Dittisham and River Dart 2

Painting boats resting on mud at low tide is one of my favourite challenges. The water drops away and leaves behind interesting shapes and dark wet mud. I like to capture this scene from the muddy bank looking across to the green hills. Getting the light right on the side of the boat makes it pop out from the background trees.

For this painting called Dittisham and River Dart 2, I started with a loose wash for the sky using cerulean blue and a touch of light red in the clouds. The distant hills use a mix of viridian green and yellow ochre to get that soft natural look. I kept the paper damp so the colours bleed nicely together without hard edges.

The big boat in the middle has a white cabin that catches the strong sun. I left the paper pure white for this part and painted the dark shadow underneath using ultramarine blue and burnt umber. The small blue boat on the left adds a nice splash of bright colour against the dark mud. I used cobalt blue for the hull and dropped in a bit of burnt sienna for the rusty anchor buoy.

The muddy foreground is all about texture and dark tones. I mixed neutral tint with burnt umber and swept it across the page with a large mop brush. While it was still wet, I lifted out a few highlights to show stones and ripples in the mud. This gives the impression of rough ground without painting every single detail.