Paint a sea themed illustration with Watercolors. A day at the sea: for those who live there it is a habit, for those who come from the city a new experience every time! Today’s watercolor theme is just that, “a day at the beach.” The exciting thing is that the sea will not be present in the drawing, but there will be other protagonists.
An important thing to add is that the sea we are talking about is not the Mediterranean Sea we are used to, but we will take inspiration from the North Sea and the familiar places of northern Europe. We will paint a series of characteristic elements, which are often encountered and seen in those areas: the typical lighthouses, the seagulls on the fabulous beaches, and the port bars, which serve hot drinks and coffee with cream!
Table Of Contents
The materials used to paint “A day at the sea.”
For this work, we will use Cotman Winsor & Newton Watercolors. They are exciting colors, especially for beginners. While maintaining a standard of quality typical of the Winsor & Newton brand, they are more accessible in terms of the price thanks to alternative pigments, cheaper than others used in the extra-fine series.
For this tutorial, my palette consists of Imitation Lemon Yellow, Imitation Cadmium Yellow, Imitation Cadmium Red, Imitation Dark Cadmium Red, Permanent Rose, Mallow Violet Dioxazine, Ultramarine, Prussian blue, Yellow Ocher, Bruno Van Dyck, Indigo, Payne’s Gray, Ivory Black.
In addition to the colors, we will use a graphite pencil, HB gradation, and Fine liner Winsor & Newton markers, i.e., fine-tipped markers perfect for tracing precise and thin lines. The measures used will be 0.3mm and 0.5mm. Finally, we will be painting Cotman brushes of the 111 series sizes 3 and 6 and some 300gr fine-grained watercolor paper of lotus drawing.
The design of the postcard
Let’s start by drawing a light design on the sheet, sketching the boxes that contain the various elements, and thus dividing the space between illustrations and text. This first part serves more than anything else to get an idea of the composition and position. For this reason, we do not go into too much detail, but we limit ourselves to sketching the silhouettes. Once this is done, we can work on the sketch in more facts.
We define more clearly, but always with a light stroke, all the elements present in the drawing, such as the seagull, the cup and the glass, the lighthouse. Keep the original photo as a reference to understand the inclination of the elements and respect the proportions. At the same time, we go over the writing, being careful to respect the trend of the letters, slightly wavy in the upper part, and observing where the report goes to position itself above the design elements.
Let’s go over the drawing with the liner
Once the drawing is complete, let’s go straight to review the lines using the Winsor & Newton Fine liner. It may be that the pencil strokes are not clear-cut. Perhaps to define the round shapes, we have drawn several lines by correcting the curve from time to time: here, we will have to draw a safe and clear line to define the profile of each element. Be careful as few errors are allowed!
After tracing the liner, erase the pencil underneath, rubbing lightly with the eraser. Often when I paint on the go, but at home, I don’t completely erase the pencil on works of this type. I find them pleasant to see; it is as if they reveal the process behind the painting, its history. But, of course, this is not true for all works. Also, remember that once painted with watercolor, you will no longer erase the pencil, as the graphite will be “imprisoned” by the colors.
Let’s start applying some color
Finally, let’s start coloring this beautiful drawing a bit! With watercolor, we always start with light colors and then go towards dark colors. For this reason, we will begin with shades such as light indigo blue, light red, and orange and then gradually darken up to the use of Bruno Van Dyck, Gray of Payne, and Black for the writings.
First, we concentrate on Gabbiano, spreading a light veil of dull blue, which we can create with very pale ultramarine and Prussian blue. Do not fill in the whole figure, but leave some white areas. They also color the beak and legs with an orange, darker on the legs and less on the visor. A layer of orange can also be the same on the lighthouse to define its typical color alternating with white and red stripes. See the image to understand how to act. My advice, both for this point and for the following ones, is to have fun mixing the colors to find the shades you like best.
We spread the darkest glazes
The appearance of watercolor can change dramatically once the color has dried. At this point, you will need to work with additional glazes to darken the first layer of paint. Next, work with Payne’s Indigo and Gray colors to shade the seagull. For the cups, you can use blue mixed with Payne’s Gray and Purple Mallow, complementing Bruno Van Dyck for the coffee and cream.
We similarly work the lighthouse, darkening the red and adding purple shades towards the top. Once these glazes are dry, we can always work with the brush to spread even darker strips of color and define details without the added color mixing with the one previously applied.
Let’s define the details
As the last step, we pick up the black Fineliner and define the details of our painting. We have decided to color the lettering black with the liner, but you can color them with watercolor and only trace the edges with a marker. Let’s add bubbles here and there, first drawing them in pencil and coloring them with watercolors. Finally, we add features that remind us of the seagulls in the distance, the chocolate decorations on the ice cream, and the small tufts of grass on the hill below the lighthouse.
The work is done
It makes the atmosphere of the North Sea really, with its typical lighthouses, the colors tending to bluish-gray, and the Cafes for sailors near the port.
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