I have just completed this tropical wave painting in oil paints. It has taken me the best part of a month to complete. The problem with using your imagination is that there is no reference when it comes to tones and shadows composition and everything else we as artists would look to in a plien air painting or reference photograph. So there was a lot of back and forth in the way of Trying to get something different from the generic wave often seen as breaking all along the surface. I tried to show the different stages of the breaking wave in one single wave form. And as an added point of interest I placed a life saving ring down in the foam. This picture took several sessions and glazes with transparent colours over the original opaque ones. Except for the foam where I covered the area in one sitting trying to depict the movement and energy of the wave that had gone before and rushing back towards the upcoming wave. When I painted this I tried to imagine the noise and smells that are unique to the sea shore and especially the intense power of the crashing wave about to land with a loud clap of noise and followed by the rushing sounds of energetic movement and mayhem in the surf. I hope you like the picture and the clips showing the stages of development of the wave from that of a generic waveform. Paints used are Micheal Harding range and brushes and knives used are pictured within the progress clips and I suppose it also shows how I hold my tools of choice in order to have them handy for use without looking away from the area I am working on.
Some pictures may show different tones of the same thing as i have to photograph as i go and light can alter these things depending of the time of day or night.
Base colours used to create the basic picture before going into main details.
Ultramarine, phalo green, cadmium yellow, titanium white, and ( French yellow ochre not pictured in clip) .
