David Bellamy's Seas & Shorelines in Watercolour

David Bellamy

• Publisher: Search Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781782216728
• eBook ISBN: 9781781265871
• Topic: Kunst
• Subtopic: Kunst Allgemein

Learn to paint the varied and dramatic coastlines of the world, with this guide from the expert teacher—includes four step-by-step demonstrations.
Renowned watercolourist David Bellamy shares his passion for painting seas and shorelines in this inspiring and practical book. His extensive travels mean that seas and shorelines from all over the world appear in the paintings—and you can benefit from his knowledge and experience with advice on:

• finding subjects and painting the different moods of the sea
• rocks, crags and cliffs
• adding figures and animals into your artworks

Also included is an in-depth look at the painting and sketching techniques required, so painters at every level can start creating their own beautiful seascapes.

Coastal features

The best way of learning to paint coastal features, as with any form of landscape, is to go out and work directly from nature. It can be daunting to go forth into the great outdoors without some prior experience and, in any case, many folk are not easily able to get out. This chapter therefore is aimed at introducing you to the problems and delights of working on these fascinating subjects to give you the confidence to start.

Practise as much as you can, even if you have only ten minutes before you need to start cooking the evening meal. Being ready and organized for these spare moments can make a great difference, and you really don’t need several hours of spare time to push your watercolour knowledge a little further. Keep a few pencils and a cartridge sketchbook handy for these moments and simply draw the objects around you, perhaps extending this to drawing model boats or laying simple washes of watercolour, and experimenting as in the previous chapter.

I often cover my drawings and sketches with copious notes and diagrams as in the sketch of the cod-liver oil factory below, which was a rushed affair enhanced later at base with some tonal work in pencil. Subjects like this building (below) make for an easier introduction to landscape work for the beginner because you have a definite structure before you, and it is much simpler to render than an amorphous collection of rocks, seaweed and marine detritus. That can come later when you feel more confident.

Cod-liver oil factory at Å

This is a simple pencil drawing done on the spot in the Lofoten Islands. Just carrying out drawings of definite, uncomplicated subjects with a soft pencil is the best way to start learning to draw and paint. By ‘definite’ I mean an obvious structure such as a building, bridge, gateway or trees without foliage, where there are no confusing elements such as moving water, masses of trees, hedgerows or foliage and indefinite shapes. Leave those types of subject until you’ve gained experience.

Painting cliffs

The secret to painting cliffs is to study them with a view to picking out the most prominent lines of fractures and shadow areas, how you are going to emphasize the main colours, where you will suggest most detail, and how the overall cliff is affected by tones. You need to be clear in your mind how you will approach each of these aspects before you start.

Don’t try to include everything, as that will make you feel overwhelmed. Begin with a light pencil drawing, seeking out the main shapes and deciding where you will put the emphasis. If there are strong gullies and fracture lines, pick out the most interesting of these and lightly delineate the most exciting bits of detail.

When you are ready to apply colour, think about all the colours you need to paint the cliff. Prepare those mixtures plus any colours you may wish to drop into wet washes. Forget about the shadow parts for the moment.

Once you are prepared, begin applying colour washes, starting with the lightest colours. With watercolours we need to begin light and gradually work in the darker colours, overlaying these over the lighter ones in places. Drop in any additional colours – perhaps where you see a change in the rock colour – then allow the whole to dry. Once the paper is dry you can paint in the shadows. Again, wait for these to dry, then draw in the fracture lines with a fine brush or rigger, applying greater pressure to the brush where you need a wider fracture line. This is also a good time to introduce any rock detail into the cliff with a medium-size brush such as a no. 6 or 8 round.

Note that cliffs tend to be darker in tone lower down, where they get washed regularly by the sea, and you are likely to need to introduce darker tones in this area. You can do this by laying a wash of clear water over the bottom half of the cliff, and then applying the darker colour to this lower area. Do not take it right up to the top of your wash of clear water, as the intention is to achieve a soft edge to the darker area.

Tower Point

21.5 × 18cm (8½ × 7in)

Cliffs are complicated structures to render, but here I deliberately chose a backlit subject so that much of the detail was lost in shadow. Flecks of sunlight highlighted parts of the rocks and this slowly changed as I sketched. I’ve scrambled in and out of these towers at times so have a fairly intimate knowledge of the place and have thus been able to work out that the right-hand tower is separate from the rest, so I accentuated the space by lightening the right-hand tower and darkening the right-hand edge of the left-hand tower.

Rendering cliff detail

This is only part of a huge imperial-sized watercolour and illustrates well my three approaches to painting complicated cliff scenery. Firstly strong detail can be seen at the top left and high above the boat. There is more subdued detail directly above the boat, and no detail at all in much of the area above the diagonal rib of rocks extending forwards from the prow of the boat, and also the area to the stern, above the jumble of rocks.

Painting beaches, surf and rocks

The combination of beaches, surf and rocks can provide the artist with delightful compositions. Watch for variations in tone and colour on the sand – I often lay a wash of Naples yellow or yellow ochre and, when that has dried, overlay a colour. I use permanent alizarin crimson or another red if I feel it needs warming up – sometimes over part, sometimes whole – or a darker colour if I need a cast shadow. This can be done wet-into-wet, but it’s simpler to begin by overlaying the wash on dry paper.

Note how parts of the beach are more interesting when they are wet and therefore darker. These are excellent places to emphasize the definition between beach and surf. Try to avoid having a strong, sharp surf-line all the way across a composition as this will ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• MATERIALS
• WORKING WITH WATERCOLOURS
• COASTAL FEATURES
• A DAY BY THE SEA
• COMPOSITION
• FIGURES AND BIRDS
• ALL AT SEA
• PAINTING ON HOLIDAY
• Backcover