- Make sure the horizon is straight and parallel to the top and bottom of the page. A wonky horizon line will make your painting look odd!
- Keep your brushstrokes horizontal as much as possible. This just gives a more realistic effect, and I find it makes blending a little easier.
How to Paint a Beach Scene
Hello, friends…I hope your week is off to a great start.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen sneak peeks of these paintings. I have been having a lot of fun playing with the new Americana Premium acrylics from DecoArt of late as I love their amazing coverage from its light-fast, heavily-pigmented formula.
They were created to work well on canvas as well as other artistic surfaces and today I wanted to share a fun tutorial on how to paint your own beach scene. Whether you’re a beginner or expert, the beauty of this abstract is that it doesn’t have to be perfect.
You will need the following colors:
Carbon Black
Prussian Blue Hue
Titan Buff
Titanium White
Cobalt Teal Hue
Cobalt Turquoise Hue
Pyrrole Red
Raw Sienna
And materials:
Canvas (I used a 16 x20)
Palette knife
Large flat brush
Small round brush
Step 1.
Mix white and teal paint together at an approximate 2:1 ratio. Take your palette knife and dip it in the white and teal mixture, turquoise, blue and teal paints. Spread onto canvas horizontally on the top half of the canvas.
Step 2.
Clean your palette knife and dip it in the Titan Buff and spread the paint on the bottom half of the canvas.
Step 3.
Using your large flat brush, dip it in water, remove some of the moisture and brush paint horizontally.
Step 4.
Dip your brush in the white paint and dab along between the blue and the Titan Buff.
Step 5.
Take your flat brush and repeat step 3, this time over the entire canvas.
Step 6.
Dip your palette knife in the white paint and dab the edge along the blue as shown.
Step 7.
Dip your palette knife in the turquoise and dab under the white.
Step 7.
Dip your palette in the white and place the knife flat along the canvas, dabbing the white paint between the blue and the Titan Buff.
Step 8.
Painting the details.
Follow the collage below to paint the little umbrellas.
Step 9.
To paint “people”, simply use your small round and make little dots and strokes that resemble people. Remember…it doesn’t have to be perfect
Step 10.
Dip your brush in the white and dab to give texture or make it look like foam.
Repeat the previous step on the waves…
Add little details, such as shadows and little towels etc…
And there you go…a fun little afternoon painting project.
What I love about art is that each time you paint, each piece is one of a kind.
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and would encourage you to leave any questions you may have below and I’ll make sure to get back to you.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
50+ Landscape Painting Ideas For Beginners
Looking for landscape painting ideas? This collection of 50+ curated landscape painting tutorials will be sure to satisfy all skill levels, from beginner to more advanced painters alike. A wide variety of landscapes ranging from sunset, sunrise, desert, tropical, forests, galaxy, mountains, etc.
Looking for more easy acrylic painting ideas? Get inspired with this 60+ acrylic paintings ideas list or these 83+ kids friendly painting ideas. If you’re just beginning with acrylics and want to learn the basics starting, you can check out this how to use acrylics: ultimate guide.
Landscape Painting Tips
Below are some quick and easy tips for beginners to make your landscapes looking great and easy to paint.
- Use color temperature: cool colors in background and warm colors in foreground to create the illusion of depth to the viewer’s eye.
- Use a reference photo to help paint realistic details in your painting
- The best way to paint a landscape is painting the background first then add foreground elements
- Create a focal point in your painting to help create more interest in the composition.
- Use the rule of the thirds to know where to place your focal point.
- Ultramarine blue paint makes a perfect blue sky color for any landscape painting.
- Use double loading brush method to create smooth blends in sunset background
- Add easy silhouetted trees, mountains /hills in front of any background to create in easy beginner friendly landscape scene.
- Use the atmospheric perspective phenomenon to create the illusion of depth in your painting: things further away from the eye are lighter/duller (I.e faded) in color and not as vibrant as things that are closer to the eye (foreground etc.) . Mix a bit of black and white paint into a vibrant color to tone it down to use in background elements.
