Project Sail

Balclutha Built 1886 at Glasgow, Scotland. After 1902, Star of Alaska, After 1933, Pacific Queen and used in the movie Mutiny on the Bounty. After 1954, to San Francisco Maritime Museum and renamed Balclutha.

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

Awwwww...I'm in love!!! What a Gem! Da Capo, Da Capo, Maestro!

_________________
My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Very very nice! Might try my hand at shading the Polly the same

_________________
Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

Amazing work of art. Seeing these wonderful sailing ships... speechless!!

_________________
[ img ]

Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"

Rodondo wrote:

Very very nice! Might try my hand at shading the Polly the same

Redondo, One hell of a complement, many thanks!
It takes time and seeing your work, I know it will turn out beautifully!

I'll include some instruction that should help anyone...I'd like to see more people drawing and maybe increase some individual's skill set!

I start my drawings in Corel Draw, this gives me layer control and other tools that Paint doesn't have. Nearly everything else important can be emulated in paint for the detail work. Some of it is harder...recovery from mistakes, etc. but not a big deal (just SAVE frequently and keep periodic CHECK POINT drawings).

Here's the general rules I created for myself since I primarily do ships with sails:
In Paint, copy and paste part of a mast and sails from my drawing onto your drawing so you can use the color sampling tool to grab colors (instant color pallet).

Scale Effects
SB scale works great but we need to cheat a little as a lot of key parts were smaller than bits on modern ships. Spar ends, sail panel seams, all the ropework, etc. scales to sub-pixel sizes. Using lighter colors helps to create the appearance finer line-work. Keeping that in mind:

Sequencing drawing elements.
1) Masts
2) Spars
3) Sail
4) Sail Shadow
5) Sail Seams
6) Sail Ties/reefing lines
7) Toe Ropes (what are they really called?)
8) Sail raising/lowering lines
9) Centerline Standing Rigging and Basic spar rigging
10) Port Side Running Rigging
11) Ratlines
12) Starboard Running Rigging

So, basic shapes the from Port to Starboard and Stern to Stem. I'm trying to create a standardized process for myself.

Sail Color Pallets
Black is used only where it is required by the SB Standards rules. For details and fills I use shades of gray, I try to err on the light side. I do sometimes use lighter grays for outlines when I get 2 or more pixel lines.
Modern (synthetic) sails are built on a gray color pallet.
Old (natural fiber) sails are built on a creamy white color pallet to provide yellow/browns.

For seams: They are perpendicular to the top edge of the sail (roughly center line of the spar).
I use 4 pixel spacing between them.
The color is 3-4 shades darker than the base color of the sail.
For Sail Shadowing: Same color as the seams.
Seams on the shadowing are 3-4 color steps on the picker darker than the basic
seam/shadow color.
Rigging:
I use a selection of grays and tans to simulate line weight. Never 100% BLACK. The lighter colors feel thinner than black even though they are the same pixel size.

Standing Rigging
Roughly a 50-70% gray. The thought being that most of it scales to less than a pixel in diameter. Basically if it's tarred, it's in grays.

Running Rigging
50-60% Tans. For lifts (raising/lowering spars). Basic sail lines (raising/lowering). Sail ties get a slightly darker tan so they barely stand out.

I absolutely omit some rigging. At this scale it's easy to really clutter up a drawing. Maybe in FD scale....

Hope that helps!

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

I'm impressed you've got it down to a procedure so far, I'm a "do it bit by bit" (except the mystery ship for which I've got the only copy of the rigging plan I've ever seen and requires a lope, a tiny ruler and a calculator). There some very good tips i there, especially saving! Fell victim to that a few times recently

Here's a 51 Ton "Class" US Revenue Cutter dating from 1815. Not sure how many were built. In general, the Federal Govt. contracted with shipbuilders local to where the cutters were to be based. These were primarily employed with suppressing piracy, slavers, rescue, and tax collection. The US Navy also had the ability to borrow Revenue Service ships in time of need.

A surprisingly tough one to draw, a lot of detail in a tight space. Source Drawing: History of American Sailing Ships, Chapelle and one found on a USCG historical site.

CraigH

_________________
In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

Shipbucket

Who is online