How to draw a calm sea. How to draw the sea and waves with gouache step by step

In this world it is quite difficult to imagine anything more romantic than a sailboat sailing alone on the waves towards the unknown. Of course, traveling by sea is romantic in itself, but a sailboat is simply the pinnacle of all romantic dreams.

We dream of sailboats from early childhood, reading Jack London, Vladislav Krapivin or Jules Verne. But sailing even on a tiny sailing yacht will definitely not leave an adult indifferent. When a large real sailboat with several masts and a full set of straight and oblique sails appears on the horizon, it is simply breathtaking.

Long before the Titanic sank to the seabed, people mostly moved on water on ordinary boards with sheets attached. The unique tradition of sending sheets into the sea has remained to this day, albeit as entertainment. Nevertheless, the topic is interesting, so in today's lesson you will see how to correctly draw a sailboat with a pencil. A sailboat is a watercraft that uses wind power to move. Brilliant and simply angry and cheap, but in complete calm it is extremely inconvenient.

The whole truth about life:
— A sailfish is also a fish that lived among ships for a long time and its upper fin simply mutated into a sheet.
“The best way to catch the proverbial seasickness is to run backwards on the deck during a storm.”
— Black labor appeared when the first ships sailed to the shores of Africa. There were real problems with the wind, but the ship still had to move. Therefore, the peoples of Africa were given oars and the meaning of life.
— A sailboat usually does not float on land, but when it does, we can expect a lot of casualties among civilians.

Drawing a sailboat is easier than building or buying, but it will still look beautiful.

In this master class, we will learn together how to draw the sea in gouache with a sailboat. So, the drawing technique is gouache.

Haven't held a brush in your hands since school? It doesn't mean anything at all. Gouache drawings are a great start for beginners.

Why this particular technique?
Gouache is the optimal material to start with.
First of all, it is very affordable and can be purchased virtually at every step (compared to acrylic or oil).

Secondly, the water base of this type of paint makes it possible to easily vary the thickness of the paint, the level of its application, as well as the formation of textures on the canvas.

Thirdly, the fact that gouache is a completely non-toxic paint is very important. Thus, gouache lessons are completely safe for children and people with certain diseases and various allergic reactions.

Fourthly, this paint quite flexibly combines some of the qualities of watercolor and, in some cases, even oil paints, therefore, painting with gouache will provide an opportunity to develop practical skills in other techniques.

The thick consistency of the paint allows you to layer different layers on top of each other, while painting light areas with darker ones or vice versa. This allows you to make many changes to the image before it dries. At the same time, it is also possible to blur the paint, diluting it with more transparent layers, which makes the drawing more realistic.

It is in connection with the important advantages described above that in this lesson we will use gouache paint.

Place the paper you are going to draw on vertically and divide it roughly in half. Let the top of the sheet be a little larger. Using a large brush, start painting the sky.


Use white gouache to draw a small moon. It is necessary to outline the border with a bright yellow color. You can also add a little orange.


While the gouache is still wet, add more dark color around the edges. To do this, simply mix black and blue paint on the palette.


Draw the outer edge of the clouds.


Mix blue, white and a little black paint. Add it to the clouds so that you get a very smooth transition from the light part near the moon.


From the inside of the picture, you should draw lighter clouds, since they reflect the light of the moon. While the paint is still wet, mixing colors is fairly easy. You can take a clean brush and use it to mix two colors in which you want to get an even and smooth transition.

For the stars, first mix some bluish paint on your palette and draw a small circle. When the paint is dry, use a thin brush to make a small dot of white paint.

Then you should carefully sketch out an image of a sailboat with a pencil.


We draw the sea with gouache step by step. The sea should first be painted over with uneven, long horizontal strokes, alternating dark blue, light blue and turquoise paint. In the foreground, paint a large wave with blue-green paint.


Continue drawing the sea. Use bright blue paint to paint small waves near the ship itself.


Use white gouache to paint highlights on the waves. Paint the sailboat with gouache. Please note that the sails should be drawn with a very smooth transition from blue to white, from left to right.

