Seascape Oil Painting Tips

Series Summary

Painting is the art of using a pigmented medium to create a picture of reality filtered through the imagination, the senses, emotions, and life experience. Artists the world over have multiplied the uses of painting as a vital mode of human expression, whether recording history, retelling myth and legend, expressing religious fervor, or exploring the unknown. From early history to the present, we have records of men and women making graphic representations of their world, showing their understanding and their curiosity. Some of the most traditional paintings are of nature around us. In this instructional oil painting video series, an experienced artist will show you common techniques to achieve a seascape. Learn about the brushes, paint, and other materials you'll need to get started. Then follow step by step as the artist reveals his seascape painting techniques. Soon enough, you'll have a completed oil painting of your very own.

Video Transcript

"The first step of our seascape is, surprise, surprise, not supplies. Actually, what we first want to do is decide what we want to paint. There are a variety of ways you can do this. First and foremost, if you can paint outdoors, you have a great beach nearby, get out of your house! Heck, you can stop watching this right now and run out after you see the remaining steps. That's the best way to do it. Up there, live, close and personal. So, go down to the beach and paint. Paint whatever strikes you as interesting. Now if you're not so lucky to live near the ocean then you have to rely on pictures. And this is kind of the next step, what makes a good picture? For example, this picture here on the left, oh that tree there and that gnarled piece of driftwood which has been pushed up right by the current in the sand. That's pretty interesting. But the problem is the framing's all wrong. This here in the foreground is kind of blocking out and distracting from the very interesting landscape back here behind. Most of which is water. Seascapes do not have to purely be just the sea. Actually, if you're ever painting just water it's kind of boring. It's nice to have a shoreline, some shore items, some froth and foam, some out cropping rocks. But this here is just too distracting. Despite it being interesting, it's a no go. So this one, that's out. Now this one on the other hand, this one holds promise. You again, have a prominent sea on the side, a lot of water and beach and waves breaking in the surf here. And you have a really cool geological, basically, out cropping here which has been eroded around by the water but it's so tall it has fertile soil on the top. So this is great. This is like a little island. It is an island right in the middle of the sea with nice shears, strong lines, which is going to make for a very interesting subject for your seascape."