There were some things I was really struggling to capture when I was painting outside. The sea keeps moving! So from the numerous photos I’d taken, I painted a study of the ways, white horses and wet sand, the points of interest.
I started off with a purple underpainting as I accidentally got purple on my brush. This is when I’d started to block out the tonal shifts, but trying to keep the movement of the waves alive.
Concentrating on the sea foam.
My palette. I found that if I left the paint for over a weak it would get a strange stringy texture, possibly to much water leaching in as it’s drying? That is one reason why I changed to using a box to hold my unmixed paint in as it meant i could wash my palette out, and prevent mould!, if i knew there was going to be a big gap before I painted again.
A close up of my sketch. Looking at composition and tonal values.
A quick exercise in using moulding paste and string/tar gel.
Susanna Heath 