29 Ocean Painting Ideas in Acrylic of Curling Waves, Coves and Sea Life

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Ocean painting acrylic projects are some of the most satisfying small canvases you can start today, because water forgives a loose hand and rewards flat, confident color. Below are twenty nine moods of the sea, from a curling turquoise wave to a sleepy whale and her calf, each one sized for a single sitting.

Scroll through and pick whichever mood matches how you feel right now. Some ask for a palette knife and patience, others are done in ten minutes flat with three colors and a dry brush, and every one fills the whole canvas the way a good ocean painting should.

Start the ocean painting acrylic habit with the wave that teaches everything else: one curl of turquoise water about to fold over on itself. Block in the sky first with a pale pastel wash, then lay the body of the wave in a mid turquoise, leaving the top third lighter where the light passes through.

Work the curl with a flat brush pulled in one long sweeping stroke so the shape stays confident, not shaky. Add the foam last with thick white straight from the tube, dabbed rather than painted, so it sits up off the surface.

If the curl looks flat, switch to a smaller round brush and drag a few darker navy lines along the underside to show where it folds. A kitchen sponge dipped in white works as a stand in for the foam if you do not have a stiff bristle brush on hand.

Keep your first wave simple and let the foam do the talking rather than painting every ripple.

Palette: Turquoise,Phthalo Blue,Titanium White,Pale Sky Blue

Flip the angle now and look straight down at the shoreline, the way you would from a dune or a cliff path. Paint the sand first in a warm sandy beige across the lower half of the canvas, then bring the water in above it as a few overlapping bands of aqua and deeper teal.

Where water meets sand, drag a dry, barely loaded brush sideways so the paint catches and skips, this is what makes the lacy foam edge look real instead of drawn with a hard line. Let each band dry a little before adding the next so they stay separate and clean.

This bird’s eye view goes wrong when the water bands get too straight and stripy, so vary their widths and let one or two bands curve gently. A piece of stiff card scraped lightly through wet white paint can stand in for a dry brush if yours is too soft.

Finish with a few scattered white dots at the very edge for the last bit of foam breaking up.

Palette: Sandy Beige,Aqua,Deep Teal,Titanium White

After two busy wave studies, a quiet cove is a nice change of pace. This scene reads as flat calm water, so measure first: sketch the waterline about two thirds up the canvas and keep it a single straight horizontal, since any wobble here reads instantly as uneven water.

Paint the water in a clear green with a touch of yellow mixed in, working in one flat horizontal layer. Add rocks along one side using a palette knife loaded with grey and brown, pressing and lifting rather than brushing, so the edges stay rough and rock like.

The cove falls apart if the water and rocks blend together at the base, so wait until the water layer is fully dry before you add rock reflections underneath in a slightly darker, wavier version of the same green. No palette knife on hand, an old credit card edge does the same job.

Keep the water perfectly still, this scene is about calm, not movement.

You Will Need

• palette knife

Palette: Sap Green,Clear Turquoise Green,Grey,Raw Umber

Now take the mood the other way: dark clouds, rough water and a single small buoy bobbing in the middle of it all. The eye level sits low here, almost at the water, which is what makes the sky feel so heavy above it, so push the horizon down into the bottom third of the canvas.

Block the sky in deep grey purple first, darkest near the top and lighter where it meets the water, then paint the sea in layered strokes of navy and slate, letting the brushmarks stay visible and choppy rather than smooth.

Add the buoy last as one small bright red or orange shape, just off center, since this tiny spot of warm color against all that cool grey is what carries the whole painting. If red paint feels too bold, a muted orange does the same job with less punch.

Keep the buoy small, a big one looks like the subject instead of a detail.

Palette: Payne’s Grey,Deep Navy,Slate Blue,Cadmium Orange

From storm back to stillness, this one is pure light. Paint the sky first in horizontal bands of pink, peach and soft gold, blending the edges while the paint is still wet so they melt into each other with no hard lines.

Bring the same colors down into the water in the same order, but break each stroke up with short horizontal dashes rather than one smooth layer, since water never lies as flat as sky. The light path itself goes down the center: paint it last in a pale warm yellow, widest near the horizon and narrowing slightly as it comes toward you.

If the path looks too solid, drag a dry brush loaded with white sideways across it so a few dark gaps show through, this is what makes it read as light bouncing off moving water rather than a painted stripe. No dry brush handy, dab the path with a cotton bud instead.

