How to paint a seaside

"The sail"

Palette knife technique in oil,  is a difficult technique, here it just gives an overview of the rules I apply for each of my paintings, visit my other paintings on the GALLERY page, and the prices on the PRICES page.

If you would like to learn how to paint with a palette knife, I can travel to teach this technique in private lessons or in groups of up to 12 people, under certain conditions.

First, I draw with a HB pencil the pattern on a stretched canvas size 46x38 cm.

Then I start painting the sky, with a mix of cobalt blue and a little titanium white, cobalt blue gives a deeper blue sky than the blue ceruleum. I use the knife of medium size, with round tip.

"I always paint my landscapes from top to bottom and from the background, to the foreground."

So I apply roughly a darker blue to the top of the canvas, and a little clearer approaching the horizon, while leaving the part of the clouds, white.

With the large palette knife, I gently smooth the blue of the sky, to obtain a  very fine surface. At each passage from right to left, I clean the blade with a sheet of paper.

I draw again with the pencil outline of the sails to keep the proportions of the boat.

"It is mandatory to use the back side of the blade, never remove or deposit the paint on the top of the blade."

I paint the shadow of the clouds, starting with a purple color ..

Cobalt blue that remains on the palette, I add a touch of pink quinacridone, to get this purple. With the medium knife, I apply the paint with small rounded touches.

The light part of the clouds, I also paint itwith small rounded touches, with a clear but also more pronounced mixture of Indian yellow and titanium white.

This is to give volume and naturalness to the clouds.

The sky and the clouds finished, I paint the sea, with the average knife, I apply horizontally a pure phthalocyanine blue, by placing the edge of the blade on the horizon line and down.

I repeat this operation horizontally, moving from left to right.

I use phthalocyanine blue with titanium white to shade the colors of the surface of the water. I apply the painting with the same technique as before, then gently smooth the painting with the knife from left to right, and from right to left, holding it horizontally (that is to say parallel to the line of horizon.)

"The painting knife is far from being as flexible as a brush, so the blade must follow the movement or shape of what you paint, the grass, the leaves, the clouds, the waves ..."

From the horizon to the wave in the foreground, the sea surface is not important, to avoid a uniform flat, I shade a little the blue, and then in the foreground I add cobalt turquoise, and a few touches of yellow medium cadmium, which mixed with blue give a dark green.

I take care to preserve the drawing of the sailboat.

At the approach of the rocks, on the left, I paint the sea foam with pure white, I add some touches of white and yellow of Naples. On the right with the tip of the medium knife, I horizontally drop small touches of dark blue and light blue.

I finish this step by painting the foam at the front and the back of the sailboat.

The rocks are painted very quickly, first with burnt umber and yellow ocher, these colors are just deposited on each other, they don't mix on the canvas.

I finish the sunny parts of the rocks, with Indian yellow and white.

The foliage of the pines trees, is painted with green of pure sap green, with regard to the part in the shade, and a mixture of the sap green, Indian yellow and white for the sunny foliage. The trunk of trees will be painted with pure burnt umber.

To paint the foreground wave, I start with a green color.

At the base of the wave, it is a pure emerald green, and at the top of it, I add medium cadmium yellow to emerald green.

I smooth the painting by following with my knife the movement of the wave.

Then the foam of the wave is painted with cobalt blue and white for the parts in the shade.

For the lighted foam, I use a pure white, then I will add some touches of a mixture of Indian yellow and white.

To give that impression of splashing at the top of the wave, I tap lightly with the flat of the blade.

In the foreground, we will paint the sand of the beach, I paint two rocks with the same colors as before.

There are different shades of color between dry sand and wet sand, the dry is lighter, I paint it with Naples yellow and very little white.

The wet part I use yellow ocher and very little white, then at the base of the wave I paint a darker sand with pure yellow ocher.

Then I paint the projected shadow of the wave on the sand, as well as the shadow of the rocks.

For that I use the purple that I used for the clouds, that I mix with yellow ocher, I deposit some touches of this mixture here and there in the sand to give a little texture.

I use the small knife (handy for small surfaces and details.) I paint the mainsail with a mixture of yellow cadmium and a little yellow indian. I filled this small area from the outer limit of the sail inward.

I finish the sailboat by painting the small sail with a mixture of Naples yellow and white, the hull of the boat is painted at the base with pure phthalo blue, and the rest with pure white.

With the tip of the knife, I apply some colorful touches, to give the impression of having characters on board. The cables are painted with burnt umber, and this with the edge of the knife, to obtain a particularly fine line.

I don't forget to paint the reflection of the sails in the water.

It only remains to sign your painting, and varnish once dry.