#EASY OCEAN WAVES PAINTING HOW TO#

And to make it lighter in value simply mix in more white. To make it warmer you can either use more ultramarine blue for the color or mix in a little more red to the blue. This third blue color shade is lighter in value as well as a little bit warmer. I mix a third blue color that I apply below the second shade of blue.

Ultramarine blue is a warmer blue than pthalo blue because it is closer to the color purple.Ĭolor temperature might feel a little confusing at first but once you put it into practice you will get the hang of it! I mix a warmer shade of blue by using more ultramarine blue than pthalo blue. In the above image I mix a second shade of blue below the first stripe of blue I put down earlier.

#EASY OCEAN WAVES PAINTING HOW TO#

That is why it is all the more important to pay close attention to color temperature and know how to use it! Since a seascape can sometimes deal with many of the same colors (mainly blue) the changes will of course be subtle. If you make the area that is in the front part of the water warm in temperature it will feel like the area is coming forward. In other words making the area of water that is further back cooler in temperature will make it feel far back in space. Warm colors come forward in space while cool colors recede back in space. It is important for the sky and water to be congruent.Īnother great ocean painting tip that is easy but VERY impactful, is to pay attention to color temperature when painting water. Notice how the blue of the water looks much better now as it is brighter and fits in with the sky. I also mix in a very small amount of cadmium orange to mute the color slightly. Therefore I mix a little more pthalo blue into my blue mixture to brighten the color a little bit.

This time I use much more blue than I did for the sky! However, the color for the water in the above image is too dark and muted. Trust your eyes to observe your colors closely and mix the colors that work best – this will make ocean painting much easier!Īs already mentioned I start by mixing ultramarine blue with white. However, depending on where you are in the world the water could be an entirely different color. I use more ultramarine blue than pthalo blue for the water in my painting. Mix up a blue color with ultramarine blue and small amount of pthalo blue. We now approach one of the exciting parts of this ocean painting tutorial! Learning how to paint the ocean and its waves. This is all a result of painting the top part slightly darker in value and using more saturated color. Notice in the painting below how the top part of the sky is closer in space than the bottom part. Therefore, making the color of the top part of the sky more saturated, brighter and darker in value will make that part of the sky feel closer to you in space. Let me elaborate: The top part of the sky is closer to you than the part of the sky that is down by the horizon line. Creating Space in the SkyĪ great ocean painting easy tip is to paint the top part of the sky darker than the bottom part

Therefore, it is important to be aware to just mix in small amounts for the color changes. The change is subtle just as the changes in the sky are slight. I mix more blue with my previously mixed up color and add in a small amount of orange to mute the color a bit. In the upper image I mix a slightly darker color for the middle portion of the sky.

Usually a sky gets gradually darker the further away one gets from the horizon line. With the initial bottom part of the sky done I now transition into painting the upper portion of the sky. Therefore adding a very small amount of orange to the mix mutes the color just enough to make the color more natural. If I were to mix just the blue with the white then the color would be far too bright. Then, I mix a very small amount of cadmium orange to mute the blue colors (since blue and orange are complementary they mute each other when mixed together). I begin by mixing a small amount of ultramarine blue and pthalo blue with a good amount of white. The great British landscape painter John Constable once said, “…The sky is the source of light in nature and governs everything.” The sky is what determines the kind of light the rest of the seascape will have. Therefore, we start our painting with the sky. The sky is the most important part of any landscape or seascape painting. Something that will make ocean painting easy for you is to start with the sky! If you don’t have a canvas to paint over be sure to create an imprimatura on your white painting surface. It is always good to reuse painting surfaces of paintings you would normally throw away. For my seascape painting I use canvas from an unsuccessful previous painting that was wiped and scraped out.

Easy ocean waves painting