“Watercolour Seascape: Paint a Luminous Ocean Step by Step”

1. Hello Summer!: There's something about the ocean in summer, the way the sunlight dances on the water, the rhythm of the waves, and that endless feeling of calm and freedom. Hello, everyone. I'm Aishwarya, a watercolor artist and an art instructor. Welcome to this tropical watercolor journey. In this class, we are going to capture that essence of summer, sunlit waves, vibrant turquoise waters, and a rugged island rising beautifully from the sea. This painting is all about movement, light, and the magic of layering colors to bring a scene to life. I'll guide you step by step through creating this expressive seascape from building a soft glowing sky to the calming blue waters to shaping the dramatic textures of the rock, and finally, adding those lively crashing waves that give the painting its energy. Along the way you learn techniques for blending, creating depth, and using contrast to make your painting feel dynamic and alive. Most importantly, this is a space to relax, explore, and enjoy the process. So grab your brushes, let go of perfection, and let's paint a little piece of summer together. 2. Art Supplies: All right, so let's take a look at the art supplies that you will need for this class. First is the paper. So I'm using the paper from the Brand Saunders Waterford, which is 100% cotton watercolour paper with a minimum thickness of 140 B. And this is a coal pressed watercolor paper. So you can go with any cotton watercolour paper, which is 100% cotton and with a minimum thickness of 140 B. All right, let's take a look at the brushes that you will need for this particular class. So for the brushes, you will need one larger sized brush. It could be a mob brush or a flat brush just to wet the entire surface of the paper. And the other basic brushes that you will need are size 12 or ten, and you will also need size six and eight and a smaller sized brush like size zero or one. All of these brushes are from the brand silver black velvet, but you can go with any brand that you have got. Finally, you will need a synthetic brush to add the foam and other final details. All right, so that's it for the brushes. Next, you will need a pencil and an eraser for adding the pencil sketch, and then you will need a masking tape to tape down the paper. You'll also need a masking fluid to mask out the Rocky Island region, and you'll also need a color palette, and the detailed list of all the colors that you will be using for this particular painting is created in a separate video, so you can watch that and prep your colors. Next, you will need two jars of water. I just have one over here, but you require two. One has to stay clean, and the other one is to remove the excess paint. You'll need a cloth, and finally, you need a backing board to fix your paper onto. Get your art supplies ready and I'll see you soon in the next section. 3. Colours: All right, so let's quickly take a look at the colors that you will need for this particular class. So the first color is, of course, one of my favorites, that is the bright blue. This is a really gorgeous blue, and I use it for all my landscape paintings where I usually paint the skies using this color. But you can go with any blue of your choice. Just make sure it is nice and bright and subtle. It's not too dark. All right. So the next color that you will need is Prussian blue. This is another favorite of mine. This is used for painting the ocean. And obviously you will need a turquoise blue as well. So this is a beautiful turquoise blue. All of these colors are from the brand white knights. Few of them are from the brand Shin hen, but you can go with any brand that you have got. There's absolutely no stress about it. All right. So the next color that you will need is, this is the cobalt green. So I have cobalt green from Shinhn. You can go with any other brand. And if you don't have this, you can mix a little bit of your blue with viridian green and create this. Next up is yellow ochre. I hope this color is present in all of the basic palettes. Again, you need not worry about this. And the next color that you will require is burnt sienna. This is basically to paint the rock. So if you don't have burnt sienna, no need to worry, you can go with brown when dice brown or any other brown from your palette. And to make it a little bit burnt in nature, you can add a little bit of your red to it. So this is how you can create colors. And I highly recommend you to swatch out the colors first before going onto your main painting. Then you'll also need raw umber so you can see, but we will go with a lighter shade. Well not go with a darker shade. I'll explain all of this when we are painting the rocks, so you need not worry about that. All right. And the last color that you will need is paints gray. This is for making the brown a little bit darker and also you'll require this in painting your see. And finally, you will need some white gauche, of course, to add the foam. If you don't have white gauche, you can go with white watercolor. Get your colors ready and let's dive straight into our painting. 4. Pencil Sketch: All right, so let us begin with our pencil sketch. So we are going to define a huge rock or an island, whatever you would like to call it right in the middle of our seascape. So first, I'm going to define a rough horizon line. So basically, we want to divide the sky and the sea portion. And as you can see that, I am not dividing the paper into exactly half because we don't want that exact proportion. So I'm keeping a lot of space for the sea. And for the sky, we would just require one fourth or three fourth of the paper. All right. So divide your paper into two sections. Make sure that you're not dividing it into exactly half. Okay, so make sure to keep the rule of perspective in the mind when you're sketching out. All right. So now I'm going to slowly sketch out the rock or the island. So I have my reference picture in front of me, and I'm just following the outline. So one important tip here is you can just wait for me to finish the entire pencil sketch, and then you can add it for yourself. In this way, you will avoid multiple erasing and you'll also protect your paper. Okay? So when I'm sketching, I may erase a multiple times because sometimes the pencil sketch does not look properly. So in order to avoid all of that, you can just wait for me to finish, and then you can pause the video, take a screenshot, and then gently and calmly, you can take your own sweet time and prepare the pencil sketch for yourself. All right. So there's nothing complicated here. It is a simple rock structure. I'm just following the outline as shown in the reference picture. And you need not follow exactly what I'm doing here, but just the outline, if you get it right, that's it, you're good to go with. Okay? So here and there, small little change is bound to happen because we are all unique and each one's painting is going to look very different at the end. And that is one of the beautiful things about each one of us. So embrace that and yeah, just have fun. Alright, so let me just go ahead and quickly sketch this, and then you can do it for yourself. Oh All right, so the pencil sketch is almost ready. So you can now pause the video, or you can even take a screenshot and prepare the pencil sketch at your own pace and I'll see you soon in the next section. 