Ocean Scene Sugar Painting

Painting has always been a fun activity for me, but I wanted to "sweeten" it up a little bit. By mixing sugar with paint, you can create a masterpiece with awesome texture. I will be showing you how to paint an ocean scene, but feel free to paint your own favorite scene. Let your creativity thrive!

To make this sugar painting you will need the following:

1. Canvas, cardstock, or other thick painting paper
2. Tool for mixing and spreading paint (ex. butter knife, cheese knife, pallet knife)
3. Acrylic paint (3 different shades of blue, brown, white)
4. Granulated white sugar
5. Pencil
6. Paint brush

With a pencil lightly sketch a diagonal squiggly line across the bottom right corner of the canvas. About 2 inches above that, draw a straight line also coming diagonally from that same side. Finally, about 3 inches above that line draw another straight diagonal line.

To start, do not mix all of the paint colors you will be using at one time. I found that the paint was hard to work with after it sat for some time. Mix approximately 1 part paint to 1 1/2 parts sugar. You might need to add more sugar depending on the consistency of paint being used and how thick you want the paint to be. Now use your mixing tool to mix the paint and paste it onto the lower corner of the canvas to create the sand portion of your masterpiece.

For this step, you need to prepare your 2 darkest shades of blue. To paint the ocean you will most likely need more paint than what you used for the sand. I added slightly more sugar to the dark blue to add more texture. Once the paint is mixed with the sugar, use your mixing tool to spread the dark blue sugar paint onto the canvas in the upper left corner. Then spread the lighter blue below that. When you are adding the slightly lighter blue to the canvas, leave a small space where the line is in between the two shades of blue. After you have done that, drag some paint from each side of the empty line and smear them together.

Mix your lightest shade of blue with the sugar, as you've been. Then paint it onto the last section left, making sure to take the paint up to the sand so there is no canvas seen. Then bring the light blue paint up to the medium blue so they are touching.

After allowing the painting to dry for a few hours, use a paint brush to add some white paint (WITHOUT any sugar in it) to where the ocean meets the sand to create the look of waves crashing. Feel free to add some very small lines of white paint to the other parts of the ocean to add extra detail.

Enjoy your "sweet" painting!