Diary Entry 19/06/2018-Painting a Seascape

Once again art class was great this evening. We were instructed on how to paint a seascape, which is something I’ve never attempted because I have a fear of painting water. I find it very difficult. Our tutor gave us four different ways of doing this, which I’ll write about in a future post.

I have included the method that I used so you can have a go if you fancy. It really is quite straightforward.

Ingredients: Watercolour paper (You can buy a pad of 12 sheets from ‘The Works’ for £2), Palette or a white plate, Your biggest brush (mop), medium sized brush, masking fluid, rubber and pencil. Watercolour paint, 3 colours. Ultramarine blue, lemon yellow and alizarin crimson, (you can use any blue, yellow or red shade, it’s your choice)

Method:

1. Draw a faint line across the middle of your paper, this is your horizon line. This is where I made a mistake which I’ll point out to you later on my finished piece.
2. Pour a little masking fluid (liquid latex) into a container and add a few drops of water.
3. Using an old brush or the back of a pencil, dip into the masking fluid and drag it along the paper in broken lines. You are creating sea ripples. You will be rubbing this out later. It is ‘masking’ off the paper as you apply your paint wash so that your paper will remain white at the end.

   

4. Mix a wash of Ultramarine blue. Ensure you have enough to cover the sky area. I refer to it as a puddle of paint, which I think is an accurate description. Once the masking fluid is dry 5-10 minutes, place a piece of paper up to the horizontal pencil line, covering the masking fluid part of the paper. This will stop the top wash running into the bottom part.

5. Brush some clear water from the top of the paper down to the horizontal line; just to cover the paper, don’t saturate it, then dip into your ultramarine blue, start at the top and bring down the colour from side to side. Dip in your brush to the blue again and do a line once more along the top to make it darker. Next clean your brush in some clear water and add some lemon yellow into the right part of the sky. Add a little red to the yellow and put in a little of the orange you have made. You can hold up the paper to let you paint run slightly down but that’s your choice. Let this dry.

6. Remove the paper that’s covering your bottom part. Mix a wash of Ultramarine and paint in the sea using the side to side motion running down to the bottom of the paper.Make the middle line a bit darker by going over it again.

7. Once the sky is dry add some clouds. Dark ultramarine again. Use a medium brush and make some cloud shapes. Clouds get smaller as they go back so remember this. They also seem to have a more straighter bottom. Have a go anyway!

8. Now wait for you paper to completely dry. If you try and rub off the masking fluid when the paint is still damp it will rip your paper. A hour or so is ideal. Once dry, use your clean finger or a cotton bud and rub off the masking fluid. Now you have your water!

Here is my finished painting. I am quite happy with it but it is not completely right. If you notice my horizon line is not straight towards the left. This makes it look a bit strange. But it was my first attempt. If you have a go let me know how you get on x