5. Painting The Sky: All right. So now you can see that I have applied masking fluid all over the island, and you can go ahead and mask out your pencil sketch. All right. So I did not make a video on that because it's a lot of time consuming. So just go ahead and apply masking fluid on the areas of the island and let it completely. And once it is dried, let us move on with our painting. Okay. So now I'm going with my mob brush, and I'm trying to wet only the sky region, so you can see I'm just gently moving my brush and trying to wet only the sky region. Right now, we are not bothered about painting the rock, and we are also not bothered about painting the water. Alright. So you can go ahead and apply the water on the entire sky region. If the water comes on the island, that's completely fine because we have applied masking fluid and we're just going to go ahead and paint around it. All right, so you can see, I'm just trying to wet my paper in a good manner so that the fibers of the paper are nicely wet and they are completely soaked in water. Since we're going to work on the wet on wet technique, it is very important to take your own sweet time and apply the water multiple number of times and when I say this, I am just saying it with all of my experience. Please take your own time to wet the paper. I know it is boring. This is the initial step, but prepping your paper is one of the important steps, and that is what is the foundation. So the foundation has to be right. Okay? So now I can see that my paper is nicely wet and I'm good to go with my painting. So let us start with the painting. So as you always know, bright blue is my favorite color for painting the skies. And again, this time for this particular painting, I'm going to go with the bright blue shade from white nights, and you can see I'm just dropping the paint onto the paper, and I'm not going with a very dark shade in the beginning. I'm just going with a lighter shade. It's not completely light. It's medium tone. Okay, so you can see how I'm going around the rock, and I'm going to create some clouds here and there. I'm going to leave some white gaps. And in case you're not able to leave some white gaps, that's completely fine. You can take a tissue paper later on and dab it to create natural clouds. All right, so yeah, it's as simple as that. We're not going to complicate the sky here. It's going to be really simple. We're going to paint subtle sky with little bit of white clouds here and there. So you can see it is so simple and so gentle. And there's no too much water. There's no too much paint. Everything is quite calm and very gentle. And it's a very relaxing class, by the way, because water, I don't know, it makes really relaxing. And just looking at the beach or the sea or the ocean in itself is so uplifting and so calming. Okay, so as we progress further, you can see that I have added another layer of the same bright blue, and this time, it's a little bit darker than the first time. So we will keep building, and we are going to paint in layers. So when you paint in layers, right, you will retain the transparency of the painting, and at the end, it's going to look natural. But at the first place, if you go with a very dark shade, it's it's going to look really muddy and it's going to look really unrealistic and very unnatural. And we do want that to happen to our painting. So we're going to work in layers. We're going to build the layers. We are going to have a lot of patients, and I mean this when I say this. Okay. So yeah. So we tend to, you know, do everything quickly, and we want instant results. But this painting is going to teach you a lot of patience, and at the end, it's all going to be worth it. Okay, so you can just see me, and then you can paint it for yourself or you can paint along with me, alright? So yeah. All right. So now that we have created the background sky, let us go ahead and create some clouds. So it's very simple. While the paper is still wet, you're going to grab your tissue and you're just going to lift off some paint from some regions of the sky, and you're not going to press the tissue too hard onto the paper. It should be very gentle feather touch and just create random shapes as though, you know, those look like a fluffy cloud. Okay. So there's no pressure or anything. If you do want to create the clouds, then it's absolutely fine. You can just go ahead with a plain sky, a clear sky. Alright. And if you want to create something new and if you want to try out something new, then you can go ahead and just create the clouds for yourself. It's totally optional. You need not follow everything as it's told in the class. Sometimes you can use your own intuition. You can add your own elements, and that's how you will be standing out from the rest of the others, and everyone's painting is going to be unique and beautiful in its own way. Alright. I'll see you soon in the next section. 6. Ocean Base Layer: Alright, so let us start by painting the sea. So before we begin the painting, we need to wet the portion of the sea because we are going to be working on the wet on wet. So just make sure that your paper is nicely wet and you do this multiple number of times because we want our paper to stay wet for a longer duration of time as we're going to work in layers and we are going to build the layers. Okay? So just make sure take your own sweet time. Go with a larger sized brush, either a mob brush or a flat brush, anything that is available with you. And just go ahead and make sure you're nicely and evenly wetting the paper. We don't want large pools of water to be present on the paper. All right. So yeah, I'll quickly go ahead and wet my paper. And meanwhile, you can also wet and prep your paper, and it's fine. Just take your own sweet time because I am going to stress on this a lot of time because the foundation has to be really right. And even if it is boring to wet the paper, you got to do this because that's the foundation. So we cannot skip that, alright. So yeah, if there is any excess amount of water that is getting collected at the edges of your paper, take a towel or a tissue paper and just wipe out that excess water. Alright, so we can start painting the sea. I'm going with my silver black velvet brush size number eight. You can go with any other size that is comfortable for you. So I'm going with serlean blue or bright blue. You can go with any light blue. Basically, the one that you use for sky, that would be a great option because the reflection of the sky is falling on the sea, and that is what we want to depict so yeah. So let us start. I am gently going ahead with a very light tonal value. It's barely visible. It's not at all dark. So since I told you in the beginning, we will be working in layers. So just make sure you're going with a very light tonal value. Okay. The blue from white nights here, that's a bright blue or any other blue, it's basically a staining color. So it's going to be like, even if you take little, it's going to look a little bit darker. So just be careful with the blue that you're using. And that's the reason I said already a lot of water in your paper. You just need to pick a little bit of blue diluted with water and just go ahead and apply this color onto the paper. And at the bottom, I have just sketched out some areas where I want to draw the foam, basically. But right now, don't focus on that because even if the foam gets covered with the water, that's absolutely fine. We can just create it later. So just go ahead and paint the entire sea region with the blue that you have got. All right, so now that you have painted the base layer on the middle, we are going to use the turquoise shade and we're going to lay this color slowly. Again, we are not going with a darker tonal value. We are first going to start with a lesser intensity of that turquoise shade. And as we progress further, we will keep on building the layers. Okay? So for now, you need not think too much. Just follow my guidelines and let's keep painting. Okay? So first, we added the base layer. You could go with bright blue or serle blue or any other light blue. And on top of that, in the middle layer, we are going to add the turquoise shade. So basically our sea or ocean is going to be a mix of all the blues. Like in the middle, we have the nice greenish blue, that is the turquoise blue. And on the edges on either side, we're going to have a deep blue. It can be either Prussian blue or ultramarine blue. It's up to you. So whichever color is present in your palette, you can go ahead and paint with that. There's absolutely no hard and fast rule. To use the same colors as I am doing here because C is all about, organic and natural. So you