It is now crunch time. I have promised to get Two Young Captains and a Pirate illustrated and published by July 4. It is a lofty … no, it is an insane goal that is bound to fail. But I am bound to try to make it work.

So, I will spend the next two weeks posting drawings that might be used in this children’s book. This is one of those.

I know very little about sailing and sail boats, however, since this book is about pirates and sailors, I thought it would be a good idea to learn enough to draw a boat or two that might, by some stretch of the imagination, be something that could have been seen on the seas during the time period of the Two Young Captains (late 1700s to early 1800s).

In the book, the Two Young Captains spy a pirate’s ship that is nearly empty. The ship is described as being small – there is only one person on board it. So, I looked up sailboats from the 1800s and found that a catman or Bermuda boat was a small, single-masted boat. I also found many, many pictures.

Using the pictures as a guide, I fabicated this boat shown above. I’m not sure I got everything right. I will have to pass it by a real sailor (luckily have a friend who surveys and appraises boats for a living) to make sure it is at least a reasonable representation.

I’ve mentioned it before, but it is worth mentioning again: Doing research about the object you are drawing is invaluable. It is also one of the things I like about drawing. It lets me research things and learn about things I might not otherwise notice.

I drew this picture with my HB .07 inch mechanical pencil. I then ran it through a filter on Photoshop Touch to give it a black and white, old-time feel.