Ink & Paper Drawings B/W By Ari Saarinen

Hello guys.

I've been talking about my old ink drawings that I drew some 25-30 years ago. Well here are a few for your viewing, including the Grace Dieu which is mentioned in the Sail topic:

This was my pen/pencil line drawing attempt at the Swedish naval architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman's draught for a Swedish 110 gun ship to counter the menace of the Russian three-deckers in the Baltic:
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This was the biggest Royal Ship completed during the Scanian War (1675-79), where the Swedish fleet met disaster after disaster in the hands of inexperienced naval commanders such as Count Gustaf Otto Stenbock and Baron Lorentz Creutz. Excellent commanders such as Claas Johansson Uggla, Eric Sjöblad, and Johan Bergenstierna were overlooked due to their inferior social status, whereas Hans Clerck and Hans Wachtmeister still were too young to command (though, in 1677, finally, the latter was made C-in-C at the young age of 35, after the latest and last of a series of lost battles gone horribly wrong (Falster and Stevns Klint, July 1, 1677). The Carolus Undecimus, named for the King, Charles XI, a brilliant soldier, and a consumate administrator, was Wachtmeister's flagship for the duration of the conflict.
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Here are two representations of the large Swedish Royal Ship Svärdet. The second one is the most accurate one. I'm posting my first line drawing of her to show the rigging and flag shroud: It is the flags and command pennant of the commander of the Yellow (2nd) Squadron at the Battle of Öland, June 1st, 1676, Admiral Claas Johansson Uggla, who, after a heroic defence against severela Danish and Dutch ships, perished when the ship blew up underneath him:
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This is the Henry (yes, no H.M.S. as of yet!) of 65-82 guns. She began life at Deptford, in 1656, named after one of the Protector's three great battles, Dunbar. She saw exextensive service both in the Baltic, during the wars of King Charles X of Sweden against Denmark-Norway and Poland, 1655-60. Later she served with outmost distinction in numerous battles, was captured by the Dutch, at least twice, and as many times recaptured! One of her most famous commanders was Sir John Harman:
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Here's something for our Danish and Norwegian members (you know who you are!): Christianus Quintus of 86 guns. She began life as Prins Christian, but was renamed in 1670 upon the accession on the throne of Christian V (1670-99). She was the Danish-Norwegian fleet flagship during the Scanian War, hosting such illustrious admirals as Cort Sivertsen Adelaer, Cornelis Martenszoon Tromp and, of course the "Nelson of the North", Niels Juel:
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A note on the absence of rigging: when drawing manually by hand on a regular sized drawing pad, the hull becomes your focus. After all, the rigging looked pretty much alike regardless of the ship! Every nations' sailors understood the fundamentals of how to sail and handle a square rigged ship. So, they rigged them virtually the same!
In almost all my drawings, my primary focus has been the ships themselves; their hull characteristics, decorations and gun-port configuration.
Also, it is worth noticing that an official cert or draught would never have shown the rigging; masts were reduced to stumps, representing where the masts were situated and at what angle. A simplified sail plan was often made, where only the merest outlines of the ship were shown. In the 17th c. even these were extremely rare.

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My Avatar:Петр Алексеевич Безобразов (Petr Alekseevich Bezobrazov), Вице-адмирал , царская ВМФ России(1845-1906) - I sign my drawings as Ari Saarinen

Nice work!

Makes me miss the days of hand drafting and illustration. There's a life to the linework that few artists can do digitally. I think I personally know but one older Architect that still actually draws (he hired some wickedly good CAD demons to digitize his designs for clients who need it).
May have to do some digging for my drafting tools. I'd hate to look at the drafting pens, if there's any ink left in them they'll be a bear to clean. Wonder if anyone even sells the cleaning solvents anymore?

CraigH

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In active progress
More Ships with Sails
Early Torpedo Boats in SB and FD Scales
Some railroad stuff
More random stuff that strikes me!

Thats bloody beautiful work there!

I still draw my plans (though Inventor and CAD are useful), actually spent today clambering round the hold of an old collier, drawing the frames and knees, but yes its a dying skill

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Work list(Current)
Miscellaneous|Victorian Colonial Navy|Murray Riverboats|Colony of Victoria AU|Project Sail-fixing SB's sail shortage
How to mentally pronounce my usernameRow-(as in a boat)Don-(as in the short form of Donald)Dough-(bread)
"Loitering on the High Seas" (Named after the good ship Rodondo)
There's no such thing as "nothing left to draw" If you can down 10 pints and draw, you're doing alright by my standards

Beutifull drawings...

Beautiful work.
Yes, it's sad that it's "all computer" these days.

Thank you, guys. So very kind words of you all. I had completely forgotten that I had these already in my computer or my Photobucket account. Of course, now I should also attempt to "bucketize" them...

Absolutely beautiful

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"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did." Thomas Edward Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Woah... beautiful! Can we hope to see some more of your old drawings?

KHT: I wouldn't mind at all to share, but, alas, these were the only ones sofar saved on my HD or in Photobucket. I have a nice line drawing of the Prince Royal as of 1666, several more Swedish ships. ( I've been working for years, on and off, the last 7-8 years off, on a big drawing of the Swedish 70-gun ship Prins Gustaf of 1758; would really like to complete that one and post it!)

So, since my scanner doesn't work, I'll have to wait, unfortunately. However, I'd like to, time permitting, to do any of these in SB-style, maybe even FD-scale ( once I understand how that works!)

Btw, it's perfectly ok to call me by my given name instead of my username, if you prefer. After all, I did reveal once and for all my ID, didn't i? Also, I'm going to use the signature "A. Saarinen" in the future, except colabs, where my partner prefers to use the SB-signature.

Shipbucket

Ink & Paper Drawings B/W By Ari Saarinen

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