can take out all your blue greens from your palette. Before starting the painting, you can even mix and match and swatch the colors on a scrap piece of paper so that it becomes easier for you to understand how your C is going to look at the end. Okay. So yeah. So let's just lay down the turquoise blue. It's very random. I'm not thinking of achieving a nice clean blend at this particular moment. I'm just looking at the reference and going ahead and dropping this shade. Now to the same turquoise blue, I added a little bit of viridian hue, so to get that greenish blue because my turquoise blue is more on the bluer side. It's more on the cooler side. So I wanted to add a little bit of green to it. And whenever you are adding green, don't go with any leaf green or olive green. Make sure it is the simple dark green. Okay? Basically, Vidan hue works well, and I hope that is present in almost all the palette. Alright? So, yeah. If you don't have that green, then you can take a little bit of lemon yellow and mix it to your turquoise blue. That also works well. So as I said, just mix and match the colors and you will get it. Okay. So yeah. So this is how it is looking at the present moment, and, yeah. Now, I can see that my paper has started to dry slightly. So as I told you, even though you apply multiple layers of water, the paper will tend to dry depending upon the region you stay in depending upon how humid your area is. Okay? So it's very important to have a 300 GSM 100 person cotton paper. And despite that, the paper will tend to dry. So that is very natural. You cannot control that, but the only thing you can do is wet the paper multiple number of times and even in between your painting, just make sure that you keep watching your paper and take necessary actions. If all your paper dries completely, then just wait and reapply another coat of water. Alright. Having said that, let's move ahead. Now you can see that I have started to paint with my Prussian blue. This is also one of my favorite color, and this color is from the brand Shinn. I like the Prussian blue from their brand, but you can go with any Prussian blue you have got. If you don't have Prussian blue, you can go with ultramarine blue. If you don't even have that, go with your same light blue, add a little bit of paints gray to it to make it look a little bit darker. But usually, the dark blue is always present in the basic sets, so you need not worry about that. Now you can again see I'm going ahead. I'm placing the Prussian blue as per the reference image, and I'm just trying to create some wavy patterns. You know, there are some waves in the water, and those waves are usually in a defined manner, and they appear to be in a certain shape and all of that. But we're not going to focus on how it's going to look because waves are just natural. They just keep flowing and the shape also keeps changing, right? So we just want to get that wave like structure in our sea or in our ocean, right? So Make sure you're not going just in one direction. Try to add the waves in different directions. Try to create some slopes. So it should look like the water wave is just, you know, it's like flowing, and there are high tides. There are low tides. There are some slopes, all of that. So I hope when I'm talking, you're able to imagine how water looks like. So to make it much more simpler, even before you start this painting, I suggest to go on Pinterest and just type water waves, ocean waves or blue waves simply and you'll get hundreds of images. Just take a look at all those pictures. Don't get overwhelmed. I'm just saying just take a look at those pictures and you'll just get an idea of how the waves are, how the ocean looks like. What colors should I choose? How should be the pattern of the water, all of that. You need not copy the exact reference image. All you need to do is just understand the basic structure and then apply to your painting. Obviously, the end painting is going to look completely different because I told you, right? We are all unique. We are one of a kind, and that's the magic. So yeah. So having said that, just look at that how I'm creating the waves from the left and from the right. And you also need to keep in mind the rule of perspective. The further you go away, the waves should be very smaller and lighter, and towards the viewer, it should be darker, thicker and bolder. This should be followed. Otherwise, your painting is going to look very unnatural and we don't want that to happen. So was that are closer to you should be very darker and thicker in nature. And as you move further away towards the rock or towards the island, it should become smaller, thinner and lighter. So there are so many things to keep in mind, but don't get overwhelmed. Things will get easy as you practice. You just understand the basics and the structure and the rest, everything will follow. All right. So yeah. All right. So this is our base layer, and I'm really happy with the colors and the way it is looking. The sea is really looking soft calming. And yeah, I'll see you soon in the next section. 7. Re-Creating the Sky: All right. So now that the ocean base layer has dried, I felt like there's something missing in the sky. I did not like how those clouds turned out, and hence, I want to recreate the sky. But if you're completely happy with your sky, then you can skip this particular section. All right. So I wanted to add this particular video intentionally in the class because multiple number of times there could be situations where we make some mistakes, and we would like to correct that. Not all mistakes can be corrected, but some mistakes in watercolor can be corrected if it is in our control. All right. And this is a perfect example of that. So basically, I'm going to re vet the entire sky region very gently. I don't want any water entering into the ocean region because that is completely dried and we do want to ruin our brace layer. All I want to do is re wet the sky gently, and I want to try to hide all those clouds that we created. So to hide the clouds, I'm simply going to go ahead with my bright blue. And I'm going to go with a lighter shade. Then keep on building the layers and try to hide the white spaces that we created using the tissue. You can see with a very gentle touch, I'm just going ahead with my bright blue. It's very light, it's not dark, and I'm not forcing any type of harsh color or very dark color onto the clouds. I'm just going very slow, building the colors in layers and trying to hide the clouds. There's no rush. Just take a step back and just go step by step. This is very important because if you lay down dark colors in the beginning, you will not be able to do anything. I told you the blue is a staining color. The moment it touches the paper, it's going to remain there and you'll not be able to lift off the color. Even if you try to lift off the color, it's not going to go easily. So just go with lighter shade, and as you've progressed further, keep building it. Now you can see certain parts of the clouds have already got hidden, and yeah, we need to keep working more, picking up more blue this time, a little more darker compared to the previous. And I'm going to keep adding this. You can see that I am not creating a perfect blend. I don't want my sky to have a perfect blend. I'm just creating some strokes, and towards the edges on the left and the right, I want to create that depth by adding darker, deeper tonal value of the same bright blue. But in the center where the rock is present, I want that area to be lit. As though the sun is falling there, I want that area to be bright and shiny and nice. So I'm not going to add any color over there. The underlying color is going to work well. So on the other areas, we will keep adding the darker blue and create a nice depth. So I'm not going to have a clear sky over here. We're going to have a sky with some strokes, some shapes. Okay. So yeah. So you can see I already added certain amount of blue, and I'm slowly going to go ahead and add a little bit of blue, and