Rock and Shadow at Laguna Beach

This painting has several important elements.  The rock gives something to hold a drak value, and light foam against it creates the focal point.  The shadow also makes interesting shapes and lets us play around with warm and cool colors.

Colors: Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow Light (pale), Ultramarine Blue

Brushes: ~ #6 Bristle Filbert for blocking in shapes, small flat for sharp edges and details, small round for details, highlihgts, and foam patterns

1.  Begin with the end.  Here's the finished painting. 

Think about where cool and warm colors are used.  Lastly think about 4 - 5 main shapes in the picture.

Take a moment to think about the darkest and lightest area that should be the focal point.

2.  Mix a dark pile of color from the blue and red, take half and add more red, and some yellow and white to get a dark brown.  With the dark brown, outline the rock, adjust the shape as you go.  This rock has strong diagonal shapes and a round area near the top.  Use your darkest colors near the bottom and start to fill in the rock.

3.  Using warm colors on the left and top, and cool ones oppositely, continue to fill in the rock.  Keep interesting shapes in it with the different areas of color.

4. Finish blocking in most of the rock.  At the very edge on the right, leave some room since we want a clean bright spot there and not gray. 

5.  Outline the cast shadow of the rock, just pick a basice shape and then make it interesting with different diagonals.  Think of an hour glass shape.

6.  Put in the shadow color.  First mix the sand's shadow color and light color so the 2 can be matched up.  neither shold be very light.  The shadow should be stronger in red than the rock's dark area.  The light sand color should be mostly red with some yellow and blue.  Leave space in the shadow area for water washing onto the beach.

7.  Using blue and red, place darks for some small rocks, and near the base of the large rock.  Then put some along the bottom of the line you left in the previous step.  Keep it broken.  Don't put in one line of dark color because less is always more! 

8.  Block in the sunny sand, notice how dark it is.  blend your strokes towards the focal point to help draw in people's eyes.  One the right side, it can be a bit lighter.  Put in interesting splotches in the shadow and light areas of water where some sand shows through.  Don't worry about this too much since it will get mostly painted over.

9.  Add some thin and broken water lines on the beach with a gray color.  Don't overdo it, I just might have.

10.  Now things are coming together!  fill in most of the shadow area with a dark blue gray.  Blend the edges with it and the sand color, blend up to the large rock and add dark color as needed.

11.  Using blue lightened with white, place in some shapes for the foam.  Leave the area near the large rock mostly alone.  Don't cover too much, use what you already have on the canvas.  This shadow highlight can be used as the dark color in the light area to the right.  Just a little though.

12.  Add a rough horizon line, mine is about 3/4 up the painting.  Now is a good time to step back and look.  Is the shadow shape intersting enough?  You can still change it of course.  Fill in the sunny water and foam with a very light blue the same way you did in the shadow area.  Finish off the righ edge of the shadow and smile.

13.  Leaps and bounds!  Actually we just added a lot of color but nothing difficult.  The horizon should be lightest so start there and work your way forwards, leaving some kind of space for the middle ground rock.  Add in blue as you come forward and leave spots with some yellow in them too.  I only wiped off my brush a little since I wanted the blue to stay on the gray side.  Next take a dark blue gray you filled in the shadow area with and add in some yellow.  Place some interesting shapes at the bottom of the wave.  It should almost reach the top next to the rock.

14.  Bring light through the wave with white and a bit of blue gray.  Blend this down and then add some white with a speck of yellow near the top.  Using a dark blue gray, put some spots along the top of the wave to give the foam shadow, and some in front.  Then add some specks behind the wave for good luck.

15.  Add the background rock on the right using a gray brown/ purple.  The right side  and top should be lightest.  Then imagine the rock behind the front one, and draw a line where it would show again.  Block this in with dark color.

16.  It's time to make this come together.  Touch up the dark areas and especially make sure the darkest is on the right side of the front rock.  Add some highlights in a light brown on both sides of the rock.  Carry it over around the curved part.  Put in some more light borwn color to finsh the rock in the back. 

17.  Take a step back and check.  Put down pure white into the sky area near the horizon.  Then, blend in some light blue.

18.  Put in the highlighted foam in the sun with pure white, sweep some up the face of the wave. 

19.  Mix some white with a small touch of yellow/ red and put it on the bristles of a large flat brush.  These bristles must be able to spread apart and catch little blobs of paint.  Alternatively, you can use a round bruch but it takes longer and is harder to do.  Dab some foam spray onto the painting but don't over do it.  Go back with a small brush and and in a few globs of paint hear and there in the foam spray.

20.  Finish up and congratulate yourself on a job well done!