Inside My Seascape Progress
(My goal for this painting was simply to reconnect with acrylics and strengthen my skills as I create seascapes.)Recently I watched Painting Tutorial Acrylic by Katie Jobling where she did a step by step process on creating a beautiful seascape.
As soon as I watched it I felt the bug to pick up my acrylics and paint. I had attempted to do a seascape many many moons ago. It was using very cheap (possibly for kids) type watercolors. This was probably back in 2012/2013 not really sure. The problem was that I was so inexperienced with watercolors that I didn't know how to to create layers to build on.
As you can see I have the general idea of what I want the sea to look like, however it could use some work. I have a seascape, but it's not what I had pictured in my mind. I wanted something a little more light. Unfortunately since it was in watercolor I couldn't just start over on it.
Fast forward to Katie's video and I was once again inspired to create once again. I watched the video in it's entirety before I attempted it. I then picked up the colors I was was missing (which I will be reviewing later for you as well). I then prepared my supplies and began my art piece.
Before I began I knew I wasn't going to replicate Katie's tutorial. I was going to follow her steps on how to create a horizon line, create the underlayer for the water, and the waves.
Once I was ready to begin I primed my canvas (even though it was prepared canvas from Michaels). I had this canvas for sometime and I just wanted to make sure it didn't have any debris or imperfections on it. Once that was dry I began to combine the colors cerulean blue and white to create the underlayer for the sky.
I did make a mistake sort of because initially I had mixed cerulean blue with yellow ochre. However, in her video Katie does ultramarine and phthalo green. I then went off her video because I wanted to experiment. Half of the fun of creating is making mistakes and finding out that maybe they weren't mistakes after all.
I began adding a mix of titanium white and cerulean blue to bring in some reflection from the sky. Then added straight ultramarine blue to some parts of the sea to create some deeper reflections. I also mixed cerulean blue, phthalo green, ultramarine blue, and a hint of white. I did the same process minus the white to create a darker turquoise.
I wanted there to be some visual appeal so I decided to add some larger rocks for the waves to crash on. I also went back to the horizon to add more ultramarine blue to bring out the blue of the water since it was a bit too deep turquoise for my liking.
I also added some strokes of cerulean blue to the sky to give it some more realism. I added small strokes of ultramarine blue as well for depth. I used Katie's technique of using the palette knife to add some puffier clouds. I did use the color mix that Katie suggests to bring out the white in the sky. Unfortunately I wasn't using very good lighting in my living room so later in better light I realized that it came out a little more purple than I would have liked, but you can't see that in the pictures (which is surprising).
I used yellow orchard to create highlights in the rocks. The thing about highlights is that they aren't always white. I never use the black or the grays that are sold in stores. I always mix my own so for the rocks I also created some grey using the colors at hand. With the mix I added some other highlights to the rocks to give them more dimension. Since my focus was to develop my sea making skills I wasn't ask worried about giving the rocks a realism feel to them.
To make the waves I used Katie's technique of using a palette knife with small amounts of white to create the dimension and realism of the wave crashing. I took a dry brush to soften some of the waves.
And here is the finished product! So what do you think? Not bad for my second attempt at realistic seascape!
Leave me a comment down below letting me know if you have attempted a seascape.
List of Supplies used:
Remember you don't need to use the same brands or products I used. Find the ones that suite your needs the best!