Tutorials for Seascape Painting
Seascapes, or marine, paintings date back at least to decorative wall murals from ancient Rome. The genre continued to develop through the Middle Ages, then became popular during the Renaissance. Illuminated manuscripts often contained painted miniature seascapes. Many 16th century Dutch Golden Age painters produced realistic seascape paintings. The tradition reached another peak with the American naturalist and French Impressionist painters of the 19th century.
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Observation
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Your level of skill in drawing and painting is determined by your level of observation. Go to an ocean beach, or the shore of an inland sea or lake and closely observe the landscape. Look at the structure and rhythm of the waves. Notice the relationships between the elements of the water, beach, sky and surrounding landforms. Look for compositions suggested by the scene and draw the designs in a sketchbook. Take pictures for references. Make thumbnail sketches of details such as trees, shells and rocks.
Watercolors
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Draw a seascape composition on watercolor paper. Use smooth hot-pressed watercolor paper for highly detailed work with lots of fine detail. Choose cold-pressed or rough paper for looser styles. Lay in the initial light-toned washes of the sky and sea with a large brush. Block in the basic forms. Use tonally graded washes to suggest depth. Define the waves with darker, saturated brushstrokes. Paint in the trees, mountains, and beach. Add rocks and people for visual interest.
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Acrylic
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Prime a stretched canvas with acrylic gesso. Sand the gesso smooth. Mix water with acrylic paint to lay down thin background washes of color. Observe and match the local colors of the beach sand, foliage, mountains, cliffs or bluffs by the seaside. Build up patches and layers of color to suggest how the water reflects the sky. Add some boats as focal points. Paint in some wavy reflections of palm trees in a tropical scene.
Oil
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Draw a seascape composition on a gessoed and sanded stretched canvas. Block in the basic forms and shapes with oil paint thinned with turpentine or linseed oil. Lay in large areas of blue-green and blue for the sky and water. Paint the sky and water in graduated tones of light and dark. Notice the contrast in value between the water and the sky. Use the texture of the oil paint to suggest waves. Add highlights at the top of the waves to mimic reflected sunlight.
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References
- Theartwold.com; Monet and the Sea-The Seascapes by Claude Monet
- Art Graphica: Seascape in Watercolors
- Art Instruction Blog: Acrylic Seascape Painting Demonstration
- "New York Times"; When Galleons Ruled the Waves; Ken Johnson; 2003
- Toperfect: Impressionism, Marine Oil Paintings, Seascape
- Art Encyclopedia: Visual Arts of Ancient Rome
Resources
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
