Sailboat in a Harbor

1. 1. Draw a light horizon line across your paper, a bit above the middle. It is your eye level. The sea is below it and the sky above.

2. 2. Below the horizon, draw the hull: a long deck line that dips a little in the middle, a curved bow on the right, a short stern and a flat waterline.

3. 3. Add a small cabin on the deck with three round windows, and a stripe along the hull just above the waterline.

4. 4. Draw a tall straight mast up from the cabin, a little taller than the hull is long, and the boom: a line from the mast back over the stern.

5. 5. Draw two light, straight guides: one from the top of the mast to the end of the boom, and one from high on the mast down to just above the front of the cabin.

6. 6. Draw the back edge of the big mainsail as a gentle curve that bulges out past its guide. The mast and boom are its other two sides.

7. 7. Draw a straight wire from the top of the mast to the bow. The front sail hangs on it: draw its back edge and its bottom edge as soft curves.

8. 8. Add a small flag at the top of the mast.

9. 9. Far away things are small: draw a lighthouse on a rock on the left, three little houses on the right and a tiny boat. Use thinner lines.

10. 10. Draw the far shoreline just below the horizon and low hills behind it. Stop wherever the boat, lighthouse or houses are in front.

11. 11. Now a pier on the right, in one-point perspective. Mark a vanishing point on the horizon, then draw the pier's edges aimed at it, with light lines to check.

12. 12. Draw posts under the pier down to the water, and planks across the top. Both get smaller and closer together as the pier goes back.

13. 13. Erase the horizon line, the vanishing point and the light guides for the sails and the pier.

14. 14. Plan the reflection: draw a light, upside-down copy of the boat straight below the waterline. The mast top's reflection is as far below as the mast is above.

15. 15. Fill the reflection with short flat lines, broken by ripples: close together under the hull, far apart under the white sails. Do the posts too.

16. 16. Erase the reflection guide. Add short ripple lines across the water: small and close near the far shore, longer and farther apart near you.

17. 17. Shade a light value on the far hills: far things are pale. Shade the hull a middle value, leaving the stripe white. The sails stay white too.

18. 18. Cross-hatch the side of the pier and the near posts darkest. They are close to you and in shadow, so they get the strongest value.

Tip: Use a ruler for the mast so it stands perfectly straight; a leaning mast makes the boat look like it is tipping over.