Loose Acrylic Beach Painting - Simple Ocean Painting

1. Introduction: Hey, everyone. My name is Alivia, and I'm an artist here in San Jose, California. Welcome to my painting class where I will be showing you how to paint the Sluice Acrylic Beach painting. I'm going to walk you through the materials and how to prep your paper beforehand. We'll show you some warm up color study exercises that are super helpful, and then we'll walk you through painting the Sluice contemporary Beach painting. I will also be adding a class project at the very end, which I cannot wait to see what you guys come up with. So let's dive fit into painting. 2. Materials: All of the materials are linked in the description. You'll need paper table, bowl for water, this tape. As far as brushes, I I just mainly used flat brushes. A flat brush will work, a large medium and a small. Then I also used a palette knife, but that's optional, but if you have what that would be nice to use. For the paper, I used Strathmore acrylic paper, which I cut down to a five by seven. I use a palette a glass palette, and also it comes with this little scraper super easy to clean. These are all the paints that I've used. They are linked below. You use whatever paints you have available. I also use Gesso bright white acrylic primer. This is used to primer canvas beforehand. Okay. 3. Color Study Exercise: All right. Before we begin, I wanted to explore some color study exercises in order to get some more inaction and clarity as to what our final project will look like. I'm going to walk you through my thinking process and raw experimentation, and you will see how I change my draft to a second one that I will use instead. For this first, I sketched out the bed scape horizontally, but in the end, I wasn't too happy with the composition. I felt like it was a little too boxed up and evenly spaced. By doing these quick loose sketches beforehand, will not only guide you with what colors to use, but also will help you with your composition. Since I didn't use this draft, I'm going to speed this up a little bit, and I will jump to the second draft that I actually ended up using for today's class project. I would actually highly recommend you into making multiple drafts like this, even if you really like the first one, this will just allow you to push your limits a bit more and try new things. Okay. So for this exercise, I wanted to try sketching this vertically to allow me more room to play with the ocean. The first line is the horizon line, followed by two waves that I wanted to put in the center and then the sand hitting the shore at the bottom. So you I'm using sky blue with a bit of pink and a lot of white with each of them for the sky. For the horizon line, I went with Persian blue and lots of white added to it below it. A. I wanted a gradient from blue to light purple, so I'm adding a bit of violet with again, lots of white at the base of the ocean. For the sandy section, I went with Mars orange and Naples yellow at the bottom, again with white tints mixed in it. I'm using our Tesclic pins here, which I have lanked below if you're interested in checking out, but use whatever pins you have available. I know some of these names may seem strange to you, but you can substitute Mars orange for maybe a burned sienna or Naples yellow for a peach color. Um, these are just fancy names, but they are standard colors that are available in different names for different brands. So if you're ever confused on exactly what color to use, feel free to ask me in the discussion below and I will do my best to help you out. For the waves, I went with olive green for the base with white for the foam and a bit of Thalo green with white for highlights. Remember to always use white and black to make things lighter or deeper in color and contrast. I'm just loosely adding some white directly for the foam of the wave to complete my warm up draft. Here I'm making just quick notes as to what colors are used and in what sections. With all honesty, this truly truly helps and makes your painting process so much easier. It really does take out the guessing game as to what color will look good together because if you do this, then you've already tried your mini sample. Like I said, this also greatly helps with composition. So you almost have a quick mini version of your final piece. Lick Quick just wanted to show you how my final painting turned out after my mini draft warm up. As you can see the colors are very similar, and so is the composition. Doing this warm up exercise truly made the painting process so much easier, and it served a really good guide. Okay. 4. More Examples Of Color Studies: I just came across these mini warm ups from previous paintings that I've done in the past. The originals have been sold, so I really cannot show you how these turned out, but you can still get an idea of how I play with composition and I just test out different mid tones and values and just how the reds look against the blue and the background and so forth. Here we have some more This one right here actually, I do have the original. I'm working on a new collection at the moment. As you let me zoom out a little bit, so you can see, there we go. As you can see this one right here, I quickly sketched it out and just to see and you can compare the backgrounds and all of this looks exactly like how I envisioned it. So it can really help to put things in perspective. I also did this little guy. You see this sketch. That was a little mini warm ups just to see how the colors look against each other and these are all the colors that I have used in this painting. I hope you guys can see, I think you can. Okay. Um, so these are all the colors that I've used in this painting. And I also made little notes like I wanted 60% to be my greens and my secondary color to be like these little neutrals. But yeah, so it's a really good little exercise to do before you begin your painting sessions. I do have a last one to show you. So this is the swatches. And then I did a little quick study of how my landscape would turn out. But yeah, no matter where you are on your Jenney, whether you are a beginner or an intermediate or advanced painter, I still think these can be super handy and useful on a regular basis. Just get into a habit of doing this because it can really improve your skills, I think, and it can help to just simplify the process. 