All that remains now is to paint small wings of foam on the waves, and also apply highlights of light with a thin brush. I sprayed the foam with gouache using a hard brush. First, it is better to practice on some piece of paper.


The result is a work like this - a sailboat sailing home through a mysterious moonlit night.

Drawing waves

We have already drawn the waves in the sailboat example, but we want you to look again step by step at how they are drawn.

    You can draw something like this, calm sea.

    Making a general marking of the picture

    draw clouds in the sky

    draw palm tree branches

    now, the sea

    add shadows from the palm tree

    Now you can color with colored pencils or paints

    There are several types of paintings to paint the sea.

    The first option is to divide the sheet into the horizon and the sea. You can complete the circle, which will be the sun, and the shore.

    Then we draw a shore with stones and a boat.

    Here's another way to draw the sea.

    Every artist paints the sea as he sees it. but if we talk about step-by-step drawing, then the most important thing is to draw the waves. If you cope with this task, consider that you have already drawn the sea. at least it seems so to me. The algorithm for drawing waves is given below:

    If you draw the sea in black and white, then in addition to a pencil, you can also use charcoal, this way you will quickly achieve the desired effect, where you need to darken it completely black...

    I draw your attention to the second picture where the sea with seagulls is depicted..))

    and here is a color version, they drew quickly, they did not work on small details, you can see right away,

    and in the last picture you can see that the artist tried to depict the bottom of the sea..)

    You can try to depict the sea by watching this master class:

    The work is quite painstaking and not easy, but the result will definitely be worth the effort. And the drawing process itself, I’m sure, will bring a lot of pleasure.

    I present a very simple way how draw the sea step by step. To do this, first draw two lines, then sketch the coast and mountains in the background. After that we draw a boat. Next, add the birds and move on to decorating the picture.

    It is very difficult to draw the sea like real marine painters. You need to have talent, like Aivazovsky.

    The sea has a sea (sorry for the tautology) of colors, shades, tints. In addition, its color changes due to changes in weather, the presence of sunlight, etc.

    In the drawings proposed by Enua, I liked the penultimate one, which depicts the bottom of the sea. This detail alone makes the picture more or less realistic.

    If you draw the sea not picturesquely, but schematically, then you don’t need to draw anything here!)). It is enough to depict a sailing boat, and anyone will say that this is the sea.

    Look how I did it in literally one minute in Paint! (though I’m not good at drawing ships..)

    Drawing the sea is not an easy task, but it’s worth a try.

    It is important to choose the style itself, the technique in which you want to paint, and imagine the general appearance of the picture.

    You want to show a storm or the surface of the coast, or maybe the oncoming waves.

    With paints, the wave can be conveyed with small strokes, mixing shades, adding white to draw foam and waves. The background can be left flat.

    It is better to draw small hills and wave crests with a pencil.

    Green, blue, purple - these shades can be used to enliven the picture and convey shadows for volume.

    After which we take ready-made drawings and draw again but on our sheet. Any boat, crab, nudists, traders with boiled corn, a bio-toilet, beer bottles and other attributes of the modern sea can fit perfectly here. I decided to add such necessary items as a palm tree and a naked woman:

    You can also push the ships into the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 and a minion, because... this topic whose hour is very popular, as well as the shark:

    All that remains is to decorate it beautifully)

    Certainly, draw the sea It’s not an easy matter, it can be quiet and calm, or it can be just a dangerous avalanche that destroys all living things, but still most people adore it and dream of a vacation in the sea. Below is an example of a step-by-step drawing of the sea along with the beach; add sun loungers and a couple of palm trees - it will be just a real paradise.

In this photo tutorial we will look at a simple technique for drawing a seascape. This lesson is perfect for beginners, because the plot lacks precise drawings and complex constructions. The main task in drawing the sea is to harmoniously mix paints on wet paper and make a graduated wash for a realistic water effect.

So, prepare your workplace and take the necessary tools:

  • watercolor paints;
  • special paper for painting with watercolors;
  • container with water;
  • round synthetic or kolinsky brushes No. 5,3 and 4;
  • pencil with eraser.

