New Castle is this beautiful little town on an island at the entrance to Portsmouth's harbor . Across the water at the mouth of the Piscatiqua River you can see the Portsmouth shipyard and the boats moored at the town dock on Kittery Point .
We set up near the coast guard station. It was calm and clear this morning.
The houses along the narrow streets have docks in their backyards that stretch out into the river.
The whole island is a pile of rock like most of the coastline in these parts. I set up to sketch on the top of the bluff. Marcus set up below me.
Deb chose the top as well and got right into the subject matter. Boats & rocks.
There was a dingy and some skiffs moored in front of me. They moved with the current every few seconds. So I did 10, 20, 30 sec sketches to capture what they looked like.
Deb was sketching in watercolors and rotating sketchbooks. She'd paint in one sketchbook while the other was drying in the sun.
Marcus had a pile of sketches he wanted to share with us. The boats were a challenge !
We had a conversation about how to draw the boats and how difficult they can be as they won't hold still... and there are many shapes and curves to deal with.
There are different types of lobster boats Marcus discovered as he sketched them...
...the more you sketch them the better you get at it...
...everyone went back to the drawing board to take another try at it...
The tide was coming in the sun was moving toward high noon ...
The harbor was active, lobster boats came and went. A huge tanker was guided out of mouth of the river by two tugs. These three boats sat in front of us the whole time we sketched. How lucky ! That's the big difference between sketching and painting. What may be plenty of time for a sketch is cutting it short for a painting!
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