6-14-08: Beach Buddies
- Total time to complete painting: 25.6 hours.

I applied the finishing touches - making sure the edges were defined and everything was three dimensionalized.

6-13-08: Beach Buddies

More highlighting, shading the children and trying to figure out how to make the sand look right.

6-11-08: Beach Buddies

To add depth to the painting, I lightened the row of rocks closest to the ocean and darkened the closer ones.  I also added sort of an outline along the base of the rocks next to the sand to create a more realistic look.  I had some difficulty adding shadow for the girls and the seagull.  Painting exact shadows, like the ones in the reference material, looked stupid, so I wiped them out and scumbled some in.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it worked.  I dabbed in more curls on the dark child's hair.  I also added more color variation to the sand.  I'm using a variety of brushes to see what works.

6-10-08: Beach Buddies

I changed the colors of the bucket and the shovel and worked on making the water look more real by adding a variety of colors.  I also evened out the horizon.  It had a hump in it.  I wiped out one of the seagulls.  It didn't look right.  I highlighted the other one a little more.  I think my back row of rocks need to be a little lighter to add more depth to the painting.

6-09-08: Beach Buddies

I continued shaping the rocks and highlighting the sand.  With the #2, 4 and 8 Ebony Splendor Creative Mark flat synthetic brushes, I added additional layers to the little girls to make them more three dimensional.  I also painted in a bucket and shovel.  I added another layer to the seagulls, this time using a whiter color.  One seagull looks more like some other kind of bird.  I may need to reshape it.

6-08-08: Beach Buddies

I worked on shading and shaping the rocks, added more color to some of the sand, and worked more on shaping the children.  The hour before lunch went better.  This evening I was too worried about am I getting it right for it to be very effective.

6-07-08: Beach Buddies

I drew in and underpainted a couple of seagulls, then underpainted a couple of small rocks.  After that I outlined the two kids in Payne's grey.  This helps create an edge.  As I paint the kids, these outlines will be covered, but having it there helps.  I added layers to both girls' hair.  With the blonde one I can see the difference.  With the black-haired child, it doesn't seem much different.  After that, I began highlighting and further shaping the rocks.

6-02-08: Beach Buddies

Using a #6 bright bristle brush, diox. purple, ultramarine blue, a little Payne's grey, hooker's green and white gesso, I worked on the waves.  This time the paint is fairly watery.  I thought that might work better.  I painted over some of the wave crests.  They didn't look realistic.  I also used rocking movements with the brush.  In the distance, the rocking movements were smaller, tighter.  In the foreground, they became larger.  I used the above colors in a variety of combinations and intensities.  I'm really not sure how to achieve the effect I want.  I'm painting by ear.

6-01-08: Beach Buddies

I added variations to the water today, using the colors as before and the same brushes.  For me at this point in my painting career I'm still experimenting to see what works.  I dabbed.  I made sweeping movements with the brush.  I covered over some of what I had done and redid it.  I continued to shape the rocks.  I painted, hoping to make myself feel better.  It worked.  For me that's what it's all about - to create something that makes me feel better, something that shows the depths of who I am, who I am becoming, who I am capable of being.  It's a lovely way of being.  It is my hope that everyone can do this in their own way in their own time with their individual talents - most people don't even know they have those talents, but they do.  They do.  As you believe, so you are, so you shall be.

5-30-08: Beach Buddies

Today's session I used the #2 and #8 flat Ebony Splendor Creative Mark brushes for underpainting the children and the #4 filbert bristle brush to add another layer in highlighting the rocks.  To underpaint the child with the lighter skin I used a mixture of alizarin crimson, hooker's green, cad red, burnt sienna and gesso.  For the child with the dark skin I used raw umber, Payne's grey, a touch of white and a touch of burnt sienna.  The rocks were highlighted with a Payne' grey, ultra marine blue and gesso mixture and a cad yellow light and gesso mixture.

5-29-08: Beach Buddies

I decided on the size to paint the children and loosely sketched them in.  I want to wait until tomorrow to see if I still want them in that location (so no new picture today).  In addition, I underpainted a few foreground rocks.  I drew in some Xs where I think possibly I will add a couple of seagulls.

5-26-08: Beach Buddies

Using 4 brushes today I worked adding form to the rocks.  I used the #3, #4 and #6 bristle brushes and the #8 flat Ebony Splendor Creative Mark synthetic brush.  The colors I used were Payne's grey, burnt sienna, raw umber, white gesso and cad. yellow light.  I dabbed and also applied long smooth strokes in all kind of different directions.  I darkened areas that needed darkening to create shadows.

The problem with yesterday's painting session was that when I originally underpainted the rocks, I put the shade on the wrong side.  Once I decided on how the kids needed to be added to the painting, I realized the sun needed to be coming from the opposite side, so I've been adjusting things.

Again, I have to remind myself that it's all in the layers, sometimes a multitude of them to create the effect I want.

5-25-08: Beach Buddies

Today's session involved adding more caps to the waves, extending the water further onto the beach and capping and shading rocks.  I watched Jerry Yarnell's tape as I did this, and as usual he made it look much easier than it was for me.  His work is a little more impressionistic at times, and I wanted a little more detail.  I tried a variety of different brushes and didn't really settle on anything that satisfied me.  I guess I accomplished something.  It looks different.  But I don't feel that the techniques I used today would help anyone.

5-23-08: Beach Buddies

In the painting's center, the cloudy sky looked dirty, so I used a number #10 bristle brush and scumbled in white with a touch of ultramarine blue to make it look more cloud-like.  The left part of the sky was a little darker blue than I wanted, so I scumbled in a lighter color blue.  To the right I did the same, but mixed in a little diox. purple as well.

Next I blocked in the rocks using a #10 bristle brush.  To create a good underpainting for rocks it is good to use a lot of dark bright colors, spreading them this way and that.  I used cad. orange, cad red, ultramarine blue, diox purple, burnt sienna and a little Payne's grey, starting with the back row of rocks first.  The paint needs to be thick.

At this point I could start working on the waves, but I'd rather not have to worry about getting my hands in the wet paint and smudging it around.

5-22-08: Beach Buddies

I decided to paint a scene similar to the one I did for my sister when she was dying.  It was called Anita's Beach.  I started with Jerry Yarnell's instruction video called, The Pride of Baltimore.  His instructions for painting the ocean and the rocks are great in this video.  I will switch to other painting instructions to remind myself how to paint the sand and water's edge.  In this video he does not have a sandy beach.

When I started today I didn't know what color sky I wanted.  So I experimented - each part of the sky was a different color.  Ultimately I ended up with a yellowish- grey sky.  But I didn't really want that.  So I turned the canvas upside down.  The sky is now beach sand.

After that, for the sky I used ultramarine blue, a little burnt sienna, some cad. yellow light, diox. purple and gesso.  One needs to be careful in the application of purple.  It's easy to get way too much.  I applied and blended it all with a hake brush.  After that I started on the ocean using a #6 bristle brush in rocking/swishing motions.  The water on the horizon is lighter - things are lighter in the distance.  I used gesso and mixed in blue, a little purple and a little burnt sienna to match the sky, being careful not to leave a hard line along the horizon.  As I moved closer to shore I added hooker's green to the mix, making sure my ocean water ended up with a variety of colors, which got darker as I moved forward.  I had to stop to allow it to dry before sketching in the rocks.