we're going to create a nice depth. It's going to be very simple. There's nothing complicated. You're going to go with the same blue that you used earlier. Please note that you use the same blue and not any other blue. Otherwise, again, it's going to get ruined. Now you can see, I am creating some stroke like patterns, just pulling the paint from either edges towards the center, not exactly towards the center, but I'm stopping halfway. You can see, I'm just taking the paint inwards. From the out, I'm pulling the paint inwards. Okay? So make sure you're going with a slightly smaller sized brush. I'm going with my size number six brush because it creates beautiful strokes. Don't go with a larger sized brush because you should not have a lot of water on your brush, and you should also not have too much paint on your brush. Otherwise, everything will flow and you'll not be able to control the flow of the paint. Okay? So just go with very minimum paint and very minimum water because already the water is present on your paper. All right. So this is looking nice. I think I'm going to go with another layer of the same bright blue, and this time, it's going to be one shade darker than the previous. So we want to have that nice depth in our painting, and I'm creating those strokes. All right. Okay, so this is how the sky is looking right now. So you can see the moment we start working in layers, the underlying layers starts getting, you know, it starts looking a little bit more transparent. So that is what I was talking about. When you work in layers, the underlying layers start to shine. So that is what we want to achieve. Okay? So I'm absolutely loving the sky, and with this, you can correct the mistakes in this way and just have a little bit of patience and everything will work well at the all right. So if you have created your sky, then we'll move on to the next section. 8. Ocean Part 2 - Reflection: All right. So now that everything has dried beautifully, let us go ahead and add some reflections on the waves. So when you look at the waves, you might have observed that there are some hard edges on the waves. And if you have not observed this, I suggest you to take a look at some pictures and you will get an idea of what I'm talking about. So on the soft waves at the edges if you see, there will be some hard edges, and it will not be present all the time. But when you have certain objects, like for the example, we have the rock here, so the reflection of that is falling onto the water and we want to depict that. For this reason, I am using my synthetic brush and the technique used here is wet on the dry surface. We're not going to re wet the paper. We are just directly going to pick up some paint and apply this onto our paper. And, yeah. So this is, again, a very simple step. You need not go with a very intense tonal value. Just make sure you're going with a lighter tonal of the same color that you use to paint the middle region of the ocean. That is a mixture of turquoise blue and din hue, or if you have cobalt green, you can mix a little bit of blue with that, and you can go ahead and use that mixture to add these reflections. All right, so you can see what I'm doing is I'm just adding it to the edges of that middle portion and the excess paint, I'm trying to blend it with the existing turquoise blue and the iden hue that was already added earlier. So these are just random lines, and it's not very thick, very thin, delicate lines. There's no particular shape. I'm just following my reference picture. So I suggest you to wait for me to finish painting this completely, and then you can pause the video and then you can paint it for yourself. All right. So it's very simple, and it's just going to be on one side. And yeah, so you can just watch me. Right. So this is how it is looking at the present moment. And again, make sure that you're not going overboard. You can see how thin and delicate my strokes are. It's not at all very thick. If you just draw thick lines, then you're going to ruin the perspective of the painting. And if you're unsure about this, then I suggest to completely skip adding this particular reflection. That's completely fine. Just don't ruin the painting. Okay? Only if you're confident, just go ahead and add some thin delicate reflections. All right. So that was it for this particular section. And let us allow this to dry completely. And I will see you soon in the next section. 9. Ocean Part 3: Alright, so let us start with the second layer. So make sure that the first layer is completely dried and then start to reapply the water onto the paper. So this time, again, we will be wetting the paper multiple number of times. But this time, we will be a little bit more gentle because we don't want to disturb the underlying layer that we have already added, right. So make sure you're not scrubbing the brush onto the paper. You're just moving the brush very slowly. Just make sure that it is a feather touch and it should be very gentle because you don't want to disturb the underlying paint. All right. So again, this time, we will be working on the wet on wet technique. So we want our paper to stay wet for a longer duration of time. So the reason why we are not painting all of this in one single layer is first of all, it becomes a little bit harder if the paper starts to dry fast, and we will not be able to control that. And second, if you paint it in layers, it'll be very easy, and the underlying layers will shine out bright through top layers, and that is what we want to achieve by painting in layers. Also, when you paint in layers, as the watercolor dries, your painting does not appear to be dull because there is a lot of layers, and the colors will be very rich, and the quality will be good. Okay. So this is something new that I have discovered in painting in layers, and I really enjoy this particular technique. So do give it a try and let me know how do you feel about it. Al. So I am taking my own sweet time to wet the paper. So although I'm having a very large mob brush, you can see that I'm not disturbing the underlying layers of the colors. I'm just going very slow, very gentle and making sure that each and every portion of the paper is wet, basically the sea region. All right. So now that your paper is nicely wet, let us begin on to the painting. Okay? So this time, we're going to add a little bit more of the darker colors. So this time, I'm going to go with my Prussian blue, and I'm going to intensify the blue that we already added underneath the island or the rock. Okay? So you can see that. Again, it's not going to be very dark. We will again work in layers. So just lay down the colors, and once it dries, we will go over it again over the same places, and we will intensify the tonal value of those colors. Okay. So pick up your pression blue and start adding the waves. Now, there's one more point to keep in mind. So further away where the rock is present, we want the waves to be slightly smaller and thinner, and it should not be very thick. Otherwise, it'll go out of proportion and the rule of perspective will be lost. But as you approach closer towards the viewer, the waves should become very thick and appear to be darker. Okay, so just keep this rule in the and I'm making use of my smaller sized synthetic brush because it does not hold a lot of water. And I'm just picking up little paint, and I'm trying to create some small teeny tiny waves. This way, the water will not just spread out, the paint will not spread out, and that is the reason I'm going with a synthetic brush. Uh, what happens is the natural brush holds a lot of water, and when you try to add these smaller waves, the paint may spread, and it may create some blooms. So we don't want that to happen. So it's very good to have a synthetic brush handy, and you can just keep adding these teeny, tiny waves. But as you approach towards the bottom, you can switch on to your natural hair brush, and you can go with even a larger sized brush to add thicker and bigger waves. This way, you will cover the entire portion