Also the water is bluer to the horizon and green (almost brown) near the shore.

So you need bigger strokes and more of them closest to the shoreline, and barely any and tiny marks nearer to the horizon. Remember the waves closest are biggest and farthest are smallest or non-existent. So add in a variety of different shades of green, blue and grey to the water, blending and mixing as you work until you’re happy with it. Once the area is all covered, you can blend them (use solvent if you want to). Overlap the colours as you will be blending them. I’ve used Malachite Green and Moss Green. Start with a red blue like ultramarine - I’ve used Sapphire blue, then paint the sea using gradually greener shades of blue. However, in this location, there is a very distinct dark sea at the horizon, getting greener and lighter in value the closer to you it gets.Īs with the sky, prepare the sea area of the paper with a medium if you’re using one before applying the pastels. In some climates this isn’t the case, in the UK it tends to be hazy so the line between the sky and the sea is imperceptible. The darkest part is closest to the horizon and the lightest is closest to you. Now for the fun part! - blend it with your fingers :) If you’re using solvent, you can add that here to make the colours blend more easily. Pressing lighter as you move downwards (so the white shows through the closer to the horizon you get). Next add a lighter (and greener) blue over half the blue you already have and about 80% of the white. Then draw a cyan colour to make the top half of the sky blue (I’ve used ‘Light Blue’). Paint a very very narrow line (1/2 cm) of warm blue at the top (eg ultramarine or sapphire blue). The very top of the sky has a little bit of a warmer blue.

Its darker at the top and gets lighter to the bottom - at the horizon almost becoming white. It’s ‘Cyan’ a slightly greenish blue with some white mixed in. You just might need to add an extra layer of colour that’s all. If you don’t have either, don’t worry, it will still work I often work without medium and still get beautiful results. Sadly my solvent couldn’t come on the plane with me. This makes the pastels glide more easily.Īlternatively, you can use a bit of solvent if that’s what you have available (this can be applied either under the colours or over the colours when you blend, both work equally). There aren't any lines that you need, just draw in the horizon and shoreline with a pencil. This is a fairly straight forward picture. You can’t see the mountains in the background of the ref photos, but they are there (just). Its drawn with Mungyo Oil pastels on A4 Seawhite Paper with Senellier pastels on top.

Drawing of beach scenery