How to Paint the Ocean

If you’re a natural water baby, you can’t help but imagine how nice it is to paint your own ocean painting. That can be a sense of great achievement to paint your favorite view of the oceans with its waves crashing through the sand.

It’s a nice wall art at home and in the office. It’s also a perfect gift idea for our special loved ones. Whether you’re a beginner or pro painter there’s always that one hack on how to paint something. Here we’ll show you how you can paint the ocean.

Painting the Ocean 101

Painting the ocean might sound challenging and far-fetched for non-painters. However, that’s not the real case. It’s possible to paint the ocean without being an expert in painting. You just need to follow the easy guide down below.

Step 1: Gather your painting materials and tools

Make sure to gather all the tools and materials for this project:

• Paint brushes
• Acrylic paint
• Canvas board (the size is up to you)

Step 2: Start painting the sky

• First, paint the canvas with white just to even out the whole picture. Sometimes we might accidentally drop or mess it with dirt. So the white paint is a good coverup for blemishes that you don’t want to show on your painting.
• Pick a lighter hue of blue, ideally turquoise color. Start brushing the top, just like how you envisioned the sky would look like.
• You can brush it by going deep at the very top and do an ombre effect like the blue is fading towards the ends. Paint just ⅓ of the canvas.

Step 3: Paint the beautiful sunset

• Before you paint the sunset, make sure you observe a bit of a distance from the sky. Maintain at least an inch or more depending on how big your canvas is. Make sure there’s a white line between the sky and the sunset.
• Mix orange and yellow and add a little bit on the canvas. It’s important to test the hue before applying to the canvas just in case it turns too strong when applied.
• Start dropping onto the sides of the canvas and work your way towards the center. The idea is like the sunset is fading away on the mid-section of the canvas.
• The sunset should take up only ⅓ of the entire canvas.
• Pause and admire the progress of your painting.

Step 4: Paint Your Ocean

Now the fun part begins!

• The ocean part should take about ¾ on the entire canvas. We aim to highlight the ocean specifically and achieve at least three hues as an illusion of crashing waves. Before starting off with your painting, you can mark it with a pencil to divide at least three parts of the waves. This way you can maintain consistency and get help with your strokes.
• Start off by painting with the darkest hue of blue that you have. Have the first stroke really bold almost like making a wave of strokes. Then as you go down, have your strokes start on the sides, meeting at the center. This is to create that crashing effect. The sides should be deep then go lighter on midsection.
• Next is the second hue, you can use blue green or just green for the second wave. Start on the sides and do your best to blend the border of the first wave of blue with green. Have both sides meet midsection by creating wave strokes. Finish the second row of the wave.
• For the third row of waves, you’re trying to create an illusion that the water is low, so use a lighter color of blue. You can paint freely without starting on the sides. It should be a calm stroke with a hint of small waves like touching the sands.
• By the end of the last part of the ocean, create such defined waves to finish it off.
• Take your white color and dab it onto the ocean to create the ocean foams. Start on top of the ocean and add just a little bit of ocean foam. As soon as you’re on your way to the bottom, add some more ocean foams. The foams should be visible as soon as it gets nearer.
• There you have it, you got your ocean!

Step 5: Adding the Sand

• The sand can be a mixture of yellow and white. Brush some to the rest of the bottom part of the canvas. Do strokes starting from the sides. It’s as if it’s fading on the center.
• If you accidentally painted on the ocean it’s fine. You can redo the ocean for later and define its waves again.
• If you can, try painting the strands into a pointy wave of strokes. So it would look like sand dunes. Just to create that contrast and texture from the ocean.

Step 6: Do Some Finishing Touches

• As what we’ve said earlier, you might need to redo your waves that crash onto the sand. Just follow the method you did earlier when making it.
• If you’re content with your painting, you can have it as it is and just have it dry.
• If not, you can always paint some add-ons to bring life into the painting. For example: birds in the sky, rays of sun, palm trees or even people walking.

Tap yourself for a great job! You just finished your painting.

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