of the paper in a very small time and it'll allow you to have an extra time painting wet on wet. Okay. So there are a lot many things to keep in mind, but all of these things will come only when you put this into practice. So practice is what makes everything beautiful. So just have a little bit of patience and keep practicing. Right now, if you don't feel like painting, you can just watch this class as a part of learning and as a part of gaining knowledge. And once you're comfortable, you can just start with your own painting. And even before you start, you can practice these waves, try to paint wet on wet waves on a scrap piece of paper, use different color tones, mix different blues and see how it turns out, and then you can create your own palette for your ocean and use that in your next painting. All right. So now the technique is going to remain the same. Synthetic brush for adding the smaller teeny tiny waves closer to the rocks and natural hair brush for adding the larger waves closer towards the viewer. All right, so I'll keep adding them. You can just watch or paint along with me. All right, so let us continue. So in the middle, you can see that it's a mix of turquoise blue and veriden hue. But if you have cobalt green, you can directly go with that, but I suggest to mix a little bit of blue because we want to blend it with the blue on the either side. So now you can see at the bottom of the rock, I want to add the shadow of the rock. So these are the small little things that will make your painting look really natural and realistic. And this also kind of gives a three D effect to your painting. So as soon as you add the shadow, you can see how the perspective of the painting has changed. Right now, you may not be able to make this out, but once the entire painting is finished, you will have the dots getting connected, right. So let us keep adding that. And again, while adding the shadow, just don't go with a very dark tone in the first place. Lay out the base color first, and then you can intensify the colors in layers. Okay? So this whole painting is about painting in layers, building a lot of patients, and the end result is going to be just phenomenal, right. So again, I am not having too much of water on my brush. There's very little paint, almost semi dry because we don't want the paper to, you know, just bleed and the paint should not just flow here and there. It should be in absolute control. And yeah, so just make sure that you're not having too much of water. Okay? And this comes with a lot of practice. So there's no need to worry. It's really simple. There's nothing complicated. First, when I started painting waves, it was really overwhelming for me. That's because there was lack of practice. I would not practice enough and I would directly jump onto painting my main reference photo. And that's where I failed multiple number of times. And for the sake of this class, I practiced a lot even before starting to shoot the class. So that's what I would like to say, please practice, and then you can see yourself flourishing. Again, if you are interested, you can go ahead and add some teeny tiny waves. Make sure you're not adding too much and don't make it very crowded. Okay, so it should be very nice, gentle, smooth waves, and the waves should be very irregular and of different shapes and sizes. Don't go with one particular shape or one particular direction. That's going to make your painting look very flat, right. So yeah. All right, so now you can see how we have laid the waves. And once these waves are laid down, you can go ahead and slightly intensify the color tonal value of these waves. So you can go with a darker shade of the Prussian blue and now go over these waves again and intensify those waves. So you can it creates such a beautiful depth, basically at the bottom and towards the edges, we are going to have a darker tonal value of this Prussian blue and onto the center when we approach the center, the color gets lighter. Make sure you maintain this depth because it's very important and it creates a nice realistic effect of the waves. Basically, it gives a nice three dimensional effect to your waves. Okay so it's very simple. There's no particular shape for a wave. Once you practice, your hand muscles get adjusted to it and you'll be able to just freely add or paint these waves. Okay. So make sure you're not going overboard. Don't add too much of these. Even if the waves are very little or, you know, medium to very little, it's more than enough. Just make sure you're not adding too much and making it really overcrowded. All right. So you can see it's looking very beautiful at this moment, and I'm hoping that you are enjoying the process. Enjoying the process is much more important than the end result. So make sure you're having fun and you're happy while painting. All right, so I'm just going to quickly go ahead and add a little bit of waves. But if you're already satisfied with your painting, then you can stop at this particular point and allow your painting to dry completely. And yeah, I'll be seeing you soon in the next section. Make sure your painting dries completely before we move ahead. Alright? So, yeah. 10. Foam - Part 1: All right. So now that everything is beautifully dry, it's time to add some foam, and this is my favorite part. So remember in the beginning of the video, I told you I had left some space for adding the foam. I usually wanted to capture the foam from the paper white, but that didn't happen because of the wet on wet technique. But nevertheless, when we have white gouache, which is our biggest savior, everything becomes very easy. So if you don't have white gouache, that's completely fine. You can use your white watercolor, but make sure you're not adding too much water. Otherwise, it may get diluted and it'll become very transparent. Alright, so white gouache works much better since it is opaque and it gives a nice white finish to your painting. All right. So now what you have to do is you have to create some foam and make sure you're having a nice synthetic brush. Even if it is old, it's very good because the old brush gives you a nice dry brush technique, and that's very useful. So pick up any synthetic brush you have got, and you can see the hand moment. I'm just picking up some dry opaque white gouache from my the palette and I'm just dabbing it onto the paper. I'm not just pressing the tip of the brush. I'm just making some dotted patterns on my paper. So make sure you add it in the form of foam. So you might have seen the water splashing onto the rock or whenever the waves are very huge and they are just about to hit the shore, you might have seen that white foam, right? So we want to create those white splashes the foam, and that is what we are trying to achieve here. It's very simple. There's no particular rule or technique or any shape. It's going to be completely organic. Just follow the structure the way I'm doing it, and then you can follow it and paint it for yourself. I'm just adding the foam based on the reference picture. So the foam is right in the middle and yeah, that's what we are trying to create. You can see I'm picking up some good amount of opaque white gouache. And before I apply it onto my paper, I'm just removing the excess from my brush with the help of a tissue so that, you know, there's no too much paint on my brush. Okay. So also make sure when you're picking up the paint, don't dip your entire brush into the paint. Just the tip is what we want, and that will give you a nice dry brush technique and make sure your brush is not wet. It has to be dry, okay? Otherwise, it's going to blend with the underlying watercolor that you have already added, and we don't want that mess to happen. Alright, so I'll just keep creating it and you can watch it or you can even paint along with me. All right. So the next step is to create some lines or the foamy waves onto our ocean. You might have seen amidst the water, some foam gets collected, and that is what we are trying to create. So it's good to have a nice