Making Final Adjustments to Ocean Wave Oil Painting

After looking at my oil painting of an ocean wave seascape I decided to make a few value and color changes. The foreground wave skimming along the sand appeared too dark so I lightened that area. I added a greenish color to the light area of the crashing wave. This is closer to the actually color of the wave itself.

These are all steps I take when finishing up a painting. Taking a few days or weeks to view the painting and deciding if I can make improvements.

2nd Stage In Painting an Ocean Wave with a Sandy Beach in Oil Paint

At this stage in the seascape oil painting of an ocean wave and a sandy beach, I have completed the initial block-in of the ocean wave and the beach. Basically I have covered the canvas with paint. I am trying to follow my pencil sketch except I am using color. Below the pencil sketch shows the placement of everything in the painting and it also shows the values. The 2nd stage does not have any detail but I try to put as much of the colors in that I anticipate using in later stages of this oil painting seascape. Also I can see areas at this stage where I need to change the values. I will continue working this weekend on the beach painting so check back next week to see how it progresses.

Starting Ocean Wave IV - New Painting In Breaking Ocean Wave Series

Start of new oil painting of breaking wave.

For my Breaking Wave IV I have started a painting on canvas. My first 3 paintings in this series have been in watercolor and I wanted to continue in this series using a different medium. The painting above is 10 inch by 20 inch stretched canvas. I have started the painting in acrylic to block-in the initial color and values. From here I will start painting in oil.

Check back in a few days to see the next step in this colorful seascape of a breaking wave.
Thanks, P.J. Cook

Seascape Painting In Oil - Step 4 of Ocean Wave Painting

 

I have painted highlights in the background waves and then continued painting the wave. The wave is painted with viridian green in the darkest area of the wave and I add white as the wave lightens.   The breaking wave is painted with white in the brightest areas. In the shadow the breaking foam is darkened with the sky color and a little alizarin crimson. 

The rocks are painted with cerulean blue and burnt sienna. The shadows on the rocks I used viridian with the burnt sienna.  For the lighter sections of the rock I add some of the white/cerulean blue mixture from the sky.

Following my photograph for reference I start to work on the swirling foam. I am using all white and some sky color mixed in for the lightest foam. Painting around the darker water patterns I try to make the foam look like it is moving. I will continue to work on the swirling foam, this will take some time to complete. I will hopefully have this part of the painting near completion for my next post. Meanwhile I will be painting!

Thanks, PJ Cook