Hoturo - A Work in Progress

Today it is unseasonably warm for this time of the year with the temperature today reaching 57F (13.9C) and there is no chance of having a white Christmas.

Since I had everything ready for Christmas I wanted to spend most of the day painting and I pulled this piece out that I had started earlier this month (see posts on 10, 12, 17 and 21 December 2015).

I decided to start work on the sails first which have a large single colour base area to cover and simple shadows to put in to create the illusion of roundness.

Being right handed I started with the mainsail on the port (left) side of the boat, that way I wouldn't accidentally drag my hand across the wet paint and smear everything.

First I painted in the entire area of the sail with titanium white, then using various mixtures of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna I painted in the shadows.

Once the base paint on the main sail was completed, I painted the boom (the spar that supports the foot of the mainsail), the mast and the forestay (the cable that runs from the bow to the upper part of the mast).

Next I painted the foresail which is attached to the forestay the same way as I did the mainsail.

I put in the part if the spreader (the horizontal support for the stays that sticks out from the mast) that could be seen from this angle.

I added one if the lights that could be seen onto the mast.

Using a dark green of Hansa yellow and ultramarine blue I painted the dots onto the foresail.

With various mixtures of cadmium red and alizarin crimson I put the numbers onto the mainsail and the sail makers' logo onto both sails and the telltales (ribbons which in this case are located on the main sail which help to determine wind direction and proper sail trim).

Using a mixture of ultramarine blue and titanium white I put in all the shadows of the rigging showing through the sails and a couple of the lines running up from the boom.

I will post this painting at a later date once I start on the boat.