Hello fellow artists.  For those interested in the Art of the Photographic Image, please check out my new solo blog at: http://danafragomeni.blogspot.ca/

And please, be a friend, tell a friend, and lend a helping hand!~!~

Some of My Recent Work

Greetings and Salutations fellow artists!  How is that watercolour painting going?  Please feel free to comment on any of my recent posts - new tips and techniques are always welcome.

Here two of my most recent paintings!

Take a look and let me know what you think!

 

 

P.S.  For anyone doing watercolours the YouTube way, please check out the Watercolour Workshop.  This link provides some excellent tips, techniques, and painting tutorials for novice as well as experience artists!

 

Enjoy, and remember - KEEP WATERCOLOURING!!!

Bulkheads for La Jacinthe (con't) - by Evan McMurtry

Hello internet! Like this nice photo of my work? It actually shows a major flaw. Oh oh.

How so? 

This photo shows a barely visible difference between the fore and aft (bow and stern) outlines of bulkhead #7- yes, these plans are THAT detailed. Not a problem here. However, on bulkheads 8 and 9 the difference amounts to crucial millimeters. And I haphazardly chose the wrong line to trace, meaning that there will be no wood to taper, and there is quite a lot of taper close to the stern. Rule of thumb: Its a whole lot easier to remove wood than it is to add it. So be careful. Measure twice, cut once!

Now for some pictures of my work on the last remaining bulkheads. 

How to use a t-square and set square to make straight lines.

Work in progress. Note the ponce wheel used to transfer the tracing to the wood, as well as the eraser marks.

See ya later Internet!

Bulkheads for La Jacinthe - by Evan McMurtry

La Jacinthe

Hello Internet! Today I'd like to make a tutorial about the value and use of a good set of ship's curves in a process called lofting - basically taking your ship's plans and making bulkheads or frames from them. The process I will show you is plank-on-bulkhead, rather than the more difficult plank-on-frame method. 

Up to this point I am halfway through making the frames (see photo below).

If you look closely, however, they are not perfectly shaped and it will take some time to improve or even replace them. Hence, the ship's curves I mentioned in the last entry. Below, is where I have traced from my sheet of Boudriot plans onto some velum paper with assistance of a curve. Much better. Hopefully that will translate into some better frames!

By the way, the building board that's supporting the frames is nearly complete too, but, again, I need to check for accuracy...

 

 

Following the hull construction system suggested by Boudriot, the finished hull will look like this photo, which I took of the book...

Next time, I'll show the internet how to cut the bulkheads. So long for now.

My Workshop

      Today I didn't get a chance to use the ship's curves I got from Binnacle. Instead, I cleaned my workshop. Here are some pictures...

 Above are some rigging tools: a rope maker in the background and a seizing and serving tool in the foreground

 Here, from left to right, are my metal lathe, wood lathe and scroll saw.

Here is my book collection, note the recent edition of Ashley's Book of Knots, the large book with a schooner set against a sky on the spine.

THE WET-ON-WET TECHNIQUE FOR PAINTING A BEAUTIFUL AND REALISTIC WATERCOLOUR SKY

            When beginning your sojourn into the wonderful world of watercolour painting, there are a number of important things one must keep in mind.  Firstly, watercolours are not proclaimed as the "most difficult paint medium" for no good reason.  To say the least, painting in watercolours is not only challenging, but quite frustrating, and in many ways, very difficult.  Thus, for anyone beginning in this medium, it is important, as you start out, to take your time, and build upon your skills as you grow as an artist.  Below is a step-by-step technique for creating a beautiful and realistic watercolour sky, that will give any painting depth, and most of all perspective. 

            Before you begin, it is a good idea to use low-tack masking tape to affix your watercolour paper to your working surface.  Working on a inverted binder, or any surface that has an incline of no more or no less that 15% is perfect!  Also taping down your page, will give your finished work a beautiful white border.

 

At the top of your page, using a damp (almost soaked to be exact) round brush, drop in some water, from the top of the page, into the middle of the page, in shapes that you would consider in your own mind "cloud-like"

Once this is done, mix up a semi-strong mixture of blue - you can use any type of blue paint that strikes the mood of the sky you intend to paint

 

 

Load your round brush with a heavy saturation of blue paint, and looking carefully for the water you put onto the page, drop-in the paint - as you will see the paint will flow effortlessly (almost doing the work for you) into the area which you have moistened

 

 

Once the blue paint has dried, you can complete the same steps using some Lemon Yellow, and Light Red, to give your sky a hazy, sunny effect

 

 

Once these colours have dried, at the top of your page, using a damp brush drop in some Paynes Gray to give the impression of dark and misty clouds - be careful not to overdo it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the above steps completed CONGRATULATIONS you have painted your first watercolour sky using the wet-on-wet technique of dropping in colour.

            TIP!! -- Always keep in mind that if you are using a blow dryer to dry your paints, this will decrease the intensity and saturation of your colours.  The heat of the dryer will actually remove the pigment from the paint.  But, if your are intent upon producing a subtle and soft coloured sky - blow dry away!!

 

GOOD LUCK AND KEEP WATERCOLOURING!!

 

                                                            Dana Fragomeni

 

 

Welcome to my hobby!

I, Evan McMurtry, have been involved in model shipbuilding for the past six years. My previous models have been a replica of the Scottish Maid, from a kit by Artesania Latina, with a completed hull, masts and yards. Also, a replica of the Bluenose II, again from a kit by Artesania Latina, with a completed hull, but no masts and yards. With this experience I have, hopefully, learned from my past errors, having also been hindered by a lack of adequate instructions, which is why both ships remain to this day incomplete.

With this blog series, I plan to document my construction of La Jacinthe, an 1830s French Naval schooner. It will be the same size as the two previous builds, only made from scratch from plans by Jean Boudriot of Paris, France, which I had ordered through Nautical Mind bookstore on the Toronto waterfront. With good luck, the finished model will have the finest materials, including veneer made from pear wood, stern decorations covered in gold leaf and blocks made from boxwood (procured from an exotic wood importer in Burlington, Ontario).

My next blog entry will follow tomorrow - or later - and I promise to upload some pictures, along with commentary on my next endeavour: using a set of ships curves to loft a set of frames for La Jacinthe.