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C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4529		 Page 1 of 5
Author:  CraigH [ September 7th, 2013, 1:39 am ]
Post subject:  C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
My first drawing for Shipbucket:
[ img ]
C.S.S. Alabama (1862), Confederate Commerce Raider.

I was perusing Shipbucket and Darth Panda’s U.S.S. Kearsarge (1861)
http://shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Re ... 20Sail.png
-and-
http://shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Re ... 0Sails.png

I felt it might be nice to work on the ship’s most infamous adversary for a first project.

The Alabama had a short but highly productive 2 year career lasting between 1862 and June 1864 in which her crew boarded just under 450 vessels, captured or burned 65 Union merchant vessels, and captured nearly 2000 prisoners over 7 expeditions. In the process it tied up quite a few Union Navy ships all over the globe in an all out search to find and eliminate her. This vessel’s predations drove maritime insurance for anyone shipping to the United States to nearly unaffordable levels and earned the vessel international infamy. The Kearsarge finally caught up with the Alabama at Cherbourg, France, sinking the raider in one of the most significant naval battles of the American Civil War.

The drawing is based upon tracings from the ship’s builder Laird using Corel Draw. It was then transferred over and reduced to Shipbucket’s scale and tweaks with Paint…simply so I could start learning this bit of software I’ve been ignoring pretty much since the dawn of the PC.

Have at it, let the critiques and suggestions begin! I'm looking forward to a crash course in this style of drawing.
Thanks ahead of time.

CraigH
Author:  Judah14 [ September 7th, 2013, 1:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
Well, you should have drawn it from the start in Shipbucket scale, not resize it to SB scale.
Author:  Rodondo [ September 7th, 2013, 1:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
Umm, its been re-sized by photobucket's upload setting so check that carefully ;) , but I'm looking to draw a similar ship of the same era and would be happy to help with this one
Author:  eswube [ September 7th, 2013, 1:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
Yeah, it's been badly resized by photobucket. And if You were using elements of Darth Panda's drawings, You should add him to credits.
Other than that, it looks a good start (at least at a glance - more could be said if not the resize).
Author:  Novice [ September 7th, 2013, 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
First let us all welcome you aboard. You have chosen quite a diffucult subject for first drawing and I commend youvfor that.
As mentioned above, you should have resized the original to SB scale and than draw the ship. Making the sails is one of the more difficult areas, especially if you want to make them look right.
The template shuold be the smallest one into which the ship fits. In your case its the 1000X385 size. If you want to show any information than that's what the B-plate is for, or you can just add the information on your post (like you added the vessel's history).
I can't give any comments on the ship itself, as merchant ships of later era are more my forte, but again let me welcome you aboard.
Author:  CraigH [ September 8th, 2013, 6:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
Addressing the comments so far (in order):
Judah,

I generally do my drafting in 1:1 for mechanical, architectural, etc. in AutoCAD. For material like this I generally scan the image and work from there unless there's a compelling reason to change the scale at the start (Most of what I do is in vector formats so they are inherently infinitely scalable). In this case I started the drawing in Corel Draw. It gives me far more latitude with color and graded fills than the version of Paint I have. It also gives me a LOT more control and tools for line work. In the end, its a case of working with software I'm comfortable with and does what I need it to do.

On that note, while going through archived Forum Threads, I did see there was discussion on graded fills to suggest shading and hull form. What I did not see was any hard resolution on whether or not it was an acceptable Shipbucket style.

Redondo,
Looking for the controls in Photobucket later today to correct the resizing problem. I've never used Photobucket, it hadn't occurred to me that there might be a problem there.

Eswube,
So far I've not used anyone's drawing elements. It's all my work.

I've seen plenty of posts on the subject and fully get the crediting issues. I've been dealing with that myself for several years outside of Shipbucket on my own site. I work a lot with period images, archival material, and such so copyright and intellectual rights are an area I've had a bit of experience with. I've also had my own work used without credit and citation. Basically, I'm all for Shipbucket's body of crediting rules!

Novice,
Thanks for the complement. Most of what I do tends to be older...I do a lot of railroad research and some restoration work so the 19th Century is an area of focus. As a result, sails, masting, and complex rigging can't be ignored.

Moving the drawing to the 1000 x 385 template today and cutting out the ship data.

What I'm trying to grapple is some sort of formula that works for Shipbucket, works for MS Paint, and works for me. So far, I'm leaning towards a sort of 19th Century stylized ship's portrait. Highly simplified, almost "hinted at", "suggested at rigging". The hard part is the pixel size and scale so it's a case of using lighter colors to suggest finer lines. Ratlines are simplified to suggest the ropework and emphasize the masts/sails otherwise the drawing becomes a pixelated mess.

I'll try re-posting the corrected image this evening.

Thanks for the input so far!

Craig
Author:  CraigH [ September 8th, 2013, 7:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
Please take a look, comment, and feel free to criticize:
1) Changed the TEMPLATE to 1000 x 385.
2) Removed the SHIP DATA.
3) Hoping that I've figured out how to adjust for the Photobucket re-scaling. (This is the critical bit right now!)
[ img ]

There is some linework and text I've left in place to be removed later.

Thanks!
CraigH
Author:  acelanceloet [ September 8th, 2013, 7:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
keep in mind that the sb style is basically, 'all can be created with paint'. gradients etc are not used, and the only discussion over hull shading had nothing to do with gradients but with shading the 'bottom' of the hull. this still uses only tools like the pencil and paintbucket tools of paint.

while many of us use different software then paint, the large advantage of the shipbucket style is that it can be done with any software. if your drawing uses gradients, softened lines etc, it is thus only shipbucket scale and not shipbucket style. (I do not know how much this is the case with the drawing, as it is resized, but just pointing it out in any case)

sometimes, you need to overstate parts and sometimes you cannot show them in shipbucket style.

as an example for you, that might help a bit, an similar rigging of about the same time era drawn by me, that also shows the kind of hull shading allowed as maximum.
[ img ]
Author:  Thiel [ September 8th, 2013, 7:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
The shading discussion you've found isn't about the use of gradients, it's about using several band of lighter and darker shades. Gradients are not allowed under SB rules, hence why Rurics work is in the non~SB forum. The only exception I can think of is the Richeleu which had a very specific camouflage pattern.
Author:  Novice [ September 8th, 2013, 7:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: C.S.S. Alabama (1862)
I would like to walk you through some more.
Now that you have the drawing in the correct template, we'll address the SB style issues.
As a rule all parts are outlined in black. Without zooming to your drawing, the most notable parts which need to be so outlined are the sails, the portholes and the stern gallery's windows.
Look in the following page for more.
The grading of colours is not, absolutely not, SB style. That said some allowances were made, in flags and some hull shading.
Parts like lifeboat davits are drawn three pixels thick, i.e black, colour (white, grey or whatever) and black again. The same goes to all parts, which will bear a humans weight, like the spars, or open decks.
Please note that much of the original of SB work was done using MS-Paint only (a program I personally use today).
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