How To Paint A Simple Oceanscape For Beginners
A few weeks ago, we talked about what brushes you can use to paint a palm tree, and today, I want to show you how to pair those techniques with some easy blending to create a simple oceanscape view from a little hut on the beach.
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I tried my best to make this a painting you can finish in 20-minutes. Sometimes it feels like we have to set aside a chunk of time to have a hobby like completing a full detailed painting, so, we never get to it.
What I want you to see today is what you can accomplish in a small amount of time- Something quick and small to leave the world for a few minutes, relax and enjoy yourself. It doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment.
This painting is inspired by my favorite place to be when I am on vacation. At the beach, relaxing on my lounger under a hut.
How to Paint a Simple Oceanscape
Because this is a quick and simple oceanscape painting session, we will only need a few basic painting supplies.
Pick your favorite colors in the ocean. I only used a handful that I mixed with white to make a variety of colors. You don’t always have to use what comes in a bottle. Create your own colors!
Learn more about Color Mixing HERE.
To keep things super stress-free, use a mixed media pad. I use mine anytime I play around or practice without stressing out whether what I am doing is good or bad.
If you find your paper warping, don’t worry! You aren’t doing anything wrong. That is just what happens to paper when something wet is applied to it.
To fix that, I let my painting dry completely. Then I press it flat under a heavy book for a while to flatten it out.
Materials Mentioned
- Acrylic Paints in White, Black, Bahama Blue, Peacock Teal, Blue Harbor, Cocoa
- Small Round Paintbrushes
- 1″ Flat Brush
- Rake Brush (Wisp)
- Mixed Media Pad
Blend a Beautiful Sky
This painting is all about the blending. To start, I take a swirl of white and Blue Harbor on my flat brush to blend a pretty baby blue sky.
When blending a background like this, you really want to focus on moving quickly. Especially when painting in a mixed media pad because it tends to soak up the paint and dry faster.
Make long horizontal brushstrokes across your painting surface and grab more paint as you go to prevent it from skipping.
You can decide how much sky you want. My horizon line is just about half the way down the page. Make it as dark your bright as you want, just try not to over-blend. Quick is key to covering the surface while keeping a variety of blues and whites visible.
Learn more about making the perfect blend HERE.
Paint the Ocean
I chose a mixture of teal blues to paint the ocean. The warmer undertones really resemble the water.
Layer in dark and light tones to create movement with the variations in the water.
The ocean water covers about a quarter of my page.
At this point, you can add a few soft waves in the water. Use a small round brush and a little bit of white paint to lightly drag your brush over top of the water, here and there.
Paint Clouds in the Blended Blue Sky
If you are new to painting with acrylics, I want you to remember that anything you do can be changed. All you have to do is let it dry and then paint over the top of it. Don’t try to fix any mistakes when the paint is still wet, or it might turn into a muddy mess.
I was painting quickly… and a little messy. In the video, you will see a few specks of teal paint dropped onto my sky when painting my water!
Because the sky was already dry, I was able to grab some white paint and lightly drag my brush over the top to create a wispy cloud in the distance.
I am just using those teal spots to guide where I want to add some small clouds. 😆 No stress.
Paint the Sand
The bottom quarter of the page is the coastline, where the waves crash up onto the sand. First, fill the rest of the page with a nice sandy color. Drag some of that color into the teal blue water to resemble where you can see the sand through the water.
Like in all the other sections, mix in white paint to get your sandy paint color variations.
Make Waves
Throughout the whole painting so far, I have made the same horizontal brushstroke motions. So no matter if it was the sky, water, or sand, we used the same techniques. They all look a little different based on how much the paint was blended.
Adding the waves crashing along the shore of this simple oceanscape is no different.
Once the sand is dry, use white paint on your small round and short horizontal strokes over the areas where the water meets the sand.
Then, pull some of that seafoam onto the beach in a few areas.
Paint a Palm Leaf Hut
Remember, this is a painting of our view from sitting under a hut on the beach. The palm leaf roof will be in view just at the top. Use your favorite techniques to paint palm leaves from my blog HERE.
If you are using your small round brush, just remember to use very light pressure to get those wispy ends on the fonds. I like a rake brush because it takes some of the work out of it. You just flick your wrist and change the direction slightly between strokes for an organic look.
Watch Christie Paint A Simple Oceanscape
There it is! A 20-minute simple oceanscape painting using minimal supplies! I hope you try this out, I would love to see what you create. You can post it inside my Free Facebook Page.
Stay Creative,