Let this one stay soft all over, nothing here needs a hard edge.

Palette: Soft Pink,Peach,Golden Yellow,Pale Lavender

For a looser, more glowing version of this same light, the acrylic sunset painting ideas cover skies without any water at all.

This is the first scene with real drama in the motion, so work out the shape before you touch paint: the barrel is basically a thick curved tube, lightest and almost translucent near the top, darkest where it curls under at the bottom.

Paint the tube first in graduated blues, light at the crest and deepening fast toward the base, then add the surfer as a small dark silhouette near the bottom third of the curve, on a board that is really just one thin curved line of white or tan.

Foam spray goes last, flicked on with a stiff brush or an old toothbrush loaded with white paint, which throws tiny dots across the top of the wave and around the surfer’s board. The barrel reads flat if the surfer is too big, keep the figure genuinely small against all that curling water.

Try the quick version with just two blues and one dark figure, and add the spray only if you have ten more minutes to spare.

You Will Need

• toothbrush for splatter

Palette: Light Turquoise,Deep Blue,Payne’s Grey,Titanium White

Dolphins leaping together is really a study in repeated shapes, so sketch three simple curved arcs first in pencil, varying their height so they do not look like copies of each other. Keep each dolphin body as one smooth grey curve with a lighter belly underneath, no fins fussed over in detail.

Paint the water first in bands of mid blue, then add the dolphins over the top once it is dry, each one mid leap with a small white splash beneath where it meets the surface. A round brush tip works well for the splash, dabbed rather than dragged.

This scene falls apart fast if all three dolphins arc the same way, so stagger their heights and angles like a loose zigzag across the canvas. Only confident with one shape, paint a single leaping dolphin first and add the pod once that one feels right.

Finish with a thin white highlight line along the top edge of each back to catch the light.

Palette: Dolphin Grey,Pale Belly Grey,Mid Ocean Blue,Titanium White

This one moves you below the surface for the first time, so think about where the light is coming from: straight down through the water from above, which means every ray in the painting should fan slightly outward as it travels down rather than running perfectly parallel.

Paint the water first as a deep gradient, pale turquoise near the top fading to navy at the bottom, then mask off a few diagonal strips with low tack tape before brushing pale yellow or white over the top layer, so the rays stay crisp when you pull the tape away.

No masking tape, paint the rays by hand with a long flat brush loaded lightly so the color is semi transparent, which actually looks more natural for light underwater anyway. Keep the rays few, three or four wide beams read better than a dozen thin ones.

Scatter a handful of tiny white dots like floating particles to finish the sense of depth.

You Will Need

• masking fluid or low tack tape

Palette: Pale Turquoise,Deep Navy,Pale Yellow,Titanium White

Reef scenes look complicated until you break them into three simple layers: coral shapes at the bottom, open water in the middle, fish floating through on top. Paint the water first as a flat mid turquoise, then build the coral along the base using a palette knife for the branching pieces and a round brush for the softer rounded ones.

Add fish last, each one just two or three shapes, an oval body and a small triangle tail, in bright orange, yellow or pink so they pop against all that blue. Vary their sizes so a couple sit further back and smaller, which gives the reef some depth without any real perspective drawing.

The reef gets muddy fast if every piece of coral is the same color, so alternate pink, orange and pale purple across the shapes. Only have one or two bright colors, that is plenty, a reef with three fish colors against turquoise water already reads as lively.

Try it quick with just one coral shape and two fish if time is short.

You Will Need

• palette knife

Palette: Turquoise,Coral Pink,Tangerine,Pale Purple

Bring a cliff into the picture now, which changes where your eye sits: look up slightly at the rock face from near the waterline, so the cliff feels tall and the waves below feel close and powerful. Block the cliff in first with a palette knife, rough dark grey and brown shapes stacked up one side of the canvas.

Paint the sea next in deep navy, then bring white foam crashing up against the base of the rock in one confident upward sweep of the brush, thickest where it hits the cliff and breaking into looser spray higher up.

Cliffs look flat without some texture, so once the base layer is dry, drag a dry brush loaded with a lighter grey across the rock face to catch the raised texture of the canvas and suggest weathered stone. If you are short a palette knife, crumpled foil dipped in paint presses a similar rough texture.

Keep the foam the brightest white in the whole painting so it reads as the point of energy.

