How to Paint Sparkling Ocean – Sea Waves in watercolors – Cats and Boats – Abstract Nautical Sailboat Sea Paintings and How to

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Reply and Comment on my blog – 08-01-09

milan

89.216.155.158
Submitted on 2009/07/31 at 9:23am

am trying to lern to paint ocean water, transparent water with little waves on a beach .Do you have any DVDs that I can buy, or suggest some to me,that would be good, and where I can get them,Thankyou, MILAN CVJETIC.

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My Reply – 08-01-09

cricketdiane
livestream.com/crickethousestudios

71.59.51.42
Submitted on 2009/07/31 at 5:26pm

I’m sure there aren’t any I would watch – but that’s because it would be easier to get out some paint and play with it until it does what I want. Today, there isn’t a dvd that I’ve made about creating ocean waves in watercolor, however try this -

Imagine what the finished piece will be and the moment that you want to capture.

Everywhere there is to be sparkle, foam or waves – don’t put any paint there. Don’t wet the entire watercolor paper, but instead paint with limited areas of wetness across the page from side to side where the foam, sparkle and froth of the waves will not be.

Sounds pretty backwards, doesn’t it? In essence, paint everything in deep hues where the sea is getting deeper away from the viewer until it nears the horizon while leaving the irregular shapes of the wave crests near the viewer and where there are hints of building waves in the middle behind the detailed areas in the foreground.

CricketDiane "painting" of the ocean waves at sunset as my spirit is renewed - 9" x 12" (sold) - created in pastels on art paper, 2009, 1991 - Title: Serenity

There is a dry brush technique that works great for sparkle in watercolor – try it first on a separate piece of watercolor paper. Fill the dry paintbrush (stiff bristles have one set of effects, soft bristles have a different look done this way) with paint by gently, lightly dragging it across the top of the paint so it doesn’t fill the bristles completely. Then pull the color across the page drifting it across the surface in one smooth motion. Each swipe across the surface will fill in some of the color under the sparkle. This isn’t white paint in the brush, although you can do that with acrylics or oil paints.

For watercolors, the paper provides the only pure white in the painting, so when the sparkle happens – it is literally the paper showing through the other colors that convey visual information beneath the foam, the spray, the breaking wave froth, and the sparkly little bits that to the viewer seem to be on top of the water. It is easy to fill the brush with several colors of the water and sand to drag across the paper in front of a breaking wave to convey the sparkly foam in the shallows where we would splash and dig our toes into the wet sand.

cricketdiane 2009 - sea glory - ocean waves painting art trading card - Baby Crickets Ocean Series - 2.5" x 3.5" - original painted in acrylic 2007 - 2009

There is a little shadow beneath each wave’s crashing froth – it can be created with a light wash with only a hint of wet pigment slightly darker than the sea water and depending on the time of day in your painting, the frothiness of the wave can be captured with swirls of very, very thin prussian blue washes blended gently into the areas of white or using lightly wet soft bristles partially filled with a very, very thin wash of payne’s grey. Try it on another piece of paper first.

The clouds and sky will be the same thing – where there are white volumes of clouds must be left unpainted because where the white paper is ever given a tint, it will never be white again. The horizon at certain times of day and in some weather conditions will be almost invisible and lighter than the surrounding upper sky or deep ocean areas. And, at other times it is well-defined and occasionally, deeper in color. What looks right in your mind’s eye? Clouds can be defined from the white surface of the paper using light thin washes of blueish purple, grey, or cobalt that develop the curving forms of shadows beneath their fluffy round forms.

CricketDiane ocean waves painting 2009, 2007 - "Gone Swimming" created in watercolor beach surf and sunset - 2.5" x 3.5"

Sunsets and sunrises, afternoons and dusk, all have particular tints to everything. As long as the tints match throughout the painting, it can be believable as if your viewer is standing at that place at that time of day.

The best thing to do is to have some fun with experimenting to find the different effects that can happen, but the basic rule for painting in watercolor is that white areas are left clean and lightly developed, lighter values go on first and each layer of color builds to the darkest which is painted last, rather than first as in acrylics and oil paintings.

Great fun painting – can’t wait to see the results!

- cricketdiane, 07-31-09

CricketDiane 2009 – “Caveat” (title) – 2.5″ x 3.5″ Baby Crickets Ocean Series Sailboat Nautical Abstract watercolor 2009, 2007 – how to paint ocean sea paintings – step by step how to paint watercolor sea paintings / ocean waves -

6-30-07 CricketDiane 2009 - caveat 1 - cdcp07 wc-wcpaper

6-30-07 CricketDiane 2009 - caveat 2 - cdcp07 wc-wcpaper

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painting ocean waves, how to paint ocean sea waves paintings in watercolor,

Cricket House Studios Stuff – ocean paintings and how to paint ocean waves

6-30-07 CricketDiane 2009 - caveat 3 - cdcp07 watercolor on watercolor paper ocean sea paintings nautical abstract sailboat

6-30-07 CricketDiane 2009 - caveat 4 - cdcp07 ocean paintings in watercolor - nautical abstract - Baby Crickets - sailboats ocean waves paintings

[And the final work - ]

CricketDiane 2009 - caveat (title) - 2.5" x 3.5" Baby Crickets Ocean Nautical Sailboat Abstract watercolor 2009, 2007 - how to paint ocean sea paintings

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And, just for fun – one of the other cricketdiane pocket art card original paintings from 2007 – this one with a cat and a sailboat titled:

“Playing with Mama’s Sailboat”

7-12-07 CricketDiane 2009 - playing with mamas sailboat - cdcp07 watercolor on watercolor paper 2009, 2007

In this watercolor pocket art card that I created, a snuggly kitty is doing what dittling about that happens when cats are in my life – playing with my toys . . .

- cricketdiane, 08-02-09

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CricketDiane 09 - Sonata by Cricket dcphillips 06 - watercolor on Arches wc paper 2009, 2006 - 2.5" x 3.5" ocean waves painting Baby Crickets pocket art

Note – this painting above may be watercolor and acrylic or china white watercolor paint riding over the transparent watercolors for the white of the surf and foam in the foreground. I experimented with a lot of different techniques and tried different ways to get the ocean to look the way I remembered it. If it feels like I could splash my feet in it – then, it works as far as I’m concerned.

- cricketdiane 2009

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