Any boat with a hull. The shop shows sixteen kinds, a sloop and a catamaran, a runabout and a motor yacht, a lobster boat, a tug and a narrowboat, a canoe, a kayak and a dinghy, and each was drawn the way yours would be, from one photograph. Sails, rigging, wheelhouse windows and chrome all come out in acrylic.
What does a sailing boat come out like?
A sloop under sail uses the height of the square: cream or white sails in two or three pieces, a mast in a sliver of grey, the hull low across the panel on a sea of cobalt and teal. A catamaran at anchor is wider and lower, the twin hulls and the bridge deck in white on turquoise. A trawler yacht with her mast and booms reads as a working boat with a sailor's rig.
What does a power boat come out like?
A varnished runabout is the piece the studio is proudest of: chestnut and amber acrylic for the mahogany, silver for the chrome, cream for the seats. A center console comes out white with the T-top in black and the outboards in grey; a flybridge yacht long and white with the windows in smoke; a pontoon boat with its canopy in blue; a bowrider with its spray in white acrylic.
What about working boats and small craft?
Working boats are the ones with colour: a lobster boat white with a red waterline and the pots on the stern, a harbour tug black and signal red with the tyres along the side, a narrowboat green and red and cream with a brass chimney. A gondola comes out black and gilt. A canoe, a kayak or a dinghy fills the width of the panel on its beach or its still water.
| Kind | Examples in the shop | Best photo |
|---|---|---|
| Sail | Sloop, cruising catamaran, trawler yacht | Under sail, three-quarters from the bow |
| Power | Wooden runabout, center console, motor yacht, pontoon, bowrider | At the dock or under way, side-on |
| Working boats | Lobster boat, harbour tug, narrowboat, fishing skiff, gondola | Alongside the quay, side-on |
| Paddle & oar | Cedar canoe, sea kayak, rowing dinghy | On the beach or the shore, three-quarters |
Every piece in the shop can be started from: open it, press Start from your photo, and the design draws your boat in its place.
Is there a boat that will not work?
Not a kind of boat; only a kind of photo. A ship seen from the air, a hull half out of the water on the hard, a boat buried in a marina: those are photo problems, and the photo guide deals with them. A boat you have no photo of can be described on the create page instead.
Questions this leaves
Can you make a ship, or a ferry?
Yes, from a photo that shows her whole and from the side. The piece draws the lines simply, so a liner comes out as a long white hull with her funnels, which is what people remember of her.
Can you make a model boat, or a boat from a painting?
A model photographed on a plain table works well; a painting photographed flat in daylight, without glare, works too. The design reads the lines, not the medium.