Drawing stages

Step 1. Start by creating a pencil sketch. Visually divide the sheet into 2/3 parts and draw a horizontal line at the top of the sheet. This way we have created a horizon line. Next, we finish drawing the coastline in the lower left corner.

Draw a big wave under the horizon line.

Below we create small waves.

The sketch is ready. We proceed to drawing with paint, but first we decolorize the rich outline of the drawing with an eraser.

Step 2. Fill the upper part of the sea (behind the big wave) with translucent ultramarine. We blur too clear contours with a wet brush.

Step 3. High waves transmit sunlight well, distorting the main color of the water, making it warmer, so we paint them with a greenish-turquoise tone. The base of the near wave is shaded with lemon diluted with a large amount of water. We leave the wave crests white for now.

Step 4. Fill the gaps between the waves with light ultramarine. Next, use yellow ocher to mark a piece of the breg in the lower left corner.

Step 5. Apply a shade of indigo to the tip of brush No. 3 and use it to mark the dark parts of the waves that form the ridges.

Video recipe for the occasion:

Step 6. The “wet” technique and graduated blur will help us make a realistic sky. We wet the sky area with water and, using a large brush and cobalt blue, begin to draw the sky and the outlines of the clouds.

Step 7. On the sand we draw stones and seaweed washed ashore. For a more interesting result, we recommend making a few splashes of brown to best convey the texture of the sandy shore.

Step 8. Add contrast to the pattern with more saturated shades of turquoise and ultramarine.

Artists who paint the sea learn this throughout their lives. After all, it is not so easy to convey all the violence of the elements, the play of colors, the nature of the waves, the depth of shades. Therefore, the marine painter specializes only in working with paintings that convey the different states of the sea space. Before we move on to painting pictures with paints, let's look at the beach with a pencil step by step.

Basic outlines

The first step is to position the sheet vertically and draw a horizontal line approximately in the middle. She will separate sky and water.Then draw a shore line with a slight curvature on either side of the sheet, at your discretion. It should start near the horizon and move down to the opposite corner of the sheet. Next, it is important to imagine how to draw the beach and the sea, what will be on the shore, and what state the elements will be in. On the coast, closer to the middle line, you can draw the contours of stones or rocks. Behind the horizon, near the edge of the sheet, draw a couple of small hills, which are the mountains in the distance. Label the sun at the top of the sheet. On land, which is a beach, draw the trunk of the future palm tree, slightly curved towards the sea. At the top of the tree, draw round coconuts and large spreading palm leaves. Next to the trees you can add a large open umbrella and a sun lounger underneath it. Draw a small balloon circle near the water. Draw the outlines of cloud clusters and several seagulls soaring in the sky near the sun. At this stage we looked at how to draw the beach and the sea.

Shading

You need to draw small waves on the surface of the water. To do this, use a simple pencil to apply a few strokes to the sea surface. Shade the surface of the sea near the boulders, this will visually enliven the waves. Use an eraser to lightly rub rough edges to soften the pencil outline. The surface of the sea can also be smoothed by rubbing it with a finger or a piece of paper. These manipulations help you understand how to draw the beach and sea so that they look more realistic. Repeat the same steps with the coast - shade the surface and lightly rub it, creating the appearance of sand on the beach. Excess dark areas in the picture can be removed with an eraser. Rocks and mountains should be the darkest areas, so shade them with more pressure on the pencil and increased frequency of movements. On the clouds, draw faint shading, enough to visualize the movement of air. OnFor additional details in the drawing, apply strokes along the contour, creating shadow and depth of the object.

colorful picture

We looked at how to draw a beach and sea using a pencil. Next we will use gouache. In this case, the work is carried out without a pencil, but we will take the main contours of the previous drawing as a basis. We mark the horizon on paper and divide the celestial space into three parts. The top one will be blue, then pink and then yellow will be applied. Using a damp, washed brush, we blur the rough transition from one color to another. On the bottom half of the sheet we again create three lines of color, starting from the horizon - blue, sand, orange, creating the sea, the coastal area and the beach itself. Again we blur the transitions without touching the middle line. We use white gouache to mark the clouds and paint the top with pink and the bottom with dark blue. Remembering our pencil drawing, we draw rocks using brown gouache. Draw the relief, shadows and blur them along the top edge. We emphasize the line of the beach area with orange gouache and use white to indicate the contours of the sea waves. Using thin strokes we set the direction of the waves. We apply foam along the edges of the waves and crests with white gouache. We emphasize the shadows with blue strokes.