You Will Need

• palette knife

Palette: Dark Grey,Raw Umber,Deep Navy,Titanium White

Night scenes rely entirely on where that one light source sits, so decide on the moon’s position first, high and just off center, and let every ripple of light on the water point back toward it like spokes. Paint the sky and sea first in deep navy and near black, graduating slightly lighter near the horizon.

Add the moon as a soft pale circle, blended at the edges rather than hard, then bring silver light onto the water below it in short broken horizontal dashes that narrow as they move away from the moon toward you.

The ripples look stiff if they run perfectly straight, so vary their length and let a few break apart entirely. A kneaded eraser works on dry acrylic to lift tiny soft highlights back out if a dash goes on too heavy.

Finish with a scatter of a few single white dots for stars, kept small and few so the moonlight stays the star of the piece.

Palette: Deep Navy,Near Black Blue,Silver Grey,Pale Moon Yellow

A manta ray is really one smooth wing shape, so sketch it as a wide curved diamond with two tapered wingtips before any paint goes near the canvas. Measure the wingspan against the body length first, a manta reads right when the wings are roughly twice as wide as the body is long.

Paint the deep blue water first in one flat even layer, then bring the ray in over the top once dry, dark grey blue on top fading to pale cream underneath where the belly catches the light.

Keep the motion believable by angling one wingtip slightly up and the other slightly down, as if mid glide rather than frozen flat. If the shape feels stiff, a slightly curved tail whip trailing behind helps sell the movement.

Short on time, paint the ray as a flat silhouette only, the simple two tone wing shape and deep blue water alone still reads clearly.

Palette: Deep Ocean Blue,Slate Blue Grey,Pale Cream,Titanium White

Tide pools give you a nice small world to build piece by piece. Start with a rough ring of wet, dark grey brown rock shapes across the lower canvas, leaving open pools of pale green water between them.

Paint each pool as a flat wash first, then once dry, add a starfish or two using a simple five pointed shape in warm orange or red, and a cluster of small round anemones in soft pink and purple dabbed in with the tip of a round brush.

This scene gets busy fast, so limit yourself to no more than two or three creatures per pool and leave some open water completely empty so the eye has somewhere to rest. No fine round brush, the end of a cotton bud dabs a convincing little anemone shape just as well.

Try one pool with a single starfish for the quick version, and add anemones and a second pool only if you have more time.

Palette: Rock Brown Grey,Pale Green Water,Starfish Orange,Anemone Pink

A tall ship sounds ambitious but it comes down to proportion: the hull sits low and small, the masts rise tall and thin above it, roughly three times the height of the hull itself. Sketch that ratio lightly in pencil before any paint, since a ship with masts too short just reads as a little boat.

Paint the sea first in long rolling bands of blue and grey, lifting gently where the swell crests, then add the hull as a simple dark curved shape sitting in a trough between two swells so it looks settled into the water rather than floating on top of it.

Masts and sails go on last with a fine round brush, pale cream sails against the sky, kept simple as triangles and rectangles rather than fussy rigging. If fine detail feels daunting, two or three sails are plenty, you do not need every line of rope.

Let the horizon tilt very slightly if it helps the swell feel like real movement rather than flat water.

Palette: Mid Ocean Blue,Storm Grey,Dark Hull Brown,Cream Sail

This scene is mostly about leading the eye, so place the walkway slightly off center and let it run diagonally back toward a small strip of blue sea at the top of the canvas, which pulls the viewer straight through the painting. Paint the sky and sea first as a simple pale band across the top third.

Bring in the dunes next, soft rounded hills of sandy beige and warm tan, then add the walkway last in weathered grey brown, narrower at the far end and wider near the bottom of the canvas to sell the distance.

A few dabs of dry green for dune grass along the path edges save it from looking too bare, applied with a stiff brush held almost flat so the strokes come out thin and spiky. No stiff brush, the edge of an old credit card scraped through green paint makes a similar grassy texture.

Keep the walkway boards simple, just a few horizontal lines across it, not every plank drawn in.

Palette: Sandy Beige,Warm Tan,Weathered Grey Brown,Dune Grass Green

Kelp forests are tall ribbons of color rising through water, so sketch three or four long wavy vertical lines first, varying their height and curve so none run perfectly parallel. Paint the water first as a gradient from pale green near the top to deep navy at the bottom.

Build each kelp stem with a long thin brush pulled upward in one continuous wavy stroke, lighter olive green where light hits it near the top, darker toward the base. Let a couple of stems overlap slightly for depth.

