Drawing Portsoy Harbour: “How Much was Continuous Line?”

I’ve been talking to a friend who doesn’t (yet!) draw on location about continuous-line drawing as a way of tackling complicated subjects. How the technique lets you focus on looking at the subject and drawing, rather than interrupting yourself as you draw to measure proportions. When I showed them this drawing I did of Portsoy harbour, they asked: “How much of it was continuous line?”

The answer is: most of it isn’t continuous but I’ve used the same approach. Drawing with the “I think it’s about here so let me draw that bit” attitude on repeat, not stopping to measure or check proportions. If things go awry, or rather when, I live with it, sometimes redraw, or put something in that feels plausible for the drawing.

A lot of the harbour walls stones I drew with continuous line because it’s faster and easier than doing them individually. There are a lot of stones in the walls, and it soon gets tedious drawing them one by one. They’re set in various patterns in different walls and sections within a wall, and that’s what I aim to draw: lying vertically, horizontally, the section with squarer stones. Continuous line examples marked in green in this photo.

On the nearest pier I used vertical lines to indicate the concrete section. At the back sections I have repeated this mark even though I know these are stone and not concrete, but I simply didn’t have the patience to fill these with smaller stone-shaped marks. If I had, it possibly would feel too busy and detract from the other walls. If I use this drawing for a painting, I know what’s really there. If I hadn’t pointed it out, would you have noticed?

The purple shows an area of continuous line drawing, enough to indicate that this building has exposed stonework. The yellow is where I repositioned a line of edge of this building. The three straight red lines are a roof where the angles are very out of wack to one another. The zigzag red line is a building that is too short; it was the first thing I put it in this section and when I got to the path behind it I realised. I was likely too focused on its stepped gable to the detriment of its height.

The top right-hand corner of the drawing is blank because my pen ran out of ink.

I’m not aiming to do a perfectly proportioned piece in the time I spend with a drawing such as this. My goal is enjoying sitting outside and drawing. Looking at the jigsaw of elements in this location and bit by bit putting down lines to represent things. Every time I build courage in tackling this complex scene and every time I notice something I hadn’t before. This occasion it was the rocky outcrop that this side of this pier rests on (the stonework of the other side distracts my eye view as I walk along the road by white wall).