This is how we learned how to draw the sea and the beach with gouache. If desired, you can add seagulls in the sky, and apply several large stones on the coast.

The sea... There is hardly anyone who does not love the sea. Musicians sang about him, poets wrote poems about him. It hides many secrets, and rarely reveals them to anyone. Humanity has always been curious about what is there, under the surface of the sea, what treasures, strange fish and plants? The sea does not give an answer, it gently splashes on the coastal stones and sparkles, basking in the sun. Only the sea is deceptive and doesn’t like jokes. Today it is obedient and calm, and tomorrow it foams angrily and rolls huge waves, destroying everything in its path. Let's try to draw the sea with a pencil, its fancy coastal waves and the seashore. It is much easier to depict the sea with paints, precisely due to color and shades, so the task before us is difficult. Step by step we will try to draw the sea with a pencil in stages, I hope you succeed.

  1. Prepare a thick sheet of matte paper, but not smooth, otherwise the lead will slide and deep shadows are unlikely to be obtained. In addition, this lesson will require the technique of shading on paper, and smooth paper is not at all suitable for this. You need at least two pencils - hard and soft. We draw a preliminary sketch. We denote the horizon, the line of low mountains in the background and the edge of the water.


  2. It is important to show how the waves move and roll. We draw long and short strokes, filling the entire sea area. But we do them at a certain angle. On the left, the lines will lie a little wider, and on the right, they will seem to gather in a narrow bunch. Near the horizon, the shading should be thicker and denser. This gives the effect of the depth and length of the sea, the feeling that the viewer is standing on the shore.


  3. Drawing distant mountains. There is no need to go into too much detail, it is enough to show the mountain bulges and depressions, faults in the stones. To do this, just draw something like small triangles with a dark base. Show some of the mountains more generally, they will be far away from the viewer. Also leave unshaded areas so that there is a feeling of being illuminated by the sun. Mark the edge of the earth, a narrow strip at the foot of the mountains.


  4. Using a very soft pencil we begin to tint the sea. Do the shading at exactly the same angles as in the previous sketch. At the same time, on the horizon the water will be completely dark, and towards the shore it will be lighter, due to the fact that the depth becomes shallower towards the shore and “lambs” of foam appear. Try not to shade the sea evenly, remember that the sea is moving and the waves come from the horizon, increasing in size. And at the same time, each wave is voluminous, has light and shadow. The sea is like a huge silk fabric with folds.


  5. Now the most important step - try to shade the pencil lines. Do not wash them, but rub them on the paper with light movements. This can be done with your finger or a piece of soft paper. We leave the darkest stripe on the horizon. We highlight some areas of the waves in the foreground using an eraser. The foam will be lightest, almost white, where it touches the ground or at the very top of the ridge. Imagine how the water foams, how the splashes fly, how the waves roll onto the shore, as if covering it. Some of the water will simply spread out and be absorbed into the sand, but its contours on the ground will still be visible for some time.


  6. We make the most contrasting waves in the foreground. It will be darkest in the depths of each wave, under the white edge of the foam. At this stage we work more with an eraser. For convenience, it can be “sharpened”, that is, with a sharp blade, cut off the edge diagonally. They can be used to “paint” snow-white foam. Use a soft pencil to add contrast to the waves and immediately erase the excess with an eraser, “outlining” the splashes. If the paper is soft and loose, then the pencil drawing can easily be corrected in this way. Work very carefully, without smearing the drawing. Sometimes it is enough to just point-touch the surface of the paper with an eraser to get picturesque “lambs”. This type of drawing requires some virtuosity, but try anyway.


Over time, you will learn this technique and quickly be able to draw the sea with a pencil whenever and wherever you want. The shading technique described in this article can also be used to depict the sky and airy snow-white clouds; it looks very impressive.