thin, delicate brush, and if you have a rigor brush, it's even more useful. But if you don't have one, that's completely fine. You can use your size number zero or size number one brush. Just make sure it has a nice fine so you can see, I'm just adding these foamy patterns onto the ocean, and it's again, very thin and delicate. I'm not just picking up dark amount of that white gouache and I'm not creating thick lines. It's very delicate, it's very thin. All you have to do is just hold your brush at an angle and make sure you're holding it very far away from the brush. And that is when you can move your hand freely and create these smooth wavy patterns. All right. Again, it's not going to be very similar for everyone. Everyone's patterns of the waves are going to look completely different, and that is what we want. You cannot copy these foams, okay. Make sure it's completely organic and thin and delicate. So just keep adding this. Again, do not go overboard, do not add too many, and don't make it look overcrowded. It has to look very natural and realistic. All right, so you can see it's already looking so beautiful. I'm just going to go ahead and add few wavy lines onto the top, as well. So it's completely up to you where you want to add it. And mostly I want to focus this on the center, starting from the center, moving downwards. And, yeah, that's it. So I'm not going to add too much on the top, so you can see just creating some foamy patterns again. Again, my brush is really dry. There's no water at all. Only when you have a dry brush, you will be able to achieve this dry brush pattern. Otherwise, it's not going to be a dry brush, and it's going to the white paint is going to mix with your underlying blues and greens, and we don't want that to happen. So you can see, again, I'm adding some more foamy lines onto my. And it's very random, very thin, very delicate. I'm repeating this again and again so that you do not make a mistake of adding thick bold lines because once you do, you'll not be able to correct it because gouache is an opaque color and even if you're using white watercolor, it's going to be very difficult to correct that mistake. That's the reason I'm repeating these things again and again. You can see it's so delicate just by looking at the painting, I am feeling so much more calmer and I'm feeling so much better in my mind. So sometimes these small little things like painting or taking a walk in the nature, just listening to music, or even cooking a meal for yourself, all of these have a deep impact on our mind, and they just help us release any kind of stress or any kind of tension that may be present in our mind. So it's very important to take out some time for yourself every day and just connect with yourself. And yeah, so that is what I wanted to share through this class and through this painting. And as you're painting along with me, as you're listening to me or as you're watching this, I really hope that you're able to smile more today. You're able to find some peace and joy with the little things in your life. Alright, so I think we have added enough of these wavy foamy patterns, and I think I would like to add a few more onto the middle. But if you're already happy and satisfied with your painting, then you can stop completely at this particular point. All right, so let us allow to dry completely, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 11. Foam - Part 2: All right, so now let us add some foam onto the bottom layer of the rock or the island. So you might have seen wherever there is an island or a rocky structure, the water always gets collected over there, and there's always a splash of water, and because of that, the foam gets created over there. So let us try to add that and try to make this painting look a little bit more interesting. Right. So all you have to do is again, take your smaller sized round brush and pick up your white gouache or white watercolor. Again, you have to go with a very dry paint and make sure there's no too much water. If you have a dry paint, that will give a nice texture, and you can create beautiful textures on the paper using the dry paint. If at all, you feel like your paint is not very much dry, then dab the excess amount of water onto the tissue paper before painting it onto your paper. All right. So it's very simple. All you have to do is just follow the line, the pencil sketch or the masking fluid line that you are able to see on your paper, and using that as the guideline, just lay this foam onto the rock. So you need not add it in very thick layers. It has to be very thin and organic. And at this point, if you're not able to do it, that's completely fine. After you take off the masking fluid and after you have painted the rock, you can also do it at that moment. But I felt like this will be a lot more easier, and we can go step by step. All right. So you can just watch me painting it and you can also paint it side by side. All right. So this is how the foam is looking at the moment. If we want to do any corrections, we can do it in the later stages of the painting. All right. So if you're already satisfied with how this is looking, let us allow this to dry and I'll see you soon in the next section. 12. Rocky Island - Part 1: M All right, so we are on to the last part of our painting. Now it's finally the time to paint the rocky island, and this was my favorite part of the overall painting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed painting the entire one, but yeah adding the textures on the rock was really therapeutic for me. All right. So for painting the rock, it looks like it is intimidating, but it is not. It's very simple. So let us get started. So like always, start wetting the surface or the base of the rock with a clean brush and clean water. Ensure that there's no blue paint. If at all, you are using the same brush for painting the rock that you used earlier for painting the water, then make sure the brush is nicely cleaned and there should not be any tinge of blue. Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult, and we don't want any stains. So yeah. So let us go with a nice pointed brush, and we will generously apply water gently only onto the surface of the rock. Okay? So we are not going to disturb the sky and we are not even going to touch the sea. At this point, I know the excitement level will be very high, and we want to avoid we don't want to have any accidents in our painting. All right, so yeah. Okay, so let us start with yellow ochre first. This is a kind of yellow and a brown shade, and this is another basic color that is present in all the palette. And if you don't have this does not matter. You can take a little bit of yellow and mix a little bit of brown and you can create this shade. It's going to be very light, so you can see I'm having a lot of water on my paper already, and I'm going with a very light tonal value of this yellow ochre shade. So always when you're painting some subjects like rocks or any other main subjects of your painting, never go with a direct a dark tonal value. This will not give a realistic look. Your painting is going to look really flat and it's not going to pop out. What I mean is it's not going to give that three D effect to your painting. So always start with base layers, and we will gradually keep building. So this painting was all about learning how to add the I mean, learning how to paint in layers, basically. All right, so yeah. So now you can see slowly I'm starting to intensify the colors, and that is how we are going to work, and that is the key, actually. All right, so be very careful because we do not want any paint to be touching the already dried areas of the painting. Otherwise, it's going to leave a mark, and that's not going to look good, and you cannot correct it later. Alright. So having said that, I'm going with another layer of this yellow ochre, and I'm trying to add that. So as I can see in the reference images, there's a lighter part to the rock and there's a darker area that is the shadow area of the rock. This