5. Prep Paper: To begin, I am prepping the paper down with Gesso, which is basically a primer and it just preps your canvas before painting. You can choose to thin this down slightly if you would like, or just use it directly off the tub, which I prefer. Then maybe dab your brush once or twice in the water to make it spread better. One or two even coats should be enough, and once you're done with this step, we will move on to the taping section. A little disclaimer before you tape down your paper, make sure to not have skipped the four step and just slow your paper down first, and then allow that to completely dry and then tape it down. Prepping your canvas before hand will reduce the risks of any tears or bleeds once you take off the tape. Okay. 6. Painting Process 1 - First Layer: Before we begin, I wanted to sketch out very briefly how waves work and what you can expect from today's painting. I have broken it down to the most easiest way possible. Of course, it is a lot more complicated than this if we go in depth. But since this is a loose interpretation, this is all you need to know for today's class. Usually in waves, we have multiple dips of wave, some small, some big, which is the white foam section. Then right around it, we will have some darker values. In between each wave fold, you will have a lighter value. You will see me applying this method in today's painting. As long as you keep in mind of having darker and lighter values, you will give an impression of waves, which is exactly what we're looking for, and what the style of today's painting is, which is a loose beach painting. If you've come back from my previous lesson on the mini warm ups, you will find that this project is a lot more easy to understand, especially color wise. I'm going to keep glancing over my draft and use that to paint this beach painting. Here starting with the son, I am just making a line 2 " from above. The paper size that I'm using is five by 7 ". I'm just going to roughly just draw out my waves just for placement purposes, although it will be painted over. So a little line for me to remember or just to kind of guide me as to what I need to do. Let's begin with the sky first. So I'm using sky blue pink and white. Use any flat brush that you have and make large strokes to cover the sky. Leave the bottom bit to add your light pink to it. Don't forget to likely merge the two colors in between. I'm now switching to a smaller flat brush to start with the horizon line. I'm using Persian blue directly to make a thin line by the horizon, and then I'm going to add some white to it to cover the second half of the ocean base. A I wanted the ocean to have a gradient from dark blue to light blue to light purple. Here I'm using a purple with white to add to the base of the ocean. Remember, these are just base layers. We will be building up slowly as you move along, but this just helps to break down our shapes better. For the sand, I'm using Mars orange at the top and Naples yellow, which is more of like a peachy color for the base and mixing them two together in between. B. And pulling in some of that color into the ocean as well. Just a few marks. 7. Painting Process 2 - Waves & Ocean: This is a loose contemporary impression beach paintings. We're not looking for details, but simply an impression of waves here. I'm going to start with drawing a line across for the base of the waves, using olive green. Doesn't have to be straight lines, it can be slightly wavy and crooked. Using olive green with white, I'm going to paint one more line beneath it. Keep them loose and quick and feel free to make your strokes bold, Sotain sections can be a lot more thicker while certain lines can be th. I'm using Thalo green and a smaller flat brush this time to define the waves a bit more. Mix in green white and olive green and add some tiny strokes to the waves in just a few places. This will give a variety of color and add some low lights to your waves. I wanted to bring some of the color to the sky down to the ocean as well to tie the piece better. So I'm using some sky blue and white and adding some brush marks to the center part of the ocean and just a few at the bottom. Now, taking some white directly, I'm going to add some of the foamy bits of the wave. Using the flat tip of the brush, makes some small thin strokes going across. For the bigger sections, use the side of the brush or the belly to get larger strokes. Another great tip is to hold your brush from the back and avoid holding it like you would a pencil. This forces you to keep your brush marks loose and organic rather than painting in too much detail. Here's a close up of the second wave. So think short, quick, bold strokes when making a loose style painting. Notice how I am using the brush from different angles to make the wave appear to be splashing upwards. Using the tip of the brush again to create tiny small strokes. I just wanted to pull up an ocean pick so that it can help you understand what waves look like. Again, feel free to look at your own pic reference for inspiration. I did not look at this image while painting, but I found it later on that looked like a little similar to what I created, so I figured this may help you put things in perspective. Usually, under the white foam, you will have a darker greenish color underneath it. Along with some more of some light green bits as well. For the sections, I'm using olive green and a tiny bit of if you would like. Then for the lighter sections, I'm using tail green and white. Again, this is a loose interpretation of waves, so you don't have to be perfect. You just need enough of an impression of waves by giving it enough value with your darks and lights, if that makes sense. I'm just going over the white sections again to bring it out a bit more and increase the intensity of the color. Using some white and a tiny smudge of sky blue, I'm adding just little strokes to this in between the waves to add some reflection. Add some woo cool strokes as well every now and then to create some nice movement to the ocean along with some reflection. This also adds a variety of brush marks, and, you know, it breaks up the predominant horizontal brush marks the painting already has. I'm adding some final details here by bringing out some of the darks and lights. I'm also adding a bit of that peachy color from the ocean and some olive green to the to add a tiny touch of that sand to the ocean and to bring in some warmth. 8. Final Details: All right. So now let's come back to the sand portion here. I'm taking some purple and green and adding very loose marks to the beach. I'm going to keep this whole section breezy and light with quick brush marks while keeping in mind to add a variety of brush strokes and color. Just to demonstrate different kinds of texture you can get. I'm using a palette knife here to top off the waves one final time. This is totally optional, but it's nice to just know. Using a small to medium sized palette knife, I'm using the front of the knife and the side of the knife to experiment with different textures here. Once you dab in your knife to the paint directly, you will just simply likely apply it and layer it on while changing directions of the knife. I like using the side of the knife to get really tiny, far away waves like this. I did want to reflect some of the pink from the sky to the ocean. So I'm using a bit of that with a white to add to the corner to the right corner. 9. Project Reveal & Thoughts: And there we go. We are all done. Now, let's remove the tape, the part that we have all been waiting for, and let's see what our final project looks like. A quick and simple hack, if you've got paint that bled through your tape, applying Gesso directly to that area, we'll fix it. Now, if you don't have Gesso, you can apply acrylic white paint. But the color may be a bit too white for your paper, so I prefer Jesso. Hope you all enjoy today's loose Acrylic beach painting. Like always, I would love to see your projects down below. I truly enjoy seeing them all. Ask me any questions and the discussion time below, if you have any, feel free to pull up any picks of beach like beach scapes, if that is useful to you while painting. Follow this class up with a watercolor ocean painting. I have linked it below, and for more acrylic beach paintings, hop on over to my YouTube channel where you can find a walk more. We'll see you all in my next class. Happy painting. Once again, thank you so much for watching and for completing your class. Well done. I'll catch you guys next time.