Lastly, check your reflections to ensure they’re directly below the reflected object. Use a ruler if it helps! I also like to turn my painting upside down to spot those issues.
5 Simple Tips for Painting Ocean Waves & Water
I don’t consider myself the strongest painter of water. . . but I do create a lot of paintings around the coast, so I need to be able to paint the wet stuff!
As I paint, I tend to follow the principle that nothing is completely observed and nothing is completely imagined. This allows me to have the best of both worlds when painting. I use what I see in front of me in order to understand what I’m painting and how the light reflects and refracts through water, but. . . I also like to take it beyond reality.
I might try to bring out more intense colours, exaggerate the waves, or change the colours to fit my current colour palette. I just like to make full use of my artistic license!
As a general tip, if you paint from photos, try to choose ones that are truly special—my favorite photos are the ones where something extraordinary jumps out at me, or where there’s something ordinary-but-meaningful, and it tugs on the heart strings. It’s hard to explain exactly why a photo might feel that way, but you know it when you see it, and it makes painting the scene much more enjoyable and interesting.
For example, recently I’ve started a new collection of beach paintings which verges on the abstract, but it captures the reality of what you see on a busy summer’s day on the beach. It also captures a feeling or memory of being on that beach. You can see this in my paintings Watching Boardmasters, Fistral Beach shown at the beginning of this article, and Crantock Beach below.
Each time I look at them, I’m transported to summer holidays—that’s the type of “special” feeling I’m going for.
Tips for painting water
I do a lot of experimentation as I paint, but I also have some techniques that I keep going back to:
Sometimes I’ll use heavily pigmented acrylic paints mixed with water so it can be use like watercolour and I let the water take over. I won’t let it drip exactly, but I will allow it to find its way across the canvas. It’s a bit of a gamble doing it this way, but you can get some great, watery effects. I then add just a bit of white to give a sense of waves crashing onto the beach.
Don’t try to be photo-realistic
I don’t think it’s worthwhile to try to capture every wave and ripple—it will drive you insane. Instead, find ways to let your tools do the work for you. If I’m doing water highlights on the sea, I’ll use a brush to gently splash some speckles over the water and that works brilliantly to pull out little highlights of the sun.
When adding reflections in the water, take some liberties. I’ve always read that reflections are more muted than the original; i.e. the darks will be slightly lighter and the lights will be slightly darker. But don’t let that shape your decisions—sometimes I really do want my reflections to be equally colourful; it just depends on my composition.
And don’t be afraid to use any colour in your reflections—even if it isn’t one traditionally found when looking at water. (We think of water as blue, but it’s only blue because it’s often reflecting a blue sky). In a painting, reflections in the water can be like a mirror image or it could be just a suggestion of the world above it reflects. For reflections I’ll often swap to juicy thick oils and a palette knife to get the effect created in At the Foot of the Fern Pit.
“Simple Ocean Wave”
Learn how to paint this gorgeous wave in less than thirty minutes! OMG What?! Yup.
- Discover a simple process to create a compelling picture.
- Learn Mark’s signature brush techniques.
- Discover how monochromatic can be dramatic.
- Create the appearance of water in limited light.
And fundamental skills to give ALL your paintings a solid foundation:
- Brush Technique
- Dry Brush Technique
- More Brush Technique!
PLUS more advanced techniques:
- Create the illusion of a source of light and learn which parts of waves will reflect and bounce light.
- Discover tricks to help you create long lines and shapes to really make your waves pop.
- Learn how small amounts of pigment-rich colour can add even more layers and dimension to your waves.
- This tutorial is a wonderful insight into the importance of honing your brush technique to create correct shapes.
- Use the accompanying PDF’s as your starting reference points and follow along.
AUD$15.00
Click here to download your starting reference
A slice of the finished pic
After watching you’ll be totally inspired to paint your own wave!
When you purchase, receive this BONUS support material FREE:
PDF – Wave Reference – beginning grid PDF – Wave Reference – colour and greyscale PDF – Waves and Whitewash – recipe pages PDF – Set Yourself Up – Right!
Tech Info For Download:
Running Time: Approx 25 minutes in total
Size: Approx 960mb
AAC Stereo Audio, H.264
Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080
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If you have broadband your download should be reasonably quick. If not, it will be slow! This will take 20 minutes to download as a minimum, and up to an hour or more with a slower internet service.
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