Watercolor Seascape Painting Tutorial

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Hey everyone! Today I am going to show you how to paint an easy and quick watercolor seascape painting. This painting will only take you 15 minutes (if you own a heat gun to speed the drying process) to complete!

Let’s jump in!

Full Video Tutorial

 

Supplies You’ll Need:

Watercolor Paper

Watercolor Paint

Round Paintbrush

Small Round Paintbrush

Washi-tape

Two Cups of Water

Paper Towel

White Gel Pen

Paint Colors Used:

Cerulean Blue + Payne’s Gray

Ultramarine Blue + Payne’s Gray

Viridian Hue + (a little) Cerulean Blue

Painting the Sky:

Before we can begin painting we first need to mask our edges as well as the center of our painting with washi-tape. Placing the tape in the center of our painting is going to help us be able to paint loosely and keep our horizon line straight.

Now we can jump into the painting!

I used both Cerulean Blue + Payne’s Gray and Ultramarine Blue + Payne’s Gray to paint in the sky. I first filled the entire sky area with clean water then I began painting in these two colors diagonally all over the sky.

While my paint was still wet I went in with my paper towel and I tapped in my cloud shapes. Using clean paper towel on wet paint will pick up the paint and will leave the clean white page in the shape you just created.

We still have one more thing to do before we can let our paint dry. Right after you have tapped in all of your cloud shapes, take more of your blue paint and randomly paint in underneath your clouds to add shadow and really help your clouds stand out!

Now we need to wait for this step to dry before we can begin painting in our sea.

Painting the Sea:

The first thing we need to do when painting our sea, is to fill the sea area with clean water, but leave a small space between the sky and the rest of the sea area dry. This will keep our new layer of paint from bleeding into the sky and ruining our straight horizon line.

We are going to use three paint mixtures for this section, Cerulean Blue + Payne’s Gray, Ultramarine Blue + Payne’s Gray, and Viridian Hue + (a little) Cerulean Blue.

Start at the horizon line with the darkest paint mixture of Cerulean Blue + Payne’s Gray. Then switch to Ultramarine Blue + Payne’s Gray. Lastly, switch to a light wash of Viridian Hue + (a little) Cerulean Blue. As you paint in each new color blend that color into the previous color.

Let this new section dry before moving on.

Adding Detail to the Sea:

We are going to bring the water to life by painting in short thine lines starting from the horizon line working our way down to the bottom of the painting.

Begin this step by switching to your small brush and using the same color on top of the water begin painting in short thin horizontal lines. As the color blends into the new color switch to that color on your brush and continue painting in the lines. For example the Cerulean Blue + Payne’s Gray lines should be painted over the Cerulean Blue + Payne’s Gray section of the sea.

Once all the lines are in place, take your large size 12 round paintbrush and with clean water blend the lines gently into the sea. This will just soften the lines, not make them disappear.

White Gel Pen:

Using our white gel pen we are going to add zig-zag like shapes to the front section of our sea to give the appearance of waves or unsettled water.

Congrats! You did it!

I hope you enjoyed painting this easy watercolor seascape with me today! If you did please share this post on Pinterest and Subscribe to my Youtube Channel.

You may also like:

How to Paint a Watercolor Spring Landscape

How to Paint a Spring Watercolor Bookmark

I hope to see you back again soon!