Light rays come last, loosely brushed in pale green yellow diagonally through the gaps between the kelp, using a dry, barely loaded brush so the color stays soft and translucent rather than solid. The forest looks stiff if every stem is the same height, so let one or two reach almost to the top edge and others stop well short.

A single confident stem with light around it is enough for the ten minute version of this scene.

Palette: Olive Kelp Green,Pale Green Water,Deep Navy,Pale Yellow Green

An orca breaching is a strong diagonal shape against a vertical coastline, so set up that contrast early: sketch the rocky coast as a tall dark mass down one side of the canvas, and the orca’s body as one long black curve leaping away from it at an angle.

Paint the coastline and sea first, dark grey rock against deep blue water, then build the orca’s body in flat black with the distinctive white patch near the eye and belly added once the black layer is fully dry.

Splash beneath the orca matters as much as the animal itself, so flick white paint from a stiff brush around where the body meets the water to show the force of the breach. No stiff brush, press a sponge dipped in white against the surface instead for a softer splash.

Keep the white markings simple, one oval patch near the eye and one pale belly stripe is all an orca needs to read clearly.

Palette: Orca Black,Titanium White,Rock Grey,Deep Blue

After the orca’s drama, slow right down with a soft pink sky over barely moving water. Paint the sky first in wide horizontal bands, pink near the top fading to pale peach near the horizon, blending the bands into each other while still wet.

Bring the sea in beneath it using the same two colors but mixed with a touch of grey blue, so the water echoes the sky without matching it exactly. Waves here are gentle, just a few short horizontal strokes to suggest low swell, nothing that breaks or foams.

This scene reads as calm only if the horizon line stays dead straight, so use a ruler or the canvas edge as a guide if your hand is not steady. No ruler handy, a strip of masking tape laid across the canvas does the same job and lifts away clean.

Keep every stroke horizontal, nothing vertical belongs in a sky this quiet.

Palette: Soft Pink,Pale Peach,Grey Blue Water,Titanium White

A floating swimmer is mostly about getting the proportions of a body relaxed in water right, so measure loosely before painting: the body from shoulder to ankle should sit almost flat along the surface, with only the face, chest and knees breaking it.

Paint the water first in pale clear turquoise, letting it lighten slightly where the body will sit to suggest the water parting gently around her. Add the figure next as simple flat shapes, skin tone kept basic with no shading beyond one soft shadow line along the underside of the arms and legs.

Hair spreading out in the water is what sells this pose, so paint it last in loose soft strokes fanning outward rather than one solid shape. If the figure feels stiff, soften the edges where water meets skin with a damp brush before the paint fully dries.

Keep the water around her nearly still, just a few faint ripples near her shoulders and hips.

Palette: Pale Turquoise,Skin Tone,Soft Shadow Blue,Warm Brown Hair

Zoom right into the waterline for this one, close enough that foam and sand fill the whole canvas with no horizon at all. Paint the wet sand first as a warm beige base, then while it is still damp, drag a nearly dry brush sideways through it so the surface picks up a subtle sheen that reads as wet.

Bring the foam in next, thick white paint worked with a small stiff brush in loose, lacy, branching lines rather than one solid shape, the way foam actually spreads thin and uneven at the water’s edge. Leave gaps of sand showing through the lace pattern rather than covering it completely.

This close up falls apart if the foam reads as a flat white shape, so go back in once it is dry and add a few fine grey shadow lines along one side of each lacy branch to lift it off the sand. A fine liner brush gives the crispest lines if your round brush feels too thick.

Finish with one or two tiny shell shapes half buried in the sand for scale.

Palette: Wet Sand Beige,Titanium White,Soft Grey Shadow,Pale Shell Pink

Choppy water takes some of the pressure off perfect waves, since broken, irregular brushstrokes actually look more convincing here than smooth ones. Paint the sea first in overlapping strokes of grey blue and white, going in different directions rather than one neat pattern, to suggest a bit of wind and swell.

Add the gull once that layer is dry, kept as a simple silhouette: a curved body, two long pointed wings angled down mid flap, nothing more detailed than that. Position it low and off center, close enough to the water that its wingtip almost grazes a wave.

The gull reads stiff if both wings are symmetrical, so angle one slightly higher than the other to suggest a single flap caught mid motion. If a confident silhouette feels tricky freehand, trace a simple gull shape from a reference photo onto tracing paper first and transfer it lightly in pencil.

Keep the sky plain and pale so the gull stands out clearly against it.

