Winter 2012 Acrylic Class

Winter 2012 Acrylic Class – Wave Study

I was looking at my blogs and realized that I haven't posted anything for the acrylic version of the wave! Sorry. I had it posted for the watercolor class because of PV and totally spaced out that the acrylic class might need some instruction. I will recap as best I can remember.

First is the drawing. Yes, even something as simple as a wave needs at least an idea of where it is going because for many of you, the problems started here.

A wave is not a straight line whether it is breaking or just a swell, be sure that when you draw your wave that you give it some shape. Look at waves. Take pictures of waves. Do what ever it takes so that you have the shapes of your wave more than just a straight line.

The foam is also a trouble spot for many of you, saw too many neatly trimmed wave foam. Again, go you your source. I know many of you print out my paintings as I do them in class, what you should be doing is downloading the actual photo and blowing it up to a size you can see, you get lost when you don't have a real map. The actual photo is like the difference between cryptic scratches on the back of an envelope and looking at a Google Satellite map, you may get there but you may have to wander around for a while. Use a real photo.

Under paint the water. The water behind the wave is bluer than the wave itself. Keep your strokes parallel to the top and bottom using long flat "u" shapes. The more pronounced the "u" shape the choppier the water will look. I used Ultra Marine blue, touches of green, purple and gesso to get a medium dark blue. There is a swell behind the crashing wave, to start that I just left out the white and added more blue and purple.

A breaking wave has 4 parts: the building part of the wave, the eye or transparency, the foam and the breaking part of the wave. I usually start with the eye of the wave and work out into the building part of the wave.

The eye is the thinnest part of the wave and also the lightest part of the wave because more sun light can shine through it. Depending on lighting conditions (morning, afternoon, sunset, storms etc) that eye can take on many colors but it will always be the lightest part of the wave. This wave is in the mid afternoon so I went with a yellow/green.

I started out applying gesso to the area where the eye will be and along the top part of the building wave and I applied the gesso to an area about twice the size that it will be when finished. I picked up on my flat bristle brush, yellow and a touch of sap green and with a circular motion worked it into the gesso where I wanted the eye to be. That part of the wave is like a tube as the water breaks over its self. Keep that in mind. You may need to add more gesso if it isn't light enough or more green if it is too yellow. As I worked out from the lightest area I added more sap and touches of blue (ultra marine or cobalt), making the water darker as it moves away from the eye so I get a graded look, no hard lines. Ideally, the eye should just be right under the foam, tapering out into the building part of the wave. It shouldn't be any more than a quarter or less (preferably) of the wave. Some of you took it too far down the wave and too far out into the building wave.

The building part of the wave is lighter at the top then at the bottom because some light manages to get through the very top while the bottom has the entire ocean behind it. Remember that this part of the wave is building up so your brush strokes need to follow the curved face of the wave. Brush blending from light to dark will give you a smooth transition of color because you are working wet into wet. It is sap green or hookers green with touches of yellow and white that blend into Hooker's green, UM blue and purple at the base of the wave. In the flat area in front of the strokes are flat again and a variety of colors from green to purple to blue, sienna and orange up near the shore line. This is just under painting and you need all those colors. Trust me.

The breaking part of the wave behind the foam is dark at the top and lighter close to the foam, not light like the eye, just lighter than the crest. Again, your strokes need to follow the direction of the wave. If the building part of the wave is a left parentheses then the breaking water will be the right parentheses. I used my bristle brush Hooker's green and UM blue at the top part of the wave and pulled down at the base I added white (gesso) and more blue and pulled up blending with the darker color. Add just enough white to lighten a value or two because you will need a darker background for your foam.

The foam is under painted in blues and lavenders. It is always a good plan to under paint anything white with blues, purples and grays. If you go directly to white you have no place to go with your values and what ever it is you are painting will look flat. With that in mind, I mixed a purple/blue color color with gesso, blue and purple if you have your value scale, it should be about 4 or 5 values darker than the white. As always, trust me on this. Before you apply this color to your canvas with a flat bristle brush, think about what you are painting: The foam is bubbling and boiling and frothing up, it is in a very chaotic state, your brush strokes also need to reflect that chaos. That said, I used the side of my brush in a circular motion, rolling and scumbling the color on making the top and bottom edges uneven and varying sizes (see picture page). There is even some foam around the eye and a little into the breaking part of the wave that can just be touches of color using the end of your brush. Each layer will be done exactly the same, each time leaving a bit of the previous color to be shadows. I think I had 3 or 4 layers of color, each time just a bit lighter until I got to white.

