Best Painting Technique for Ocean Waves

by Nancy Reyner | Jun 28, 2020 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Painting Waves

To paint the waves in my waterscapes, I use three different painting techniques – and sometimes all three are included in the same painting! These are also the same techniques I use, with slight variations, to paint those fluffy white clouds in my skies.

My favorite is one that I invented, so it is not surprising it is my favorite, as well as being quite unusual. Here below are the steps I use in that particular technique, to create my painted waves. I am using acrylic paint here, but you can use other mediums. By the way, the other two painting techniques I also like and use frequently can be found here.

gold leaf painting by Nancy Reyner with ocean waves and sky clouds

Nancy Reyner, Sky Mountain, acrylic and gold leaf on panel, 16″ x 12″

painting ocean waves and sky clouds with acrylic painting techniques

Nancy Reyner, Indigo Shore, acrylic on panel, 45″ x 36″

My Favorite Technique for Painting Waves

The following steps for this technique combine a glazing method with a sanding method, and use multiple layers repeating these two methods several times. It is a great way to create white clouds in a blue sky as well as white wave caps in blue water.

How to paint waves and clouds with acrylic paint

Step 1. Use fluid acrylic paint colors: Phthalo Blue (green shade), Prussian Blue and Titanium White. If using heavy body paints add up to 20% water to keep texture and brushstrokes to a minimum. Mix each of these colors separately with a slow drying medium. You can also make a combination mixture of all three colors, also mixed with a slow drying medium. If you don’t have a slow drying medium, add some retarder into the colors instead. I like to use Golden’s Acrylic Glazing Liquid Gloss for my slow drying medium.

Apply any of these mixtures onto your painting surface to create an underpainting. Paint them using brushes, knives, or rags to create a variety of applications. You want to have a range of values (light blues and dark blues). This will give you a blue basecoat, which will eventually be a base for your sky at the top, and as water at the bottom, or wherever you eventually want clouds or waves in your painting. For water, vary the values but keep to dark and middle value tones. Avoid light blues, as a dark blue background will show off the white waves added later. Let this first blue layer dry. For a sky stick to light and middle value blues.

Step 2. After the first layer has dried, knife apply your slow drying clear acrylic medium, by itself with no paint color added, over the area where you want to apply waves or clouds. While the medium is still wet, add Titanium White fluid paint onto your knife, and swipe the white paint into the wet medium using swirling motions. While the medium and paint are both still wet use the knife to scrape back some areas, removing some of the white paint and medium, to reveal the blue underpainting so it will show through in places. Also while all is still wet, take a dry flat brush and lightly wipe the white paint into upward lines. Let this second layer dry for a day, or more until no longer tacky.

Step 3. Spray the dry painted surface with water and using 220 grit waterproof sandpaper, sand off some of the dried white paint from the previous layer. Respray the sanded area frequently with water, and wipe off the excess sanded paint with a rag or paper towel.

Step 4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3, using whatever colors your painting needs. If it needs more darks, use black or a dark blue. If it is too white use blue paint. Once you apply the paint color, let it dry and make sure to repeat the sanding step. Repeat these steps as many times as is needed to get the results you want.

Finished examples using this technique.

Ocean wave painting by Nancy Reyner for how to create white waves and fluffy sky clouds with acrylic painting techniques

Nancy Reyner, Blue Horizon, acrylic on panel, 20″ x 20″

Additional Resources

View Waterscape Paintings

How to Paint Waves & Clouds with Acrylic

How to Gold Leaf

Painting with Transparent Layers – Glazes vs. Washes

Best Time to Use Glazes

Glazing with Acrylic, Oil & Watercolor

Painting with Glazes on Gold Leaf

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Complete Guide to Acrylic Painting

Find the magic to bring your visions to life on canvas. From your very first brushstroke to your ultimate masterpiece – this course has it all. Click to read more.

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About Nancy

Nancy Reyner paints exotic versions of heaven, using gold leaf and other unusual materials. A contemporary abstract painter, she feels art is a rewarding pursuit that adds quality of life. Nancy shares this passion with her students & offers classes, articles, books & videos, encouraging the courageous use of materials and artistic expression.

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