April 2019 Challenge: Your Pirate Ship Here

[Larb]

I thought I'd give this one a try and I wanted to draw a boat. This is a type of corsair ship from my conworld. It's a sleek and predatory small galley that preys on small ships in coastal waters and some rivers.

Just the initial rough sketch so far.

### Latest WIP ###

[tainotim]

Great start Larb. I will follow this eagerly

Cheers,
Karl

[arsheesh]

Even as just a concept sketch it looks fantastic!

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Larb]

I still have more detailing to do. And I need to draw the ship illustration properly too of course. I plan on doing this in full colour.

I decided to try using a pattern for the main deck planking and then eroded it a bit.

### Latest WIP ###

[DanielHasenbos]

I love the look of this. Can wait to see the sideview too! Only thing that I noticed is that the mast on the lower deck doesn't line up with the mast on the upper deck. If that a mistake, or part of the construction?

[Larb]

Oh, good catch! Must have happened when I was revising the rough sketch.

[rdanhenry]

That's not really a practical design. You don't want curvature where you have your oars. You want your oars running parallel to each other and perpendicular to the axis of the ship. Most of the oars will be wasting energy with a sideways component that will be negated by the opposite oar, but fails to contribute to forward (or backward) movement. If they can mainly rely on the sail and there is some reason for that odd design, then they might be willing to accept the inefficiency, but the fat-belly shape is unlikely anyway. Even the cog and the carrack, which look quite plump in a line-up of sailing vessels, were far from this extreme (and they were pure sailing ship, so the oar issues didn't apply, though in the later ships, keeping cannons in line did). I'm pretty such basic hydrodynamics are going to encourage the sort of long, slim designs characteristic of most historical boats and ships, as pushing aside a wider cross-section of the water than necessary will surely slow you down. Also, there's got to be a better place for unsecured cargo than the middle of the widest part of the ship, where it will do the most to unbalance things further if it slides to one side.

This is, of course, art and not engineering. You are perfectly free to create even the impossible, while this is merely improbably. However, this ship looks to me more like easy prey for a pirate ship than a predatory vessel.

As for the execution of the design, it is a very nice deck plan style. Clean, but with just enough hand-drawn irregularity to make it feel like a pre-digital product.

[Larb]

I'll keep in mind a more practical design for the next ship I do - sort of a bit late to change the entire shape at this stage and I sorta like it. I suppose a mostly straight edge for the lower deck would be better then. As for the cargo - I guess I can draw some netting over a bunch of it to make it more secure.

[MistyBeee]

So, so promising ! I look forward to see where you're going there, Larb

[aeshnidae]

My first thought for this challenge was to create ship deck plans. I'm glad I went another route because mine would not have looked as good as yours, Larb!

I appreciate rdanhenry's comments and will keep those in mind whenever I do get around to drawing some of my in-game ships (which are based on cogs and carracks), but for a fantasy ship, I really like this style. The shape brings to mind bellows that you'd see near a forge.