And i’m back from my holidays with so much reference pictures ! So this week, i’m painting a sunset on a rocky beach near Nyborg, Danemark.
The focus in this reference picture is mostly on the rocks lying on a really simple beach. I love painting rocks and creating textures to make them look like rocks but without being to realistic and detailed. On thing you can’t really see on my picture is the sunset. The sun was hitting everything with a gold warm and soft light. First, i’ve painted a little study of the scene in gouache in order to have a first feeling of it. I didn’t reproduce the gold lighting i had in my memory and i think it’s really needed though !
This first version with gouache was very useful to determine what i wanted in my watercolor painting and what i wanted to avoid also. For example, even if the composition is working well in the gouache painting, i wanted more focus on the rocks so i tighten the framing in the watercolor version. The other important point was the colors. On the gouache painting the golden light isn’t there and for me it’s important to have it on my watercolor version. So i’ve chosen the colors accordingly : strong warm colors with high contrast so that i’m able to paint the feeling of this view !
Painting a beach with watercolor in video
Supplies :
Brush : Escoda aquario nº18.
Paper : Canson Héritage hot pressed.
Colors : Aussie red gold (Daniel Smith), Yellow ochre (Daniel Smith), Quinacridone burnt scarlet (Daniel Smith), Carbazole violet (Daniel Smith), Cobalt blue (Schmincke).
And here you have the finished painting (click to enlarge) :
