of the strength of the wind hitting the sailing boat.

Once I finished the drawing with the pencil I used the Indian Ink to mark the contours of the drawing taking care
to add other details such as adding more ropes, details on the hull and on the sails.

Once I finished with the boat I started drawing the waves in the sea. This can be a tricky part, my suggestion is to try to think the volume of the waves like a simplified pyramid where you can add the shadows later.

To give the idea of the distance and the perspective the first waves are bigger than those ones close to horizon line.

Once I finished with the Indian Ink I started using the watercolors pencils. I took the black for the hull, I put some color and with the brush and some water I made the color evenly along the boat. I waited for the paper to dry and I repeated the process several times until I got the shade I wanted.

With watercolor pencils I colored the sails, the sea and the waves leaving the sky at the end. With the brush and water I distributed the colors according to the nuances I wanted and I repeated this process several times.

And here is the final result. I hope you liked it and that you found some inspiration for your drawings!