Painting Seascapes in watercolor

Lets' start with looking at "Deep Blue Sea"

Was not sure exactly where the horizon was. Where did the sky meet the sea, it was not obvious to me.
This is my idea in a quick painted sketch.
What if I sneaked in some distant hills?
What if I brought those landmasses into the fore-ground?
Let's put some drama and mood into this painting.
Let's give this an atmospherically look, overcast day. May be it's the end of the day. The sun has not been shinning very much. Birds are coming home. Wonder if Dad and the kids caught anything. Do you all see how necessary it is to weave a story in to your paintings.

This is difficult to do particularly for this painter "because it was their first attempt.
But every time you paint pretend you are an author writing a painting for viewers to open and read.
Above all don't tell them the whole story, with tons of details, let them fill in the blanks

Hold on, do you really know the sea?

Really, Really, Know.

To paint really well you must be painting with a passion, reaching for the feelings within yourself. Then you can communicate the most genuine aspects of the word (waves) to the viewer.
Let them hear the roar, let them get wet, drive them into look at your painting, put them right on the beach.
Do you get that feeling looking at "Deep Blue Sea"?
To understand this you must be looking at the painting that's submitted at "Your-Watercolor-Gallery.
The title sound very ominous, but the painting indicates just another day at the beach.

Coming back to my question, "do you know the sea"?

With the risk of boring you, but considering the fact if you don't know the sea you can never paint it.
Here is the sea.......How does the wind make waves? Friction between the atmosphere and the surface of the water will produce a wave.

A breeze of two knots or more, gravity waves begin to form as wind drags across the water. Ripples at first, waves continue to grow as wind blows. In fact, now the wind transfers its' energy to the water since it can push directly against the backs of the ripples, the more jagged and uneven the water surface is, the more there is for the wind to push against.
Ripples change into chops when the length of the chop in a given area stretches beyond five seconds. Guess- what? It is then called "SEA".

Waves grow when the wind transfers energy to the water more efficiently.
How large wind waves begin, is a great function of strength, length of time and how much open water is there. Lets' leave it at that.

By the way, the largest wave ever recorded was Feb 7th, 1933, North Pacific Ocean by the ship U.S.S. Ramado who measured it to be 112 feet tall.
Believe all this information is right, all high school stuff you know. Its' been a couple of years. "No more wimpy waves".

WATER ON ROCKS

I like this painting.

Look at John Pikes "High Winds in West Indies", boiling surf, palm trees bent over, large waves crashing on the beach.

He once said "I'm afraid that many painters who don't really know the sea have a tendency to paint foam and surf as a sort oflight,airy, cotton-candy, blown gently by the wind".These are some possible changes to make that might improve the composition.

The horizon line is too pronounced. If the horizon is ten miles plus from the viewer, it will look rather hazy.

Mixed up three puddles of pigments, Burnt Sienna, French Ultra Marine and Cerulean Blue.

The sea must reflect the sky color or close to it. Does the submitted painting do that?

We are now going to paint the sky. Wet the paper.
Applied French Ultra Marine Blue to the top right corner by just touching the very point of a loaded number 14 Round Brush into the wet paper.
Not much brush work (back and forth strokes).
Slowly worked towards the left leaving areas untouched to give the impression of white fluffy clouds.

Mix Burn Sienna with Cerulean Blue for a pale Gray, which was painted in the areas left untouched giving us a White/Gray cloud.
Started painting the cliffs as you will see, I have three layers of cliffs coming towards the fore-ground.

How about this Audrey, if you worked a few swells into the ocean with a whitecap or two as they approach the fore-ground.

In the submitted painting is there enough wave action in the immediate fore-ground to produce the spray over the rocks?

Why not reduced the size of the rock on the right side and developed a big wave.

Hang in their Audrey, I am not trying to be over critical, but we have a few more suggestions which you can accept or reject.
I am sure many readers will say "no don't change that, that's fine" and that is understandable.
The hard edge on the left rock surely would have some water left flowing over it, including spray. The rushing water will not stop dead in its tracks, will it?
The spray reaching up looks, a little bit, like wisps of smoke, instead of spray.
This needs to be painted with passion, hear the roar, smell the fresh water, feel the wave, see the wave, tell me with the brush, "Jim you are going to get wet".

Let the viewer know this wave is angry - look out.

Communicate your feelings through this painting.

The challenge you set yourself up for was to capture a wave using a mix of hard and soft edges.
So this is what I would do, paint mostly wet-into-wet on damp paper to achieve a balance of soft and hard edges.

• Save the white area.
• Variegated washes.
• Think about the direction of the brush strokes.
• Light overhead
• Avoid solid edges in the wave.
• Feel the energy of the busting wave.

Some points to consider- Hard edges draw the viewers eye giving definition, they tend to bring things forward, particularly if they are painted warm.
Soft edges suggest distance and reduce the amount of attention, that they are not part of the focal point.
Always remember edges are important, watch where you place them and if possible use a mixture of both. It is possible in this case.

Whilst this is drying lay in a wash for the rocks with Raw Sienna, dropping in Burnt Sienna in a few spots.
Let's paint the area below the horizon. Dampen the area for the sea, using the colors in the sky. Leave well alone. The bursting waves which will leave areas of rough edges unpainted, indicating white caps.
If you are fast, the rocks should still be damp. Drop in sea color in a few areas to indicate wet rocks.

SAD SEA

The horizon is always level to a viewer (providing they are not in space). This one seems to slope. The distant hills are nice.
One rule in composition is never dividing the picture into two equal portions. The viewer is not sure what half to look at. The painting approaches splitting 50% x 50%.
I fully realize that this artist is a beginner, but this must be taken in the spirit of constructive ideas.
Again the sea color will normally be the same color as the sky, it cannot be (most times) anything else. The sky needs help. The sea is acceptable at this stage of the painters ability.

THIS IS A DEMONSTRATION OF A SEASCAPE

Drawing Gum by Peblo is the best masking fluid to use Period.