Student Work and a demo on sea waves

 In class I did a short demo on how to do sea waves, taken from this youtube. It's only 12 minutes and worth the watch. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-LDUK-XhRM

First make a graded wash of dark blue at the top to lighter blue on the bottom. (He used indigo, but mine is quite black, so I combined it with ultramarine)

Dry completely. 

Then draw some wavy lines at a slight diagonal.

Darken directly under the line with indigo or blue, then pull it out to the next line, lightening as you go.

Dry that, then do the same for the second wave. Dry and do the third wave. Each wave will be slightly lighter than the one above. I also added a little pthalo to make the waves slightly greener on the bottom.

You can create blooms if you like as you watch the paint dry...just wait until it has lost its shine, then drop tiny bits of water.

Dry completely.

Then, using white ink or white gouache, paint over the wave line with white. With a thin brush, wiggle some watery webs over the blue water. Make some smaller so the webbing is not all the same size.

Here are some fun result from students today:

Shirley strengthened the darks in the fence and added pink flowers

on the fence line.

Jackie took a watercolor of the ocean and rocks on the shore.

She added collage to the foreground rocks, and is beginning to add

collage to the rocks on the side, mostly using masa paper. I like

how the collage makes it look like waves are beating against the rock.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. You can purchase a pen called Chalk Pen at your local Dollar Tree in the craft section. They come in colors, but I like to use the white for covering over darks, a lot like a dry-brush look. Also nice for tiny dots for distant flowers, etc.