Palette: Grey Blue Water,Titanium White,Gull Grey,Pale Sky

This view puts you underneath a wave looking up, which flips the usual light logic: the brightest light sits at the top of the canvas where the surface breaks, and everything below fades into shadow. Paint the deepest navy at the bottom first, graduating up through mid blue to a pale glowing turquoise near the top edge.

Shape the underside of the wave as one large curved dark mass pressing down from above, its edge catching that pale turquoise light where it curls. A scattering of white bubbles rising upward through the blue, painted as small dots and short streaks, sells the feeling of being underwater looking up.

This angle only works if the light stays concentrated at the top, so resist adding any bright color lower down the canvas even where it might look a little empty. A bit of baby oil or acrylic medium mixed into the top layer before it dries gives a nice extra glassy sheen if you want to push the realism further.

Keep the bubble trail loosely diagonal rather than straight up for a more natural rise.

Palette: Pale Glowing Turquoise,Mid Ocean Blue,Deep Navy,Titanium White

A sea cave is really a dark frame around one bright glowing center, so build it in that order. Block in the cave walls first as a rough arched shape of dark grey brown using a palette knife, leaving an open gap in the middle and at the base for the water and the light beyond.

Paint the water inside the cave next in glowing turquoise, brightest where it would catch light near the opening and darker toward the shadowed edges nearest the rock. The glow effect comes from layering: a first pale wash, left to dry, then a second brighter streak of white mixed turquoise dragged through the center only.

The cave loses its mystery if the opening is too large, so keep the rock walls taking up at least half the canvas on either side. No palette knife, bunched up paper towel dipped in dark paint and pressed onto the canvas gives a similar rough cave wall texture.

Let a thin strip of pale sky show through the far opening to suggest how deep the cave goes.

You Will Need

• palette knife

Palette: Dark Rock Grey Brown,Glowing Turquoise,Pale Turquoise Highlight,Pale Sky

This one is a nice small composition exercise: the rope swing hangs from somewhere above the top edge of the canvas, so you only ever paint the rope itself and the seat, never the branch it is tied to. Paint the lagoon first in flat, bright turquoise, calm and glassy with just a few soft ripples near the center.

Bring the rope down in one long curved stroke using a fine round brush loaded with a thin, slightly watery brown, which lets the line stay consistent in weight from top to bottom. Add the wooden seat at the bottom as a simple flat plank shape, slightly angled as if swaying gently.

A plain rope reads stiff, so twist the brush slightly as you pull the stroke down to suggest the fibers without drawing each one. If a steady long line feels hard freehand, rest your wrist on a bridge, a spare piece of card propped above the wet canvas, for better control.

Keep the lagoon otherwise completely empty so the rope and seat stay the clear focus.

Palette: Bright Turquoise,Rope Brown,Weathered Wood Tan,Pale Sky Reflection

A sea stack is a tall narrow rock standing alone in the surf, so get the proportion right before anything else: it should read taller than it is wide, roughly three times its width in height, or it starts to look like a boulder instead of a stack. Sketch that shape lightly first.

Paint the dawn sky in soft bands of peach and lavender, then the sea beneath it in cooler blue grey, before adding the stack itself as one dark silhouette with a slightly rough, uneven top edge rather than a smooth dome.

White surf breaking around its base goes on last, worked in with short choppy strokes that wrap around both sides of the rock unevenly, since water never hits a rock the same way on every side. If the stack looks too smooth and rounded, drag a palette knife lightly down one side to carve in a bit of rough texture before it fully dries.

Keep the sky soft and the rock hard, that contrast is what makes dawn scenes like this work.

Palette: Dawn Peach,Soft Lavender,Rock Silhouette Grey,Titanium White

This view asks you to look almost straight down, which changes how the water behaves: from a cliff top, a lagoon reads as flat overlapping shapes of color rather than waves with any real texture, closer to a map than a seascape.

Paint the lagoon first in three or four layered bands of aqua, palest in the shallow center and deepening toward the edges where it meets darker reef or rock below the surface, blending each band into the next while still wet.

Add a thin strip of cliff edge and scrubby greenery along the very top of the canvas to anchor the high viewpoint, kept small since the lagoon is the real subject here. If the color bands look too even, drag a dry brush loosely across a couple of them to break up the transitions and suggest moving water seen from a height.

Vary this one next time by adding a tiny boat or a swimmer as a single dark dot for scale.

