How to Paint Ocean Waves

Swell, acrylic by the author

Ocean waves are a powerful form of water. Painting such movement and force, water and light is never easy. Such artists as Ando Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai are famous for the way they depict waves in their art. Waves can be painted to look realistic or impressionistic but, no matter how the artist perceives and wishes to convey the waves, chances are each painting will vary. Whether you choose to paint with acrylics, oils or watercolors, there are several things you can do to improve how your wave painting turns out.

Things You'll Need

• Paints
• Paint brushes
• Pallet
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Canvas or paper

Instructions

1. Observe waves in nature. If you can't get to the beach, then study pictures and videos of waves. By studying the way waves move, why they happe,n and the forms they take, you will be better able to capture their true movement in your painting.

2. Decide what kind of wave you wish to paint. Every wave is different. They happen in the kind of giant swell that surfers crave, in long rows, in short choppy breaks, and in soft spraying rolls that crash on the beach.

3. 

   Draw the main features of the waves you wish to paint. Lightly draw with a pencil on your canvas or paper.

4. 

   Prepare your paints and brushes. Always start out with clean brushes and start mixing your main colors on your pallet. If you don't have a professional pallet, a clean piece of stiff cardboard such as the lid of a shoe box works fine. When painting waves, you will need blue and white paint as well as green, and maybe even yellow, depending on how you wish to depict the light through the water.

5. 

   Paint the horizon line and background sky first because it is much easier to paint the spray of a wave over this than to try and go around all the intricate spray marks after with the background color.

6. 

   Start painting the initial curve of your waves. In this example, acrylic paints are used and with these, lighter colored paints can always be added over darker ones later, but if you are using watercolors, start with lighter colors first.

7. Lighten the parts of the wave where light would naturally go through the water, such as in the tip and the underside of the swells bend.

8. 

   Use a smaller brush and white paint to dab marks where light would reflect off dark parts of the water and for the spray of the wave which essentially is being blown all around its edges.