Well, summer is here and I need an excuse to spend a lot more time on the beach. 

I have always been reluctant to try to paint a wave.  It's an object in perpetual motion and the values are difficult to ascertain.  

A very daunting task for someone used to painting fruit, flowers and such.   However, it would get me on the beach...

So, with that in mind, I have been studying the ocean for the last few weeks, as well as looking at utube 'painting waves' videos. 

The best tutorial I found was a watercolor demo, but the principles are the same. 

I painted today from a photo.   I need a lot of practice before I take my easel to the beach!

Here's todays first try at waves:

Here is the palette I used. Quite limited, but easy to manage. 

I started the painting by wiping the 12x12 canvas with linseed oil to decrease the 'grab'.  Then I painted the sky and background water masses. 

The first attempt was totally a mess, so I wiped it off. 

I outlined my wave shapes with a q tip.  Aha!  That's a great way to work the composition. 

I added in my 'lightest light' and my 'darkest dark', and mid tones. 

I fiddled with the wave shape, added the 'roll over' part, and generally just played around.   Here's the near final painting.  It was a good start, and I am looking forward to practicing more these next couple of months!  Thanks for viewing my blog!