Serene Blues - Seashell Shore

by magpiesmiscellany in Design > Art

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Serene Blues - Seashell Shore

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I love collecting shells, and while small ones can fit into fun jars, I wanted to find something fun to do with the bigger ones. I've seen basic beach scene examples, but they're all aimed at flat paper surfaces. So here's a seashell tweak.

Supplies

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shell large enough to paint (examples are quahog clams)

ultramarine acrylic paint

phthalo blue acrylic paint

white acrylic paint

yellow ochre acrylic paint

brushes - any will work, but a slightly wider brush, a thin brush, and a brush you can abuse a little are ideal!)

palette - something to mix paint on (I use plastic lids since they aren't recyclable here)

Start the Sky

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Put a lot of white and a little ultramarine on your palette. Start by mixing a tiny bit of ultramarine into the white for a pale blue with your wider brush. This will be the sky at the horizon. Add a few streaks of paint about halfway up the shell. You can try to keep the horizon straight or curve it along the curve of the shell. I tend to curve it.


Add a little more blue to the white and make a few slightly darker stripes. Continue adding a small about of blue and adding another streak or two of color to make a graduated sky.

Start the Shore

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Put white and ochre on your palette. Mix the ochre into the white until you get a dry sand color. Paint the lowest part of the shell. Add another streak of solid ochre for a wet sand line. Let dry.

Start Shadowing

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Dab a clean brush you don't mind beating up a little in a small amount of the ultramarine. Find a blank spot on your palette and keep tapping it against it until you have a mostly dry brush with speckles of color. (This is called dry brush!) Make a speckly uneven line along the top of the shoreline. This will be the shadow of the sea foam.

Start the Water

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Put a lot of white and some phthalo blue on your palette. Mix a little white into the edge of the blue for a dark color. This will be the water part of your horizon. Try to keep the line as smooth as possible. Once you're happy with how the line looks, add a little more white and add a thicker streak of slightly lighter blue below. Continue adding white and lightening the ocean as you get to the shore. Paint right up to the broken dark line. Let dry.

Adding Seafoam

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Dip your dry brushing brush into the white and dab blotches along the dark broken line of ultramarine. Cover most of the dark line. You the foam hitting the shore to look a bit chaotic and alive, with just a hint of shadow for depth.


Next it's time to add small breaking waves to the ocean. Put a tiny bit of white on the smallest brush you have and make small lines parallel to the horizon. Start with them longer along the shore, and make them shorter as you move back to give an illusion of distance.


I feel like I did too many on this one, so I went back and painted some over. This is your project, you can tweak it as much as you like!


Let dry, and you're done.

Optional Additions

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You can add whatever kind of details you'd like to personalize your beach. You can use the same dry brush method for the seafoam to add some clouds. Today's sky has sort of fluffy but wispy clouds, so I'm going to do those.


You can use the dark blues to add shapes in the distance. (Usually dark blue or gray works better than black.)


I tend to add a small flock of birds. To hint at birds, take your fine brush and flick it diagonally. Draw another line at the same angle meeting it. It's fine if each bird's wings are at slightly different angles, it makes them look more natural. (Practice this on paper a few times first to get a feel for it.)


If you want you could hint at a boat with the ultramarine and white, or make a lighthouse... I made one with distant sea serpent for a coworker who loves cryptids... Whatever you'd like to see in your serene scene!

Endnotes

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If you don't have the specific colors, basically you need a bluer blue for the sky and a greener blue for the water. Both need to be dark enough to mix a gradient. Likewise you can mix some brown in yellow to get a sand color instead of yellow ochre.


I'm using soft body acrylics, they don't have as much texture as the thicker paint and work with the shell's surface texture better. You could try liquid or craft paint acrylics if you have them, I found they tended to follow the shell's surface texture a little too much and risk running.


Wash your brushes between color swaps, or else use a different brush for each section.