is because there's a light source, and wherever the light source is hitting the rock, that area is going to be light and the shadow is going to be dark. All right. So you need not worry about all of those things. Once I explain everything, it'll be clear for you, and then you can paint it for yourself. So I'm just making that partition between the light and the dark area. It's somewhere in the center, not exactly center, but yeah, you can have this crooked line which is separating the rock. All right. So now the next color that I'm picking up is burn sienna. This is a very good color for painting the rocky structures or any other island. It's a very good shade. If you don't have burned sienna, that's fine. You can go with brown and you can add a little bit of your crimson or red to it to make it a little bit burnt in nature. So always, you need not worry. Whatever colors you have with the basic colors, you can actually mix and create new colors. And yeah, there's absolutely no need to stress about anything, okay? So just go with any shade of brown you have, add a little bit of red, and you will be able to achieve this color. Okay. Just make sure you try it on a scrap piece of paper. And then if you feel that the color is right, you can create that mixture and use it for your painting. Now you can see I'm starting to add this light layer of this burned sienna, and I'm also using my normal brown Vendik brown. So if you don't have this burn sienna, you can go with Vendik brown as well. So just make sure that you just try to have different shades, mix and match and try it out. All right. So from here on the process is going to be simple and it's not that complicated. Whenever you feel like your paper is drying, just make sure you wait for some time for the entire painting to dry, and then you re wet the surface again and you can start painting with the same process. All right. So first, let us paint the left hand side of the rock, and then we will paint the right hand side in the next section. All right. That way, it'll be very easy for you to follow, and you'll get enough break in between. Okay. So now you can see, there's no too much water on my brush. Again, I'm picking the same burnt sienna and I'm trying to make some adjustments, some darker tonal values, and I'm constantly looking at my reference image, and I'm trying to create those structures and lay the colors as they are. And you need not always exactly be precise. Just the reference image is just for your reference, and you can just modify it and use it whenever and however you want. All right. So at this point, the rock may be looking a little bit messy, but like I always say, trust the process and everything will be beautiful once the painting is dried. Okay? So see at this moment, everything is light. So even if you are committing any mistake over here, there's room to cover up that because the colors are really light. But if it is darker in the first place, then it's very difficult to correct those mistakes. And that is why I say start light and then gradually you can build it. Alright, so now I'm identifying the darker areas of the shadow, and I'm trying to add a darker intensity of this burned CNA shade. So towards the edges, I want it to be more defined. The rock has to be a little bit more defined. So I'm trying to create that. And while I do that, I'm also pulling the paint inwards, and I'm trying to blend it with the rest of the color that is already added earlier. So again, I'm not going with a very dry paint, and I'm not even going with a very wet paint. It is in middle and the paper is already wet. The water is there on my paper, and I know that. So you need to gauge your paper, you need to judge, and based on that, you need to take the decisions and paint accordingly. All right. And all of this comes with a lot of practice. So practice is the only key. Now you can see how I'm able to create those structures. As you can see, the paint is not very dry. And it is not even getting blending well with my rest of the underlying colors. Okay? So go with a very light tonal value first. And then if you feel like it is too light, pick up more paint and keep adding the textures. So now you can see at this point the rock is a little bit getting defined and it's taking its shape. So give it some time and slowly it will take its shape. Alright. So yeah, just keep watching and yeah. All right, so this is how the base layer of the rock is looking. So you can already see there's a lighter area and there's a darker area where we have defined the edge of the rock. Now let us start intensifying and let us add some depth to the rock. So using the same brown mixture again, I'm just going over it again. And this time again, I'm not going with a darker tonal value. I'm again, starting with a very light to and I'm trying to create the transparency between the layers. And towards the bottom edge, the lift, bottom edge of the rock, we want to create a nice depth. So I'm adding a little bit more intense shade of this particular brown and trying to create a nice deeper tone over there. Okay? So this is how you need to paint. You should not go straight away with one color and with one tonal value for the entire rock. Then that's going to look very flat, and that's not what we want to achieve through this painting. We want to add a lot of layers, lot of textures. Lot of colors, and finally, your painting is going to look realistic. All right. So now you can see that deep brown only towards the edge is making that rock look even more better, and it is allowing it to stand out from the rest of the painting. Okay? And that is what we want to achieve. So please make use of a nice synthetic brush, and now we are going to create some nice texture onto this. So you can see I'm picking up some nice dry paint from my palette, and I'm trying to create some textures towards the edge of the rock. So I'm applying a layer of the paint and trying to pull that paint towards the inward, where there's already paint. So you can see I am just painting a thick layer, not very thick, just very subtle amount. And I'm trying to create some patterns, some structures, some lines, some dry brush patterns. Okay. So you can just create texture in whatever way you want to. I have seen some people making use of credit cards or ATM cards to create these structures and you can go with absolutely any method of your choice. There's no restriction on that. Okay? And learning happens in different ways, and we should not restrict ourselves to one particular technique or one particular video or a method. Okay, and allow yourself to explore fully. And yeah, that's how we keep growing and we keep learning. Okay, so this is how it's looking at the present moment, and I feel if you want, you can go ahead and add a little more textures, but please don't go overboard and make it look too much overcrowded. We do want that. Okay? So less is more, and keep that in mind. And yeah, so this is how it's looking, and I'm really happy with those textures. Process was really highly meditative. I was completely drowned while I was adding these textures, and yeah, I'm really happy with this. Now, we will allow this to dry, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 13. Rocky Island - Part 2: All right, so let us paint the second half of the rocky island. Again, we are going to start with a base layer, again, going with the same yellow ochre and burn Siena mixture for the base layer. So this time, again, we are going with a very light intensity of the color, and it is going to be the same process. But for the sake of explanation, I'm going to be doing it again so that you will not have any difficulty while painting. Okay, so again, we are just trying to create that base layer. And once this is done, we will keep on building the layers of the colors, and then we will finally add the textures onto the rock. Okay? So if you feel like your paper is drying, then you can just go ahead and re wet the entire region of the rock that you are going to paint. So it's going to be the same