How to Paint Watercolor Seascapes (with a video)

Sitting painting the sea brings me so much joy. I thought I’d share what I painted the other day in the sunroom and create a little video for you. Learn how to paint Watercolor Seascapes!

Hi Everyone, today is my birthday and in celebration I thought it would be fun to paint watercolor seascapes together. Many of you have expressed an interest in painting with watercolors and wanted some easy tutorials and videos. One thing I love to paint and find very therapeutic is painting the ocean.

I love the sound of the waves, the spray of the salt water, the smell of the sea! I love it on the sunniest of summer days but also love the moody gray winter waves.

In preparation for my Open Studio tomorrow (it’s in our front yard tomorrow – I’ll give more details at the end of this post). I painted many teeny tiny watercolor seascapes.

I think there’s something whimsical about these little seascapes. Little snapshots into a moment by the shore. I like to rip the edges of the paper to give a deckled edge. It feels organic to me.

No two are the same but I find so much enjoyment watching the watercolor paint mingle on the paper.

How to Paint Watercolor Seascapes (Two Ways)

Here’s a little video of the process and I’ll detail the materials you’ll need below.

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What You’ll Need

• Watercolor Paper – I like to use this one because it’s affordable. I also like using these cards.
• Watercolor Brush Size 4
• Washi Tape
• Paper Towels
• Water (two separate containers for cool colors and warm colors)
• Watercolor Paints (Blues – Indigo, Cobalt, Sennelier Blue, Tans – Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Payne’s Gray) I mostly use Daniel Smith Watercolors and Windsor & Newton
• Gelly Roll Pens in white in sizes 10 and 5

If you already have paints you enjoy using you can use those! No need to buy more stuff!

2 Ways to Create Seascapes

In the video I’m showing you two ways to paint the ocean – one as if you’re standing on the beach looking out on the horizon and the other is from above lapping waves.

Helpful Tips While You’re Painting

• Make sure you press the washi tape all the way down to prevent paint from bleeding under the tape.
• Your paint will bloom if you touch a wet area with wet paint. This is fine but just know that it happens. You’ll see in the video that after I painted the sky the horizon began to merge with the sky.
• Wet on wet – is when you apply the watercolor on a wet surface. This will give the look of soft waves.
• Wet on dry – is when you apply paint to a dry surface. Your lines will look harder which you may want to create texture.
• Leave some parts of the paper white to create the look of waves – the foam, the spray.
• You can use a gelly roll pen to add more white to dry paint.
• Paper towels are wonderful to blot up paint and also create the texture of clouds.
• Always test your color out on a scrap paper.

Most importantly – have fun! I find I do my best when I’m relaxed so think of this as playing with paint! It should be fun and relaxing. I like to like a candle, have a cup of coffee or tea or sparkling water and put on some music. You might also like this post on watercolor supplies.

I can’t wait to see how your watercolors come out! Please share them with me. Also, I’d love to hear what other things you’d like to learn to paint.

Oh, you might want to pin this for later:

Oh, and for those who live locally I’ll be doing a little Open Studio and Antique & Styling Sale in our front yard tomorrow from 10-2. If you’d like to come send me an email: [email protected] and I’ll give you more details.