Palette: Pale Aqua Shallow,Mid Aqua,Deep Teal Edge,Cliff Greenery

A resting seal is one soft rounded shape, so sketch it first as a simple curved teardrop, thicker at the body and tapering toward the head and flippers, before adding any surface detail. Keep the pose relaxed, body slightly curled rather than straight and stiff.

Paint the rock and surrounding waves first, grey brown rock against choppy blue water, then bring the seal in over the top once dry, in a warm grey brown with a slightly paler belly and a darker line along its back and flippers.

Texture matters more here than almost any other subject on this list, so once the base color is dry, dab a stiff dry brush lightly over the body in small patches to suggest the slightly mottled, damp look of sealskin rather than leaving it perfectly flat. No stiff brush, a dabbed sea sponge gives a similar soft mottled texture.

Finish with a single dark dot for the eye and a few white splashes where waves meet the base of the rock.

Palette: Seal Grey Brown,Pale Belly Tan,Rock Grey,Choppy Blue Water

A shipwreck scene needs you to decide on one light source and stick to it, since everything here reads as murky and sunk, with a pale glow coming from somewhere above that fades fast the deeper the hull sits. Block the deepest navy at the base of the canvas first, lightening gradually toward the top.

Paint the wreck itself as a tilted, broken shape, since a ship lying flat and intact on the sea floor looks far less convincing than one leaning at an angle with a gap or two in its hull. Use a palette knife for the rough, weathered edges of broken wood.

Add small fish last in bright contrasting color, orange or yellow against all that navy, scattered loosely around the wreck rather than lined up. The scene loses mood if it gets too bright overall, so keep every color other than the fish muted and cool. No palette knife, torn strips of dried masking tape pressed into wet paint and lifted leave a similarly rough broken edge.

Let a faint patch of pale green weed trail off one side of the hull for extra age.

You Will Need

• palette knife

Palette: Deep Navy,Weathered Wood Brown,Bright Fish Orange,Muted Weed Green

Pair this with the full underwater world in the ocean drawing ideas list if you want graphite studies of sea life to plan from first.

Close the list with the ocean’s gentlest subject: a humpback whale and her calf swimming close together. Compare their sizes before you paint a single stroke, the calf should sit at roughly a third to half the length of the mother, positioned just behind and slightly below her for that protective feel.

Paint the deep blue water first in a smooth gradient, then build both whale bodies in flat dark grey blue, longer and more tapered for the mother, shorter and rounder for the calf, with pale belly patches left lighter on each.

A few simple white scars or patches dabbed onto the mother’s back with a small brush give her character without needing fine detail. If getting two whales right in one sitting feels like a lot, paint the calf first on its own as a quick ten minute study, then add the mother once you are happy with the smaller shape.

Finish with a faint trail of bubbles behind both tails to show they are moving gently forward together.

Palette: Whale Grey Blue,Pale Belly Patch,Deep Ocean Blue,Titanium White

What to Do Next

Pick whichever mood matches how you feel today, tape off your horizon line if your hand needs the help, and keep your palette to four or five colors so the whole canvas stays clean and confident. A small turquoise wave or a quiet green cove is plenty for one sitting, and the rest of this list will still be here next time you want to paint the sea again.

Frequently Asked Questions

What acrylic colors do you need for ocean painting?

A basic ocean palette needs turquoise, a deep navy or phthalo blue, titanium white, and a sandy beige. Add a sap green and a warm grey for coves, rocks and reefs, and you can mix almost every scene above from those six tubes.

How do you paint realistic looking foam in acrylic?

Load thick, barely thinned white paint onto a stiff dry brush and dab or drag it on rather than brushing it smooth. Leave some of the underlying water color showing through so the foam reads as lacy and broken, not as one flat white shape.

Is acrylic a good medium for painting water?

Yes, acrylic dries fast enough to let you layer wave after wave without waiting long, which suits the flat, graphic color blocks ocean scenes rely on. It also handles palette knife texture for rocks and foam better than most other paints.

What size canvas works best for these ocean paintings?

A small canvas around eight by ten inches works well for every idea on this list and keeps each painting finishable in one sitting. Smaller canvases also make bold color blocking easier since there is less area to blend evenly.

How do you keep an ocean painting from looking too busy?

Limit yourself to one clear light source and no more than four or five main colors per painting. Leave some areas of flat, quiet water or sky completely untouched by detail so the eye has somewhere restful to land.