At present I am working on a 48"x 30" oil "To the Shores of Tripoli,"depicting the USS Constitution and the "Battle of Tripoli" in August of 1804. The painting will show the Constitution in close engagment with the batteries of Tripoli (now Libya), while the brig Syren closes to add her broadside to the fray. On the right Gunboat # which was unable to close with the enemy is firing her long eighteen pounder at the round fort in the distance.
		This is the concept sketch of the present painting I am working on. I usually do a number of concept sketches until I find a view and composition that has that certain uniqueness.
		The next step is to expand on the concept sketch; detail is added and the perspective is fine tuned. Smoke is added and the splash of cannonballs. Even at this stage I knew that various parts of the sketch would be giving me trouble, such as the stern of the brig Syren and the stern of the Constitution. Fortunately, the Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis was able to supply views of the stern of the Syren from a model they have in their collection. I have already begun to correct the stern of the Syren in the painting below
	. The development of believable smoke is proving a little more difficult than I at first anticipated. Black powder gives off a tremendous amount of smoke. The amount of smoke generated is compounded by method of manufacture, impurities, and of course the settling out of the ingredients (Potassium Nitrate, sulphur and charcoal (carbon) due to the constant movement of the ship. Powder barrels were turned every so often to forestall this effect. And of course there was the varying moisture content which was unavoidable in a wooden ship especially in foul weather. The best I can come up with after studying various historical and photographic references is that the smoke was initially whitish but as it ages the unburned impurities such as carbon became more visible.