I'm taking on the nearly impossible task of summarizing how to paint all waves in less
than ten minutes. Of course, that's crazy because there are so many different coastal
areas in the world. Well let's get going.
Let's tackle this by color or time of day, starting with earlier and going later. The
absolute first question to ask about any scene is composition. Are there enough interesting
elements to be painted and to make someone look at the painting? Not every beach has
rocks, which is why we can focus on wave and foam shapes, typically not head on. Head on
shots promote symmetry in our brains as we paint, and next thing you know, you've got
a boring painting.
This first example offers nearly every type of wave – cresting, broken, and rolling
foam. The broken wave is more interesting than simply a crest because it offers extra
shadows and shapes. As the wave crests, the lighting on the face darkens, and some light
comes through the top. This is easily painted by blending a few light strokes into the darker
base. You can see the foam colors are usually blue and purple, just lighter than the background
sea. The greens in this case are far from pure, mixed with lots of red.
The next painting focuses on the power of the sea. A deep blue background with mostly
white and gray wash up front. The shadow color of the wave face and crashing foam should
be painted first, allowing the white highlights to be put in on top. The spray is made by
simply blending and lightening the background color.
Along the same theme of powerful waves are foam bursts. Watercolor creates soft edges
that can be very attractive and add a soft quality to all the surging, forceful water
mass. Watercolor also causes painters to focus on shadows since creating highlights is more
difficult.
Our brains try to even out foam bursts and make their shapes regular. We fight this tendency
by raising a few areas and avoiding horizontal lines.
As the day progresses, the light grows warmer, and actually promotes translucency and other
lighting effects that midday does not. This example shows a strong play between light
and shadow, giving a dancing path the the main wave in the background. The sky at this
time has many grays and greens in it, as does the water. Think of painting the water and
foam like steps with shadows at the edges and light on
the tops. In order to create strong highlights, the shadow areas must be dark, and there must
be light grays beneath the highlights. There is no pure white here, the highlights are
tinted with yellow and orange.
The ability of this golden hour to create shadows does wonders for composition. You
don't often see a seascape in the portrait format, but it can be done. This one uses
a long, curving path to lead into the background. Unlike in the previous example, this path
is not really broken much because the vantage point is so much higher. Paint areas of open
water first, smoothing the gradient between dark to light. This makes painting foam on
top much easier.
I mentioned earlier that we usually try to avoid head on waves. Well, sometimes you can
get away with it if the lighting is interesting enough. The key to glare is value contrast.
Whites must be placed over darker surroundings. But there's also a great amount of glow in
this painting. The glow is created by not just lightening colors, but also shifting
them. For example, the foam and wave faces are all shifted toward the light brown of
the sky. The background sea is especially tinted towards brown and
orange.
Sometimes, a painting is all about color. Look for more than just blue. Pick out browns
and grays. Look for warm and cool masses. In the end, the values play a major role in
whether waves have shape. Be sure to include darker shadows under the foam and on
the wave faces.
If you have to go for simplicity, try adding something in the background. The warm colored
headland here is a perfect match against the blue sky and turquoise wave. The wave color
is almost always greener or bluer than
the flat water.
It's always important to stack shapes on top of each other when possible, and paint nearby
objects into one
another. This creates depth in a painting. The layers
of rocks and waves give the viewer something to explore. To give shape to the wave face,
oval foam patterns can be added, rising up and even over the top of the
wave. Never leave a wave as a lonely piece. It's
foam crashes down and tumbles into the water before it, creating a sort of frame in the
painting.
If you do want to go for mainly horizontal lines in a painting, mix it up at least a
little. Horizontal leaves give a feeling of peace, relaxation, and meditation to a viewer.
However, they are not very exciting. By placing in a diagonal line of rocks or foam, a little
interest is gained.