process like I mentioned. And now I'm trying to add the base layer using the burnt sienna and the yellow ochre mixture. And towards the right side, I'm just going to add a darker shade of the burnt sienna, so you can see there is a part or portion of the rock that is a little bit darker, and I'm trying to add that. So it's very important to study the reference picture thoroughly before you start any painting, and that will give you a clear guideline or a map or a layout before you start painting. So now you can see the edges of the rock, again, have to be a little bit darker compared to the middle portion of the rock. This kind of creates a nice depth to the painting, like we did onto the earlier edge of the rock, that is towards the left. Also, we added a lot of color in the previous section. And for this also, we will be doing the same. Okay, so now you can see how there's a clear partition between the shadow area and the lighter area of the rock. Okay? So now towards the edge, that is the bottom of the rock, we are going to have some definitions. So I'm going to add some darker layer of the burnt sienna. And you can go with ndike brown also because we want to have that dark brown. And if you want to create a darker shade of brown, you can also add a little bit of paints gray to your brown and make it a little more defined. Alright, so now you can see I'm trying to blend that dark layer of the color with the underlying base layer so that it should not look that these two colors are separated. I want a nice blend between these two, and that is what is going to make your painting look more realistic. And here I'm trying to create some rock partitions using the texture method. So you can see instantly I added few lines, and now it's looking as though there are multiple stones or rocks present over there. Okay? So it's up to you. Like I said, you need to study the reference image where you want to place which material, and based on that, you have to follow your intuition and then just get going with that. All right. So now that we have added the base, I think now it's time to add more layers and textures. So starting with burnt sienna, this time, the tonal value has to be slightly darker compared to the previous one. And I'm just adding the lines and some different kind of shapes while the paper is still wet. Okay. So make sure it's slightly wet and not too dry because if your paper is too dry, it's going to create some harsh edges. And at this point, we don't want any harsh edges. The base has to be a little bit soft and the textures on the top have to be dry and kind of more defined. Okay. So you can just keep watching and the process is going to remain the same, and you can paint along with me. All right, so let us add some depth to the rock by making the edges a little bit more defined and darker. So you can see on the edges that is towards the tip of the rock and towards the bottom, I am trying to intensify by using a darker tonal value of the same burnt sienna and the yellow ochre mixture. This kind of creates a nice definition to the rock. Just imagine if we would have painted the entire rock with a single shade and with the same intensity. I would have looked really flat, isn't it? So it's very important to create different tonal values, different intensities, different shades of the same color, and that is what makes your painting look more lively and more natural. Okay? So now we'll intensify a bit more, and you can see I'm trying to create some dry patterns and dry textures onto the partition that I had created earlier. Okay? So it's very subtle and it's not too much. So don't go with a very darker tonal value in the first place. I know I'm repeating the same words again and again, but it is very important for you to follow this because otherwise, you're not going to able to achieve that texture and that realistic look and feel to your painting. It's these subtle and small details that make your painting stand out. Okay? So now at this point, I'm really loving how the painting is taking its shape. The rock is really popping out and it is instantly looking very beautiful, and it's giving a nice three D effect. Overall, I am loving the process and I'm really enjoying, and I hope you are enjoying along with me. Okay, so having said that, let us add some patterns and some textures, and this is my favorite part. You can just grab a cup of coffee, play music if you want a soothing music. Once you know the technique right, you can just pause the video and you can just paint it for yourself in the way you want to. There's no need to even look at the video. Okay, whenever you're adding the textures because once you get the one side of the rock right, the other side becomes a lot more easier because you have already practiced painting the first part. All right. So having said that, I think I'm not going to talk much on this particular process. Let us just keep enjoying and you can just paint along with me or just watch. D. All right. So we have finally finished painting the rock, and I think it's finally the time to call it done. I know we never get enough. We never get satisfied, you know? Like, we still feel like there's something left. We need to add a little bit more. But I always say less is more. And yeah, I'm just going to put my brush down and call it done, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 14. Final Details: All right, so now let us add the last bit that is the final details. So I'm just going over the foam that we added earlier at the bottom or the base of the rocky island. So if at all you feel like that has been faded and if you want to add slightly more details, then you can do that at this particular moment. Okay? So I'm again going back with my synthetic brush and I'm picking up some white gouache, and I'm trying to intensify these foams that we added earlier. Okay? This is just to, you know, make the rock look a little bit more realistic and pop out, nothing else. So if at all, you're already satisfied with how your painting has already turned out, then you can completely skip this particular step. All right. And yeah, don't just overdo or don't add thick patches of the foam. It's not going to look natural. Just keep it minimal and beautiful. Alright, so this is how it is looking at the present moment. I'm just going to quickly go ahead and add a few more. A All right. So that was it for adding the foam at the bottom of the rock, and I'm quickly going to go ahead and add few lines using the white guash and the dry brush technique onto the ocean, as well. So this is very optional and additional detail that I am adding. This is not there in the reference. I just thought it would look good and enhance my painting, and that's why I'm doing this. And it is very subtle and delicate and thin. I'm not going with thick bold lines. Alright. So that was it for the final details, and I am very excited to reveal the final painting in the next section and I'll see you there. 15. Thank You!: All right. So we have made it till the end. So just take a look at your own painting and just take some time to appreciate it. Just take a look at that blue sky, look at those gorgeous textures on the rocky island. And finally, look at those peaceful calming waves. Isn't it gorgeous, magical and beautiful? You can just describe it the way you want to. And I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed painting throughout this class, and I hope you enjoyed along with me. Having said that, I would be even more happier to see your gorgeous creations in the class project section. So please do create your beautiful creations and post it there. And if you want to post it on Instagram, then please tag me using my Instagram handles so that I would be able to share it with others on the platform. Having said that, this class was a magical experience for me, and I hope I was able to deliver the same to you all. All right, so that is it for this particular class, and I would be working on my new class and sharing the updates with you soon until then stay happy, stay creative.