With your charcoal draw in where you want the receding waters to be. There are usually several "old waves" that are washing back to sea so look at a reference photo to see the patterns they make.

The foam patterns in the flat area in front of the wave and be a similar color and value but I think I added a touch of green to the mix. This foam is laying on the surface of the water so for the most part your strokes for the under paining will be long flat, over lapping "s" type strokes until they get to the bottom of the wave, just make sure that the base of the wave is dark enough before you add foam patterns, when you do that foam will curve up just like the water does and it is a very blue purple, my foam is at least 8 on a scale of 1 – 10 white being 1 black being 10, on my value scale so the water behind it is at least a 9.

The water behind the wave will take several different colors but all are done in the exact same manner with long flat "u" shapes. The swell in the back gets a bit of special attention to suggest it is building into a wave, first the colors you will use will be dark about an 8 on the value scale. I used Hooker's green, UM blue and purple together and separate and those strokes are still on the flat side because the swell hasn't quite built up enough to change the direction of the strokes. However, when you are painting with the lighter colors (add white to the above colors and cobalt if you have it), at the base of the swell the lighter colors need to turn up slightly as the get to the swell. The top of the swell is little short strokes of the lighter colors. Think about what you are painting before and as you are painting it.

The receding water in front of the flat foam closest to the shore is going to be dry brush, you will want that mottled under painting to show through so it looks like churning sand and whatnot when you are done so PLEASE don't cover up all that good under painting, it works for you not against you.

Still with my bristle brush, I mixed a bluish color with gesso (white) UM or cobalt blue and touches of green and the mud on my brush after wiping it off. This color is about a value of 6 on my value scale. Using the thin side of my brush and very little paint, I dry brushed the color into this receding water. Now this is different from the other areas of water because it is running back into the ocean so it is going slightly down hill, what that means is your strokes should angle back towards a central point, not a severe angle just a gentle one. Remember dry brush is a very light stroke and the water gets lighter (about a 5 on the value scale), and fades to almost nothing as it gets closer to the shore.

The foam along the edges of the receding waters is done just like the bigger foam, you can use a smaller brush or just tap it on but it always starts with a blues and purples for the under painting.

The wet sand in the near the water is a mix of sienna and purple and dry brushed into where the water and sand meet. When it is dry, you can take a bit of that light blue color from above on your brush (not too much this is still dry brush) and right under the edges of the edges of these receding waters, pull your brush straight down then quickly go straight across to form reflections in the wet sand.

Finishing touches: In the foam on the wave and foreground use white with a tiny, touch of yellow to slightly tint the white and stipple the color on using the end of your brush straight on. I like to smash my bristle brush down to "fuzz up" the end to create irregular patterns. LIGHTLY touch JUST THE TOPS of the foam where you think the direct sun would shine, those other layers of blues and purples are your shadows.

If you want you can put more foam patterns on the face of your wave but keep them dark, they are in the shadow of the wave, a mix of blue a touch of purple and white, remember they need to be curved with the wave and this same color is used in the eye because the foam is back lit.

Right under the foam of the crashing wave it is very dark to be sure to make it so using blue and purple and a touch of Hooker's green.

If you want, you can use your toothbrush and gesso to splatter some sea spray around your crashing wave, just don't over do it.

Upon request, I added rocks, first by scumbling some dark colors on and brush mixing ( UM blue, sienna, purple green, red?) then I came in and highlighted the tops of my rocks where I thought sum might hit using gesso, with touches of orange and sienna, in the shadow areas I added blue for reflected highlights and almost straight cobalt blue with mud from my brush to suggest water running off one of the rocks and I also created foam behind it just like I did in the main wave starting with purple and highlighting with white.

This is the basic game plan for the wave study. You can do as much or as little of this as you want it is up to you to decide what you like best.

We will start something new next semester, hope to see you all soon.