- For a more realistic painting, add a variety of different tones of one color. I.e. if you’re painting a green treed forest, add a variety of greens to add dimension and richness.
For more acrylic painting tips, check out this 35 acrylic painting tips post.
How To Paint An Easy Beach Scene With Acrylic Paint [with video]
In my last post, I showed you how to paint watercolour ice cream cones and I also said things were going to get pretty summery around here. And this tutorial for a quick and deceptively simple beach scene painting is right on theme!
If you’re looking at this project and thinking “Deceptively simple? There’s NO way I’m going to be able to do that!”, trust me — you absolutely can.
I have a few hints to help make this painting as straightforward as possible, and breaking it down into stages really simplifies the process.
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How to paint a simple beach scene: hints and tips
Choosing a blue paint
First things first, my biggest tip: use one shade of blue acrylic paint for the sky and another for the sea. I’m using ultramarine for the sky and phthalo blue for the sea. This is because standard phthalo blue has a more greeny tone that suits the sea best.
But you may also know that I tell you to use what you have. So if you just have “blue” acrylic or craft paint, add a little green or an even tinier touch of yellow to give the sea a very subtle trace of green.
What to do if you don’t have yellow ochre
We use yellow ochre for the sand, but there’s also a workaround for that. You can mix a tiny bit of purple (or a dot of red and a dot of blue) into some yellow to get a similar effect. The important thing is that the sand isn’t bright yellow.
When I first created this tutorial and took the pictures you see in this blog post, I used yellow ochre. But when I came to record the video you’ll see below, my yellow ochre had dried up! So if you want to see me use the workaround, you can in the video below.
Two final tips
Finally, here are two more super quick tips before we get into the tutorial:
- Make sure the horizon is straight and parallel to the top and bottom of the page. A wonky horizon line will make your painting look odd!
- Keep your brushstrokes horizontal as much as possible. This just gives a more realistic effect, and I find it makes blending a little easier.
How To Paint A Simple Beach Scene With Acrylic Paint
Step three
We’re now going to start on the sand. Wash your brush really well or grab a clean one. Then pick up a little yellow ochre and mix it with some white to make a pale yellow ochre.
Start from the bottom of the page and work up to cover at least the bottom third. We’ll bring the sea down over it, so don’t worry about making a neat edge.
And it’s also fine if the colour isn’t even and uniform the whole way across — it looks more realistic that way.
Step four
Now we’ll move onto the sea. Remove the tape from the horizon. As long as the sky is dry, stick another piece the other side of the horizon to keep the sharp edge.
Pick up some phthalo blue on a clean brush, mix in a tiny bit of white, and start painting horizontal strokes along the horizon line.
As you work down the page, add more and more white until you have a very pale blue where the waves wash up on the shore.
Make sure you bring the water down over the sand, and paint an uneven edge along the shore.
Step five
Mix a tiny bit of blue and a little yellow ochre to make a kind of brown. Hold the brush upright and use the tip to add a rough line along the edge of the water.
This will be a shadow. I know it doesn’t look like it at this stage but it will make all the difference in the end!
Let the painting dry.
Step six
Remove the tape. We’re now going to add some white details. Dab some white paint onto the sea where it meets the shore to make foam. Try not to make it too uniform and make sure a bit of white goes over the shadow you painted.
Make a few horizontal marks in the sea further back, for a little distant foam. Make sure the marks get smaller the further back you go.
And there you have it — you’ve just painted a simple beach scene!
Want to take this further? Check out 9 Ways To Make A Mixed Media Beach Scene!
And if you’re ready to learn more about acrylic painting, check out this article: Acrylic Painting Terms: A Glossary For Beginners!
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About Stacey
I’m Stacey and I’m a blogger, abstract artist and freelance writer. My aim is to help busy people feel inspired and get more creative with tutorials, hints and tips.
I live in Cardiff with my partner and dog, and in my free time you’ll find me hiking, reading, painting or sampling a craft beer or two.
